Amazon finds an alternative workforce of people with disabilities

Re:Amazon finds an alternative workforce of people with disa... by maerF0x0 on Monday March 25, 2019 @12:57PM (#19484231)

When i was younger I had a summer job of working in a paper recycling plant. It was soul crushing boring work. I'm talking pick up a spent roll of newsprint, saw it length wise, put the paper in the paper feed, the roll in the cardboard feed. Good job that was ~30 seconds. Repeat for 8 hours.

We had a bunch of mentally disabled people on our team (think low IQ / down syndrome). These guys loved their job. They felt like they were doing cool shit all day. They cheered and smiled when the food truck would roll around 11AM and they'd spend what seemed like 1/2 their earnings on snacks and drinks. They smiled nearly every moment of that job.

Good for them and good for the plant manager understanding this reality and making a good for society out of a relatively bad situation (boring ass work, people having a disability few of us could handle).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Amazon finds an alternative workforce of people with disa... by tetra_proxy on Monday March 25, 2019 @01:23PM (#19484467)

I worked at Food Lion(Southeastern US Grocery Store) as a teenager and they hire people with mental disabilities as baggers. They loved the job and never complained, I was a cashier and bagger and let me tell you it sucks rounding up carts when it's over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, but those guys were just happy to be working and around people who accepted them. And anyone who talked down to or badly about them didn't have a job for long.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Amazon finds an alternative workforce of people with disa... by titanomachy on Monday March 25, 2019 @08:57PM (#19488299)

In Huxley's novel Brave New World, people have exactly the mental capability to perform their role in society and no more. Everyone happily fulfills their function and goes about their lives.

Of course, people of sufficiently low mental capability don't occur naturally at a high enough rate. So they have to help things along by disrupting fetal development for some people. That part seems morally questionable.

Great novel though, highly recommended.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Amazon finds an alternative workforce of people with disa... by yazr on Monday March 25, 2019 @01:05PM (#19484304)

Thank u for this write up.

It made me smile, and hopefully this will last for more than the 5min it takes to reach the comments about worker conditions and low-cost exploitation.

[ Parent | on HN ]