[bxtt]

My parents post-retirement after not working for 10+ years both found roles at an Amazon Fulfillment Center - one at the ship dock and the other in returns. They are both in their 70s and built a nice nest for themselves, neither need it for the money. In fact, my dad was a machine learning professor, multiple publications, and they ran a small medium sized business for 20+ years (at their peak they were running 80M USD annual revenue). They both do it for the mental health and for the physical exercise. They meet a lot of people just like them, some of the workers are living in 3M+ USD homes - although most are not, it’s mostly kids that went to state schools and climb the FC ladder.

[ornornor]

But then why enable such a shitty company actively working at eroding human dignity at work and make a billionaire asshole even richer instead if doing actual good like working at, say, a food bank or ant other charity?

[bxtt]

I can’t speak for their intent. It has less to do with the altruism or the “mission” and more on their personal well being. My dad survived multiple cancers and after he got his strength back, he wanted to build back up his strength. It’s the structure of the system that helps him. He was telling me about their productivity KPIs, and he sees them as fitness goals - as he builds pallets per hour, etc.

My mom spent the better part of her life as the “COO” of their business, so after being retired for so long, she seeks the mental stimulation of work. They’ve never worked in a corporate office, so seeing the structure and thinking behind Amazon amazes her. They’ve always had their own warehouses, distribution centers, trucking, etc. but they built that from the ground up and never scaled because they were “learning on the job”. Never seen what good looks like.

They both keep to themselves. No one in their section know about their backgrounds.

[lukas099]

Amazon makes things cheaper and more accessible for regular people.

[ornornor]

I'm sure that's a totally valid excuse for exploiting the people working there, union-busting, and generally being a shitty exploitative corporation.

[carabiner]

This is why my goal is barista FIRE. Work at an REI store 20 hours/week, the rest go outside. Like Janel said, we need structure in our lives.

[iancmceachern]

My parents had to close their jewelry store that they ran for 35 years during the pandemic. My mom has been working the night shift at an Amazon fulfillment center and she loves it.

[jasonshen]

Really neat story and makes sense that Philip isn’t the only one who thought to do this.