Current Events > Amazon introduces tiny "ZenBooths" for stressed warehouse workers

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Hayame Zero
05/28/21 2:55:05 PM
#1:


https://www.vice.com/en/article/wx5nmw/amazon-introduces-tiny-zenbooths-for-stressed-out-warehouse-workers

In one of its most dystopian moves yet, Amazon is introducing tiny booths where its overworked warehouse employees can momentarily escape a job so grueling, many employees say they don't feel like they have enough time to even use the bathroom.

The "ZenBooth'' or "Mindful Practice Room," as it's called, is part of the WorkingWell programAmazon announced on May 17. According to an Amazon press release, WorkingWell is a mix of "physical and mental activities, wellness exercises, and healthy eating support meant to help them recharge and reenergize." One of the WorkingWell initiatives is AmaZen, which guides employees through mindfulness practices in individual interactive kiosks at buildings, according to a press release.

What this looks like in reality is a coffin-sized booth in the middle of an Amazon warehouse where workers can use a computer to view "mental health and mindful practices."

Based on a video released on an Amazon Twitter account, plants sit on a shelf and a fan runs to cool down the employee. The skylight on top is tinted blue. Pamphlets and signs adorn the walls. A computer waits for the employee to load up a guided meditation video.

With AmaZen I wanted to create a space thats quiet, that people could go and focus on their mental and emotional well-being, Leila Brown, the Amazon employee who invented the booth said in the video. The ZenBooth is an interactive kiosk where you can navigate through a library of mental health and mindful practices to recharge the internal battery.

Brown is giving away the game by using the language of machines. A worker is not a robot with a battery that needs to be charged. A worker is a human who needs things Amazon simply does not provide its workers. Amazon drivers
piss in bottles and shit in bags. Amazon drivers sued for being paid less than minimum wage and fought against an initiative to install surveillance cameras in their cars.

Facing increased pressure from within and without due to its horrifying working conditions, Amazon has tried to clean up its image in the past year. It rebranded its brutal 10-and-a-half hour megacycle shift to single cycle after workers protested. AmaZen, like much of what Amazon is doing, is putting a new coat of paint on the same old shitty system.

Motherboard reached out to Amazon to find out when, exactly, its overworked staff is supposed to use the AmaZen booth. Is it during their notoriously short breaks? Should they break off five minutes of their lunch to stare at another Amazon computer screen?

Amazon did not immediately respond to Motherboard's request for comment.

https://youtu.be/2X2yMDsQPDw

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DarkRoast
05/28/21 2:56:21 PM
#2:


Receive 15 second back rub from bicycle tire
-1hr pay


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krazychao5
05/28/21 2:57:26 PM
#3:


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Jagr_68
05/28/21 2:57:26 PM
#4:


Hayame Zero posted...
What this looks like in reality is a coffin-sized booth in the middle of an Amazon warehouse where workers can use a computer to view "mental health and mindful practices."

WTF is this, Equilibrium?

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Smashingpmkns
05/28/21 2:57:52 PM
#5:


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RchHomieQuanChi
05/28/21 2:58:47 PM
#6:


We're inching closer and closer to corporate dystopia.

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_BIueMonk
05/28/21 2:59:25 PM
#7:


thank you blessed bezos.

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Nemu
05/28/21 3:00:38 PM
#8:


How about we just maybe let them take a ten minute break every few hours and don't penalize people for not being able to keep up with a workflow only robots could manage? Soon they'll start providing "happy pills" and create an Amazon cult to keep people's morale up.
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RchHomieQuanChi
05/28/21 3:01:24 PM
#9:


Nemu posted...
Soon they'll start providing "happy pills" and create an Amazon cult to keep people's morale up.

Don't give them any ideas

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Jagr_68
05/28/21 3:02:20 PM
#10:


Smashingpmkns posted...
Futurama suicide booths

*presses 2 for "Slow and Horrible"

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_BIueMonk
05/28/21 3:02:22 PM
#11:


Nemu posted...
How about we just maybe let them take a ten minute break every few hours and don't penalize people for not being able to keep up with a workflow only robots could manage? Soon they'll start providing "happy pills" and create an Amazon cult to keep people's morale up.
I SMELL A COMMUNIST!!!

BEZOS POLICE, GET HIM!

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spanky1
05/28/21 3:04:24 PM
#12:


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DravenRainrix
05/28/21 3:04:35 PM
#13:


They could have made them big enough to have a lie down at least.

Or, save the booth money and just lower their employees work load. Instead of 20 staff doing the work of 30, have 30 staff doing the work of 30.

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DarkRoast
05/28/21 3:04:44 PM
#14:




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RchHomieQuanChi
05/28/21 3:05:44 PM
#15:


DravenRainrix posted...
They could have made them big enough to have a lie down at least.

Or, save the booth money and just lower their employees work load. Instead of 20 staff doing the work of 30, have 30 staff doing the work of 30.

Nah, clearly the money was better spent on happy booths that fool people into thinking their working conditions aren't that bad

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cjs28
05/28/21 3:05:54 PM
#16:


People are definitely gonna deed in there

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hockeybub89
05/28/21 3:06:27 PM
#17:


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Eramir
05/28/21 3:06:53 PM
#18:


This is worse than those FoxxConn places in China. This is some evil type stuff.

They call him Lex Luthur
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ThePieReborn
05/28/21 3:08:38 PM
#19:


Heaven forbid you actually adjust the cause of the stress.

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s0nicfan
05/28/21 3:08:49 PM
#20:


Google did it first, like a decade ago, but it was "cool" back then:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/inside-google-workplaces-from-perks-to-nap-pods/
When all that innovation gets too much, there's a solution for that, too -- a nap pod. Radcliffe said, "No workplace is complete without a nap pod. We found that the five-minute to 15 minute power nap, works on Sunday before you watch the football game, why not here at work?"


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krazychao5
05/28/21 3:09:42 PM
#21:


s0nicfan posted...
Google did it first, like a decade ago, but it was "cool" back then:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/inside-google-workplaces-from-perks-to-nap-pods/
my god, pacman went rogue

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Jagr_68
05/28/21 3:09:43 PM
#22:


s0nicfan posted...
Google did it first, like a decade ago, but it was "cool" back then:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/inside-google-workplaces-from-perks-to-nap-pods/

That looks like a legit Cinco product from Tim & Eric.

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s0nicfan
05/28/21 3:10:28 PM
#23:


Jagr_68 posted...
That looks like a legit Cinco product from Tim & Eric.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrfAWHHVz50

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Tyranthraxus
05/28/21 3:15:00 PM
#24:


s0nicfan posted...
Google did it first, like a decade ago, but it was "cool" back then:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/inside-google-workplaces-from-perks-to-nap-pods/

Everything in Google is air conditioned and they let you sleep on the job. They used to just have a huge mattress / blanket room you could go to. The pods were introduced for privacy. This isn't really remotely the same thing.

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DarkRoast
05/28/21 3:16:47 PM
#25:


Just waiting for the inevitable "work while you sleep" pod that allows you to do your work, even in your dreams.

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Sir Will
05/28/21 3:41:54 PM
#26:


krazychao5 posted...
my god, pacman went rogue
lol

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Akagami_Shanks
05/28/21 3:45:45 PM
#27:


they deleted the announcement

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yes
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Kisai
05/28/21 3:46:21 PM
#28:


Nemu posted...
Soon they'll start providing "happy pills" and create an Amazon cult to keep people's morale up.
We've already got that for life.

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Duncanwii
05/28/21 3:49:23 PM
#29:


I feel sorry for them. Amazon has been such a vital service these last 2 years I couldnt imagine working there.
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Xavier_On_High
05/28/21 4:02:39 PM
#30:


"And with its built-in matter repurposer, expended colleagues can provide helpful sustenance for the up-and-coming go-getters working in the Amazon Friendhouse."

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wiiking96
05/28/21 6:49:21 PM
#31:


And of course Amazon deleted the tweet after everyone pointed out how psychotic this is, lmao.

Keep shitting on corrupt corporations, folks.

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SomeLikeItHoth
05/28/21 6:51:52 PM
#32:


Why not just give them 10 minute breaks

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RchHomieQuanChi
05/28/21 6:53:30 PM
#33:


SomeLikeItHoth posted...
Why not just give them 10 minute breaks

Because that's a whole 10 minutes they'll spend not working and we can't have that.

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AwesomeFawful
05/28/21 6:53:35 PM
#34:


Akagami_Shanks posted...
they deleted the announcement

wiiking96 posted...
And of course Amazon deleted the tweet after everyone pointed out how psychotic this is, lmao.

Keep shitting on corrupt corporations, folks.
Lmfao

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Gal_Gadonut
05/28/21 7:05:07 PM
#35:


"Corporations abuse their employees!!!!!"
*company offers something to help employees*
"Those monsters!!!!!!"


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Xavier_On_High
05/28/21 7:08:07 PM
#36:


Gal_Gadonut posted...
"Corporations abuse their employees!!!!!"
*company offers something to help employees*
"Those monsters!!!!!!"

Nah, it's more like giving a starving person a photograph of some food.

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Payzmaykr
05/28/21 7:08:51 PM
#37:


Why not implement fair wages so they wont be stressed in the first place.
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RchHomieQuanChi
05/28/21 7:09:37 PM
#38:


Gal_Gadonut posted...
"Corporations abuse their employees!!!!!"
*company offers something to help employees*
"Those monsters!!!!!!"

"Helping" in the same way that a band-aid will "help" your infected gunshot wound.

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DarkRoast
05/28/21 8:32:43 PM
#39:


Good news, now you guys don't need safety equipment because we've installed New-U resurrection devices in key areas!

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Xavier_On_High
05/28/21 8:36:58 PM
#40:


DarkRoast posted...
Good news, now you guys don't need safety equipment because we've installed New-U resurrection devices in key areas!

*New-U resurrection device just opens the "Advertise new vacancy" page on Indeed*

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Tyranthraxus
05/28/21 9:33:22 PM
#41:


I never understood why Handsome Jack didn't just turn the New-U stations off for the BL2 protagonists.

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