Amazon is a very rich society , with a market cap of $ 361 billion and stock price of over $ 750 a share . But as we ’ve seen , the destiny of huge tech company do n’t often read down to its employees . In some cases , it leaves them living in sordidness .
Take the blight of Amazon’swarehouse workers , specially its non - lasting seasonal employeeswho puzzle out long hoursduring the holiday season . In Scotland , some Amazon storage warehouse worker have had toresort to sleep in tentsin order to economize money and commuting meter . The depressing report , which comes fromThe Courier , says that “ at least three tents ” were pick out in the Wood near a fulfillment heart in Fife , Scotland .
Why are these workers in the Wood ? Apparently because Amazon does n’t devote enough for a experience wage and the employees , a few of which work more than 60 hours a week , would rather sleep in a tent than pay to transpose home each daytime . An employee told The Courier :
One worker , who did not bid to be name , was loth to speak to The Courier but did describe the firm as a “ poor employer ” and knock working practices at the Fife site .
He impart that he had prefer to stay in a tent as it was easier and cheaper than commute from his home in Perth , although his camping equipment had disappeared by Friday afternoon .
In a program line to the newspaper , Amazon aver that it “ provides a safe and positive workplace ” and that “ the guard and eudaemonia of our permanent and impermanent associate is our numeral one precedency . ” But the estimate that some employee are braving subzero temperatures to work at the Amazon warehouse clearly goes against that .
Sadly , this is n’t the first time we ’ve see employees for tech companies result to ridiculous living circumstance . A few year ago , a former internsquatted inside AOL ’s campusbecause he could n’t afford to experience in Silicon Valley after his internship was over . For two months he enshroud in the shadows and take reward of detached Wisconsin - fi and food for thought .
Various Google employeeshave also admittedto living intrucks or RVs , sometimes eveninside the Google parking pot . One San Francisco software package railroad engineer evenkeeps a blogof his live situation inside a hand truck . The high wages Google offers on the face of it are n’t enough to surmount the cost of rent in the Bay Area for some employee . Quora threadsoffer tips to those that want to forgo go pee in hopes of pay off student loans and maybe eventually buying a house . Google , for its part , does n’t inevitably allow this to go on , but it ’s willing to reverse a blind eye to employee who basically live on at the office or sleep in the parking wad .
One could debate theinsane perksoffered to employees of super rich startup in Silicon Valley almost makes these character of livelihood situation seem okay . employee are expected to work farseeing hour , and in exchange they get laundry Robert William Service , on - land site exhibitioner and gymnasium facilities , and fortune of free solid food . you could almost see how an employee who is already spending 12 or 14 hours a Clarence Day at the berth would enquire , “ Why am I paying money for rent when I basically experience here anyway ? ”
But it ’s not normal for workers to live in the backyard of their employer . It ’s just not . It ’s also not normal to live inglorified student residence roomsunder the guise of “ co - living . ” Yet , that ’s increasingly becoming a matter , and the prices for this type of housing are just risinghigher and high .
We ’ve write before about how the mad rental cost in New York and San Francisco arehurting the economyand how tech companies are largelydoing littleto help the problem . In fact , some company are even profiting off of these types of working weather condition , raising hundreds of billion of dollar sign forglorified hostels . Meanwhile , those outside of the Silicon Valley elite group are sham as well . Earlier this year , we write about an illustrator who isliterally living in a boxin his admirer ’s living room , just because he ca n’t give San Francisco’sinsanely gamy rent . He pays just $ 400 a month , but is literally living in something small than a slammer cellular phone . ( San Francisco afterward called this agreement “ illegal . ” )
But back to the Scots in the tents . What ’s particularly egregious about this situation — what stool it worse than the engineer who would rather live in a converted truck than yield $ 2,500 a calendar month for a bedroom in San Francisco — is the fact that that these employee are struggling to get by . Living in a collapsible shelter because it costs too much to go home is not normal for industry . It ’s just plain awful when employers are raking in record earnings on the backs of their workers .
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