Amazon Asks Corporate Workers To 'Volunteer' Help With Grocery Deliveries as Prime Day Frenzy Approaches (theguardian.com) 101
Corporate employees of Amazon have been asked 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. From a report: 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.
The ask came the day before Prime Day kicks off. 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. Corporate employees seconded to the warehouse would be tasked with picking items, preparing carts and bags of groceries for delivery, packing boxes on receiving carts, and working to "boost morale with distribution of snacks," though they would be allowed to step into a conference room to take meetings and calls, according to the message. The manager noted such an effort would help "connect" warehouse and corporate teams. Further reading: Amazon Prime Day Spending Down 14% in Early Hours From 2024.
The ask came the day before Prime Day kicks off. 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. Corporate employees seconded to the warehouse would be tasked with picking items, preparing carts and bags of groceries for delivery, packing boxes on receiving carts, and working to "boost morale with distribution of snacks," though they would be allowed to step into a conference room to take meetings and calls, according to the message. The manager noted such an effort would help "connect" warehouse and corporate teams. Further reading: Amazon Prime Day Spending Down 14% in Early Hours From 2024.
My answer (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: My answer (Score:3)
To which they respond with words ending in "fired" and starting with "you're"
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I'm hoping there are labor laws in the US against forcing people to work for free.
It is illegal for Amazon to even allow them to work for free, even if they truly volunteered. Workers must be paid at least the minimum wage ($16.50 in Brooklyn).
Nobody is being asked to work for free. They are being asked to help out in the warehouse instead of their normal job duties.
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volunteer(verb) freely offer to do something.
Volunteer in this case most likely means, "During your regular hours, volunteer to work in the warehouse instead of at your desk." At least, that's what it would mean in any business I've ever been involved in. Though, I will say, that wording, "volunteer their time" is a bit suspicious, and it is Amazon, so I hate to give them the benefit of the doubt.
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I can second the above's point. Over the years I've volunteered to do a few things for the company I work for and the time spent doing those things came out of my regular work week so 2 hours doing stuff for an Earth Day event for work would mean only doing my regular job 38 hours that week.
This isnt to say Amazon cant be up to something shady, I'm just saying it's not guaranteed with that wording.
Re: My answer (Score:2)
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Either way it doesn't sound like there are enough details to know exactly what they mean.
"Know?" Maybe not. "Infer?" Absolutely. 10AM-6PM is in the range that normal office workers are at their desks, so it stands to reason they are asking their office workers to be in a warehouse instead of at their desks. It's not exactly a giant leap to conclude such.
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Re: My answer (Score:4, Interesting)
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volunteer(verb) freely offer to do something.
Volunteer in this case most likely means, "During your regular hours, volunteer to work in the warehouse instead of at your desk."
I don't follow the philosophy of "when there are several possible interpretations, go for the interpretation that makes them look good."
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You've never volunteered to lead a meeting, or volunteered to take notes for your team? It doesn't mean you're not getting paid. It does mean you're not expecting extra compensation in exchange.
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Come on. You think Amazon is asking them to work for free?
This. For all the Webster's Dictionary Warriors on /., I'd bet Amazon simply wants them to help out and still get paid; and that they can slip out for calls tells me they are on teh clock. It probably is not a bad idea to get corporate to understand what the front line does; a number of companies do that to help corporate appreciate what the line workers do.
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That is definitely not what the word 'volunteer' means and it is used many times. Nor do I see anywhere in the summary about people being paid. I'm scared to click on the article these days.
These are salaried workers. They are, by definition, getting paid, and paid the same amount whether they work extra hours in the warehouse or not.
Re: My answer (Score:2)
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You are assuming that they would put in the same amount of hours regardless of the work they're doing.
I would not put it past Amazon to levy the expectation that they should do an additional number of warehouse hours in addition to their normal salaried office hours. Thus, "volunteering."
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I would not put it past Amazon to levy the expectation that they should do an additional number of warehouse hours in addition to their normal salaried office hours. Thus, "volunteering."
Weekdays 10 am to 6 pm. That's normal work hours. Unless they're being forced to use vacation time, they're being paid.
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So they are getting 30-50/hour to work in the warehouse? Id be pissed if I was there doing the same job as them for $14.
More likely 100-200/hour, more if they're software engineers or similar highly-paid office workers. $30/hour is only $60k/year. There's no way Amazon white-collar workers in NYC are making that little.
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Wait, what do you think the word volunteer means? The official definition says one who freely offers to do something, that means to choose to do something of your own volition rather than be compelled. It DOES NOT mean working for free.
In this case, they are volunteering to work in the warehouse in lieu of their normal workplace. And the word volunteer is appropriate because their bosses aren't singling people out and saying "YOU WILL GO WORK IN THE WAREHOUSE".
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Nobody is being asked to work for free. They are being asked to help out in the warehouse instead of their normal job duties.
That is definitely not what the word 'volunteer' means and it is used many times.
That is absolutely what the word 'volunteer' means in this context. "a person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task." ("freely" in this instance is intended to mean "without coercion", not "without compensation". Think "free speech" not "free beer".)
Re: My answer (Score:2)
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But you can't have 50/hr workers doing the same job as 16/hr workers. That would make the 26/hr workers feel like shit.
Why? I literally just did something similar a couple months ago. It was end-of-quarter, there were a shitload of extra orders to ship, and the warehouse was short staffed. They asked for volunteers to go help out, and I jumped in. I got a "thanks for jumping in to help dig us out" from the warehouse workers, not a "you make 3x what I do, get your ass outta here."
Re: My answer (Score:2)
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That would make the 26/hr workers feel like shit.
It's cute that you think Amazon gives a single solitary shit about how their warehouse workers feel.
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Nobody is being asked to work for free. They are being asked to help out in the warehouse instead of their normal job duties.
That is definitely not what the word 'volunteer' means and it is used many times.
That is absolutely what the word 'volunteer' means in this context. "a person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task." ("freely" in this instance is intended to mean "without coercion", not "without compensation". Think "free speech" not "free beer".)
Nah. These are salaried workers being asked to do something during their normal work hours. It's basically not possible to avoid paying them.
Re: My answer (Score:2)
These people are probably all salary.
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And if the office workers in question are salaried overtime-exempt employees, they're being paid for their time; and the use of the word "volunteer" is entirely accurate as they are choosing to put in more hours for the same compensation.
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Or more likely, "in addition to". Salaried workers, which are likely what the corporate workers are on, generally don't get overtime. So Amazon could easily ask them to work in the warehouse for an hour after their usual hours, like your boss might ask you to do some OT for free on Friday and that progress bar just doesn't want to reach 100%.
So it is technically "working for free" bec
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Nothing in the article says anything about them working for free.
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You "volunteer" as in, you voluntarily choose to work in the warehouse as opposed to your norma
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The word "volunteer" means they voluntarily choose to work in the warehouse. It does not mean they're doing it without pay.
Re: My answer (Score:2)
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Who knows. But considering these are all corporate folks, they're all on salary.
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For the record if you are a salaried employee they can make you work as much as they want for the same pay and your only recourse is to quit. And if you are a high enough level employee and try to go work for a competitor because they're in the same field here in expect a lawsuit. Sure the lawsuit might not be enforceable but have fun battling it out in court.
We gave up on labor law around the time we got obsessed with trans girls in bathrooms and t
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My company allows salaried workers to claim OT when working more than 40 hours. However that goes with the expectation that you're actually putting in productive hours throughout the week. Very few associates I've seen would be able to say with a straight face that they worked more than 40 hours in a week (or even 32 hours in a week).
We also allow associates to volunteer for weekend events and claim OT pay.. which personally I
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If your company allows that it's because it's a benefit not because it's a legal requirement. They can take that benefit away without notice in most cases.
Amazon is a notoriously bad company to work for so I have no doubt in my mind that any employee on salary will be doing that work for free. While also working 60 to 70 hours a week on whatever their main project is.
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For the record if you are a salaried employee they can make you work as much as they want for the same pay and your only recourse is to quit
I am a full professor, and at my school apparently I could be assigned any menial task if I cannot reach my teaching load. This is a real issue as we are all being forced to 4/4 from 3/3 next year, as the school canned our research releases.
Re: My answer (Score:3)
an Amazon area manager called for corporate "volunteers to help us out with Prime Day to deliver to customers on our biggest days yet."
"Force"? How do you get "force" from "volunteer"? Why can't you stick to the ACTUAL story, not the anti-Amazon illusions you've conjured-up?
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You never have to in a country with strong labor laws. It is understood that personal time is personal time.
We're working on phasing out the concept of personal time in the USA. It's really gotten in the way of continued quarterly increases in profits.
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You never have to in a country with strong labor laws.
Found the core of your problem understanding. We're talking about the US here, which is not a country with strong labor laws.
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An Amazon warehouse area manager cannot fire anyone in a corporate office.
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Who cares? It's a shitty place to work.
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Does Amazon pay more than its competitors?
Between this and the mandatory RTO policy, I am having a hard time understanding how Amazon manages to retain top tier talent.
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where are they going to go. they are addicted to their half a million paychecks and half a million in RSU. if massa says jump they say 'how high'. i left that rat race. it's like government work, it looks good from the outside but once you get in you realize you just sold your soul for easy sailing (govt) or easy money (faang)
Re:My answer (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder how much of an imposition it really is.
The toughest part of most blue collar work is the repetitiveness. It is hard on both body and mind to get up and do the same thing over and over again day after day. Add to it the stress of being constantly evaluated on how many tiny errors you make or how many many seconds that floor stack job took this time and sure it is no picnic.
Now imagine your some project manager, that gets asked to help out at the order fulfillment center for an afternoon or maybe a day or two. Nobody is going to evaluate your performance there, you are not expected to handle packages as fast as they guys and gals who do it every day. If you get faster or don't while you are at it really does not matter, your job certainly does not depend on it. Meanwhile you are still "on the clock" still getting your regular salary, probably more per hour then the people around you are getting. You are removed from the 'drudgery' you reprieve in your own job temporarily. You are getting see places and equipment your don't normally.
Unless you have some attitude problem about certain task being below you or something I really don't see what the big deal is if your employer asks you to do a little a 'grunt work' outside your usual job description as long as it is only very occasionally and it isn't hazardous etc.
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I guess I'm the odd ball, because I would do it, as long as it wasn't in addition to my regular duties, i.e. unpaid overtime. Get out of my cubicle for a couple of days. See what other people at the company do. I'd rather drive a fork lift or something, but I'd pack boxes a couple of days.
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Me too. When we moved office I carried desks and chairs for two days. No big deal, and actually quite satisfying to use your body/muscles for a change.
Besides, in Europe, refusing to do this would be one of few reasons there are to get fired. The employer decides what an employee should work with. As long as everything else in the contract is fulfilled (e.g., salary and work hours), they can assign you to do whatever needs to be done, as long as it clearly isn't in an effort to bully you.
Perspective (Score:2)
a.) It's a billion dollar company. They can hire and pay the needed workforce. I'm not doing it!
b.) All hands chipping in to get their gravy train through a few days of heavy demand seems like a good thing for keeping the gravy train going. No?
Re:Perspective (Score:5, Funny)
Priorities (Score:3)
It is important that money is saved in order to pay for Jeff's wedding cake.
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It is important that money is saved in order to pay for Jeff's wedding cake.
They're not saving money. They're retasking office workers who make $100+ per hour to do work they usually pay a lot less for.
OTOH, if it keeps customers from having bad experiences because the system is overwhelmed, it may be a good use of those expensive workers.
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Isn't it the opposite? Corporate workers are being paid corporate wages to help in warehouses or stock rooms.
If I was asked to do this instead of my normal job and get paid my current salary. The answer is heck yeah.
Ummm.. (Score:2)
âoeThis support is entirely optional, and it allows corporate employees to get closer to customers while enabling our store teams to focus on the work thatâ(TM)s most impactful,â Buch said.
Amazon doesn't give a shit about its customers. What's the real reason they have a worker shortage?
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Income... (Score:2)
Those that do NOT agree will be seen as "not team players" and will lose promotions, and be first in line for the next round of layoffs.
The amazon way (Score:5, Informative)
More and more big companies start to resemble the robbing baron empires of the 18 and 19th centuries, where basically you end having to pay for the privilege of working there. Amazon has been firing employees left and right, and now is short? Well, why not start by hiring employees back? Is such a revolutionary stray of thought? Oh wait, it might cut down on Bezos's botton line by a few millions ...
And that my friend is the amazon way, make money by profiteering from free work
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What do you mean free work? They're asking corporate people to help out with stocking and bagging, at their current corporate pay rate. Who is doing anything for free???
Voluntold (Score:2)
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If I also got paid my current salary to bag and stock, I'd volunteer too. Easy money.
Happiness rating (Score:2)
Wasn't the originally point of prime day.. (Score:3)
Wasn't the original point of prime day for Amazon to test their logistics and infrastructure systems alike by causing people cluster purchases all at once?
The idea being use the discount/sale to get people to place some orders early, delay some orders until prime day, and make some purchases they might not otherwise all at the same time as a stress test.
Seems like now that prime day, has turned into prime week and we are looking for people to pitch in doing fulfillment who don't normally do that, perhaps a shark has been jumped?
Beats sitting at a desk (Score:2)
What kind of volunteering is this? (Score:2)
Is this "during work hours, for the hours you're paid, instead of doing the job you normally do, do some warehouse work"?
Or is it "on top of all your regular work, come and volunteer to do additional unpaid work"?
If the former, then, whatever, this is no big deal.
If the latter, then, damn, Amazon needs to get the hell sued out of it. Not that that would happen in our current world.
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It's the former. The meaning of "volunteer" here is to do something voluntarily, as opposed to by compulsion. Employees are being asked to do something outside the scope of their normal work duties, during working hours, for pay, without being assigned to it by their managers.
As much as we'd all like to imagine the hypocrisy of one of the world's largest companies asking its employees for free labor, that doesn't seem to be what's happening here.
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As much as we'd all like to imagine the hypocrisy of one of the world's largest companies asking its employees for free labor, that doesn't seem to be what's happening here.
I'd be willing to bet one of the world's largest companies has one of the world's largest legal departments. And that army of lawyers would absolutely ensure the bosses weren't asking their employees to "volunteer" for unpaid production time.
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As much as we'd all like to imagine the hypocrisy of one of the world's largest companies asking its employees for free labor, that doesn't seem to be what's happening here.
But ... but ... how can I get a good Two-Minutes Hate out of that?!?
Is that still a thing? (Score:3)
Competition today is an auto-script that simply matches the other guy's price. 'competition' is gone. It's more like price collusion.
I'm of two minds (Score:3)
On the one hand, this isn't in the job description, so...no.
On the other hand, I actually think it's useful for people that are programming systems that other people use to actually use the systems themselves in a production environment to see how they function. If you're a programmer writing software that people at the warehouse have to use, it SHOULD be part of your description to do that job for a few days a year to understand what the biggest problems are.
And also: no volunteering. If you spend any time doing this, they pay you whatever your hourly wage is + overtime. If you're a high-paid programmer and you do this, they pay you your programmer wage and compensate you for your time. It's such a drop in the bucket for them, there's literally no reason but greed not to.
Lastly: fuck Amazon and their shitty labour practices and horrendous (reportedly) work environment. I wouldn't work there on a bet.
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On the one hand, this isn't in the job description, so...no.
Every single job I've ever had has had a description including other duties as required or similar, which means this is in the job description.
And also: no volunteering
Amazon literally cannot legally have them work without pay. Not only is it illegal in itself, but if they did, and they got hurt, there would be an additional ration of shit.
"GIVE" my time to the company?!?! (Score:2)
do they get commercial auto insurance and full mil (Score:2)
do they get commercial auto insurance and full mileage?
Why don't they get AI bots to do it? (Score:1)
See you at review time (Score:1)
Volunteer? (Score:2)
Sigh (Score:2)
"Volunteering" to take extra shifts has been a thing forever, all over the place.
It doesn't mean the same thing as "volunteering" to work without pay.
And you know that ... well, at least I hope you know that ...
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These aren't shifts: they're salaried employees so they are not paid per hour.
Anyhow much as amazon is an utter shitbag company, I don't see a particular problem with this, provided the workers aren't penalised for either not volunteering or for not delivering on their white collar work while "volunteering".
Seems like Amazon over-fired and now wants to get temporary, very expensive warehouse workers because they screwed up.
Volunteer? (Score:2)
Ha, how about paying more?
Wouldnâ(TM)t it be smarter? (Score:2)
Wouldnâ(TM)t it be smarter to let them stay home and buy into all these outstanding artificial values that Amazon has for prime day?
Amazon: Queen of Chutzpah (Score:2)
more hinderance than help (Score:3)
anyone that has had corporate "help" in a physical gig knows it's more hinderance than help.
Instead of proper planning, incentivizing staff, and providing all the good food, drink and coffee one can possible provide for staff, they do stupid shit like this... the warehouse staff know that this is a temp surge.. they know it's going to be hell... they'll do their best to make sure it goes smoothly because their friends will be fucked on the next shift... or even themselves when they come back next day... last thing that they need is the distraction of a bunch of office workers operating around forklifts and machinery, getting injured or just getting in the way.
Doing manual labor for "two-hour shifts between 10am and 6pm" while the regulars are doing 10 hour shifts overnight with barely a break... last thing they need is a reminder that while they're busting their ass for 50-60 hours a week, someone that makes triple their hourly rate is coming to "help" them... working slowly, distracting staff, and draining resources needed for actual work, and not to provide operations and safety training, answering questions for someone about to put in 2 hours of likely error filled work that someone will need to fix.
It takes roughly 2 weeks to train the basics for a regular employee including safety training, and another 3-6 months for them to become proficient and operate without assistance in a warehouse setting. ...warehouse workers are most prone to back, shoulder and knee injuries... office workers who have back pain from sitting in an air conditioned office on an office chair are asked to volunteer to help in a warehouse? Ever seen someone who wears comfy sneakers in carpeted office setting don steel toe boots and walk a few miles on concrete? They should film this for a prime original... will be hilarious to watch... would love to hear the stats on error rates, efficiency, physical injuries, short term and long term disability claims from this shit show...