Amazon's productivity monitoring system is reportedly making employees feel like robots
Amazon employees are treated like "robots" due to an automated tracking and termination process used at fulfillment centers, reports The Verge.
The system tracks the rate of individual workers' productivity, writes The Verge, and it "automatically generates any warnings or terminations regarding quality or productivity without input from supervisors."
More than 300 employees were reportedly fired from a single facility from 2017 to 2018 after failing to meet productivity quotas.
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Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, told The Verge that employees feel as if they are "treated like robots." The system tracks when employees take time off from scanning packages and will automatically flag employees with warnings. Some employees forgo going to the bathroom when fulfillment demands are high.
Read more about the system at The Verge.
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Marianne is The Week’s Social Media Editor. She is a native Tennessean and recent graduate of Ohio University, where she studied journalism and political science. Marianne has previously written for The Daily Beast, The Crime Report, and The Moroccan Times.
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