It’s astounding how much money they will spend to not pay and treat their employees fairly.
this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
706 points (98.5% liked)
Technology
59132 readers
2905 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Now, NOT DEFENDING AMAZONS BEHAVIOR OR THEIR DATA HANDLING PRACTICES.
However I do work for a company that has in vehicle cameras and DEAR GOD does it cut down on incidents. We kept having issues with drivers just doing dumb little things to try and save time. like knocking the shifter into neutral and pulling on the handbrake instead of pressing the button on the shifter and moving it into park. Just to be clear, the company has a really lax time/delivery expectation. If you work at a safe, reasonable pace and dont fuck up nobody gets upset with you. But senior management did the math that each driver had to drag out an extra 2 hours a day for it to cost us more than what we spent on compo/vehicle repairs the year before. Once the van had a camera, we saw a 70% reduction in incidents in the following 12 months.
You're downvoted, but honestly, I understand what you're saying.
My friends all think it's fine to text and drive, even in their employers vehicles. If there was a camera, guaranteed they'd stop texting and driving and become way safer.
People don't like it, obviously. I'd hate being watched. But there's no doubt it cuts down on accidents.
Yeah thats all I'm saying, that even IF your only goal is to improve safety they absolutely work. If you're also looking to micromanage, slavedrive and violate your staffs privacy you can use them for that too, but thats on you not to be evil.
Yeah, I work at a company that makes these kinds of cameras. Drivers hate them, but it really does enforce safe driving habits. This makes the roads a safer place, like it or not.
Brings insurance down a lottt too.
Someone I know is a dispatcher for a company that delivers for Amazon. He says that the management there piles on the deliveries in a way that he doesn't think it's possible for any of their drivers to do the full thing in the time allotted. Every day drivers come in 30-90 minutes late not being paid overtime, and he also has to stay because he has to stay until the last van is back.
Curious.
What are the incentives for the drivers to pull this time saving maneuver rather than doing it the right way?
No fucking idea, we're all paid hourly. Some people like to flex on the others "I did 200 in 6 hours" and some really dont want to do overtime. Some also want to smash through their work and go grab a coffee and play with their phone for 2 hours.
I can jump on anyones route, go do their workload slowly and methodically and get back within an hour of clock off. You have to properly take the piss to get dragged into the bosses office.
That’s true, but Amazon pays above the national average, which itself desperately needs to rise.
This is a stronger indictment of the national work landscape than a boon for Amazon, who has a over 100% turnover rate…
Again, I agree.
I’m not an executive, if I could raise the national average for all of us believe me I would.
how can you have a turnover rate over 100%?
It's a turnover rate over time. If everyone quit and had to be replaced in a day you'd be at 100%. Anything after that is over 100% for the year.
I've seen rates of 150% bandied around for Amazon. That means replacing 12.5% of your total headcount on average monthly.
I'm not great with math so please let me know if I'm understanding this right:
- Company has 100 employees
- All 100 employees quit
- Company gets 100 new employees as replacement
= 100% turnover rate
Then...
- Company has the 100 new employees
- 50 of the new employees quit
- Company gets 50 new employees as replacement
= 150% turnover rate
and so on?
load more comments
(1 replies)
Turnover rates are usually described annually. If a company has to replace it's whole staff twice in a year, that's a 200% annual turnover rate.
Amazon pays pretty decently but it's just god awful work. I worked in a warehouse briefly and made more than I had anywhere else entry level, but sorting boxes for 9 hours straight on night shifts isn't worth it
Above the national average of what?
The nation
The average reported salary for delivery drivers.
Thanks. I thought they referring to salaries overall which didn't pass the sniff test.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Ribbit
I'm sorry, who's surprised the company notorious for tracking employee bathroom breaks is actively monitoring their employees?
Amazon is the absolute scum of the earth when it comes to how they demand and expect productivity from their workers. Being harassed because you took 10 minutes to shit in a 10 hour shift that wasn't your break or lunch is an every day occurrence.
It's odd, the words "employee" and "employees" gets used here pretty often, but Amazon itself goes through a lot of effort to have people as contractors. I know, employees of the contractor.....but still. These gig jobs are just a great way to shift liability and evade responsibility by the company itself. "We tell you exactly what, where, and how you do everything you do....but you're not one of us"
Shocking /s
Someone please sue the shit out of Amazon.
It won’t change anything. It’s the US! Amazon will lose, and will be “punished” by having to pay like $2 for each affected employee.
Well, at least we can all rest assured that all the driver monitoring cameras/tech that's being build by default into new consumer cars and trucks will only ever be used for safety.
It's 100% Amazon leaking these videos. They said themselves, the video system is secure.
Stores do it with shoplifters to convince customers not to steal.
Insurance companies do it with videos of workers' comp. fraudsters to convince workers not to report injuries.
Amazon is doing it this now to turn public opinion against drivers as they have been organizing with the Teamsters, which is about to strike.
Bingo!
I always assume any Ring footage I see is just an Amazon plant anymore, too. They're evil as fuck. Now excuse me, my prime order's here.
I'm so glad I have a career where I'll never have to worry about crap like this. I'd love to see how the higher ups would like it if they had to be on camera the whole day with AI watching them for mistakes/phone usage.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I mean it’s not really being leaked when a driver gets a infraction all drivers get the video messaged to them so anyone could technically upload it.
Could you elaborate? If John Smith gets a speeding ticket, all other drivers get a video of it in a "Don't be like John" email? There must be so many drivers, so surely it can't be "all" of them.
So any driver that works for the same DSP are warehouse has 3 of them. When a driver for a DSP gets a violation everyone gets the video basically for that specific DSP yes don’t be like that driver because it affects if we get a bonus or not on are Amazon Scorecard. But doesn’t mean you have a ticket you have to get pulled over for that. And that rarely happens as the van would get them for the violation before a cop did.
So its specifically a tool to shame drivers? I don’t see how these videos could ever help with safety?
Is there a third party security handler for this data or is amazon keeping this in house like a bunch of lunatics?
view more: next ›