[gambiting]

>> or management incompetence.

Seems to be absolutely the case here. The worker has reported to his "leader" that he's feeling unwell but was ignored. I'd expect criminal charges to be brought against him at this point.

I think Amazon can implement whatever solution they want, but if your manager ignores a very direct report of feeling unwell then what else can you do?

>>But here is Amazon, with its history of endangering its workforce, that once again will do nothing.

Well, we'll see what happens in this case. Polish prosecutors can be very zealous(for better or worse) so I don't think "nothing" is on the table.

[dx034]

The problem is that the manager's behavior is likely a result of incentives. It's not that managers at amazon are worse people than managers at other companies. And if their incentives make it so hard for them to allow longer breaks or help employees that are feeling unwell, it is Amazon's fault that this happened.

[gambiting]

And I'm sure the stated policy even within Amazon is that a medical issue should be immediately reported and a medic called. If the manager disregarded that policy for whatever perceived or real incentive...then that's still their fault.

[foota]

This is disregarding reality. If incentives aren't aligned with policy then you'll get bad outcomes. If the company says "report medical issues" and also "no downtime" then you won't always get people reporting issues.

[gambiting]

Sure. And it's a problem within the company that amazon will have to fix. But right now, for prosecutors, I can only imagine that the manager will be found criminally liable.

[pjc50]

The incentives matter: what is the process that the manager is expected to follow? What is the impact on the manager's own employment metrics for allowing sick employees to leave?

(Note that the latter is a problem in lots more places; see "Bradford factor")

[short_sells_poo]

I agree that the person directly responsible for this tragedy is the manager, but this category of cockups almost always has systemic reasons.

In other words, we can punish the local manager, but that won't fix the fact that the corporate leadership of Amazon seems to foster an environment where this kind of management is accepted and perhaps even encouraged.

I have never worked at Amazon (and by the sounds of things, I never want to either), but it sounds like a dystopian nightmare. And we should not be surprised when people optimize their behavior to the dystopian nightmare if that's the environment that they have to succeed in.

[capitol_]

There is a lot that you can do, pointing out a single manager as scapegoat for systematic failure won't solve anything.

You can make sure that the incentives in the organisation aligns with preventing deaths like these.

You can educate your workforce.

You can hire more people.

And so on.