The truth is, our work has been crucial for a lot of people. We’ve picked and packed and expedited vital supplies, from masks and hand sanitizer to groceries and toilet paper. Customers enjoy speed and efficiency and the chance to stay home and stay healthy—but at a high price for workers.
In the warehouse today, we are reduced to pieces in a giant machine that mandates efficiency and speed. A worker is valued only for productivity. And productivity is defined by speed. So we are squeezed and measured to work faster, harder, longer.
Our lives are ruled by units per hour, time off task, productivity rate. Many of us are afraid to pause, or slow down, or even use the bathroom.
Our jobs are reduced to simple, repetitive, mindless tasks: picking or stowing or packing or running or organizing. We obey the pace of the machines, constantly rushing to keep up. It’s exhausting to feel the push of the clock every minute of every hour.
We too often work shifts that we do not choose, that last far too long (10 hours or more) and that come at inconvenient times (e.g., starting at 1am).
We see what happens when we don’t measure up. People are disciplined, and fired, for slipping just a bit. The goalposts keep getting moved, and you never really know where you stand.
We need changes in the workplace to meet our needs as the people who move this company. We are not robots, but human beings with more to offer than just limbs to move things. As people who exist not just inside warehouse walls, but also in our families and communities, with our own spirit and joy, our own skills and ideas, we need to have a say in how this company operates.
Kindness is important to me and my community on the floor. If it is important to Bezos and the shareholders, they will treat all of us with dignity and respect.
Let’s make the business better, together.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
