Amazon's Covid Hiring Boom Has Applicants Packed Into Job Fairs With No Special Precautions (bloomberg.com) 63
An anonymous reader shares a report: In March, a laid-off customer-service representative for one of the airline companies attended an Amazon.com employee orientation in Dallas. He found himself packed into a room with about 70 other applicants, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder to watch a PowerPoint presentation about what it's like to work for the online retailer. The man, who provided a smartphone photo to document his experience, said the event was exactly like one he attended last year for a seasonal holiday job with Amazon. In other words, there were no special precautions to keep attendees safe from the coronavirus. When the man raised concerns about the crowded conditions, he said an Amazon manager mocked him and a fellow recruit sneered.
"They made jokes and told me to leave if I was unhappy," he said, adding that one manager said Amazon's operations were exempt from the rules because the company is considered an essential service. "They didn't care one tiny bit." The former customer rep took the job but still worries about getting sick. Amazon also ignored official social-distancing guidelines at hiring events near Portland, Oregon, and in Kenosha, Wisconsin, according to two applicants. A fourth person who attended an Amazon job fair in West Jefferson, Ohio, said she was sent home and asked to return another day because the gathering was too crowded, suggesting precautionary measures are in place at least at some events or Amazon is changing its practices.
"They made jokes and told me to leave if I was unhappy," he said, adding that one manager said Amazon's operations were exempt from the rules because the company is considered an essential service. "They didn't care one tiny bit." The former customer rep took the job but still worries about getting sick. Amazon also ignored official social-distancing guidelines at hiring events near Portland, Oregon, and in Kenosha, Wisconsin, according to two applicants. A fourth person who attended an Amazon job fair in West Jefferson, Ohio, said she was sent home and asked to return another day because the gathering was too crowded, suggesting precautionary measures are in place at least at some events or Amazon is changing its practices.
Fines and Prison (Score:5, Insightful)
hit them with the FULL chargemaster rate for any s (Score:2)
hit them with the FULL chargemaster rate for any sick workers and some is an worker stating day 1 till they are given an clean bill of health.
And the workers are on put on works comp
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You just don't operate in those jurisdictions.
These companies will try to operate until they are being told to stop. They really don't care about the employee (or the general public health)
There are a lot of people who received a pink slip who need a job to survive, the potential employee will risk their own lives to get a job, because of American Grit. These companies will be just as willing to put these people in that level of risk if they can get away with it.
Companies love to complain that there are t
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What about the idiots risking COVID so they could get a job? You want them in jail too? Why have sympathy for their desperation but not for middle management's?
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Not to mention the law (Score:1)
Bezos, coronavirus is coming for you.
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Law? But Amazon is kriegswichtig!
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Americans should read up on Führerprinzip, too.
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To clarify, I am an American. And applying it to Trump specifically isn't a present reality, at minimum our Constitution prevents him from having anything like comparable powers.
Awareness of the principle, for the future direction of America and other countries, though, is recommended.
And speaking from a personal perspective, the world will be getting an antichrist that makes Trump and Bezos look like children by comparison.
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Law? But Amazon is kriegswichtig!
The Fug* of War, eh Clausewitz?
*Fug n, A heavy, stale atmosphere, especially the musty air of an overcrowded or poorly ventilated room: "In spite of the open windows the stench had become a reeking fug" (Colleen McCullough).
Norman Mailer, in “The Naked and the Dead” used the euphemism “fug” for "fuck". So, when Talullah Bankhead, known for her outrageous wit, was introduced to him, she said, “Oh, you’re the man who can’t spell!”
"Fog Of War" https: [wikipedia.org]
The Law? What does Amazon care about the law? (Score:3)
Power beats law every time.
When (Score:5, Insightful)
From the article,
"“These situations occurred two weeks ago and we’ve since moved all new hire events and orientations to virtual platforms,” Amazon spokeswoman Lindsay Campbell said. “Any situation in which teams don’t follow social distancing guidelines are immediately investigated.”"
How quickly we forget just how fast this pandemic has become real for the United States. I have only been working from home for two weeks. In other words, two weeks ago, I was sitting in a cube farm or hanging out in the break room with my co-workers. It must be similar for pretty much everyone else, including Amazon employees. The fact that there is no date in the article makes me wonder when this actually happened or if this is classic Amazon bashing.
Additionally, it's up to each of us to make our own decisions when it comes to social distancing and staying home. Yeah, I get that financial hardship is a factor but that isn't a reason to put yourself or your family in harms way because someone else isn't following the rules.
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Two weeks -- I wasn't wfh yet even at that point, and I'm in a lockdown state.
The real question is how can lawyers profit off deep pockets Amazon.
1. Find large company doing what politicians praise them for -- having job fairs.
2. Wait several weeks in this fast moving, rapidly changing situation, and then complain about it, when people are much readier to start OMGing evil corporation.
3. ??? class action ???
4. Profit!
Follow the money. It never lies and cuts through understandings of 4D chess like a virus t
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The fun part is watching people such as you "defending the money" while pretending that they're only making disinterested comments.
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From the article, "“These situations occurred two weeks ago and we’ve since moved all new hire events and orientations to virtual platforms,” Amazon spokeswoman Lindsay Campbell said. “Any situation in which teams don’t follow social distancing guidelines are immediately investigated.”"
Get outta here with this "reading the article" and "injecting common sense" crap. We came here to bash on Amazon and eat the rich.
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Masks (Score:2)
If everyone is in lockdown and no one is working to deliver goods how do people get groceries. Amazon still needs people to work if others are to work from home.
Masks are the answer.
If we had gone to everyone wearing a mask in February, we could have kept working and not blown up our economy
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China has a massive, truly massive, local government apparatus as part of the CCP control mechanisms. The United States has nothing at all comparable. How could cities and towns deliver groceries to all of their citizens? Our military and reserves could help in a few locales with a massive-scale call-up, but could not do this nationwide. The US economy and government is organized completely differently.
What we should have done is put better restrictions and public/private cooperation mechanisms in place imm
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The police got sent to the experts who tried to tell the world about wuflu.
Sending out media reports of "local government and the military delivered groceries".. is just for media use well after wuflu was allowed to spread out of Communist China.
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Masks don't protect the eyes, people actually touch their faces more with a mask as they're adjusting and adjusting and masks give people a false sense of security. Most masks also don't stop the little itty viruses.
They do help somewhat if the infected wear them as it contains their sneezes and coughs.
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Yes, depending on the mask, of which the better ones are in short supply right now and the usefulness of a crappy mask is still questionable and there will be the stupid who think a mask equals invincible and will infect others.
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Even if that were true (it isn't), infected people have been contagious for days before the first symptoms appear, so widespread use of masks would still dramatically reduce the rate of infection.
But the claim that masks don't help is also complete crap. Using particles that are one tenth the size of coronavirus particles, some masks reduced intake by up to 99% in laboratory tests [smartairfilters.com].
Masks are not single gratings, where something larger than the hole goes right through. The way masks filter particles is by
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It really depends on what the mask is made out of. Sure, if we had enough n95 masks, it would filter out 99% of those billion viruses, but we don't and other types of masks such as home made ones are not going to filter like a n95. There's also the problems of fitting the masks well and the wear it can put on your face if wearing too much.
Most of what I'm repeating is what my health officer said in response to the mask question, some politicians think they're smarter due to being born rich but I'll follow a
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Even plain old cloth masks filtered out 30% of virus-sized particles in their tests. I mean, that's not great, but remember that for viral illnesses, the severity of illness tends to be proportional to the amount of initial exposure (because a larger viral dose is more likely to overwhelm you before your immune system can mount an adequate response). So even a 30% reduction in virus particles breathed in is nothing to sneeze at. :-)
Add that to the fact that half of all people with coronavirus are asympto
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I'm not an expert and for now will follow the advice of the health experts, especially the part about staying away from others.
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If there was no shortage of masks your health officer would have asked you to wear a mask. Since there is a shortage and they want to preserve the masks for hospital workers your health officer is feeding you a load of crap. In their mind its justified to lie to you for the greater good. Most doctors have a god complex and feel they know whats good for you better than you.
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Could well be, though she has changed her tune in the last couple of days to a mask should help with not infecting others but no studies have shown that they stop you getting infected. This is talking about non-medical grade masks.
As long as people keep social distancing and don't keep adjusting the masks and touching their faces in the process, it is starting to sound like a good idea.
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Given better masks are to few to go around for health care givers. You should be ashamed if you use anything more then a home made mask.
I use the mask as a reminder not to touch my face. Work on that. I mindlessly touch my face so I need the reminder.
Most Imporent: Your mask is to protect
Changing the Rules (Score:2)
It's interesting how long it sometimes takes to change the rules.
The Ontario Premier’s office announced that the government is drafting legislation that would remove employers’ ability to require sick notes for people in self-isolation or quarantine. A spokeswoman said the bill would include a number of measures aimed at helping workers affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Canadian Medical Association has called on employers to halt the practice of requiring sick notes from their workers during
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Does your healthcare pay for the Doctors note or is like here in BC where you have to pay out of pocket, about $35-$40.
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Everyone pays for their own notes as far as I know. I don't think any insurer or healthcare plan would cover that fee.
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You're likely right.
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Additionally, it's up to each of us to make our own decisions when it comes to social distancing and staying home.
Classic Capitalism Apologetics - it's not the lovely man trying to find willing workers who's giving you the choice between having food to eat and risking death in his badly maintained and dangerous mine, you're free to walk away and get a job somewhere else with one of his equally greedy friends.
This is why we regulate industry - not because anyone enjoys it, but because industry can not be trusted to work for the advantage of anyone except the owners. You don't have to be Karl Marx to understand that, it'
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Yes, it's true that some people were ignoring this until more recently. Including your employer, apparently. I don't see that this excuses Amazon's behavior.
Part of the Process (Score:2)
It's part of the new Amazon hiring process. Anyone who doesn't get sick gets hired since they have natural immunity.
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Except there is little or no scientific evidence that getting over a SARS-CoV2 infection results in any kind of long term or even immediate term natural immunity. About 15% of recovered patients in China and other countries have gotten re-infected and nobody knows why.
And the lasting lung damage may in fact make affected workers less desirable, especially in businesses such as retail or warehouse work.
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And yes the same thing is happening everywhere else. Just because you get "a" negative result doesn't mean your in the clear. If you still feel sick you should stay away from other people. Even if you don't have the virus you could have something else tha
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Essential does not mean Exempt (Score:2)
Being an essential business does not mean you are exempt from social distancing edicts. It just means you are allowed to remain open. You still must follow all of the other guidelines in the various stay-home orders.
Following in the steps of IKEA (Score:4, Interesting)
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After all, Sweden is choosing herd immunity over social distancing [wsj.com]. It's the Nordic model for viral pandemics!
Well there are signs that that approach may not be working out too well [theguardian.com]. All the other Nordic countries have introduced lockdown measures; Sweden is the odd one out.
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Sweden has the same 5000-odd cases that Australia does, which is under strict lockdown. But Sweden has more than double the growth rate - and more than 10 times as many deaths so far. I wish them luck; they're going to need it.
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hahaha (Score:2)
Covid-19 has just been an elaborate April fool's day prank! and you all fell for it! oh man, I wish I could see your face right now.
Hiring (Score:2)
A company is actually hiring people and we are coming up with ways to put them in prison instead of helping them be safer?
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Does this attitude include prostitutes? After all, they too, are hard-working capitalists. Perhaps a better question is: Does this attitude include drug-addicts? You know, people just like corporate yes-men, who can't control their selfish, anti-social behaviour.