Why do some authors only offer their ebooks on Amazon?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

At this point you’re the one tilting at windmills in the form of those trying to voice an opinion against mega corporations.

That had to have been a stretch even in your own head!

But I'll run with it anyway. If I'm tilting at very real people who are tilting at imaginary dragons they have no hope of slaying... then I'm quite cool with the analogy.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

That had to have been a stretch even in your own head!

But I'll run with it anyway. If I'm tilting at very real people who are tilting at imaginary dragons they have no hope of slaying... then I'm quite cool with the analogy.

Hardly. You’re tilting at very real people with very real complaints while imagining their cause is hopeless. As has been pointed out in this thread the post pandemic workforce is starting to stand up for themselves in ways not seen prior. And it’s starting to affect change, slowly to be sure, but change nonetheless.

You’ve been chasing those who bash Amazon at every turn so much that it’s become your white whale.

[DiapDealer]

That's rich. The handful of people here who have worked themselves into a frenzy over Amazon's imagined mistreatment of employees (employees who are all paid more and have more benefits than me), and over invented detrimental societal impacts are my "White Whale"?

Ok. I'll own that. You keep fighting the "good fight" and getting nowhere. I have no real beef with people wanting to waste their time on imagined and/or hopeless crusades. We'll check in in a decade and see if you, or your new revolutionary post-pandemic workforce, have affected the change you imagine is happening and/or needed. I AM genuinely interested (though not at all concerned).

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

That's rich. The handful of people here who have worked themselves into a frenzy over Amazon's imagined mistreatment of employees (employees who are all paid more and have more benefits than me), and over invented detrimental societal impacts are my "White Whale".

Amazon employees were getting urinary tract infections because they weren't allowed bathroom breaks. I have friends who worked at the warehouses and they confirmed it.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

That's rich. The handful of people here who have worked themselves into a frenzy over Amazon's imagined mistreatment of employees (employees who are all paid more and have more benefits than me)

It’s not imagined but you can keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better Ahab.

Though I think if the bolded text is actually true you should perhaps look into finding a job with Amazon, since you want to pretend they’re so much better and aren’t doing anything wrong.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

Alhough I think if the bolded text is actually true you should perhaps look into finding a job with Amazon, since you want to pretend they’re so much better and aren’t doing anything wrong.

Of course it's true. I'm not in the habit of lying. But no, I don't need a new job. I make enough to live within my means. Mainly because I choose to live and work within a 1-mile radius. If I had to travel to the closest Amazon gig, I would be losing money. Otherwise, yes. If there were an Amazon facility within a couple of miles of me, I would absolutely seek a job there. It would be a very REAL improvement in salary and benefits (not that I have any complaints about my current employment).

[cfrizz]

By Canadian law, they have to give a 30 minute break within 5 hours of work.

"Every employee is entitled to and shall be granted an unpaid break of at least 30 minutes during every period of five consecutive hours of work. If the employer requires the employee to be at their disposal during the break period, the employee must be paid for the break."

So if they are that strict and monitored that closely, the only thing they can do is to limit their intake of fluids.

It's a little different here in the US.

Federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks. However, when employers do offer short breaks (usually lasting about 5 to 20 minutes), federal law considers the breaks as compensable work hours that would be included in the sum of hours worked during the workweek and considered in determining if overtime was worked. Unauthorized extensions of authorized work breaks need not be counted as hours worked when the employer has expressly and unambiguously communicated to the employee that the authorized break may only last for a specific length of time, that any extension of the break is contrary to the employer's rules, and any extension of the break will be punished.

Meal periods (typically lasting at least 30 minutes), serve a different purpose than coffee or snack breaks and, thus, are not work time and are not compensable.

Most companies give 30 minutes for lunch which is non-paid, but you HAVE to take lunch. I would get in big trouble if I didn't swipe out for 30 minutes every day! But I can also go to the bathroom whenever I have the need, they don't monitor that stuff.

Now if it's a union company, they usually have two 15 minute breaks as well.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Amazon employees were getting urinary tract infections because they weren't allowed bathroom breaks. I have friends who worked at the warehouses and they confirmed it.

Sorry. As sincere as I believe you are (and as sincere as you want to believe your friends are), I can't put a lot of stock in the transitive property of anecdotal workplace complaints. I have no problem believing the number of bathroom breaks might be limited to prevent abuse, though.

I've worked in many seriously demanding (and micro-managed), labor-intensive warehouse jobs in my life. I may have despised some of the bosses/owners, but not once did I consider myself as being "abused". Actually spending the vast majority of an 8, 10, 12 hour shift sweating through your clothes, and not being able to shut a production line down 15 times a shift to go to the bathroom is not actually abuse. It's work. Not everything our society needs to function can be done from behind a desk with an hour's paid lunch and four breaks. No matter how dreamy it sounds.

[MGlitch]

If you suffered and think others suffering the same is ok because you turned out fine, you did not in fact turn out fine.

[MGlitch]

@cfriz the way Amazon cheats around those rules and regulations is by having employees clock out at their work station so the time taken to get out is counted against them. Which by letter of any law/regulation is in keeping but certainly not the spirit of those laws and regulations.

Imagine having to walk 10 minutes to exit a building and 10 to get back to where you can clock in. That’s 20 minutes of the 30 gone leaving a whole 10 to get food, eat, and attempt to recharge for the rest of your shift.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by gmw

The whole supply and demand thing tends to play out reasonably well while ever no single entity has the ability to sway the entire market.

Farmers and food retailers operate on thin margins. Distributors typically dominate a region and rake in most of the profit on food.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

If you suffered and think others suffering the same is ok because you turned out fine, you did not in fact turn out fine.

I didn't suffer. And neither are Amazon employees suffering (at least not because of Amazon). It has nothing to do with how anyone "turned out." Using the word "suffering" to describe what people experience while working for Amazon diminishes the experience of those who actually HAVE had to suffer abuses at the hands of others.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I didn't suffer. And neither are Amazon employees.

Right the multiple unrelated people, who aren’t in a class action suit, some of whom have left on their own accord, and stand to gain nothing are all just lying about the conditions they were in working for Amazon.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

Right the multiple unrelated people, who aren’t in a class action suit, some of whom have left on their own accord, and stand to gain nothing are all just lying about the conditions they were in working for Amazon.

Yes. That's exactly what I said.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Yes. That's exactly what I said.

You implied it.