Warehouses: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Amazon has a promoted Tweet right now offering guided tours of the warehouses. Someone snarkily replied that North Korea offers guided tours too. ;)

Those two Walmart employees saved the company $30 million that year... and I guarantee you they didn't seem a dime of it.

I wish there was a “Get it here whenever just don’t rush your staff” option when you check out. I’d feel better about that then paying for shipping

THANK YOU JON OLIVER!!!! I spent 8 years in warehouse jobs and the ironic part is after all those years I was interested in working for Amazon because they would pay me more than a company then a company that I worked with for 8 years driving trucks. Bottom line is we're grunts, the help, no one cares about us warehouse workers and it's disgusting we're the reason anything gets done for these companies. What I've learned is know your rights and don't ever be afraid to express them, take pride in yourself. They threaten to replace you when you put yourself first and that as well is disgusting I say warehouse workers and truckers need to band together and stand up for our rights as humans. Literally I could give a fuck less if that means stuff moves slower. I as well am in my early 20s and I feel like I'm 80 when I get home I can barely move,sleep, or eat because of the body pain I experience. Again thank you Jon Oliver, it feels good to finally hear some recognition from someone.

Walmart Exec: "This guy saved us at least $30 million!" Boss at yearly review: "Best I can do is a 25 cent raise"

"It's back-breaking labor, and thank God I went to college." Meanwhile, a vast chunk of their warehouse employees are likely breaking their backs to pay off their massive student loan debt.

I worked for zappos an amazon company. They had a warehouse in Kentucky with no air-conditioning. They would "allow" employees to work in their underwear or bathing suits because of the sweltering conditions. They realized it was cheaper to hire 2 to 3 ambulances to hang outside the facility for when someone fell to heat exhaustion. Not IF, but WHEN. it was cheaper to pay to take a heat stroke employee off campus, dismiss them for failure to perform duties, and move on than to install appropriate chillers or reasonable breaks.

"There's no requirements that we provide air conditioning" is possibly the most chilling way to both avoid and answer the question at the same time.

I think it’s worth mentioning that Amazon raised the minimum wage while cutting bonuses and stock options for their workers so many actually make less than before - they are not the model to follow.

This is why people once fought so hard for labor unions that they were willing to risk everything.

This makes me VERY happy with my job. I am Dutch and work in a food warehouse - but a NORMAL one. We don't have rates/targets, we don't clock out for the bathroom, I walk around 10 kilometers so around 6-7 miles MAX a day, the working rate is relaxed, there is free food every day for lunch, I work 4 days a week monday-thursday 9-18, and after work I go home, cook myself, chill and do fun things for like 3 hours, and then sleep... ON A WORKDAY. I ENJOY my job. Of course, I can get off for anime conventions and such if I only get back on Monday I can get that day off. If I am sick I don't work and am paid. Warehouses CAN be great places to work like mine - if the company is a good one! And yes, my boss HATES amazon etc. We don't compete with them, but he just absolutely hates these kind of working conditions. We do order there in our private lives, because amazon working conditions are A LOT better in the Netherlands, but even then not as our first choice.

"Look, Amazon isn't the worst" That didn't age well lmao

I remember my time at Amazon, it was during Prime Week... I'm in my 30's and I'm built pretty well, I thrive in terrible working conditions having done yard work my whole life in the desert heat. It's a hell of an experience in those warehouses. Because of my size they would put me where all the big shit is, I never complained, and I killed my rate regularly. Going to the bathroom is a bit more tricky than what was described in Jon's video. Suddenly get that feeling that I gotta take a shit, I go into overdrive and stock everything in my cage fast and correctly, then grab another cage and do the same to ensure I've padded my rate for the hour so I CAN go take a shit. Head to the bathroom I know that doesn't get much traffic, get to a stall, and go to drop a deuce, yet I can't relax. It's like that fight or flight mode when you're working in an Amazon warehouse, so much pressure from making rate, can't goto the bathroom even though I have to go. Myself and the other warehouse associates would joke about that constantly, and if someone came back from the bathroom successfully we would cheer out for the freedom of their bowls. You could be in that situation, can't shit because of the anxiety of the pace, then just pull your pants back up and get back to work, and 15 mins later a Manager would come up to you telling you got selected for VTO(Voluntary Time Off(Unpaid)) And you'd take it in a heartbeat, and funnily enough, the second you clock out of that bitch, the pressure is gone, and your body is like, HEY YOU CAN SHIT IN PEACE HOMEY! And you shit, and life's good, til the next day and you repeat the process all over again. The moment I realized I hated working there was when one of those performance people came down to tell me about my rate. They told me usually people plateau at some point, and I'm well over the required rate expectation, but I'm actually continuing to get faster every week. It wasn't a gradual increase either, I was killing it, improving my rate by 5 and 7 points each week. I was excited to hear that, but then they told me that by doing that I increase the average of the rate in that area. It hit me quickly and I asked, "So by me increasing my rate, I'm fucking my coworkers?" And they nodded yes, and added that if I get to high, they will lock me in my own average, and I could get fired by not killing it everyday too. Fuck Amazon! Oh and when they increased the wage to $15, they took their existing associates stock options away. Amazon is abusing some of the coolest, chillest people I've ever met, Fuck you Amazon. Glad I don't work there anymore.

"I am glad I went to college" does he know how many people whit college degree working in this type of places?

"Thank God I went to college!" BA and MA here. All I managed to do in the US was customer service. I managed to start my own business by... leaving the US. And yes, I'm aware of how very lucky I am to be able to do that.

As someone who's worked in warehousing for almost three decades Amazon is absolutely the worst place to work. Yeah they pay $15/hour now, but they also work people hard enough to cripple them permanently then they dump them. They don't care because as far as they're concerned there will always be more bodies to feed into the grinder.

Also, Amazon didn't just up and raise the minimum wage out of the kindness of their hearts. They were forced to do so, and they fought to tooth and nail to avoid it.

12:00 Thank you so much for including me in this weekend segment! It means the world 🖤

“I’m glad I went to college.” 🤣🤣🤣😂😅know someone who just got their second masters degree and even more recently accepted a position in an Amazon warehouse for $18.50 an hour. She’s moving to nowhere in the midwest to do it.

"...they told me to definitely not say that so I'm not going to..." genius!