The Life and Death of an Amazon Warehouse Temp - The Huffington Post

[MattSh]

On Jan. 18, 2013, as the sun went down, Jeff Lockhart Jr. got ready for work. He slipped a T-shirt over his burly frame and hung his white work badge over his broad chest. His wife, Di-Key, was in the bathroom fixing her hair in micro-braids and preparing for another evening alone with her three sons. Jeff had been putting in long hours lately, and so the couple planned a breakfast date at Shoney’s for when his shift ended around dawn. “You better have your hair done by then,” he teased her.

As he headed out the door, Jeff, who was 29, said goodbye to the boys. He told Jeffrey, the most rambunctious, not to give his mom a hard time; Kelton, the oldest, handed his father his iPod for the ride. Then Jeff climbed into his Chevy Suburban, cranked the bass on the stereo system he’d customized himself, and headed for the Amazon fulfillment center in nearby Chester, Virginia, just south of Richmond.

When the warehouse opened its doors in 2012, there were about 37,000 unemployed people living within a 30-minute drive; in nearby Richmond, more than a quarter of residents were living in poverty. The warehouse only provided positions for a fraction of the local jobless: It currently has around 3,000 full-time workers. But it also enlists hundreds, possibly thousands, of temporary workers to fill orders during the holiday shopping frenzy, known in Amazon parlance as “peak.” Since full-timers and temps perform the same duties, the only way to tell them apart is their badges. Full-time workers wear blue. Temps wear white.

That meant Jeff wore white. He’d started working at the warehouse in November 2012, not long after it opened. It was the first job he’d been able to find in months, ever since he’d been laid off from his last steady gig at a building supply store. By January, peak season had come and gone, and hundreds of Jeff’s fellow temps had been let go. But he was still there, two months after he'd started, wearing his white badge. What he wanted was to earn a blue one.

-----> http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/life-and-death-amazon-temp/

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. .

[Hotler]

2. Boycott Amazon, period. n/t

[phylny]

3. I understand the sentiment.

Living where I live, a very rural place, my closest option for some things I want or need is WalMart. The other options are an hour away in either direction.

Then there are things that I simply cannot find anywhere else. I went to three stores looking for an item and came up empty. I found it on Amazon after looking for a week "locally."

[Hotler]

11. Maybe there is some place else online that has what you need. n/t

[phylny]

15. I probably could, but I don't want to hunt for hours online and

fill out endless forms, etc., and THEN no matter what, the company starts e-mailing you. Ugh.

[Brickbat]

13. I'm curious, what do you get from Amazon that you can't find anywhere else?

[phylny]

14. Looking through my history, here are a few examples:

Zenna shower rod cover (I looked in three local stores, no luck).

Purelean products.

Click n' Curl Round Styling Brush tool.

Battery-operated, motion sensor lamp.

Anchor-Hocking replacement lids for storage bowls.

Unscripted by Patrick Dempsey (no longer being made, my husband likes it, and I like it on him).

Bob's Red Mill Whole Grain Teff (not available at any store around here, even Fresh Market, etc.)

[Hotler]

17. Keep shopping Amazon. Thanks for playing.

http://www.oneida.com/storage-organization/food-storage/replacement-lids/anchor-hocking-red-plastic-lid-for-2-cup-kitchen-storage-round.html

http://www.click-n-curl.com/

http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-LED-White-Battery-Operated-Motion-Sensing-Indoor-Outdoor-Path-Light-17450/203794373

http://www.fragrancex.com/products/_cid_cologne-am-lid_u-am-pid_64862m__products.html

http://www.pureencapsulations.com/

http://www.bobsredmill.com/whole-grain-teff.html

[phylny]

18. Wow!

So many years on DU and my first rude response. Congrats, you are my first.

In your travels, did you happen to find the rod cover? And the light isn't even close to what I needed.

[Fast Walker 52]

4. so sad...

I hate Amazon... I avoid it as much as possible but it's so damn convenient.

[smirkymonkey]

5. Makes me very sad and very angry at the same time.

The way workers are treated these days is sickening. We are going backward, not forward.

[riderinthestorm]

6. Tremendously sad. Like a Dickens novel nt

[daleo]

7. The article isn't so much about Amazon, as it is about the current state of capitalism

Mainly, insecure, contingent employment. Amazon didn't invent it, and it won't go away when Amazon is a memory, unless the current pathologies of hype right-global capitalism are addressed.

[mountain grammy]

9. Exactly. It's corporate culture..

Low wage, no skill jobs.. but not really no skill. People work hard for these corporate assholes. They make the profit with their work, but don't share that profit with the corporate elite at the top.
Unions are the answer, but it's going to be bloody, just like last time.

[hifiguy]

8. This is what the future is going to be for everyone

who is not a toadying and servile adjutant of the oligarchy.

This IS the plan and has been for several decades.

[Samantha]

10. Amazingly well-written story

but so sad to read. How can a company work a human being like that? I quit ordering from Amazon a long-time ago once I learned about its employment tactics. The people who orchestrate this are sub-humans.

Sam

[Sunlei]

12. people line up for these jobs and now that local small busineses are gone, these jobs are it.

I've worked as a 'picker' for factories and warehouses, its killer hard work.

It's so sad to see people needing these jobs as a lifelong family supporting career.

[KamaAina]

16. "the right shelf might be just around the corner, or it might be 100 yards away."

Can't they just station pickers in each section and signal them when an order comes in for something from their section?