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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 20th, 2023

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  • Some years ago, employees sued Amazon because the company had a lengthy security scan when people left, to prevent theft. Apparently it could take half an hour to go through, and they argued that this was unpaid overtime.

    They lost, which seems like bullshit: as far as I can tell, the sane way to look at it is, if you’re obligated to do what the company tells you and go where the company says, then you’re on the job and should be paid for it. Once you’re out the door, you can choose whether you want to go home or go to a bar or just sit on the sidewalk; you’re not on the clock and you’re not getting paid.

    If the company wants you to work 8 hours in the warehouse, then spend half an hour in the security scan, then you’re doing company business for 8.5 hours.









  • What I really want is the corporate phone numbers so I can call the fucking jackass CEO at home and direct my fuming fucking self-righteous anger right under his stupid worthless ass. Because I’m well aware that they record calls and don’t give one flying fuck about our complaints.

    For that matter, I want to see the productivity data on the top executives. AIUI, companies like Amazon monitor and push employees to get maximum productivity. Okay, so if Bob the warehouse worker takes an extra five minutes on his bathroom break and misses his last delivery of the day, that’ll piss off the customer and cost Amazon, say, $100 in sales. But by the same logic, if Andy Jassy takes an extra five minutes on his bathroom break and doesn’t finish everything on his daily to-do list, that might cost the company $1M. So all the more reason to monitor his movements to make sure he’s not slacking off.




  • AIUI (but IANAL), the bit on bills that says “Legal tender for all debts, public and private” means that if you owe someone $5, and you hand them a $5 bill, then you have discharged your obligation. If the other person doesn’t accept cash, too bad; you tried to pay what you owe, and if they don’t like cash, they can’t demand that you pay by check, or in Euros, or whatever.

    What it doesn’t mean, though, is that a business can refuse to deal in cash. If a shop wants to be paid before they make you a latte, that’s not a debt, and they can demand that you pay electronically or not at all.

    So while AFAIK (again, IANAL) cashless businesses are legal in the US, I personally don’t like them because that’s a form of discrimination against poor and homeless people. Plus, cash is more private.