Corporate employees of Amazon were asked on Monday to volunteer their time to the company’s warehouses to assist with grocery delivery as it heads into its annual discount spree known as Prime Day.

In a Slack message reviewed by the Guardian that went to thousands of white-collar workers in the New York City area from engineers to marketers, an Amazon area manager called for corporate “volunteers to help us out with Prime Day to deliver to customers on our biggest days yet”. It is not clear how many took up the offer.

    • rozodru@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      Plenty. If you’ve ever worked retail you’d know the answer to this question. the “lifers” will volunteer. You know the types if you’ve worked in retail. They’ll do it thinking it’ll look good to some upper manager and allow them to get promoted for simply showing loyalty to the company. The ones who believe and tell you constantly how the company can do no wrong, how great it is to work for said company, and how the company has their best interests in mind.

    • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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      21 hours ago

      When you’re stuck working at a desk all day, every day, forever, suddenly spending a day or two checking out a big ol’ warehouse sounds pretty fun. You’re still getting paid a white collar salary and benefits, and you don’t have to worry about grinding your bones down and all that because it’s only a few days, not decades of backbreaking g work.

      • Null User Object@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        You’re still getting paid a white collar salary and benefits

        That’s not generally what “volunteer” means. From the article,

        Amazon office workers in New York requested to donate time over to Fresh delivery process during firm’s busiest time.

        • Shacktastic@lemy.lol
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          19 hours ago

          Your quote is from the sub-headline, which was probably written by an editor if not AI. I wouldn’t put too much trust in it without supporting details. To the contrary, the detail about being able to step into a conference room to take work calls implies that they are expected to stay connected to their normal job and not bill it as vacation/time off.

          The way it works in my company (not Amazon) is that office workers will occasionally be given “volunteer” opportunities to help with a temporary workload crunch and these will be paid at your normal salary. Sometimes it’s a good deal to get a break from routine, show the boss you’re a team player, and pad out weak progress on yearly goals. Other times it may require uncomfortable work and prolonged absence from home (without overtime pay). But they’re upfront about it and participation is truly voluntary.

    • capital_sniff@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      Well we currently share this country with people that voted three times for the Trump regime. I’m just saying we don’t currently have a dearth of incredibly stupid people.