Working For Amazon

[PureX]

There are a lot of young people that feel no responsibility or respect for work. And it's hurting commerce in general. But I think it's the inevitable result of a business culture that has no respect for labor, and shows it at every opportunity. Why would a worker respect work when the people they are working for don't even respect it?

Greed poisons everything it touches, and here in the US it touches everything and everyone.

I'm old. So I see working as fulfilling my responsibility to my society as a whole. We all have a role to play in a culture that is very interdependent and cooperative. And the results are amazing, as we live better and longer than humans ever have before. But greed and selfishness foster laziness, and the willingness to let everyone else do the work, while we grab as much of the benefit as possible. And that goes for the CEOs as much as for the welfare queens and social program parasites.

Work needs to be appreciated and respected and properly compensated no matter what the job is or who is doing it. And sadly this is not the case in the US. Our capitalist greed has poisoned us and driven us to abuse and exploit our workers at every opportunity, and so no one respects the collective responsibility of working, anymore. They see it as demeaning and humiliating and something to be avoided as much as possible.

 

[RestlessSoul]

Friend says they get 59 minutes for bathroom breaks.
It's amazing how people need to spend all 59 minutes
there.

Did your friend say how far it was from the shop floor to the bathroom?

59 minutes is a bit weird btw. Where’d that other minute go?

 

[RestlessSoul]

Everybody in this thread seems to be on the extremes regarding economic theory. Can't we all just agree alongside @Evangelicalhumanist that having a job and something to work forward in general is better than staying home all the time? I am disabled, and I have been conditioned to live off of welfare and half of the time I hate it because I feel like I'm not contributing anything to society. Amazon may or may not be a fair company but let's all thank them and the workers for their hard work delivering almost everything to us on a timely matter.

I don’t use Amazon because they represent everything I think is wrong with the post capitalist feudal oligarchy the West is fast becoming. So I won’t join you in thanking them for saving me a walk to the shops. Instead, I’ll thank the small independent shopkeeper for staying open against the odds.

 

[Secret Chief]

Did your friend say how far it was from the shop floor to the bathroom?

59 minutes is a bit weird btw. Where’d that other minute go?

Ciggie break.


(the nanny bot didn't like the British slang for cigarette!)

 

[Secret Chief]

I don’t use Amazon because they represent everything I think is wrong with the post capitalist feudal oligarchy the West is fast becoming. So I won’t join you in thanking them for saving me a walk to the shops. Instead, I’ll thank the small independent shopkeeper for staying open against the odds.

I'm in a real bind over this. I agree with what you say, but....I'm no great consumer but when I do want something, there is very little choice in my rubbishy town (for things like books - 1 small shop - CDs - no music shop at all - decent clothes - several shops but aimed at teenagers with...different tastes...). It's an 80 mile round trip to a city for anything like that. And it is of course true the choice and price is invariably lower on amazon. I need to stop buying goods...

 

[amorphous_constellation]

There are a lot of young people that feel no responsibility or respect for work. And it's hurting commerce in general. But I think it's the inevitable result of a business culture that has no respect for labor, and shows it at every opportunity. Why would a worker respect work when the people they are working for don't even respect it?

Greed poisons everything it touches, and here in the US it touches everything and everyone.

I'm old. So I see working as fulfilling my responsibility to my society as a whole. We all have a role to play in a culture that is very interdependent and cooperative. And the results are amazing, as we live better and longer than humans ever have before. But greed and selfishness foster laziness, and the willingness to let everyone else do the work, while we grab as much of the benefit as possible. And that goes for the CEOs as much as for the welfare queens and social program parasites.

Work needs to be appreciated and respected and properly compensated no matter what the job is or who is doing it. And sadly this is not the case in the US. Our capitalist greed has poisoned us and driven us to abuse and exploit our workers at every opportunity, and so no one respects the collective responsibility of working, anymore. They see it as demeaning and humiliating and something to be avoided as much as possible.

Well it took me a long time to be a 'good' worker, though now my body might start to deteriorate a bit. But I have working since I was kid, I spent summers on the farm

But in my opinion, 'work' is sort of like 'time,' in a sense, and though it is a bit less abstract, it is still plenty abstract. Work stopped being for pure utility thousands of years ago, for example. It isn't clear that much of it is even being done for utility now. Utility was arguably accomplished by humans a long time ago. Some people naturally like working, but a lot of people maybe don't. I guess my philosophy might be that we should let people work who really want to, and not make people do it who don't

Then, you get a workforce of people who are good at what they do, largely because they like doing it. And the people who don't want to do it can probably figure out something else to do in life, that is productive toward the whole. Maybe they want to travel, maybe they want to create art. Maybe they want to meditate. And as long as it doesn't hurt anyone, and they want to do it, then whatever

 

[amorphous_constellation]

I'm in a real bind over this. I agree with what you say, but....I'm no great consumer but when I do want something, there is very little choice in my rubbishy town (for things like books - 1 small shop - CDs - no music shop at all - decent clothes - several shops but aimed at teenagers with...different tastes...). It's an 80 mile round trip to a city for anything like that. And it is of course true the choice and price is invariably lower on amazon. I need to stop buying goods...

You know what might be a good business idea, is to make a sort of compact printing machine for clothes, that consumers buy. What I mean, is that they buy the printing machine. And then, they just simply buy the materials for it, that come in big spools of thread, or raw unprocessed packets, or something. So then they just plug all that raw material in, and type in a few numbers, and then it spits out whatever you want. Any kind of shirt, dress, jeans, shoes, hats, or whatever

 

[RestlessSoul]

I'm in a real bind over this. I agree with what you say, but....I'm no great consumer but when I do want something, there is very little choice in my rubbishy town (for things like books - 1 small shop - CDs - no music shop at all - decent clothes - several shops but aimed at teenagers with...different tastes...). It's an 80 mile round trip to a city for anything like that. And it is of course true the choice and price is invariably lower on amazon. I need to stop buying goods...

Yeah, I realise I'm fortunate. Anything I can't get from my local High Street - the bookshop shutdown a couple of years ago - I can get a bus into central London for, using my free bus pass (that I worked 40 years to get, but I'm very grateful now). Loads of people in cities have signed up to home deliveries though. The only thing keeping restaurants going seems to be guys on mopeds delivering food to people's doors. Don't think the foodbanks and street kitchens deliver though.

 

[Secret Chief]

Yeah, I realise I'm fortunate. Anything I can't get from my local High Street - the bookshop shutdown a couple of years ago - I can get a bus into central London for, using my free bus pass (that I worked 40 years to get, but I'm very grateful now). Loads of people in cities have signed up to home deliveries though. The only thing keeping restaurants going seems to be guys on mopeds delivering food to people's doors. Don't think the foodbanks and street kitchens deliver though.

Ah, now, the restaurants I am helping to keep in business.
Especially the Indian ones...{{drools}}

 

[PureX]

I think work is all about utility.

I work at a large, busy dental facility. Dentistry is utilitarian and many people live longer and better because of it. But in my lifetime I've had many jobs. And they were all utilitarian one way or another. And they all improved the lives of the people in my society. As well as my own.

This is why I see work as a social responsibility. Whatever work I do contributes to the systems of our society, and to the well being of everyone in it. I am not a dentist but I help to keep the facility functioning so the dentists can do their jobs. And my city is a better place to live in because this facility exists. I am doing my part to make it so. And so is everyone else doing their jobs, too. Which is why everyone should be respected and appreciated for their work, and compensated accordingly. EVERY job is essential to make all the systems work that provide us all with a good life. Every worker matters. And deserves to be treated with respect.

Sadly, too many of us have allowed our greed and selfishness to convince us that our jobs or other people's labor is undeserving of our respect and appreciation. And our younger generations now see work as a 'sucker's game'. All take and no give. And in many instances they are right. And we are beginning to see our social and commercial systems breaking down because of it.

 

[Revoltingest]

But then you typically seem to take the employer's side.

I've been both employee & employer.
(And both landlord & tenant. And both plaintiff
& defendant. So I see all....I'm omniscient.)
If I take a side, it's because it's the correct one.
However in this case, I'm simply relating someone
else's surprising experience as she related it.
I'd still never want to work for Amazon.

 

[Revoltingest]

Did your friend say how far it was from the shop floor to the bathroom?

59 minutes is a bit weird btw. Where’d that other minute go?

I've no clue for either question.