Решил попробовать в новом году новый формат — некоторые статьи, которые мне кажутся интересными, но требуют более длинного комментария, чем помещается в Твиттер, буду выкладывать в блоге.
Интересная статья журналистки, которая устроилась поработать на огромный склад компании Amalgamated Product Giant Shipping Worldwide Inc.. Вы, возможно, никогда не слышали этого названия, но это одна из тех компаний, что обслуживают крупных онлайн-ритейлеров вроде Amazon (хотя у того же Amazon есть и большое количество своих подобных складов). Вот, например, топ-10 американских онлайн-магазинов:

Журналистка рассказывает о том, как там работается, особенно в пиковое время в районе Рождества. И про нормы, которые нереально выполнить, и про физические нагрузки, и про условия работы, короткие перерывы, и многое другое.

Цитата из рассказа:

“But look at it from their perspective. They need you to work as fast as possible to push out as much as they can as fast as they can. So they’re gonna give you goals, and then you know what? If you make those goals, they’re gonna increase the goals. But they’ll be yelling at you all the time. It’s like the military. They have to break you down so they can turn you into what they want you to be. So they’re going to tell you, ‘You’re not good enough, you’re not good enough, you’re not good enough,’ to make you work harder. Don’t say, ‘This is the best I can do.’ Say, ‘I’ll try,’ even if you know you can’t do it. Because if you say, ‘This is the best I can do,’ they’ll let you go. They hire and fire constantly, every day. You’ll see people dropping all around you. But don’t take it personally and break down or start crying when they yell at you.”

Или вот еще:

Amalgamated has estimated that we pickers speed-walk an average of 12 miles a day on cold concrete, and the twinge in my legs blurs into the heavy soreness in my feet that complements the pinch in my hips when I crouch to the floor—the pickers’ shelving runs from the floor to seven feet high or so—to retrieve an iPad protective case. iPad anti-glare protector. iPad one-hand grip-holder device. Thing that looks like a landline phone handset that plugs into your iPad so you can pretend that rather than talking via iPad you are talking on a phone. And dildos. Really, a staggering number of dildos. At breaks, some of my coworkers complain that they have to handle so many dildos. But it’s one of the few joys of my day. I’ve started cringing every time my scanner shows a code that means the item I need to pick is on the ground, which, in the course of a 10.5-hour shift—much less the mandatory 12-hour shifts everyone is slated to start working next week—is literally hundreds of times a day. “How has OSHA signed off on this?” I’ve taken to muttering to myself. “Has OSHA signed off on this?” (“The thing about ergonomics,” OSHA says when I call them later to ask, “is that OSHA doesn’t have a standard. Best practices. But no laws.”) So it’s a welcome distraction, really, to imagine all these sex toys being taken out from under a tree and unwrapped. Merry Christmas. I got you this giant black cock you wanted.

Так что в следующий раз, когда вам захочется заказать, например, в онлайне пару носков (или дилдо), вспомните об этом рассказе.