Merry Christmas, Joan! Like an Amazon drone fulfilling a package order from the bellows of a 1,000,000+ square foot Amazon warehouse, you’ve raised up another great and broad topic.
(Side Note: are we as Americans still allowed to happily and publicly wish Merry Christmas 🎄 without the double take look over our shoulders for a “hurt” individual who may or may not exchange good tidings, gifts, and great food with friends and family?)
In the true spirit of Christmas (and E-Scrooge) - why is there so much focus on the “wrongs” of individuals with high net worth, who own companies with high net profits, who may or may not be embodying the image and life of Christ, himsel?
Let’s “look do the numbers” - as my favorite NPR host, Kai Ryssdal says.
You pointed out 1.1 million Americans are employed by Amazon.
This is all anecdotal - but have you interviewed any ONE of them?
I have. My coworker. So, let’s begin with my flawed experiment: n=1.
“Fozzy” - as we will call my coworker - is a legal U.S. immigrant/refugee with an expecting wife and 2 kids. He’s fled Afghanistan and been in the U.S. now for less than 5 years.
He works FT at a non-profit with me. However, he utilizes SSI (Medicaid) versus our company’s health benefits; an economically sound decision nobody can find fault in.
In the evenings, he works as a subcontractor of Amazon - “Amazon Flex”. He is NOT and to my knowledge - many Amazon Drivers are NOT hourly; rather they pick up orders - like ALL “gig - workers” (myself included) based on and filtered on 3 criteria: 1. $ per job 2. Distance of delivery 3. Estimated time of delivery.
Here’s ONE example weekend of earnings that “Fozzy” shared with me. He worked for 12 hours on a Saturday and Sunday each and earned roughly $600. This comes out to about $25.00 an hour.
Is this job dangerous? No. He loads Amazon packages in his mini-SUV and drives around Columbus, Ohio delivering “A pair of Hopalong boots and a pistol that shoots,”.
Does he have an Ebenezer Scrooge boss breathing down his neck?
No. That’s the best - and you can’t quantify this shit - THE best thing about gig work: you’re your OWN boss! If that ain’t The American Dream - I sure as hell don’t know what is. There’s no pointless drivel spewing from mandatory meetings. No dress code. No punching in and punching out. No mandatory 30 minute lunch breaks or 15 minute stretch breaks. No moronic coworkers. No gossip. No office drama. No 9-5 grind. Oh - and I get to listen to whatever the F- - k music I want while I’m working my tail end off.
Here’s just a FEW other gig worker employers that will ALWAYS attract hard workers instead of a talent pool of whiners and Human Resource cancers and unions which metastasize toxic workplace rules and managers and airheads.
Lyft. Uber. Grub hub. Door Dash. Amazon.
Krogers. Instacart.
Who’s to blame for lazy Americans? The person who invented solutions or the problems themselves who sit around and earn their Type 2 diabetes?
Many of the companies you’ll find under Indeed.com who hire independent contractors (gig workers) - are mom and pop, small business owners trying their hand at entrepreneurship and The American Dream. And they’re doing it successfully.
Is it a perfect system? Nope.
But - just like Ford and its assembly line of automobiles and its demise of the wagon wheel - it will get better, and 100’s if not 1,000’s of new industries will spawn up that support the likes of Amazon.
Is this skilled labor?
Nope.
You grab a smart phone. You click: “Accept Job.” Then you proceed to the dock station IN YOUR OWN VEHICLE- the majority of the time. You load your packages. Drive to the next location. Scan package bar code. Place at doorstep. Scan barcode again. Click: “Order Complete”. Take a pic.
Not bad for $25 an hour, aye?
I know Amazon warehouse jobs are a GAZILLION times harder. All warehouse jobs are. But for those - you get PTO, health benefits, and FREE college tuition.
Name another company that does the latter. I’ve worked at The Gap, Inc. and while it had impressive health benefits DAY ONE; if you wanted tutoring reimbursement - it had to be related to your field or department. Uh. No thanks. That’s why I’m going back to school - to get out of this rat race.
I’d love to see an entire novel or documentary on a “year in the life” of a gig workers or Amazon warehouse worker.
You raise excellent points; but EVERY Amazon driver does NOT deliver packages in a urine bottle riddled sprinter van for $32,000 year.
There’s an error at the beginning of your post. Amazon is the second largest private employer, but it is a publicly held company (not privately held, as stated.)
Merry Christmas, Joan! Like an Amazon drone fulfilling a package order from the bellows of a 1,000,000+ square foot Amazon warehouse, you’ve raised up another great and broad topic.
(Side Note: are we as Americans still allowed to happily and publicly wish Merry Christmas 🎄 without the double take look over our shoulders for a “hurt” individual who may or may not exchange good tidings, gifts, and great food with friends and family?)
In the true spirit of Christmas (and E-Scrooge) - why is there so much focus on the “wrongs” of individuals with high net worth, who own companies with high net profits, who may or may not be embodying the image and life of Christ, himsel?
Let’s “look do the numbers” - as my favorite NPR host, Kai Ryssdal says.
You pointed out 1.1 million Americans are employed by Amazon.
This is all anecdotal - but have you interviewed any ONE of them?
I have. My coworker. So, let’s begin with my flawed experiment: n=1.
“Fozzy” - as we will call my coworker - is a legal U.S. immigrant/refugee with an expecting wife and 2 kids. He’s fled Afghanistan and been in the U.S. now for less than 5 years.
He works FT at a non-profit with me. However, he utilizes SSI (Medicaid) versus our company’s health benefits; an economically sound decision nobody can find fault in.
In the evenings, he works as a subcontractor of Amazon - “Amazon Flex”. He is NOT and to my knowledge - many Amazon Drivers are NOT hourly; rather they pick up orders - like ALL “gig - workers” (myself included) based on and filtered on 3 criteria: 1. $ per job 2. Distance of delivery 3. Estimated time of delivery.
Here’s ONE example weekend of earnings that “Fozzy” shared with me. He worked for 12 hours on a Saturday and Sunday each and earned roughly $600. This comes out to about $25.00 an hour.
Is this job dangerous? No. He loads Amazon packages in his mini-SUV and drives around Columbus, Ohio delivering “A pair of Hopalong boots and a pistol that shoots,”.
Does he have an Ebenezer Scrooge boss breathing down his neck?
No. That’s the best - and you can’t quantify this shit - THE best thing about gig work: you’re your OWN boss! If that ain’t The American Dream - I sure as hell don’t know what is. There’s no pointless drivel spewing from mandatory meetings. No dress code. No punching in and punching out. No mandatory 30 minute lunch breaks or 15 minute stretch breaks. No moronic coworkers. No gossip. No office drama. No 9-5 grind. Oh - and I get to listen to whatever the F- - k music I want while I’m working my tail end off.
Here’s just a FEW other gig worker employers that will ALWAYS attract hard workers instead of a talent pool of whiners and Human Resource cancers and unions which metastasize toxic workplace rules and managers and airheads.
Lyft. Uber. Grub hub. Door Dash. Amazon.
Krogers. Instacart.
Who’s to blame for lazy Americans? The person who invented solutions or the problems themselves who sit around and earn their Type 2 diabetes?
Many of the companies you’ll find under Indeed.com who hire independent contractors (gig workers) - are mom and pop, small business owners trying their hand at entrepreneurship and The American Dream. And they’re doing it successfully.
Is it a perfect system? Nope.
But - just like Ford and its assembly line of automobiles and its demise of the wagon wheel - it will get better, and 100’s if not 1,000’s of new industries will spawn up that support the likes of Amazon.
Is this skilled labor?
Nope.
You grab a smart phone. You click: “Accept Job.” Then you proceed to the dock station IN YOUR OWN VEHICLE- the majority of the time. You load your packages. Drive to the next location. Scan package bar code. Place at doorstep. Scan barcode again. Click: “Order Complete”. Take a pic.
Not bad for $25 an hour, aye?
I know Amazon warehouse jobs are a GAZILLION times harder. All warehouse jobs are. But for those - you get PTO, health benefits, and FREE college tuition.
Name another company that does the latter. I’ve worked at The Gap, Inc. and while it had impressive health benefits DAY ONE; if you wanted tutoring reimbursement - it had to be related to your field or department. Uh. No thanks. That’s why I’m going back to school - to get out of this rat race.
I’d love to see an entire novel or documentary on a “year in the life” of a gig workers or Amazon warehouse worker.
You raise excellent points; but EVERY Amazon driver does NOT deliver packages in a urine bottle riddled sprinter van for $32,000 year.
There’s an error at the beginning of your post. Amazon is the second largest private employer, but it is a publicly held company (not privately held, as stated.)
Thank you for the correction, Jim! I just made the change.