Amazon denies stories of workers peeing in bottles, receives a flood of evidence | Hacker News Reader

Amazon denies stories of workers peeing in bottles, receives a flood of evidence

theverge.com

52 pointsbrundolf24 comments

"You don’t really believe the peeing in bottles thing, do you? If that were true, nobody would work for us. The truth is that we have over a million incredible employees around the world who are proud of what they do, and have great wages and health care from day one."

The first two sentences above in Amazon's PR Tweet are so...childish? Condescending? Patronizing? I don't even know the word for the feeling I get after reading it. Who OKs a Tweet like this?!

Have you seen Amazon's video ads? They come off with a very similar tone, and only in text. I wouldn't doubt that tweet would be approved based on their current marketing strategies.

I saw this soon after they tweeted it. I personally found it to be utterly pathetic, even before Klippenstein exposed it as a lie later that day. Extremely condescending, but also tone deaf and ignorant. A lesson on what not to do in public relations.

All this because their moronic PR couldn't keep their mouths shut on Twitter. I love it.

And nothing will happen. The government won’t take action and people won’t stop buying things from Amazon.

One of the rules broken here by amazon is "don't look like a dick when you tweet, especially if you're wrong".

https://twitter.com/maplecocaine/status/1080665226410889217

It seems like a logistical problem and lack of public restrooms. There is no easy solution. Let's say you are driving in an urban area, where can you go? Maybe there's traffic too. Where are you going to park? Or you are in a rural area and the next gas station is miles away. Your options are clearly limited.

There are a number of commercial solutions available which Amazon could provide for their drivers. With a little planning and training it could be kept sanitary.

I'm starting to wonder why they don't just install proper toilets in the delivery vans. Those vans should be big enough, and while camping toilets are a bit gross, they're a lot better than peeing in a bottle.

That would mean acknowledging the problem.

Lowers space and efficiency adds cost and now you have human waste you need to deal with. What does ups and fedex do?

I think it's more that they don't tweet falsities about how their drivers deal with company expectations.

I wish I could pay $1 more for the drivers to not be miserable.

> What does ups and fedex do?

Drivers learn which places on their route have facilities that are easy for guests to use and get friendly with the gatekeepers.

So same problem and probably also pee in bottles shit in bags

Are private pay to use toilets even legal in the USA? Might be state dependent

Not that I’m aware of, but saying “you can’t use our toilet unless you’re a customer” is quite common and legal.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_to_End_Pay_Toilets...

In case it ever comes up for someone, hospitals have to let you use a bathroom.

They were legal in CA (and elsewhere) long ago. The movement to ban started in the 1970s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_toilet#U.S.

I'm seeing an opportunity for commercial, subscription-based rest stops.

The problem is being 15 or 25 minutes from the gas station and having lots of packages to meet a quota. The average pay-for rest stop isn't going to end up being closer than the nearest gas station.

I'd rather just pee in a bottle than make even less money to take care of a basic human need.

That is common in Europe. The biggest chain is called Sanifair. Costs between 50 cents and 1 euro.

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