this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2025
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Corporate employees of Amazon were asked on Monday to volunteer their time to the company’s warehouses to assist with grocery delivery as it heads into its annual discount spree known as Prime Day.

In a Slack message reviewed by the Guardian that went to thousands of white-collar workers in the New York City area from engineers to marketers, an Amazon area manager called for corporate “volunteers to help us out with Prime Day to deliver to customers on our biggest days yet”. It is not clear how many took up the offer.

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[–] Bosht@lemmy.world 15 points 17 hours ago

I remember when, on heavy days and holidays, you'd get bonuses. Fuck Amazon

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 8 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Any time a corporation uses the term "volunteer", something very fishy is likely going on.

[–] j0ester@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

Look at all these volunteers! Why should I pay people?

[–] Tire@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Does anyone actually care about Prime Day? Isn’t it a bunch of cheap crap that’s marked up then “down”?

[–] j0ester@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago

4K 34-inch OLED Alienware monitor for $550 on Prime Day. Originally $1100. Only thing I care for.

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

A lot of it is, with a few discounts. I've never found anything useful in it though.

[–] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago

It's their e-waste dumping day.

[–] Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago

They do that to a degree but its uaully still discounted, just not as much as you think. I work in a store that price matches amazon and we had to resticker 20 times as many products as on a normal day.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 17 points 1 day ago

I would never volunteer one unpaid minute for any employer. I don't see them volunteering any money because your personal life is going through a rough patch.

[–] Ikarius@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

"No, no, they're not slaves. They're highly skilled workers with short-term contracts. And they even get food.". This is how I see it.

[–] d00ery@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

That's until the Amazon robots take the jobs and staff are downsized https://www.wsj.com/tech/amazon-warehouse-robots-automation-942b814f

The best part of this is that with how scarce jobs are getting, these corpos are going to start incentivizing folks to do this kind of shit by "laying off" workers who won't stand for this. Like you get brownie points for doing free work and in turn get a little more job security. Think about it, if you won't do it - someone else will, and people need jobs. Man fuck those people.

[–] RadioFreeArabia@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If you work without pay that's slavery

[–] slate@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They're paid a salary, which is probably significantly more than what drivers are paid.

[–] RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Generally this kind of thing would be overtime, though.

[–] Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Salary workers are exempt from overtime in most cases and its legal to fire them for not working extra hours voluntarily, at least in America.

Like I tell my employer when he asks me for a favour “favours are for friends, you’re not my friend, you’re my employer, pay me”

[–] thatradomguy@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (7 children)

I thought we were boycotting bezos? Why are people still buying on Amazon?

Because we are in the smallest minority of people that care enough to change our shopping habits or willingly pay more for something to avoid Amazon.

I know literally nobody in real life that shares my views and most will think I’m a weirdo for being so vocal about avoiding certain companies, taking part in boycotts, or protesting.

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[–] orenj@lemmy.sdf.org 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

why would anyone volunteer to do amazon warehouse work

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 day ago

Desperate fear of termination. There's like a 5% chance this will help.

[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Is Amazon too poor to pay their employees now?

Well did you see that wedding? That shit don't pay for itself.

[–] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 130 points 2 days ago (9 children)

And here’s a reminder that it’s actually illegal to volunteer at the same company you’re employed at. Specifically to prevent situations exactly like this, where employers attempt to pressure their employees into volunteering, so they don’t have to pay overtime. If you’re working for your employer, you’re required to be on the clock.

Given, that only works if the rules are actually enforced. And this administration has done a good job of dismantling agencies that would be enforcing this.

[–] Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

You need to read about how salary positions work in the states. Its entirely legal to fire someone who's on salary for refusing to volunteer extra unpaid time. They also aren't owed overtime in a lot of cases although there was law passed that limits that to only affecting higher earning people.

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[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

volunteer to cover our glorious CEO's wedding costs and be a part of history!

[–] TonyOstrich@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Technically he isn't the CEO anymore. Doesn't mean he isn't still a cunt.

[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

well lets settle on glorious founder and leader then

[–] TonyOstrich@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago
[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 148 points 2 days ago

Let's see Mr and Mrs Bezos out there volunteering first. It's a wholesome honeymoon activity!

[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago

Hey, that's socialism.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 35 points 2 days ago (1 children)

One of the core rule of business is that you don't sell what you do not have. Because that is basivally the definition of fraud (at least one of them).

If you don't have the manpower to deliver "Prime Day", don't offer "Prime Day", as simple as that.

[–] wheezy@lemmy.ml 15 points 2 days ago

Dude. Like half of our GDP is about selling shit that we pretend exists.

[–] LeninsOvaries@lemmy.cafe 27 points 2 days ago

I'll volunteer some more work if you volunteer some more pay

[–] Pistcow@lemmy.world 88 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Would somebody please think of the billionaires!?

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[–] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 39 points 2 days ago

The funniest thing about this is that Prime day is a "holiday" of their own making. It's not like it's the Christmas push caused by consumers.

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Corporate people should spend some time periodically in the trenches anyway. Otherwise, they're totally clueless about how everything works.

[–] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's business hours Tue-Fri. Sounds like the volunteer isn't for unpaid work, but for volunteering to do this instead of their normal duties for the week.

Tho I'm sure they'll get dinged on their performance review if their regular work output reduces, so I'm guessing they will end up needing to put on unpaid hours to compensate.

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[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 16 points 2 days ago

Um, no dude. You hired me to code your cloud infrastructure. You have an army of delivery people. Leave me alone.

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 9 points 1 day ago

You mean "buy nothing day"? Cuz that's my plan.

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