Everything Else

We've all read about how Steve Jobs ran people into the ground, or how Musk can crack the whip and assault employees mercilessly, so this is neither unexpected nor particularly "new". Nonetheless, reading this NYT piece on Amazon and its culture still rattled me for some reason... we've got to figure out a better way.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/techn ... place.html

Sounds like a recipe for workplace shootings.

I live close to one of their major warehouses, and the work there for a wage slave is pretty good considering, or so I've heard. I made less money as a college student digging holes by hand (digging up gas valves for $7/hr) and would have loved to have worked in a warehouse with a roof over my head. I also worked in a warehouse where we sold soccer and soccer accessories and I got pretty good at pressing numbers onto tshirts. And a theme park, but let's not go there...

Anyways, it sounds like they are treating their grunts better than the office stiffs. I still consider myself a grunt of sorts although I am salaried and get to do what I love it does involve a lot of driving on test tracks and climbing over/under cars and all of the grittyness that comes with. I am definitely not going to be wearing a tie and jacket to work anytime soon!

My wife the retail queen has worked at macys, target, sears, dressbarn, many others as well, and it is not a good place to be. There are worse jobs but retail is pretty cutthroat. Also extreeemely seasonal. If you're good you can make a career out of it but when is the last time you had a 'good' salesperson at a bigbox store? Or even a boutique for that matter?

sgifanatic wrote: Nonetheless, reading this NYT piece on Amazon and its culture still rattled me for some reason.

"Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them. In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know." ― Michael Crichton

My last firsthand experience with the NYT: Once upon a time, I spent twenty minutes of an interview with an NYT reporter talking about how great something was. The story came out, and they used one sentence I said. It was a verbatim quote, but they put it in a context that made it sound like the exact, total opposite of my intention and the opposite of the tone of the entire interview. In retrospect, it was apparent that the article was intended to be a hit piece all along, it was all but written before anyone was interviewed, and the only reason for interviews was to cherry pick some useful quotes to support a preconceived narrative.

Lesson: don't believe everything you read, even if it comes from a "reputable" source, and especially if it can be interpreted as advancing an agenda.

I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories.

Fox Butterfield, is that you?

ClassicHasClass wrote: Fox Butterfield, is that you?

josehill wrote: Lesson: don't believe anyything you read, even if it comes from a "reputable" source, and especially if it can be interpreted as advancing an agenda.*

I told you we agreed on most things, you just won't admit it

The stories about Amazon are more likely to be (fairly) accurate than most, tho, since that is what the US is all about now. Money money MONEY ! MINE ! I WANT IT ! ALL OF IT ! AND BY GOD I"M GONNA GET IT, NO MATTER WHAT !!

The country is totally out of wack and it's not just the 1%-ers (where's yer colors now, Mr 1%-er ? ) If the main body of the populace didn't go along with that stupid shit about how money is the measure of all things, then it wouldn't be this way.

Face it, we've lost it. And Mom Nature is going to clamp down hard on the stupid-fuck mistake that was human beings.

* cf. NYT, Orville Schell was their go-to guy for years about China. The dimwit doesn't speak Chinese, he knows doodly-squat crap about ANYTHING here, he couldn't even buy a train ticket by himself, his entire claim to fame is that his brother is an okay guy and Or-ville married a slanty-pussy, well whoop-dee-doo. He's an ignorant know-nothing dork but as far as the Times goes, whatta guy !

And oh yeah, he's rabidly anti-commnist. I wonder if that could have anything to do with it ?

Dipshits.