Please tell me the folks who lovingly send me copies of the APG or Gamemastery cards have it better than this.
And not just that they don't have to ship out sex toys.
Director of Sales
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Please tell me the folks who lovingly send me copies of the APG or Gamemastery cards have it better than this.
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Oh, of course not!
We would never even dream of treating the warehouse trolls that well!
Good lord... if we did that, they'd end up expecting a paycheck or something. Or even worse: To be let out during the DAYLIGHT hours, of all things!
*shudder*
From various threads here on the boards, I'm pretty sure that Paizo treats its warehouse employees as human beings and not like those in the article. Even Lisa herself has been down there pitching in when really busy.
Edit: Ninja'd by Cosmo.
Oh, of course not!
We would never even dream of treating the warehouse trolls that well!
Good lord... if we did that, they'd end up expecting a paycheck or something. Or even worse: To be let out during the DAYLIGHT hours, of all things!
*shudder*
Wouldn't trolls actually resist being exposed to sunlight?
Oh I forgot, you're in Seattle. Just rainclouds all day long.
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Director of Sales
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Wouldn't trolls actually resist being exposed to sunlight?
Oh I forgot, you're in Seattle. Just rainclouds all day long.
Well I guess "trolls" is not quite the right term. I think perhaps morlocks would be more appropriate...
~taps my foot and looks at my watch~ It took you long enough!
Well I guess "trolls" is not quite the right term. I think perhaps morlocks would be more appropriate...Wouldn't trolls actually resist being exposed to sunlight?
Oh I forgot, you're in Seattle. Just rainclouds all day long.
Doubly appropriate if one remembers HG Wells idea for how they'd evolved. :D
Jesus christ... What an article.
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In all seriousness, our warehouse crew is awesomesauce and highly valued! :D
Chris: why are you making sause out of the warehouse crew? i know it sells well, but i think they may be about to go extinct from over hunting
:P
Paizo locally sources their Soylent Gourmet(tm) sauces, so they have to use what is available. Plus, all workers wear rings of regeneration, so they aren't slaughtered, rather selectively "pruned."
However, around July of each year, the workers/stock are allowed to remain fallow for a bit. Fortunately, around that time a fresh crop of new "cattle" arrives from all across the country...
Sadly, ulgulanoth, you now know too much-, er, I mean... there will be a very special pass waiting for you a PaizoCon this year, complete with an exclusive "warehouse tour" just for you.
Mwah-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!
Also don't trust Chris, she is a robot and out to kill us all!!!!!!
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Paizo is too small to destroy souls for profit, you need to get big a convoluted enough that people at the top don't really know what they're causing and can completely abstract human beings into numbers before you get to do that.
Of course, the problem here is really legal: you have to assume that at least one employer will be utterly evil and legislate for that, otherwise that one evil employer will be succesful and force its competitors to get more evil to keep up.
So, you create laws which protect people, and if the jobs go to another country then you support those poor sods in their campaigns to influence their government to pass humane laws as well... you don't use the existence of other countries as an excuse for treating your own people with contempt.
I, for one, support the idea that bosses should only be able to x20 the wages of their lowest paid employee, and that their conditions of employment should be similar to their employees.
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Paizo is too small to destroy souls for profit, you need to get big a convoluted enough that people at the top don't really know what they're causing and can completely abstract human beings into numbers before you get to do that.
Of course, the problem here is really legal: you have to assume that at least one employer will be utterly evil and legislate for that, otherwise that one evil employer will be succesful and force its competitors to get more evil to keep up.
So, you create laws which protect people, and if the jobs go to another country then you support those poor sods in their campaigns to influence their government to pass humane laws as well... you don't use the existence of other countries as an excuse for treating your own people with contempt.
I, for one, support the idea that bosses should only be able to x20 the wages of their lowest paid employee, and that their conditions of employment should be similar to their employees.
Which ties, in my mind anyway, into another thread here:
You can design a game system using the "Don't be a dick" principle and avoid having to cover all the exploitable edge cases. You can't design a legal system that way.It would be nice though. It's really hard to write laws that cover all the ways of being a dick without making all sorts of perfectly reasonable behavior illegal.
Decent minimum wage, equal rights for temporary workers, maximum working day, legal requirements for breaks per hours, legal limits for certain types of physical work, training requirements for types of physical work...
That story would not exist if the place of work had fairly simple, broad-brush laws that protect its citizens, which is probably a legislatures job, isn't it?
Of course, the target culture is driving all of this stuff but the culture functions within a legal system.
Oh, and if the top bosses' neighbours couldn't look them in the eye, that might help... that's where journalists like this come in. Unfortunately, my experience is that the wealthy don't talk about these things together. They get positive together. Sickeningly positive.
In all seriousness, our warehouse crew is awesomesauce and highly valued! :D
They're also amazing; I have no idea how they send out stuff as quickly as they do, but they do!
This made me physically ill to read. I worked in a warehouse for six years, I have nightmares about it.
This made me physically ill to read. I worked in a warehouse for six years, I have nightmares about it.
Was it anything like this article stated?
Was it anything like this article stated?This made me physically ill to read. I worked in a warehouse for six years, I have nightmares about it.
In many ways, yes. The physical labor breaks your body down and there's never time to heal. It's hard to understand if you've not endured it. The closest thing would probably be the military, or maybe a professional athlete.
I was at the doctor several times with work related problems. My physician during an examination asked me if I was an athlete, no. So he presses and asks if I spend time in the gym. No, I had so little energy after work I could only rest.
The gradual breakdown of spirit was even worse, the only thing keeping a person going in such conditions is willpower.
The workplace featured in the article takes those experiences to extremes. I can imagine those poor people working there must feel like they are in hell.
Was it anything like this article stated?This made me physically ill to read. I worked in a warehouse for six years, I have nightmares about it.
In many ways, yes. The physical labor breaks your body down and there's never time to heal. It's hard to understand if you've not endured it. The closest thing would probably be the military, or maybe a professional athlete.
I was at the doctor several times with work related problems. My physician during an examination asked me if I was an athlete, no. So he presses and asks if I spend time in the gym. No, I had so little energy after work I could only rest.
The gradual breakdown of spirit was even worse, the only thing keeping a person going in such conditions is willpower.
The workplace featured in the article takes those experiences to extremes. I can imagine those poor people working there must feel like they are in hell.
That's well and truly awful. Such companies should be shut down- these are little better than sweatshops.
They are the the new sweat shop.
Meh. I've got Amazon Prime. Stuff's gotta get to me in two days somehow amirite?
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Decent minimum wage, equal rights for temporary workers, maximum working day, legal requirements for breaks per hours, legal limits for certain types of physical work, training requirements for types of physical work...
That story would not exist if the place of work had fairly simple, broad-brush laws that protect its citizens, which is probably a legislatures job, isn't it?
Another thing to keep in mind is that all of the stuff you mention drives up the cost of labor. As the cost of labor increases, it will eventually reach a point were it's cheaper (or as expensive) to replace all those workers with automation. Then all those jobs disappear.
-Skeld
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True, it does drive up the cost of labor, but that doesn't have to mean those jobs go away. I love the suggestion I read somewhere of creating a sort of "Fair Trade" brand for online shipping.
If we had a choice between online retailer A who slowly sucks the souls out of their shipping staff and retailer B who provides a decent job with benefits (and charges more for shipping) a good number of people would choose retailer B. Not all, but enough to make it worthwhile.
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Decent minimum wage, equal rights for temporary workers, maximum working day, legal requirements for breaks per hours, legal limits for certain types of physical work, training requirements for types of physical work...
That story would not exist if the place of work had fairly simple, broad-brush laws that protect its citizens, which is probably a legislatures job, isn't it?
Another thing to keep in mind is that all of the stuff you mention drives up the cost of labor. As the cost of labor increases, it will eventually reach a point were it's cheaper (or as expensive) to replace all those workers with automation. Then all those jobs disappear.
-Skeld
Ah, no, robots!
They'll still need people to run and services the machines, troubleshoot, look after the software, innovate with the system, build the machines, etc. These people will probably be full-time, higher educated and better paid: they'll want to live locally, have houses to live in and places to shop and eat...
Fear of the robots is no reason to let people be treated poorly.
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True, it does drive up the cost of labor, but that doesn't have to mean those jobs go away. I love the suggestion I read somewhere of creating a sort of "Fair Trade" brand for online shipping.
If we had a choice between online retailer A who slowly sucks the souls out of their shipping staff and retailer B who provides a decent job with benefits (and charges more for shipping) a good number of people would choose retailer B. Not all, but enough to make it worthwhile.
I would, and do every time I ask myself, "Amazon, or Paizo, Amazon, or Paizo?" My dollars go here.
Now if I could get the rest of my shopping dialed in so easily.
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Chief Technical Officer
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Life in the Paizo Warehouse.... if Paizo shipped chocolate instead of books.
Nevertheless, tell those amazing people to put some wellie into it so I can get my piratey April goodness soon! Please! ;)
I'm thinking 70% Belgian truffles. Or possibly something with mint.
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A clip from a 1952 TV sitcom is about as far from R-rated as you can get!
I sort of figured; my work has a very quirky filter at times. Still, *chocolate* ... I think this is the first time I've envied Lucy.
@ Kajehase: Hmmm, it would have to be the mint; Belgian Truffles would be NC17 here, or even confiscated at the border...
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Life in the Paizo Warehouse.... if Paizo shipped chocolate instead of books.
On that note - masterwork chocolate.
Life in the Paizo Warehouse.... if Paizo shipped chocolate instead of books.On that note - masterwork chocolate.
Mhhmmhmm. Baron, I hate you!
Well, I'm glad I can feel good about ordering from the Paizo store then.
There's such a catch 22 with ordering stuff online... I really prefer to buy things in a store if I can (although of course store warehousing and binning has its own hardships for the workers) -- if anything, beyond external/ethical concerns, I just like holding the product in my hand and seeing what I'm getting before I pay for it (I have ordered stuff online thinking I was getting one thing and ending up with another).
But then there's stuff I can't find in stores, or can get monumentally cheaper online (like, I don't mind a few dollars' difference, but sometimes it's dozens of dollars of savings). Like, there's a few video games for the Nintendo DS I want, but most local stores are reducing their DS stock (it's going obsolete) and it doesn't exist on a shelf anywhere, so if I want it, I pretty much have to order it online--they're not oop yet so I can still get them (but then I have to order from a place that probably whips its warehouse workers). The supply/demand calculations for what ends up on a store shelf are more stringent--stores can't afford to carry a variety of stock, or old stock, or niche stock. A lot of stuff if you want you pretty much have to order. Of course, one can always go without. But it's frustrating when that's the choice.
Personally, I always order from Paizo when I can. Not only are they usually guaranteed to have what I want, but they are also phenomenal about shipping their goods in a timely matter (for example, after I waited a month for my Advanced Player's Guide and Bestiary I to show up via Amazon.com after they had already been out for several months, I swore never again to use it to buy books).
About the only thing that I'm not comfortable buying from Paizo are D&D Minatures. Not only do I want to actually pick my own boosters physically, but they're dreadfully expensive to warrant buying them in any fashion save bulk from the store, and I simply don't have that kind of money to throw at miniatures.
The issue raised in this thread is a very important one to me. The article published last year about the horrible conditions inside Amazon's warehouses is the reason that they no longer get my dollars for anything but books on Kindle - and I was an Amazon junkie until I read that piece, so that's not an insignificant loss to them if other people with my spending habits took similar measures in the wake of that story.
Generally speaking, if I can't get a given game book or supplement at my FLGS (which, admittedly, isn't usually a problem), I'll order it here. While ordering products from Paizo might cost a little more money and take a little longer to get here than they would if I ordered from another company, that's a small price to pay to know that the people picking, packing, and shipping those products are being treated respectfully.
Or at least, I hope that's the case. I certainly have no reason to believe otherwise, and I hope that I never find one.
Do you have a link to that article, PWU?
Do you have a link to that article, PWU?
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-allentown-amazon-complaints-20110917,0,7 937001,full.story