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MissionRacer: Amazon Turns Tedium of Warehouse Work Into a Game
Inside several of Amazon`s cavernous warehouses, hundreds of employees spend hours a day playing video games.
The video games are optional for the thousands of pickers and stowers across a handful of the companys warehouses Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post
Amazon has rolled out the video games to five warehouses from suburban Seattle to near Manchester in Britain, after starting to offer them at a lone warehouse in late 2017 The games are a response to worker complaints that Amazons push for more automation has made labourers feel like cogs in a bigger machine, as they increasingly work alongside robots
By fostering workplace competition through games, Amazon is also slyly pushing workers to raise the stakes among themselves to pack more boxes bound for customer homes
Amazon has come under increasing criticism in recent years for its treatment of warehouse workers, with media reports surfacing of punishing productivity goals and insufficient bathroom breaks Amazon said it provides ample time for repose and bathroom breaks
Nonetheless, that helped trigger political backlash last year from Sen Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, and Sen Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, both of whom are running for president, and helped motivate the company to raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour Amazon employs hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, including more than 250,000 in its US warehouses
Amazon on Wednesday is set to hold its annual shareholder meeting, where warehouse worker conditions have been a perennial topic of concern
We have performance expectations for every Amazon associate, and we measure actual performance against those expectations, said spokeswoman Lindsay Campbell in a statement, noting that the company offers coaching to help those who are underperforming
And labourers were required to sharply increase their output, as well, from picking 100 items an hour off shelves to 300 items per hour and later nearly 400 per hour, according to employees at several Amazon facilities Amazon declined to discuss its employee goals
Many experts predict that Amazon strives to one day automate the package-fulfilment process almost entirely, further eliminating the need for humans, which Amazon disputes
The games are showing some early signs of success at Amazon Workers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal from Amazon, said the games have indeed helped ease the tedium of the job, adding variety to tasks that otherwise can be physically demanding and monotonous
Timez Doctor
Inside several of Amazon`s cavernous warehouses, hundreds of employees spend hours a day playing video games.
The video games are optional for the thousands of pickers and stowers across a handful of the companys warehouses Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post
Amazon has rolled out the video games to five warehouses from suburban Seattle to near Manchester in Britain, after starting to offer them at a lone warehouse in late 2017 The games are a response to worker complaints that Amazons push for more automation has made labourers feel like cogs in a bigger machine, as they increasingly work alongside robots
By fostering workplace competition through games, Amazon is also slyly pushing workers to raise the stakes among themselves to pack more boxes bound for customer homes
Amazon has come under increasing criticism in recent years for its treatment of warehouse workers, with media reports surfacing of punishing productivity goals and insufficient bathroom breaks Amazon said it provides ample time for repose and bathroom breaks
Nonetheless, that helped trigger political backlash last year from Sen Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, and Sen Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, both of whom are running for president, and helped motivate the company to raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour Amazon employs hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, including more than 250,000 in its US warehouses
Amazon on Wednesday is set to hold its annual shareholder meeting, where warehouse worker conditions have been a perennial topic of concern
We have performance expectations for every Amazon associate, and we measure actual performance against those expectations, said spokeswoman Lindsay Campbell in a statement, noting that the company offers coaching to help those who are underperforming
And labourers were required to sharply increase their output, as well, from picking 100 items an hour off shelves to 300 items per hour and later nearly 400 per hour, according to employees at several Amazon facilities Amazon declined to discuss its employee goals
Many experts predict that Amazon strives to one day automate the package-fulfilment process almost entirely, further eliminating the need for humans, which Amazon disputes
The games are showing some early signs of success at Amazon Workers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal from Amazon, said the games have indeed helped ease the tedium of the job, adding variety to tasks that otherwise can be physically demanding and monotonous
Timez Doctor
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