<story><title>Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”</title><url>https://theintercept.com/2022/04/04/amazon-union-living-wage-restrooms-chat-app/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>grapeskin</author><text>The scariest thing isn&amp;#x27;t that Amazon is a company worth nearly trillions and using that money to oppress workers to maintain their lead.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s that tech workers are happily applying to get a decent paycheck and crushing people under them, just to protect the company&amp;#x27;s billions. Then they&amp;#x27;ll post online about how happy they are to have been smart enough to save up to buy a lakefront home and retire at 45, and say people should follow their path in tech if they&amp;#x27;re looking for a step up (after destroying the road behind them and making it easier to oppress workers), or worse, pretend to lament how hard it is for other people to follow their footsteps and how &lt;i&gt;something needs to be done&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;FAANG workers are really entering and sometimes fully into &amp;quot;just following orders&amp;quot; territory. The lame social media posts from fellow tech workers about how things &amp;quot;should&amp;quot; be regulated gets tiresome. The real solution is to simply not work for them.</text></item><item><author>uncomputation</author><text>&amp;gt; The major goal of the program, Amazon’s head of worldwide consumer business, Dave Clark, said, was to reduce employee attrition by fostering happiness among workers — and also productivity. Shout-Outs would be part of a gamified rewards system in which employees are awarded virtual stars and badges for activities that “add direct business value,” documents state. At the meeting, Clark remarked that “some people are insane star collectors.”&lt;p&gt;Truly insane, there is nothing stranger (or more dystopian) than fiction after all. Rather than fix the system of working their employees to death (literally in the case of the tornado) or improving their conditions, Amazon tries to use virtual gold stars (not even physical stickers like kindergarten) as a band-aid. That list of banned words is right out of 1984 (as cliché as it is to reference at this point): ethics, fairness, freedom.&lt;p&gt;I cannot imagine anyone here seriously defending this unless you’re just looking to be a contrarian. This is not “par for the course” for manual labor jobs as some people are claiming. Most manual labor jobs do not restrict you from talking about ethics or justice with your coworkers or have even a need for some virtual gold stars beyond a little whiteboard in the building with number of sales, employee of the month, etc. The fact that these techniques won’t work for Amazon just shows that their laborers are really over-worked compared to the norm. Unfortunately, Amazon is able to use their massive resources and capital to pay just more than the local factory, packing gig, etc. so they have a stream of desperate people willing to take it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>homo_ergaster</author><text>&amp;gt; The lame social media posts from fellow tech workers about how things &amp;quot;should&amp;quot; be regulated gets tiresome. The real solution is to simply not work for them.&lt;p&gt;If you’re calling something a “real solution” it should have at least some chance of actually happening and solving the problem. Strong regulation from the government against union busting is both possible and effective (look at what FDR did if you want an example). Wishing individuals would live up to your standards of ethical behavior when they have no reason to (and may have personal&amp;#x2F;family reasons that make them feel they need the paycheck) will not ever change anything.</text></comment>
<story><title>Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”</title><url>https://theintercept.com/2022/04/04/amazon-union-living-wage-restrooms-chat-app/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>grapeskin</author><text>The scariest thing isn&amp;#x27;t that Amazon is a company worth nearly trillions and using that money to oppress workers to maintain their lead.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s that tech workers are happily applying to get a decent paycheck and crushing people under them, just to protect the company&amp;#x27;s billions. Then they&amp;#x27;ll post online about how happy they are to have been smart enough to save up to buy a lakefront home and retire at 45, and say people should follow their path in tech if they&amp;#x27;re looking for a step up (after destroying the road behind them and making it easier to oppress workers), or worse, pretend to lament how hard it is for other people to follow their footsteps and how &lt;i&gt;something needs to be done&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;FAANG workers are really entering and sometimes fully into &amp;quot;just following orders&amp;quot; territory. The lame social media posts from fellow tech workers about how things &amp;quot;should&amp;quot; be regulated gets tiresome. The real solution is to simply not work for them.</text></item><item><author>uncomputation</author><text>&amp;gt; The major goal of the program, Amazon’s head of worldwide consumer business, Dave Clark, said, was to reduce employee attrition by fostering happiness among workers — and also productivity. Shout-Outs would be part of a gamified rewards system in which employees are awarded virtual stars and badges for activities that “add direct business value,” documents state. At the meeting, Clark remarked that “some people are insane star collectors.”&lt;p&gt;Truly insane, there is nothing stranger (or more dystopian) than fiction after all. Rather than fix the system of working their employees to death (literally in the case of the tornado) or improving their conditions, Amazon tries to use virtual gold stars (not even physical stickers like kindergarten) as a band-aid. That list of banned words is right out of 1984 (as cliché as it is to reference at this point): ethics, fairness, freedom.&lt;p&gt;I cannot imagine anyone here seriously defending this unless you’re just looking to be a contrarian. This is not “par for the course” for manual labor jobs as some people are claiming. Most manual labor jobs do not restrict you from talking about ethics or justice with your coworkers or have even a need for some virtual gold stars beyond a little whiteboard in the building with number of sales, employee of the month, etc. The fact that these techniques won’t work for Amazon just shows that their laborers are really over-worked compared to the norm. Unfortunately, Amazon is able to use their massive resources and capital to pay just more than the local factory, packing gig, etc. so they have a stream of desperate people willing to take it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Firmwarrior</author><text>I wouldn&amp;#x27;t say that coders as an industry are destroying the road behind us, since there isn&amp;#x27;t really a road between &amp;quot;warehouse worker&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;software engineer&amp;quot;, unless someone has the knack for coding (in which case there&amp;#x27;s a very clear and well-paved road within the company between those roles)&lt;p&gt;I think the best solution is to empower workers via unions or whatever else.  It should be impossible for workers to get ground into dust by companies the way they do now.</text></comment>