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Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956
Amazon may be owned by the world's richest man, but some employees at the company pee into bottles to avoid missing their targets by going to the toilet, says an author who went undercover at the firm's UK warehouse.
According to James Bloodworth, who applied for a job at Amazon's warehouses in Staffordshire to complete his book on low wages in the UK, the workers "picking" products for delivery do not go to toilet, as it is too far away.
"For those of us who worked on the top floor, the closest toilets were down four flights of stairs. People just peed in bottles because they lived in fear of being disciplined over 'idle time' and losing their jobs just because they needed the loo," Bloodworth said, as quoted by the Sun.
Source: https://www.rt.com/business/424256-amazon-workers-pee-into-bottles/
Also reported at CNET, The Verge, and Business Insider:
A separate survey found almost three-quarters of UK fulfillment-center staff members were afraid of using the toilet because of time concerns. A report released Monday with the survey's findings said 241 Amazon warehouse employees in England were interviewed.
The survey anonymously quoted one person as saying targets had "increased dramatically" and "I do not drink water because I do not have time to go to the toilet."
[...] Amazon disputed the allegations. The company said in a statement to Business Insider:
"Amazon provides a safe and positive workplace for thousands of people across the UK with competitive pay and benefits from day one. We have not been provided with confirmation that the people who completed the survey worked at Amazon and we don't recognize these allegations as an accurate portrayal of activities in our buildings.
"We have a focus on ensuring we provide a great environment for all our employees and last month Amazon was named by LinkedIn as the 7th most sought after place to work in the UK and ranked first place in the US. Amazon also offers public tours of its fulfillment centres so customers can see first-hand what happens after they click 'buy' on Amazon."
Amazon said it didn't time workers' toilet breaks and set its performance targets based on previous worker performance. The company said it provided coaching to help people improve and used "proper discretion" when it came to sick leave and absences from work.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 17 2018, @11:34AM (5 children)
> It's not laziness, it's...incapacity.
My guess? You are not a very good communicator if it takes you 10 minutes to describe making a stapled brochure. I'd do one as a sample and hand the rest to the copy room "serf" -- Please make them like this, with the pages in the same order.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 17 2018, @01:41PM (2 children)
You've never dealt with someone impossible like that, have you? Sometimes a failure to understand is the fault of the listener.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Tuesday April 17 2018, @02:00PM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 17 2018, @02:36PM
Try not to fail at reading comprehension next time.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bradley13 on Tuesday April 17 2018, @01:59PM (1 child)
I'm a teacher by profession, so I know how to explain things. Here's how it would need to go:
- Explain which way the staples go through the brochure, and exactly where they should be positioned.
- Show her how to use the special stapler, which has a setting to help get the staples in the right place.
- Show her how to fold the brochures, so that the pages don't slip, so that the corners line up neatly.
- Demonstrate the process. Then have her do one, so that I can correct what she forgets or does wrong.
If I got through that in 10 minutes, I would be doing well. This isn't her usual area of work - it's a one-off - so she really doesn't know these things. And, no, she cannot figure them out on her own. At least, not if I want this done today. She's nice enough, well-meaning, just not very fast on her mental feet.
People on Soylent are, on average, pretty smart. This is the world that most of us live in, most of the time. Working with people who have below average IQs is a completely different world.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday April 17 2018, @02:11PM
Amen, Brother!