> slightly lower pay and the benefit of bathroom breaks is a trade-off they’re willing to make in the labor market
I really don't understand Amazon's position here. A small number of cheap improvements would vastly raise worker satisfaction. More bathrooms through the building, paid time in security lines, and some honest safety interventions are all cheaper than raising wages or even, say, a private space program or an airliner fleet.
Amazon is weird that way. It's a multi-billion dollar global corporation that's run like a mafia front. They'll spend who knows how many millions of dollars on video game kiosks[0] to incentivize productivity through addictive feedback loops but won't spend a dime updating or replacing the equipment their employees actually use.
These improvements sound good to me too, but they are not cheap. Paid time in security lines would increase worker’s paychecks. It’s effectively another way of raising wages. As is more breaks.
I'm not sure if the parent was referring to Blue Origin as a space program, but Amazon very arguably is developing a space program of one sort or another, with services like AWS Ground Station [1] for operating satellites coming online.
I really don't understand Amazon's position here. A small number of cheap improvements would vastly raise worker satisfaction. More bathrooms through the building, paid time in security lines, and some honest safety interventions are all cheaper than raising wages or even, say, a private space program or an airliner fleet.