Corporate employees of Amazon were asked on Monday to volunteer their time to the company’s warehouses to assist with grocery delivery as it heads into its annual discount spree known as Prime Day.
In a Slack message reviewed by the Guardian that went to thousands of white-collar workers in the New York City area from engineers to marketers, an Amazon area manager called for corporate “volunteers to help us out with Prime Day to deliver to customers on our biggest days yet”. It is not clear how many took up the offer.
This doesn’t surprise me of the USA, at all.
I’m sorry, are you not a multi-billion-dollar company dominating the global markets? Are you suddenly confused and thinking you’re running a charity that requires regular donations? Are your 99% tax exemptions not enough to cover your bases? What world do you think you’re living in?
Sure. But have you considered that line must go up?
What kind of brainwashed loser would fall for this
Well we currently share this country with people that voted three times for the Trump regime. I’m just saying we don’t currently have a dearth of incredibly stupid people.
When you’re stuck working at a desk all day, every day, forever, suddenly spending a day or two checking out a big ol’ warehouse sounds pretty fun. You’re still getting paid a white collar salary and benefits, and you don’t have to worry about grinding your bones down and all that because it’s only a few days, not decades of backbreaking g work.
You’re still getting paid a white collar salary and benefits
That’s not generally what “volunteer” means. From the article,
Amazon office workers in New York requested to donate time over to Fresh delivery process during firm’s busiest time.
Your quote is from the sub-headline, which was probably written by an editor if not AI. I wouldn’t put too much trust in it without supporting details. To the contrary, the detail about being able to step into a conference room to take work calls implies that they are expected to stay connected to their normal job and not bill it as vacation/time off.
The way it works in my company (not Amazon) is that office workers will occasionally be given “volunteer” opportunities to help with a temporary workload crunch and these will be paid at your normal salary. Sometimes it’s a good deal to get a break from routine, show the boss you’re a team player, and pad out weak progress on yearly goals. Other times it may require uncomfortable work and prolonged absence from home (without overtime pay). But they’re upfront about it and participation is truly voluntary.
Plenty. If you’ve ever worked retail you’d know the answer to this question. the “lifers” will volunteer. You know the types if you’ve worked in retail. They’ll do it thinking it’ll look good to some upper manager and allow them to get promoted for simply showing loyalty to the company. The ones who believe and tell you constantly how the company can do no wrong, how great it is to work for said company, and how the company has their best interests in mind.
Like I tell my employer when he asks me for a favour “favours are for friends, you’re not my friend, you’re my employer, pay me”
I remember when, on heavy days and holidays, you’d get bonuses. Fuck Amazon
I have a salaried job, and from time to time when there’s a big order we are asked to help out the manufacturing team, which is paid hourly. It tends to be repetitive assembly-line stuff, but it can be a fun change from the office work.
It’s not unusual during specific times to redeploy people temporarily where they are needed more. The alternative is to hire a bunch of seasonal staff. You have to train them anyway, but at least by redeploying existing people you at least know they are reliable.
That’s a big nope from me. If it’s not in the job description I was hired to do I’m not doing it unless we renegotiate my salary. This is how they take advantage of people.
I mean, that’s why they called it volunteering, isn’t it?
You would say no, but some others might want to do it.
Not op but I’ll do stuff from time to time that is well below my pay grade. Mind management understands that the pay difference and that I’m not doing my normal responsibilities if I’m helping out…
Since you’re doing work that pays less, I guess you could negotiate a lower salary for the period of time you are pitching in. That’s only if you really want to stick to your principles.
No my time costs the same regardless of what I am doing. If I’m not making software for them I could be making it for someone else making the same or more. I don’t have time to waste in a warehouse. Don’t be a pushover
You are allowed to enjoy your job and take a little detour from what you do best to be a part of a team.
If you hate everybody and everything, sure, stick to your guns. But there is nothing wrong with being a team player
I’m already a part of a team doing my actual job
Nah, go there and then start organizing with the warehouse workers to get them paid as much as you’re being paid to do their job.
Why would I even be in a warehouse when I could be subsistence farming on a commune with Boris and Sergei?
Any time a corporation uses the term “volunteer”, something very fishy is likely going on.
Look at all these volunteers! Why should I pay people?
That’s until the Amazon robots take the jobs and staff are downsized https://www.wsj.com/tech/amazon-warehouse-robots-automation-942b814f
Um, no dude. You hired me to code your cloud infrastructure. You have an army of delivery people. Leave me alone.
One of the core rule of business is that you don’t sell what you do not have. Because that is basivally the definition of fraud (at least one of them).
If you don’t have the manpower to deliver “Prime Day”, don’t offer “Prime Day”, as simple as that.
Dude. Like half of our GDP is about selling shit that we pretend exists.
The best part of this is that with how scarce jobs are getting, these corpos are going to start incentivizing folks to do this kind of shit by “laying off” workers who won’t stand for this. Like you get brownie points for doing free work and in turn get a little more job security. Think about it, if you won’t do it - someone else will, and people need jobs. Man fuck those people.
And here’s a reminder that it’s actually illegal to volunteer at the same company you’re employed at. Specifically to prevent situations exactly like this, where employers attempt to pressure their employees into volunteering, so they don’t have to pay overtime. If you’re working for your employer, you’re required to be on the clock.
Given, that only works if the rules are actually enforced. And this administration has done a good job of dismantling agencies that would be enforcing this.
I think you’re mistaking volunteering for a different task as them not being paid - these employees are salaried, they’re being paid for this. It’s basically just doing 2 hours of warehouse work instead of 2 hours of their usual corporate job. Potentially some people would have to do additional work after hours to make up for work they didn’t do in those two hours, but I assume busier people wouldn’t volunteer.
Easy, you’re a salaried employee and “seasonal duty: light warehouse work”
Boom, it’s part of your job.
There are specific requirements for being exempt from overtime, even for salaried employees. There are three big exemptions, and each one has multiple requirements; You need to meet ALL of the requirements for any exemption in order to be legally exempt. I’d advise you to check the requirements here, because employers regularly misclassify workers and lie through their teeth about it to avoid paying OT. Intentional misclassification is one of the most overt ways that employers steal wages, but also extremely common in many industries.
Also, there’s a blue-collar clause that says all manual labor positions are non-exempt. So if they’re dumb enough to write manual labor into your job description, you’re non-exempt no matter how highly paid you are.
next youre gonna tell me something crazy like how the most theft in america is from unpaid wages or whatever
Data is beautiful and goddamn infuriating.
Let’s see Mr and Mrs Bezos out there volunteering first. It’s a wholesome honeymoon activity!
Would somebody please think of the billionaires!?
Sorry, I was distracted be the profits.
Arrr! The profits do be!
“No, no, they’re not slaves. They’re highly skilled workers with short-term contracts. And they even get food.”. This is how I see it.
