After lying about the fact that some of its employees are under so much pressure that they have to relieve themselves in bottles to meet their quotas, Amazon has quietly stated said sorry in its own very weird way and recognized that drivers do indeed do this. Then it promptly pointed the finger at other companies like UPS and Uber, saying drivers at those companies do it too.
In a news article Amazon, which was posted late the Friday before Easter, apologized to Democratic Wisconsin Representative Mark Pocan, whom it fought with last week in a frenzied Twitter outburst over the bottled pee problem. Pocan commented on another random, aggressive response from Amazon chief Dave Clark, who fought Senator Bernie Sanders for not being progressive enough.
“Paying employees $ 15 / hour doesn’t make you a ‘progressive workplace’ when you dissolve unions and let employees pee in water bottles,” Pocan tweeted at the time.
And then, despite the fact that there is ample evidence that the company’s employees are unfortunately placed in situations where they have to pee in bottles, Amazon and decided to lie(In case you were wondering, a Recode report states that the company’s aggressive communications moves came next CEO Jeff Bezos expressed his displeasure that Amazon officials were not pushing back hard enough against “inaccurate” or “misleading” criticism).
‘You don’t really believe peeing in bottles, do you? If that were true, no one would work for us. The truth is, we have over a million incredible employees around the world who take pride in what they do, and have great wages and health care from day one, “said the Amazon News account. tweeted back at Pocan. “We hope you can create policies that encourage other employers to provide what we already do.”
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The e-commerce giant’s response baffled the internet and didn’t garner many fans. After sitting on that for a few days, Amazon apparently decided this wasn’t the company’s best moment.
In the news article, Amazon said its tweet in response to Pocan was “incorrect” and did not take into account the large population of drivers, but only targeted the employees at the fulfillment centers. The company also added that the tweet was not “properly checked” and did not meet accuracy standards.
Both points are debatable. It must be said that employees at fulfillment centers don’t exactly have it easy to go to the bathroom. Execution center workers have reported that they often hold their pee to avoid spending “free time,” which some workers say can lead to disciplinary action and even dismissal. per motherboard
Amazon, however, denies this, saying that employees at its fulfillment centers can go to the bathroom at any time. Considering some workers claim they don’t even get it meal or rest breaks Because of the amount of work the company is piling on them, that claim is a bit hard to believe.
Here Amazon acknowledged the problem its drivers face on the road causing them to pee in bottles, but does not recognize its role in this at all, choosing to attribute it to traffic, rural routes and the pandemic. Still, there was nothing in the company’s statement about the workload it puts on its drivers – Motherboard states that drivers often deliver 300 packages per day in a shift of 10 hours– and the consequences they face, including disciplinary action and dismissal, if they fail to meet their productivity quotas.
[W]We know drivers can and will have trouble finding toilets due to traffic or sometimes rural routes, and this was especially the case during Covid, when many public toilets were closed, ”Amazon wrote. “This is a long-standing, industry-wide problem and is not Amazon specific.”
The company added that while this was an industry-wide problem, it wanted to fix it but didn’t know how yet.
As if denying any responsibility wasn’t enough, Amazon then points the finger at other companies, such as Uber and UPS, whose drivers apparently also had light up herself in bottles or other containers. It includes links to nine links to stories from other news outlets, and even the Pew Charitable Trust, about Uber, UPS, and other companies, and features a handful of tweets from people sympathetic to the plight.
Honestly, it’s just not a stylish move from Amazon here. These companies are currently in the spotlight because of a tweet war they’ve started (but who knows what the future holds). And if this is supposed to be an apology, it doesn’t really make sense to start saying, “Well, other companies are doing it too” instead of admitting your mistakes. However, this is not to say that these companies do not deserve research.
But the biggest failure of Amazon’s weird apology was probably the people it didn’t apologize to: the employees forced to relieve themselves in bottles, and frankly everything else that isn’t a good toilet. These are the people who rob themselves of food and water while driving to Amazon to avoid going to the bathroom, these are the people who have to urinate and defecate under extreme conditions, these are people who accept being treated with less dignity for fear of losing their jobs . It’s a fear that Amazon has created.
These are the people who deserved an apology. Pocan, the person who actually received it, made the same call in one Twitter message on Saturday
This is not about me, this is about your employees – who you do not treat with due respect or dignity, ”he wrote. for everyone and finally let them unite without interference. “
You can read Amazon’s full apology here