What Happened When I Got a Job at a Soul-Crushing, Abusive Warehouse

[Brewman_Jax]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/154344/w...warehouse/

From the article:

Quote:"Don't take anything that happens to you there personally," the woman at the local chamber of commerce says when I tell her that tomorrow I start working at Amalgamated Product Giant Shipping Worldwide Inc. She winks at me. I stare at her for a second.

"What?" I ask. "Why, is somebody going to be mean to me or something?"

She smiles. "Oh, yeah." This town somewhere west of the Mississippi is not big; everyone knows someone or is someone who's worked for Amalgamated. "But look at it from their perspective. They need you to work as fast as possible to push out as much as they can as fast as they can. So they're gonna give you goals, and then you know what? If you make those goals, they're gonna increase the goals. But they'll be yelling at you all the time. It's like the military. They have to break you down so they can turn you into what they want you to be. So they're going to tell you, 'You're not good enough, you're not good enough, you're not good enough,' to make you work harder. Don't say, 'This is the best I can do.' Say, 'I'll try,' even if you know you can't do it. Because if you say, 'This is the best I can do,' they'll let you go. They hire and fire constantly, every day. You'll see people dropping all around you. But don't take it personally and break down or start crying when they yell at you."

Several months prior, I'd reported on an Ohio warehouse where workers shipped products for online retailers under conditions that were surprisingly demoralizing and dehumanizing, even to someone who's spent a lot of time working in warehouses, which I have. And then my editors sat me down. "We want you to go work for Amalgamated Product Giant Shipping Worldwide Inc.," they said. I'd have to give my real name and job history when I applied, and I couldn't lie if asked for any specifics. (I wasn't.) But I'd smudge identifying details of people and the company itself. Anyway, to do otherwise might give people the impression that these conditions apply only to one warehouse or one company. Which they don't.

...

For Third World working conditions, one doesn't even have to go far. If this happens in a civilized country, civilization is over-rated.

[jaxx]

I only read the first and last pages, will get to the others later. Intriguing that people can be treated like dirt in this country, sort of like bullying on the job 101.

[Velleity]

I learned not too long ago that what broke feudalism was the plague. Why? The plague decimated the labor force which at that time was serfs, thus decreasing the supply of labor. I am not so certain of the demand at that point but apparently the decrease in population didn't affect demand relative to supply of labor, so the serfs could sell their services to the highest bidder and somehow escape the bonds of serfdom.

Today we have downward trends affecting the demand for labor, including increased productivity. Therefore we might expect more behavior like this from employers because they can.

[OptimistesMaddie]

(05-16-2012 08:23 AM)Velleity Wrote:  I learned not too long ago that what broke feudalism was the plague. Why? The plague decimated the labor force which at that time was serfs, thus decreasing the supply of labor. I am not so certain of the demand at that point but apparently the decrease in population didn't affect demand relative to supply of labor, so the serfs could sell their services to the highest bidder and somehow escape the bonds of serfdom.

Today we have downward trends affecting the demand for labor, including increased productivity. Therefore we might expect more behavior like this from employers because they can.

little or no preventative healthcare and situations where the plague can take hold will be created. Parents not innoculating their children even with basic innoculations is makig America ripe for something bad to happen.

[Brewman_Jax]

(05-18-2012 06:37 PM)OptimistesMaddie Wrote:  

(05-16-2012 08:23 AM)Velleity Wrote:  I learned not too long ago that what broke feudalism was the plague. Why? The plague decimated the labor force which at that time was serfs, thus decreasing the supply of labor. I am not so certain of the demand at that point but apparently the decrease in population didn't affect demand relative to supply of labor, so the serfs could sell their services to the highest bidder and somehow escape the bonds of serfdom.

Today we have downward trends affecting the demand for labor, including increased productivity. Therefore we might expect more behavior like this from employers because they can.

little or no preventative healthcare and situations where the plague can take hold will be created. Parents not innoculating their children even with basic innoculations is makig America ripe for something bad to happen.

If said parents can't get coverage or time for a pediatrician visit, that's a moot point--which is the point here.

[azmouse]

I haven't finished the article yet but I already want to stop ordering things from the internet. OMG... what these people go through to try to make a little money and keep a job.