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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmazon's New Algorithm Will Set Workers' Schedules According to Muscle Use
Link to tweet
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Jason Koebler
@jason_koebler
algorithms will assess how much Amazon workers muscle-tendon groups are being used and will change their schedules accordingly https://vice.com/en/article/z3xeba/amazons-new-algorithm-will-set-workers-schedules-according-to-muscle-use :-)
Amazons New Algorithm Will Set Workers Schedules According to Muscle Use
In Jeff Bezos' last letter to shareholders as Amazon CEO, he laid out a plan to increase safety by algorithmically managing workers' bodies.
vice.com
4:01 PM · Apr 15, 2021
Jason Koebler
@jason_koebler
algorithms will assess how much Amazon workers muscle-tendon groups are being used and will change their schedules accordingly https://vice.com/en/article/z3xeba/amazons-new-algorithm-will-set-workers-schedules-according-to-muscle-use :-)
Amazons New Algorithm Will Set Workers Schedules According to Muscle Use
In Jeff Bezos' last letter to shareholders as Amazon CEO, he laid out a plan to increase safety by algorithmically managing workers' bodies.
vice.com
4:01 PM · Apr 15, 2021
https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3xeba/amazons-new-algorithm-will-set-workers-schedules-according-to-muscle-use
The pace and intensity of work in Amazons warehouses is notorious, and injuries are disturbingly common. In his last letter to shareholders as CEO, posted on Thursday, founder and incoming executive chairman Jeff Bezos offered a solution that seems to stretch the definition of micromanagement: algorithmically shuffling workers around the warehouse based on which isolated muscle-tendon groups theyre repetitively grinding.
"Despite what we've accomplished, it's clear to me that we need a better vision for our employees' success, Bezos wrote. We have always wanted to be Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company. We won't change that. But I am committing us to an addition. We are going to be Earths Best Employer and Earths Safest Place to Work."
Bezos claims that he doesnt take comfort in the recent defeat of a union drive in a Bessemer, Alabama warehouse, adding, We need to do a better job for our employees.
To that end, Bezos claims Amazon will be pursuing a host of initiatives centered around improving safety conditions at its warehouses. One program seems to capitalize on Amazon's surveillance dragnet inside warehouses that already targets workers, now being used to minimize the grueling repetitive motions that lead to a significant amount of injuries, specifically musculoskeletal disorders, or MSD.
Furthermore, Bezos claims that this micro-level algorithmic management of workers bodies will be central to the companys strategy going forward.
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Amazon's New Algorithm Will Set Workers' Schedules According to Muscle Use (Original Post)
Nevilledog
Apr 2021
OP
in before the inevitable 'Luddite!' smears of anyone dissenting in any way to this
Celerity
Apr 2021
#13
enough
(13,256 posts)1. Just pay well and benefits. NT
IcyPeas
(21,856 posts)2. This has to be The Onion, right?
MerryHolidays
(7,715 posts)4. I thought so too nt
Aristus
(66,310 posts)6. No. Henry Ford did something similar.
He hired men to watch the workers on his assembly lines to note "unnecessary and wasted movements".
These guys took their jobs a little too seriously. One watcher recorded that a worker made an improbable 70,000 wasted movements in the course of a single shift.
Celerity
(43,266 posts)12. Scientific Management Theory and the Ford Motor Company (Taylorism)
brush
(53,763 posts)5. Hmmm? For some reason I don't like the sound of that.
Too slippery-slopey to me. What's next? Instead of monitoring actual human muscle groups, why not sub in mechanical robot muscle that doesn't get tired?
Scary.
https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-trp-001&ei=UTF-8&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=trp&p=video+of+military+robot+dogs+being+developed&type=Y61_F1_148993_102720#id=5&vid=244c586491857df872be6acd038f3659&action=view
dalton99a
(81,432 posts)7. NEXT: Amazon announces system to monitor and adjust worker hydration level
for maximum usage and efficiency
FakeNoose
(32,617 posts)11. If they drink less water, they need fewer bathroom breaks
Tbear
(486 posts)8. This is a joke right?
crickets
(25,959 posts)10. Oh, good grief. This does not sound like an improvement at all. nt
Celerity
(43,266 posts)13. in before the inevitable 'Luddite!' smears of anyone dissenting in any way to this