14 Dec 2021
A couple days ago, there was a storm in the US and it was around the area of one of Amazon's many "fulfillment centres" (their fancy name for warehouses). Of course as you'd expect, many of the employees understandably were worried about the storm hitting the warehouse.
What would usually be a snow day situation was actually a response from Amazon's bureaucracy that if they left the warehouse even in a life-threatening storm, they would be fired.
This lead to a completely avoidable incident where 8 people died including someone's husband and potentially father of children.
I told one of my friends about it and they seemed quite dismissive, I suggested using eBay as an alternative to Amazon and they responsed with, "eBay is shite, Amazon is legend [sic.]" so I decided to hit them closer to home.
Note the point "potentially father of children", I had asked them to put themself in the shoes of a child of an employee who had been killed in this incident. They responded with "don't bring my father into this".
This raises an interesting point that many people are oblivious to the working conditions of many organisations. Please remember that the Same Day delivery you got on a pack of hot dogs because you were too lazy to walk to the shop to buy could potentially be taking a toll on a burnt-out worker.
Maybe before buying, investigate whether the company gives their workers good pay, good working conditions, if their products are safe and designed correctly (Peloton Tread & Apple Watch are examples of failing to be safe) and if they have had any past violations of worker's rights, safety laws and labour laws.