An offshore workforce is training Amazon’s warehouse-monitoring algorithms

https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/21/23466219/amazon-warehouse-surveillance-camera-offshore-workers-india-costa-rica

by mfiguiere • 4 years ago

86 53 4 years ago

Amazon said that workers in India had the option to take Diwali off, and the company’s spokesperson Kelly said workers in India and Costa Rica were “encouraged by the software they use to take short breaks throughout their shifts.”

It seems like everyone ignores the fact you are supposed to take breaks resulting in health issues. The workers should consider all taking breaks.

terminal_d• 4 years ago

The way it's framed, it seems as if it's not possible to be a "good worker" if you take the recommended breaks.

Might not be factually true but that's what the article seems to imply.

charcircuit2• 4 years ago

Good is relative. It's toxic to skip breaks or work extra hours so that you can be the best worker.

ck2• 4 years ago

Apparently they monitor delivery people in the trucks too

I sometimes see them working behind the trucks to avoid the cameras inside.

World is getting super weird, we are racing to the bottom.

heavyset_go3• 4 years ago

There are likely teams of tech workers maintaining the surveillance tech pipeline at the company. Excluding the people who just don't care, or who enjoy it for the wrong reasons, the rest probably believe that the tech they work on is good and helping the world.

supert563• 4 years ago

Anyone who believes this is good work and helping the world is deluded. It's full on race to the bottom, treat people like robots, surveillance state stuff.

mkl95• 4 years ago

Amazon have been providing an offshore workforce as a service for 15+ years, AKA Mechanical Turk

MisterBastahrd• 4 years ago

Right? I remember a guy who posted here that received over 2M Stellar XLM crypto by using the Mechanical Turk to pay people to sign up under their personal accounts to receive the 6K freebies per person and transfer their loot to him. At the time, XLM was worth virtually nothing, so getting a buck or two was a decent exchange for some. I think at its height, though, it was worth about 90 cents a token.

arky527• 4 years ago

At it's height that's still $1.8m for paying ~350 people

hdesh• 4 years ago

Indian interviewees said they earned 25,000 rupees ($306) per month on average, while the Costa Rican average was 514,000 colones ($843).

What explains the difference?

therealdrag0• 4 years ago

Costa Rica has a pretty educated workforce. Probably just demand a higher wage.

DoingIsLearning• 4 years ago

Cost of living.

To imply that Costa Rica's education is somehow superior to India's is misrepresenting the situation.

If in my local market 300 dollars is a pretty good average then I don't have leverage to ask for 800 dollars from the HR department of a billion dollar beast of a company who will create every possible pressure to adjust the offer according to my local market.

bergenty• 4 years ago

India is a very cheap place to live in.

curiousllama• 4 years ago

Could be time zones. I recall reading an article about Mechanical Turk that suggested the highest-paying tasks get done the quickest. I wonder if those are often posted on US hours, leaving lower paid tasks for Indian daylight hours.

winkeyless• 4 years ago

I feel that we are living through Les Misérables again

Melting_Harps2• 4 years ago

I feel that we are living through Les Misérables again

Seems like a speed run of the gilded age to me with the inevitable war theater in Europe and potentially Asia as the back drop for the World Wars that took placce in the 20th Century seems more apt; Amazon is the worst of the FAANGS, and that is saying a lot. It operates under the notion of such an extreme as a 'core value' that it becomes entirely counter-productive, but since the glut of it's customer base doesn't seem to detract from the abuse labour experiences in the process it continues.

To me the closest analog to Amazon were the oil and steel barons of the time that used and abused it's work force, and exploited children etc...

There is a massive Global protest scheduled for this Black Friday [0], so the least I could do was refrain from using it since I can be out there demo'ing at this phase of my Life anymore. Amazon is one of the few corps that I feel should be not just unionized but also broken up by the State, which is really saying something since I think that is the closest thing to an economic nuclear option there is, but we're way past that point now.

0: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/11/23/amazon-prote...

gruez• 4 years ago

Seems like a speed run of the gilded age to me with the inevitable war theater in Europe and potentially Asia as the back drop for the World Wars that took placce in the 20th Century seems more apt;

What does workplace monitoring have to do with global conflicts?

There is a massive Global protest scheduled for this Black Friday [0],

Doesn't this type of stuff (eg. anti-capitalism/consumerism protests) happen every black friday? They're always hyped up to be some huge event, but when the day comes it's always underwhelming. The article you linked yourself makes no mention of participants, for instance.

RektBoy• 4 years ago

Anyone still wondering why there are so many Indian scammers? Why work this BS job for BS money, when you can scam old people and get paid.

bryanrasmussen4• 4 years ago

I'm just going to assume the people in the scam call-centers who call me are getting pretty BS money as well. No reason their bosses should be egalitarian minded friends to the working class.

ceejayoz• 4 years ago

Some of the scammers are slaves. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62792875

incone123• 4 years ago

Others believe they are legit employees selling a genuine product like anti virus. Can't find a link for this right now though.

Semaphor• 4 years ago

fkey meThis report

What’s going on there? Some kind of typo? Slang I never heard? SS in case only I see this: https://i.imgur.com/FP7oO8E.png

Luc• 4 years ago

Perhaps a mistyped instruction to the content management system, which has resulted in it being rendered on the page instead of interpreted as an instruction?

supert563• 4 years ago

This is a complete disgrace.

jsiepkes2• 4 years ago

What I don't understand is why tech people (who have plenty of job opportunities) want to work for a company which does things like this.

default_png• 4 years ago

Same reason some people go work in Defense.

Money.

mint2• 4 years ago

I don’t work in defense and I don’t want to, but I’d say defense is much more a gray area than Amazon. Defense is required, but has definitely gone of the rails in ways.

On the other hand, Amazon is definitely not required at all, it’s a pure race to the bottom play.

anonuser123456• 4 years ago

Most of the people I know in defense are relatively mission oriented.

badrabbit• 4 years ago

The way they treat even their tech people is horrible. I would say either you get paid a fortune or you work there to have amazon on your resume on the way to a better gig.

nus07• 4 years ago

Have you been to India? There is high income inequality and poverty and labor is cheap. People are willing to do anything to have a better life and they don’t care if it affects other people . With 1.3 billion people competition for survival is fierce and empathy for others may lead to your downfall as only the fittest survive . The education is geared towards STEM to be highly employable and make money to get out of poverty . Amazon and big tech love India for smart , dedicated and hardworking workers who do not question broader societal questions and serve the company. PS - Sorry I am stereotyping to an extent and do not mean to come across as hateful. Just answering why tech people want to work in such situations.

jsiepkes2• 4 years ago

I should probably have been more specific in my comment; I fully understand people who are working on visa's (or wanting to obtain one) working for these companies.

What I don't understand is why people who have no "nothing to lose" incentive (for example are "native" citizens of a country such company is based in) want to work for these companies. These people can lead perfectly comfortable lives without working for companies which behave questionably.

tjpnz2• 4 years ago

In the summer of 2020, Amazon’s warehouse in Bolton, England, was rolling out a new stowing system — known internally as “Nike” — that relied on computer vision and manual checks from workers in India and Costa Rica.

I hope I wasn't the only one to notice that. The person who named it must be truly diabolical.

hotpotamus• 4 years ago

I'm not sure what the issue is with the italicized text (I get the neo-Dickensian awfulness of the article). Nike is Greek for Victory though.

tjpnz2• 4 years ago

I was imagining Bezos watching from somewhere and screaming into a mic "JUST DO IT".

Ancalagon2• 4 years ago

Look its time to just boycott this company.

An offshore workforce is training Amazon’s warehouse-monitoring algorithms

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