Amazon?

[ArlyA]

Tell you guys a funny story that happen to me around 25 years ago when I went to work doing mechanical work for a small family owned operation. He was only going to pay me $8 but the profit sharing would certainly make up for that. Where we resided, a house back then might run 600 to 1000 to rent. Lets keep in mind the owner owned many motor sport vehicles, a vacation home and 5 seat aircraft to get to it, a new motor home I over heard him say about "I don't want to get a loan for that. Seems he wrote everything off as "business expenses". In the years I worked there, he never paid me enough in "profit sharing" to change my tax status.

I can now see why people move to a new employer to get a raise, or go union.

 

[sree251]

Some companies and owners deserve unions. Some companies don't. Treat employees fairly and employees won't feel the need to form a union.

It's hard to believe that any American business would dare to treat its employees less than fairly given the danger of being set upon by organizations going after them for human rights violations.

Don't employees know what they were signing up for when they accepted their jobs at Amazon? They were probably jumping for joy when they got hired. It must be the same situation when a woman is deliriously happy when she accepts to be a man's wife, marries him but gets bitter somewhere down the road.

You are the same guy when your wife married you. Amazon is the same company from day one. It's lawyers know that terms of hire cannot be changed. The employees must have had a change of heart concerning their working conditions the way wives get tired of their marital relationships.

 

[sree251]

Capitalism without morality is just as evil as communism.

What morality are you talking about? Capitalism is the free market: willing seller, willing buyer.

It's about the art of the deal. Are you willing to work for Amazon? What's the deal it's offering you? Do you buy it on your own free will? This is all the morality there is to the transaction. And there is an escape clause for either party: you don't like it anymore, you quit; Amazon doesn't like you anymore, you're fired.

Capitalism is not a person. It has nothing to do with morality. The capitalist who runs Amazon is a person. It is that person who has morality. Just because a person has morals doesn't mean he has an obligation to give you the time of day. Relationship is a two-way thing. If you view your boss as evil, he would see you as evil also.

 

[Dftodd]

Getting a better offer from somewhere else, is the only way to get a raise.

Company I work for gives annual raises. Amount is based on your annual review.

 

[sree251]

The average American's lack of loyalty was created by the greed of many corporations who looked at employees as expendable.

Corporations are not the issue. Your problem has to do with expectation: your expectation.

Look, we are all farmers with tractors here. Back in the old days, farmers didn't have machines. They had beast of burdens to work their land. Those beasts were the employees who were used to get the land tilled and harvested crops hauled to market.

"Animal Farm" is a story about farm beasts who had expectations such as those you have. They believed that the farmer was greedy also and started a union to get a better deal. It did not end well for all parties.

 

[jyoutz]

And even that $70K home 5 yrs ago would require money for upkeep. I bought one of those $70k houses (built in 1955) back in 2003. I probably put in about $50K after I sold it and that was just minor upgrades. Let's face it even 5 yrs ago, a family trying to live on $20 / hr was most likely needing gov't assistance, renting, barely making a used car payment and not able to save for retirement.

This goes back to Amazon treating their warehouse employees like slaves, watching every minute of their work and punishing them if their hourly production slacks off just a little. And benefits are worthless if you can't afford the health insurance premiums. Better to be on gov't assistance.

I'm really surprised that a union hasn't been able to form at either Amazon or Wal-mart.

Many of these workers with minimal skills would instead be working for small businesses with zero benefits if they couldn’t hire on with Walmart or Amazon.

 

[jyoutz]

Brand new homes in a nice neighborhood were starting at $130k just before covid struck.

Sign a contract with the builder, pick your floor plan, paint, upgrades, close and move in about 8 months later.

Not sure where they are at now. Sure it's double at the moment. But the locals remember what they were being advertised for originally.

At some point, the market isn't gonna support the current price gouging. Especially once the influx of people from the more restrictive states slows down to a trickle.

Then someone is gonna get a rude awaking when they realize they paid double or triple what it is actually worth.

I doubt that you’re ever going to see much deflation in housing prices more than 5-10%. Many building costs are not going to come down significantly (land, materials, labor). What is more likely is a 5-10% reduction and then flat prices for awhile (like 2008-2011) then appreciation again. There is currently a deficit in decent housing in the market and that never results in declining prices, so I doubt if there will be a price decline anytime soon.

 

[jyoutz]

Why would you need assistance on an engineer's salary? I don't think any engineer today could qualify for assistance drawing $70,000 a year (West Virginia).

I don’t think there are many engineers today making less than $100k annually.

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

I don’t think there are many engineers today making less than $100k annually.

Most Enginneers in the Public Sector make around 60 to 75k per year. I worked for a state agency, in a state which required that a wage and compensation study be done at least once per decade. I hired on just before they completed one. I new they were paying below surrounding states, and even the local governments. And, that is what the study bore out. I figured we get about a fifteen percent raise.

WE didn’t get raises. WE got more annual leave. I had been there less than six months. I went from six to 14-hours per two week pay period. people with seniority went as high as 24-hours. I‘m not sure how the legislature thought any work was going to get done. And, since the budget was tight they mandated no overtime, only comp-time. I finished out the first year with almost 200-hours on the books.

Turned in a leave slip to take two weeks off to take the stepson hunting. Supervisor threw a fit, said we were too busy for me to take time off.

I went back to my office to find an email from the head of Personell saying i had to reduce my on the books leave to less than 80-hours within 90-days. Printed it out, attached it to my leave slips, added one for a third week and put them back on the supervisors desk, while he happened to be at lunch. I could hear him swearing and throwing things when he got back to his office.

Back on topic, the government has the misconception that all 4-year degrees are equal. So a biologist makes as much as an engineer in the government.

The team I’m on right now is trying to recruit three engineers and two technicians. Advertised a month ago, still no applications. Boss and I were talking about it. I make about 1/2 to 2/3 of what I could make by moving to a larger town, and going private. The only reason I’m still here is that I’m close to retirement, and living where I want to be, for the lifestyle I enjoy. I took a 60% cut in pay when I took a government job and moved here. Because I want to be where I can hunt and fish, and live in a small rural community. But he and I are rare. Most engineers aren’t going to take the financial hit to live somewhere rural. And, the folks that like metro areas definitely aren’t going to work for that much less than the prevailing rate.

 

[3Ts]

It's hard to believe that any American business would dare to treat its employees less than fairly given the danger of being set upon by organizations going after them for human rights violations.

Don't employees know what they were signing up for when they accepted their jobs at Amazon? They were probably jumping for joy when they got hired. It must be the same situation when a woman is deliriously happy when she accepts to be a man's wife, marries him but gets bitter somewhere down the road.

You are the same guy when your wife married you. Amazon is the same company from day one. It's lawyers know that terms of hire cannot be changed. The employees must have had a change of heart concerning their working conditions the way wives get tired of their marital relationships.

I would hope that any employee reviews the whole employment package offer. I did when I accepted a job at an areo-space company. The benefit package was a major consideration when I accepted the offer. (I had 3 offers pending and I set up a spread sheet to evaluate them). All was fine, for awhile. Then the company started changing the vacation policy by reducing the accumulated benefit. Then another benefit was reduced, and it continued on. The terms of hire were changed, or maybe we call it "company policy" was changed so they get around the legal issue, and i've been in situations where the company cut salaries across the board so terms of hire can be changed without the employee's consent. Could I have left the company? Sure, but not really. When you're 2 years away from being fully vested, have kids in school and are "invested" in the community it's not so easy to pick up and move a family. Others are dependent on you so as much as you may dislike the job, you just suck it up and keep going. Then when the kids are on their own, you're only a few years away from retirement, so you just suck it up and keep going. Yeah, I can see why employees would want a union, there was talk of one at the company I worked at, but never got serious.