I Delivered Packages for Amazon and It Was a Nightmare

Re:I Delivered Packages for Amazon and It Was a Nightmare by amarkov on Saturday August 25, 2018 @02:17PM (#17841834)

I'm sure it's a nightmare for a professional journalist. And I don't mean that as an insult - it'd be a nightmare for me too.

But you know what's more of a nightmare? Driving around to every retail outlet in a 30 mile radius, trying to convince them that you can be the most submissive and obedient out of the 200 applicants. It's hard to begrudge the gig economy for providing an alternative to that.

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Re:I Delivered Packages for Amazon and It Was a Nightmare by AJ007 on Saturday August 25, 2018 @03:11PM (#17842082)

I've been running my own tech company for over a decade now, and prior to that my job was everything from cleaning toilets to changing lightbulbs. On paper it sounds terrible, but I was very happy.

The work environment matters a lot. The other people you work with matter. How you are managed matters. I think if gig software designers thought a lot about this, they would see a lot of improvement in worker retention and satisfaction.

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Re:I Delivered Packages for Amazon and It Was a Nightmare by Drdrdrq on Sunday August 26, 2018 @04:35AM (#17844937)

This, and very well written! A lot of the complaints from the article are really all easily solvable issues. I mean, really? I need to click an app for an hour to get the block? Just run a lottery. And what do you mean I have to catch people around? Change the rules so that I need to make best effort (and document it), and that's it. And give customers your own numbers so you can forward calls just during the working hours (though that makes it look even more like the workers are your employees). I won't even comment on trouble with scanning codes.

Note that while this would make job a lot more enjoyable for workers, I still think everyone should enjoy the same basic benefits, no matter what kind of employment relationship they are in. But that could also be solved in other ways (basic income for example).

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Re:I Delivered Packages for Amazon and It Was a Nightmare by xg15 on Saturday August 25, 2018 @03:18PM (#17842110)

A momentary feeling that you're your own boss (which isn't even correct as you're micromanaged by the app) doesn't really compensate that you don't get any benefits or protections.

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Re:I Delivered Packages for Amazon and It Was a Nightmare by HarryHirsch on Saturday August 25, 2018 @02:31PM (#17841901)

trying to convince them that you can be the most submissive and obedient out of the 200 applicants

What was again the name of that psychological test they all use to measure the degree of slavish conformance?

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Re:I Delivered Packages for Amazon and It Was a Nightmare by CaptainZapp on Saturday August 25, 2018 @04:03PM (#17842333)

I think you're referring to the Milgram experiment.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

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Re:I Delivered Packages for Amazon and It Was a Nightmare by HarryHirsch on Saturday August 25, 2018 @07:13PM (#17843092)

The Eichmann test is called the Unicru assessment. Freedom is slavery.

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Re:I Delivered Packages for Amazon and It Was a Nightmare by sytelus on Saturday August 25, 2018 @04:10PM (#17842360)

I don’t think you have to do lot of convincing to get minimum wage jobs these days. Benefits are virtually non-existent for most minimum wage jobs. Gig economy just gives you flexibility while traditional job gives you predictability and some hope for climbing the ladder. This journalist would have felt misrable for virtually all minimum wage jobs out there.

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Re:I Delivered Packages for Amazon and It Was a Nightmare by nickthemagicman on Saturday August 25, 2018 @02:20PM (#17841844)

Yep. Or Wal Mart. And people are trapped in these jobs.

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Re:I Delivered Packages for Amazon and It Was a Nightmare by paulie_a on Saturday August 25, 2018 @02:35PM (#17841924)

You'd probably make more at Walmart and with a more stable/ consistent incomw vs the "gig economy"

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Re:I Delivered Packages for Amazon and It Was a Nightmare by imnicnic on Saturday August 25, 2018 @02:37PM (#17841931)

Gigs are highly addictive

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Re:I Delivered Packages for Amazon and It Was a Nightmare by ghaff on Saturday August 25, 2018 @02:46PM (#17841966)

People do at least own their own schedule which is a big difference from much of retail. That said, as this article notes, your cost to do these gigs is often higher than people think it will be (or even realize it is).

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Re:I Delivered Packages for Amazon and It Was a Nightmare by orangecat on Saturday August 25, 2018 @04:37PM (#17842462)

People do at least own their own schedule which is a big difference from much of retail.

Right, and this can easily be underappreciated by those of us working in environments where it's hardly ever a problem if you need to take a few hours to deal with personal issues.

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Re:I Delivered Packages for Amazon and It Was a Nightmare by paulie_a on Saturday August 25, 2018 @05:37PM (#17842702)

So what? That has nothing to do with real income.

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