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.
If you work without pay that’s slavery
They’re paid a salary, which is probably significantly more than what drivers are paid.
Generally this kind of thing would be overtime, though.
Salary workers are exempt from overtime in most cases and its legal to fire them for not working extra hours voluntarily, at least in America.
The manager said volunteers are “needed” to work Tuesday through Friday this week, in two-hour shifts between 10am and 6pm in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, where the company operates a warehouse as part of its grocery delivery service, Amazon Fresh.
Sounds like they’re getting paid but I’m really hung up on the word “volunteer”. If I’m paid my regular wage and can fit it, really not a problem.
I run a ransomware recovery department at my company. We don’t staff the department beyond us three managers. When we get an IR, we ask for volunteers in the normal staff to work for us. They get 1.5x + $25/ hour and a $50/day Uber Eats credit for working 4 hours OT.
We get a lot of volunteers.
I doubt Amazon is doing anything like that. If they don’t get enough volunteers, I could see them switching to “volunteer or else.”
Oh, absolutely not. And I’m in the Seattle area. We get good workers, but the region is saturated by people who expect Amazon level pay… So, we do what we can.
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.
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?
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…
Corporate people should spend some time periodically in the trenches anyway. Otherwise, they’re totally clueless about how everything works.
Yes, but not volunteered
It’s business hours Tue-Fri. Sounds like the volunteer isn’t for unpaid work, but for volunteering to do this instead of their normal duties for the week.
Tho I’m sure they’ll get dinged on their performance review if their regular work output reduces, so I’m guessing they will end up needing to put on unpaid hours to compensate.
I volunteer for stuff like this if it gets me out of meetings. I’ve donated over a gallon of blood at work.
Well if it’s voluntary and the staff gets paid their usual wage - one would assume a higher one than the warehouse folks get - I don’t really see the problem. It doesn’t make sense to try and hire folks for just a few days of peak workload. Not if you can manage it by shifting some folks around. Heck, I’m sure some will appreciate the change of scenery.
There are many other actual holidays a sufficient staff can handle busy days
If theres one thing we all know desk jockeys appreciate its the opportunity to do manual labor
Well not everyone, obviously. But that’s why it’s voluntary.
I’ve certainly done stuff that’s outside of the scope of my personal job. Our company owner actually scrubs the toilets in our building and that guy owns an actual yacht 🤷♂️
It’s voluntary but somehow gets taken into account when promotion or pay raise is discussed.
Yes in theory but no in practice. Another way of putting this is “will they appreciate your extra 10%” and the answer is always no.
Daily reminder that the only way to beat inflation is to get another job somewhere else. If you’re staying long enough for this to matter, then you’re leaving money on the table.
Hey, that’s socialism.
volunteer to cover our glorious CEO’s wedding costs and be a part of history!
Technically he isn’t the CEO anymore. Doesn’t mean he isn’t still a cunt.
well lets settle on glorious founder and leader then
Yeah, fuck that guy.
agreed
I remember when, on heavy days and holidays, you’d get bonuses. Fuck Amazon
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
What kind of brainwashed loser would fall for this
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
But then who will have a meeting and capture the action item to have another meeting afterwards?!
