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Flm3454Hamilton Nolan
8/06/13 3:48pm
I think the biggest take-away from these stories, including the Walmart ones, is that management in America needs to stop with the corporate crap and start seeing employees as people and not commodities. It's tempting to organize employees that way, with the "points" and the crappy hour scheduling and the terrible management structures. When you own a huge company like that, things are likely to get unorganized and it seems like it's the only way big box stores know how to micro-manage. Maybe if they trusted people down the line of management things would get better. Situations, like work injuries and needing time off, would be handled in a human way, with human logic and human compassion. Not like a computer or a machine.

I don't think Jeff Bezos is sitting on a throne right now stroking his chin and gaining pleasure from the misfortunes of his own low-level employees. I think he's doing a lot and distracted and someone needs to sit him down( and the rest of corporate America) and talk about what's wrong here.
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  AtriumViscusFlm3454
  8/06/13 6:08pm
  The point system, at walmart, actually works quite well. You and your manager dont get along and wont give you time off for something important? Take three days off and get one point, which falls off in six months. Maybe go talk to the store or personel manager and have it removed. You need to come in late, and your manager is being unreasonable? Come in late anyways/leave early and get 1/3 of a point, and contest it later if you want.
  
  If anything, its like a commodity and many people use it that way. But I digress. I am willing to go back and forth with you discussing a different way to handle all those employees in a fair way. Your turn.
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  Flm3454AtriumViscus
  8/06/13 8:05pm
  In theory, I'm sure it works. But have you read the Walmart stories? Because according to the employees actually using it, it's not working. Because they are humans. Managers aren't using the system appropriately. Employees are being penalized for going on funerals, their own graduations, their own weddings. I know non-living things don't have those life experiences because, oh I don't know, they're not alive. And these employees are. Therefore, they cannot be treated as such.
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Mercury: The Sweetest Of The Transition MetalsHamilton Nolan
8/06/13 2:45pm
This article makes me confused about how to feel about Amazon...ARE THEY EVIL OR NOT HAMNO?!?!
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  AtriumViscusMercury: The Sweetest Of The Transition Metals
  8/06/13 2:52pm
  He actually picked some with different perspectives and expects you to think about them.
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  MrsBassMercury: The Sweetest Of The Transition Metals
  8/06/13 2:54pm
  I'm reserving judgment until I hear whether they have generously provided any employees with a 2 week unpaid maternity leave.
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CPR14Hamilton Nolan
8/06/13 2:52pm
10% employee discount? That is some serious BS. Barnes and Noble gives its employees 30% off, and has bi-annual employee appreciation week, during which employees get 40% off.

Also, I just want to thank Gawker for having this series and the Walmart ones. I'd love it if you continue to even more companies/fields. Maybe about working in a call center or for a big insurance company?
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  jimboskiCPR14
  8/06/13 2:55pm
  Yeah, but what's the most expensive thing you can buy at Barnes & Nobles?
  
  If I had a 30% discount at Amazon you know what I'd do? Buy a TV and then re-sell it. Then do that over and over and over (or on more expensive items). So 10% off anything you could ever want is a lot more useful than 30% off all your book-needs.
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  CPR14jimboski
  8/06/13 3:01pm
  I think BN has a limit on the number of nooks you can purchase at your discounted rate. I can't remember what that number was, though, since I never was inclined to buy one. Three or four, maybe? Not sure.
  
  10% is still a shitty employee discount. They could have it on a scale — on products under $200 employees get 30% off, above that they get 15% or something.
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AtriumViscusHamilton Nolan
8/06/13 2:37pm

I was out for a month and a half due to severe leg pain caused by too much standing on concrete and not enough support. I'm in fine physical condition and have never had any issues with standing for long periods, but the stress and strain of standing in one place, and constantly doing the same garbage over and over again took its toll on me physically.

Wut?

I have never heard of this. Is this due to a condition?
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  김치전!AtriumViscus
  8/06/13 2:39pm
  How do you not know that this is a thing?
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  AtriumViscus김치전!
  8/06/13 2:42pm
  From working in warehouses and other places with concrete floors and never seeing any mention of it.
  
  Or hearing of anyone who got it for that matter.
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StenchofaburnerHamilton Nolan
8/06/13 2:39pm
"They should bootstrap the hell out of warehouse jobs like I did. Go to college, get an education and stop complaining".

Three stories down on the front page about people who can no longer pay their students loans:

"They shouldn't have gone to college if they couldn't afford it".

Being poor is a losing game, it seems.
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  Sheeeeeeit-ClayDavisStenchofaburner
  8/06/13 2:46pm
  Protip: Being a lawyer in a saturated legal market isn't smart unless you go to a top 25 school or have connections.
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  vaulyreaStenchofaburner
  8/06/13 2:48pm
  That's the thing. A college education is a basic requirement even for low level office work right now. I'm a pencil pusher in a cubicle and my job requires a four year bachelor's degree. It's ridiculous.
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PhreshHamilton Nolan
8/06/13 3:04pm

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  phunkshunPhresh
  8/06/13 3:16pm
  Okay, you can get out of my head now.
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SuffersfoolsgladlyHamilton Nolan
8/06/13 5:15pm
Does anyone else think that the Amazon icon/symbol is very penis-y?
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LeNoceurHamilton Nolan
8/06/13 3:08pm
"My bosses didn't CARE about me!" Boo hoo.
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HubcapJennyHamilton Nolan
8/06/13 2:46pm
Damn, Gawker. You're making it hard for me to live up to my "don't shop anywhere you wouldn't like to work" ethic.
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  Sheeeeeeit-ClayDavisHubcapJenny
  8/06/13 3:22pm
  That would seem nearly impossible. It would involve not owning cars, shopping for groceries only at a farmer's market (except picking fruits and veggies manually is pretty miserable), never buying clothes anywhere, or purchasing homegoods.
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  HubcapJennySheeeeeeit-ClayDavis
  8/06/13 3:48pm
  Actually, got most of that covered (bless happy hippie western MA and the DIY trend). But it's not so much the job itself as the company/business model, how they treat their employees.
  
  I shop on Amazon because it's so much more pleasant than shopping in a big, nasty Walmart. But if we all shopped online, instead of working in a retail storefront, more and more of us will be working in warehouses like this. Now, working retail at a big box store is its own kind of hell (including the standing for long shifts on concrete), but it seems like warehouse work for Amazon is almost as bad.
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AtriumViscusHamilton Nolan
8/06/13 2:39pm

The company doesn't care. For example, during peak (November to January) an associate is NOT allowed any time off, for any reason. I was due to graduate from college last December and I had to beg for time off to not only finish my exams but to go to graduation exercises. I still got 1.5 points for that, and of course, any associate that gets up to 6 points is automatically canned.

And this sounds like they took a page straight from the walmart playbook minus one point.
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