Amazon defended itself against Representative Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) in a fascinating tweet exchange–one that any business owner should study as an example of what not to do.
Representative Pocan tweeted
Paying workers $15/hr doesn't make you a "progressive workplace" when you union-bust & make workers urinate in water bottles. https://t.co/CnFTtTKA9q
— Rep. Mark Pocan (@repmarkpocan) March 25, 2021
Amazon inexplicably responded:
2/2 We hope you can enact policies that get other employers to offer what we already do.
— Amazon News (@amazonnews) March 25, 2021
Let’s parse this response:
“You don’t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you?” The reality is, Amazon has a bad reputation.
To keep reading, click here: Amazon’s Pee Tweet Response–and What It Should Have Said Instead
But, if Amazon promised to investigate, what would they say when later asked for the results? “We investigated and have now provided all of our employees access to adult diapers”? 🙂
According to a letter posted by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amazon has recently* been telling supervisors to talk to their employees about not leaving bottles of urine and bags filled with feces in their cars.
https://www.newsweek.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-posts-letter-amazon-admitting-it-keeps-finding-urine-bottles-after-1579159
*The letter is undated, but judging by the comment about used masks, I think it’s safe to say it’s from within the last 14 months.
I worked for Amazon as a Picker for a brief time and it does have some good qualities. Health insurance started Day 1 and it was better than my previous job. They don’t care about previous work experience, the only interview is the application questions, and they’ll work with you on start date. Starting pay is $15/hour which is pretty good.
Now, it is very fast-paced and physically exhausting. They live and die by their metrics and a manager, who looked as miserable as I felt, told me “your tac time is 3 point 4 seconds and we really need it to be 3 point 2 seconds.” I nodded like I knew what a tac time was (I never did figure that out). As far as peeing in bottles – no. I never went more than 2 1/2 hours without a formal break and bathrooms were plentiful. However the drivers are a different animal and they probably do have to pee in bottles lest they fall behind. But as a warehouse worker if you do everything you’re told and work hard you will probably succeed.
Ultimately I quit because it was stressful and if I wanted to be stressed at work I’d go back to my previous career.* I’m now working as a package handler and I as long we show up every day, on time and not too hungover, then we are rock stars.
*I worked as an RN for 25 years. My pay is worse now but everything in my life is better. I’m keeping my license current but I don’t care if I ever go back. Most hospitals treat nurses like garbage.
Key points made by M in their comments, the job is a stressful hands-on physically demanding job, applicant know this going in, before starting the job. Amazon does have a metric delivery system based on an efficiency expectation. If you have problems for whatever reasons, they do (contrary to reports by those who complain) give you a chance to either retrain at a lower speed position or switch jobs, which might affect the number of hours you get scheduled. The job is not for everyone, especially people who don’t like to be pressured to keep moving constantly. (in other words not a job for a person who wants to sit down and take multiple breaks per hour for various reasons).
As for the comment responses on Twitter, maybe a bit unprofessional but so is the peeing in the bottle question and those bottles were found on shelves in the warehouse which the M commenter didn’t see any evidence of since the site she worked out gave ample breaks. The problem is that we do have a set of workers who expect the workplace to cater to them rather than they personally adjust to the job’s needs. For a non-union job, the pay and benefits at Amazon are not bad. The only thing that is the problem is the lack of acceptance of the job requirements.
It would be a lot easier to side with Amazon in this dispute were they not actively opposing unionization among their employees. It’s not “catering to” employees to allow them adequate bathroom breaks and production standards that don’t stress/burn them out.
I am disappointed that most of your articles direct me to a site that I now have to subscribe and pay to read the full article.
Re: difficulty in finding restrooms for Amazon drivers
The New York Times recently published an article about the lack of public restrooms:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/06/opinion/sunday/public-toilets-united-states.html?searchResultPosition=1