Also In The News - part 3

[Paninistickers]

This prospective Vice President fella Vance and his opposition to funding Ukraine. 

 

Bad for Ukraine,.sure. but Is it actually bad for Europe? Might it not be better? 

 

Throw Putin a piece of meat in exchange for European (and/or Baltic state) security? 

 

Is that not an argument? 

 

 

[grth2004]

3 minutes ago, kenny said:

Where they get the choice to use or not?

 

I'm sure the GMB on the picket line were wholly fair and reasonable with no scare tactics?

 

It's a fairly sh*t smoking gun.

🤣 we believe in different things obviously, if you read my story above I’ve been involved with multi national American companies and Unions and I know who I think 🤔 is better for the workers. 

[kenny]

5 minutes ago, grth2004 said:

🤣 we believe in different things obviously, if you read my story above I’ve been involved with multi national American companies and Unions and I know who I think 🤔 is better for the workers. 

Unions don't create jobs and only pay (very well) a select few.

 

While they can have a place, you are correct in your thoughts that I believe they can be bad for their members and rely on a monopoly.

 

In the case of Amazon, there is a reason they are investing heavily in drone technology and AI and the thought of Unionising will speed that up.

 

Anyway, I'll back to watching The Boys and it's probably worth mentioning I had 3 prime deliveries today. If I had moral objections to how Amazon treated their staff I would no longer be a customer.

[MPH]

7 hours ago, Free Falling Foxes said:

I had to smile at this

 

The US Secret Service did not put agents on the rooftop where an assassin shot at Donald Trump for health and safety reasons, the head of the agency has said.

Kimberly Cheatle, the Secret Service director, said the “sloped roof” where Thomas Matthew Crooks was positioned on Saturday could have posed a risk to agents.

 

'I know I swore to lay down my life and take a bullet to protect presidents and ex presidents from an assassins bullet but come on, I could slip and hurt myself going on that roof.'

  
 

It’s a shame that nothing like drones have been invented yet to scope out hard to reach places….

[Trav Le Bleu]

19 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

This prospective Vice President fella Vance and his opposition to funding Ukraine. 

 

Bad for Ukraine,.sure. but Is it actually bad for Europe? Might it not be better? 

 

Throw Putin a piece of meat in exchange for European (and/or Baltic state) security? 

 

Is that not an argument? 

 

 

Don't feed the tyrant.

 

History tells us, that's a very bad idea. Hitler, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great... all appeased and did nothing to stop their expansion.

 

Let's throw Stalin into that pot too.

[marbles]

1 hour ago, Wymsey said:

Have you worked there personally?

 

Heard a story where a young lady at the Hinckley warehouse got in trouble because she was in the toilet 'for too long', despite her saying to her boss that she was on her period..

Worked there last year as a seasonal employee.
In order to become a full time employee, you must first work as a seasonal employee (not my intention.  I just wanted to make some money and get out when my 90 days were up)

 

First day, all the new hires are in a room being told how wonderful Amazon.
We were all hired to work 4 nights a week, for ten hours a night.  They told us during this meeting that we now had to work 6 days, 10 hours each. (no problem.  I'm used to working in warehouses, so this was nothing new to me)
A couple people raised their hands and asked "what about those of us with other jobs?  We were told this would be our schedule"
Amazon replied "Amazon expects you to work no where else.  Amazon is your first priority and we will not make accommodations.  But dont worry.  Come to work, stay in good standing and you will have a great and wonderful future here at Amazon. 

 

The work was mind numbingly easy.  Like a chimp could easily be trained to do it.
My job was to take the product out of a tote and place it on a cart.  That's it.  Easy money.
Two days in, I was told that I messed up.  The lead couldn't explain how or what I did - only that it happened on two items I placed on the cart (just for perspective, I moved roughly 3500 items per shift from tote to cart. Apparently messing up twice was bad.)
Then a week later, while I was talking with two ladies, the Manager came up and told us we should be wearing steel toe shoes (we knew that because Amazon bought them for us, however no one wore them, including the Manager - so neither did we)

Just before our 90 days was up, they pulled us all (around 40 people still remained) into a room to inform us that our 90 days was almost up and that they wanted to thank us for our hard work, and to let us know they weren't keeping anyone. Not one single person. 
I didn't care.  By that point I was only working like 1 to 2 days a week (I hated it, so I took advantage of their voluntary time off plan).  But the people who were basically told to quit their other jobs were not happy.  Some cried.  Some raised their voices, which resulted in security coming and removing them from the building.

 

As for the bathrooms - yes, you got in trouble for going because it was considered "down time" - time when you were not scanning anything.  
They stared at this stat religiously.
They also screwed you over on breaks.  We got two 20-minute breaks.  That 20 minutes included walking half the distance of the warehouse to go sit down (there was no where to sit other than the breakrooms).  You were to scan an item, go to break and be back to scan another item 20 minutes from the time you scanned your last item.     

 

One of my complaints was we were always told that we had to make our numbers.  No problem, what are those numbers?  They never told us. Ever.
It was the biggest mystery in the warehouse. 
Something I thought was pretty shady, was that you would actually get written up, and not know about it.
One of the ladies I talked to contacted me after we left.  She asked HR why she didn't get to stay and was told she had "multiple write ups" (one was for the steel toe shoe incident).  
I've been in Management, and I have never heard of being able to discipline someone without them knowing, or having the opportunity to defend themselves.

   

Edited 17 July by marbles

[Paninistickers]

1 minute ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Don't feed the tyrant.

 

History tells us, that's a very bad idea. Hitler, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great... all appeased and did nothing to stop their expansion.

 

Let's throw Stalin into that pot too.

It's a good and fair argument. 

 

I'm not sure Putin is in that league though. He's more gangster, more mafiosa than a real genuine desire for world domination. 

 

Surely the notion of selling out Ukraine is at least worth 'war gaming' and seeing if the west would be better off?

 

 

 

 

[marbles]

12 minutes ago, MPH said:

  
 

It’s a shame that nothing like drones have been invented yet to scope out hard to reach places….

The roofs they were actually set up on, were also sloped

[MPH]

4 minutes ago, marbles said:

The roofs they were actually set up on, were also sloped

good grief..

[Foxdiamond]

16 minutes ago, marbles said:

Worked there last year as a seasonal employee.
In order to become a full time employee, you must first work as a seasonal employee (not my intention.  I just wanted to make some money and get out when my 90 days were up)

 

First day, all the new hires are in a room being told how wonderful Amazon.
We were all hired to work 4 nights a week, for ten hours a night.  They told us during this meeting that we now had to work 6 days, 10 hours each. (no problem.  I'm used to working in warehouses, so this was nothing new to me)
A couple people raised their hands and asked "what about those of us with other jobs?  We were told this would be our schedule"
Amazon replied "Amazon expects you to work no where else.  Amazon is your first priority and we will not make accommodations.  But dont worry.  Come to work, stay in good standing and you will have a great and wonderful future here at Amazon. 

 

The work was mind numbingly easy.  Like a chimp could easily be trained to do it.
My job was to take the product out of a tote and place it on a cart.  That's it.  Easy money.
Two days in, I was told that I messed up.  The lead couldn't explain how or what I did - only that it happened on two items I placed on the cart (just for perspective, I moved roughly 3500 items per shift from tote to cart. Apparently messing up twice was bad.)
Then a week later, while I was talking with two ladies, the Manager came up and told us we should be wearing steel toe shoes (we knew that because Amazon bought them for us, however no one wore them, including the Manager - so neither did we)

Just before our 90 days was up, they pulled us all (around 40 people still remained) into a room to inform us that our 90 days was almost up and that they wanted to thank us for our hard work, and to let us know they weren't keeping anyone. Not one single person. 
I didn't care.  By that point I was only working like 1 to 2 days a week (I hated it, so I took advantage of their voluntary time off plan).  But the people who were basically told to quit their other jobs were not happy.  Some cried.  Some raised their voices, which resulted in security coming and removing them from the building.

 

As for the bathrooms - yes, you got in trouble for going because it was considered "down time" - time when you were not scanning anything.  
They stared at this stat religiously.
They also screwed you over on breaks.  We got two 20-minute breaks.  That 20 minutes included walking half the distance of the warehouse to go sit down (there was no where to sit other than the breakrooms).  You were to scan an item, go to break and be back to scan another item 20 minutes from the time you scanned your last item.     

 

One of my complaints was we were always told that we had to make our numbers.  No problem, what are those numbers?  They never told us. Ever.
It was the biggest mystery in the warehouse. 
Something I thought was pretty shady, was that you would actually get written up, and not know about it.
One of the ladies I talked to contacted me after we left.  She asked HR why she didn't get to stay and was told she had "multiple write ups" (one was for the steel toe shoe incident).  
I've been in Management, and I have never heard of being able to discipline someone without them knowing, or having the opportunity to defend themselves.

   

Sounds dreadful if someone was depending on this as a full-time permanent job

[ajthefox]

40 minutes ago, marbles said:

Worked there last year as a seasonal employee.
In order to become a full time employee, you must first work as a seasonal employee (not my intention.  I just wanted to make some money and get out when my 90 days were up)

 

First day, all the new hires are in a room being told how wonderful Amazon.
We were all hired to work 4 nights a week, for ten hours a night.  They told us during this meeting that we now had to work 6 days, 10 hours each. (no problem.  I'm used to working in warehouses, so this was nothing new to me)
A couple people raised their hands and asked "what about those of us with other jobs?  We were told this would be our schedule"
Amazon replied "Amazon expects you to work no where else.  Amazon is your first priority and we will not make accommodations.  But dont worry.  Come to work, stay in good standing and you will have a great and wonderful future here at Amazon. 

 

The work was mind numbingly easy.  Like a chimp could easily be trained to do it.
My job was to take the product out of a tote and place it on a cart.  That's it.  Easy money.
Two days in, I was told that I messed up.  The lead couldn't explain how or what I did - only that it happened on two items I placed on the cart (just for perspective, I moved roughly 3500 items per shift from tote to cart. Apparently messing up twice was bad.)
Then a week later, while I was talking with two ladies, the Manager came up and told us we should be wearing steel toe shoes (we knew that because Amazon bought them for us, however no one wore them, including the Manager - so neither did we)

Just before our 90 days was up, they pulled us all (around 40 people still remained) into a room to inform us that our 90 days was almost up and that they wanted to thank us for our hard work, and to let us know they weren't keeping anyone. Not one single person. 
I didn't care.  By that point I was only working like 1 to 2 days a week (I hated it, so I took advantage of their voluntary time off plan).  But the people who were basically told to quit their other jobs were not happy.  Some cried.  Some raised their voices, which resulted in security coming and removing them from the building.

 

As for the bathrooms - yes, you got in trouble for going because it was considered "down time" - time when you were not scanning anything.  
They stared at this stat religiously.
They also screwed you over on breaks.  We got two 20-minute breaks.  That 20 minutes included walking half the distance of the warehouse to go sit down (there was no where to sit other than the breakrooms).  You were to scan an item, go to break and be back to scan another item 20 minutes from the time you scanned your last item.     

 

One of my complaints was we were always told that we had to make our numbers.  No problem, what are those numbers?  They never told us. Ever.
It was the biggest mystery in the warehouse. 
Something I thought was pretty shady, was that you would actually get written up, and not know about it.
One of the ladies I talked to contacted me after we left.  She asked HR why she didn't get to stay and was told she had "multiple write ups" (one was for the steel toe shoe incident).  
I've been in Management, and I have never heard of being able to discipline someone without them knowing, or having the opportunity to defend themselves.

   

Sounds bloody awful.

[marbles]

31 minutes ago, Foxdiamond said:

Sounds dreadful if someone was depending on this as a full-time permanent job

Thats what bothered me the most

They led people to believe they would be hired on permanent, even making some of them choose between permanent jobs they may have already had and working at Amazon.

[st albans fox]

1 hour ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Don't feed the tyrant.

 

History tells us, that's a very bad idea. Hitler, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great... all appeased and did nothing to stop their expansion.

 

Let's throw Stalin into that pot too.

You’re right that we must learn from history 

by standing up to putin we’ve done our job (but oh why we were so weak in the run up to the invasion with shocking messaging is a big question that no one seems to want to ask) 

 

Eventually you do need to negotiate a settlement and it seems pretty clear that putin needs something to sell back home as not being a defeat. (Even though it clearly would be) 

 

I’d expect a trump presidency to navigate their way through this because they want it to disappear.  I can’t see Europe maintaining the war without America in the driving seat. 

[DJ Barry Hammond]

8 hours ago, Free Falling Foxes said:

I had to smile at this

 

The US Secret Service did not put agents on the rooftop where an assassin shot at Donald Trump for health and safety reasons, the head of the agency has said.

Kimberly Cheatle, the Secret Service director, said the “sloped roof” where Thomas Matthew Crooks was positioned on Saturday could have posed a risk to agents.

 

'I know I swore to lay down my life and take a bullet to protect presidents and ex presidents from an assassins bullet but come on, I could slip and hurt myself going on that roof.'

The more that comes out, the more you can only conclude that this was a case of mass incompetence from all the security involved.

 

Mean if it was a conspiracy - it’d actually be worrying how bad they (whoever ‘they’ are) we’re at it.

 

But of course it’s not a conspiracy - because if you were conspiring, you don’t send Milhouse do you!

[Dunge]

9 minutes ago, DJ Barry Hammond said:

The more that comes out, the more you can only conclude that this was a case of mass incompetence from all the security involved.

 

Mean if it was a conspiracy - it’d actually be worrying how bad they (whoever ‘they’ are) we’re at it.

 

But of course it’s not a conspiracy - because if you were conspiring, you don’t send Milhouse do you!

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence.

[DJ Barry Hammond]

1 hour ago, Paninistickers said:

It's a good and fair argument. 

 

I'm not sure Putin is in that league though. He's more gangster, more mafiosa than a real genuine desire for world domination. 

 

Surely the notion of selling out Ukraine is at least worth 'war gaming' and seeing if the west would be better off?

 

It depends what the war is over.

 

A theory I’ve pondered is whether it’s over grain.
 

Ukraine produce a lot of it - not as much as Russia and China, but enough to be a big player especially in Europe.

 

Indeed, if the overlay maps I’ve looked at are correct, the Donbas and other regions Russia have a foothold in seem to be fertile and strong production areas.

[DJ Barry Hammond]

6 minutes ago, Dunge said:

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence.

Oh it is sheer incompetence - you can see that from the clip of 5-10 police officers being foiled by the perimeter fence before some bright spark drives a squad car through it! 

 

It’s also being reported that the officer that came into contact with the shooter on the roof did so via a ‘foot-up’ from another officer.

[Mike Oxlong]

Biden gets some positive news at last but unfortunately for him it’s Covid 

[marbles]

1 minute ago, DJ Barry Hammond said:

Oh it is sheer incompetence - you can see that from the clip of 5-10 police officers being foiled by the perimeter fence before some bright spark drives a squad car through it! 

 

It’s also being reported that the officer that came into contact with the shooter on the roof did so via a ‘foot-up’ from another officer.

[grth2004]

1 hour ago, marbles said:

Worked there last year as a seasonal employee.
In order to become a full time employee, you must first work as a seasonal employee (not my intention.  I just wanted to make some money and get out when my 90 days were up)

 

First day, all the new hires are in a room being told how wonderful Amazon.
We were all hired to work 4 nights a week, for ten hours a night.  They told us during this meeting that we now had to work 6 days, 10 hours each. (no problem.  I'm used to working in warehouses, so this was nothing new to me)
A couple people raised their hands and asked "what about those of us with other jobs?  We were told this would be our schedule"
Amazon replied "Amazon expects you to work no where else.  Amazon is your first priority and we will not make accommodations.  But dont worry.  Come to work, stay in good standing and you will have a great and wonderful future here at Amazon. 

 

The work was mind numbingly easy.  Like a chimp could easily be trained to do it.
My job was to take the product out of a tote and place it on a cart.  That's it.  Easy money.
Two days in, I was told that I messed up.  The lead couldn't explain how or what I did - only that it happened on two items I placed on the cart (just for perspective, I moved roughly 3500 items per shift from tote to cart. Apparently messing up twice was bad.)
Then a week later, while I was talking with two ladies, the Manager came up and told us we should be wearing steel toe shoes (we knew that because Amazon bought them for us, however no one wore them, including the Manager - so neither did we)

Just before our 90 days was up, they pulled us all (around 40 people still remained) into a room to inform us that our 90 days was almost up and that they wanted to thank us for our hard work, and to let us know they weren't keeping anyone. Not one single person. 
I didn't care.  By that point I was only working like 1 to 2 days a week (I hated it, so I took advantage of their voluntary time off plan).  But the people who were basically told to quit their other jobs were not happy.  Some cried.  Some raised their voices, which resulted in security coming and removing them from the building.

 

As for the bathrooms - yes, you got in trouble for going because it was considered "down time" - time when you were not scanning anything.  
They stared at this stat religiously.
They also screwed you over on breaks.  We got two 20-minute breaks.  That 20 minutes included walking half the distance of the warehouse to go sit down (there was no where to sit other than the breakrooms).  You were to scan an item, go to break and be back to scan another item 20 minutes from the time you scanned your last item.     

 

One of my complaints was we were always told that we had to make our numbers.  No problem, what are those numbers?  They never told us. Ever.
It was the biggest mystery in the warehouse. 
Something I thought was pretty shady, was that you would actually get written up, and not know about it.
One of the ladies I talked to contacted me after we left.  She asked HR why she didn't get to stay and was told she had "multiple write ups" (one was for the steel toe shoe incident).  
I've been in Management, and I have never heard of being able to discipline someone without them knowing, or having the opportunity to defend themselves.

   

Horrific and some people this is ok as long as they can get there Amazon parcel delivered quickly. 
Horrible company and they have a way of bending the rules so that they can take advantage of people. 
can see why they don’t want unions 

[grth2004]

2 hours ago, kenny said:

Unions don't create jobs and only pay (very well) a select few.

 

While they can have a place, you are correct in your thoughts that I believe they can be bad for their members and rely on a monopoly.

 

In the case of Amazon, there is a reason they are investing heavily in drone technology and AI and the thought of Unionising will speed that up.

 

Anyway, I'll back to watching The Boys and it's probably worth mentioning I had 3 prime deliveries today. If I had moral objections to how Amazon treated their staff I would no longer be a customer.

Enjoy your Amazon deliveries. 
I imagine you buy lots of cigars and caviar 

[kenny]

1 minute ago, grth2004 said:

Enjoy your Amazon deliveries. 
I imagine you buy lots of cigars and caviar 

Caravan chocks today.

 

Not the edible type.

[Daggers]

 

[Daggers]

These people are not right in the head

 

 

[Babylon]

1 hour ago, Daggers said:

These people are not right in the head

 

 

As you get older, it becomes clearer that anyone involved in politics in any fashion, whether local, national, or to be so invested they actually attend conferences and rallies... has a mental disorder of some sort.