Articles

The Amazon That We Want – Tech Tuesday In Two Minutes

“How a society treats its most vulnerable is always the measure of its humanity.” – Ambassador Matthew Rycroft of the UK Mission to the UN at the Security Council Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict.

I believe those words to be true.
Not just for society, but for the businesses that we run as well.
The bigger the business, the harder this may be to put into action.
Or is it?

Amazon’s growth creates issues.

This is nothing new.
There is some good…
Amazon did give all employees a $15 minimum wage when the rest of the world didn’t.
Amazon did give employees health care when the rest of the world didn’t.
“Amazon concedes some of its drivers ‘peeing in bottles’ to make quota,” is not the headline that a company wants to see.

But here we are. Employees have to pee in bottles?

Employees are working so hard that they don’t have time to go to the bathroom?
Drivers are struggling to find available bathrooms during a pandemic?
Drivers are contracted through a third-party company that wants to keep Amazon’s business by pushing their drivers to deliver more?
Amazon has more than 1700 delivery-service partners, according to the article above.
That’s more than 400,000 drivers who deliver goods to your door… faster and cheaper.

Amazon has apologized and will look for solutions.

This isn’t just an Amazon issue, but when you’re that big, you are an easy target.
I hope that Amazon does make changes.
I hope those changes get adopted across all industries.
I hope that we can do better and be better in this world.
I don’t want my package to be cheaper or faster if this means that employees don’t have time for bathroom breaks.
It’s just not worth it.
And, this issue could say more about us, than the actions of Amazon.

This is what Heather Backman and I discussed this morning over on Jack 103 FM for a couple of minutes.

What is Tech Tuesday?

If you ever find yourself wondering… What, exactly, is the point of TikTok? How can I make myself look better on a Zoom? Reddit? What’s that about? How do I help my kids be safer online? Who’s the latest creator and streamer that I should be checking out?

You are not alone.

Every Tuesday – for just a few minutes – I join Heather Backman (my old buddy from her days on CHOM FM) on the air at Jack 103 (Rogers Sports & Media) to give a quick blast about the current state of technology, media and Internet culture. We’re calling the segment Tech Tuesday (and we do it in just a few minutes).

https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1023548500

Mitch Joel · Tech Tuesday – Jack 103 FM – Amazon Drivers Are Peeing In Bottles – April 6th 2021

Subscribe to get it free in your inbox right here.

Once the segment goes live on Jack 103, I will post it here for you to listen in, learn, share and engage….

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.