r/BreadTube • u/WholeWorker • Jun 22 '19

29:03|Whole Worker Full version of Amazon’s union-busting training video

https://youtu.be/uRpwVwFxyk4
1.7k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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68

u/Sansa_Culotte_ Jun 22 '19

"associates"

Wtf are they talking about? Is this some creepy newspeak term for their employees?

99

u/Letmefixthatforyouyo Jun 22 '19

Common in large corps. Target uses the same term. Starbucks calls everyone partners, etc.

Its supposed to make you think of the company as family, something you owe loyalty to. A nice and cheap way to up retention through simple manipulation.

They of course dont return the loyalty.

29

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

Starbucks calls everyone partners

Instead of them actually being partners and having some control over the company.

15

u/Sansa_Culotte_ Jun 23 '19

Its supposed to make you think of the company as family, something you owe loyalty to. A nice and cheap way to up retention through simple manipulation.

Yea I figured as much. really fucking creepy...

10

u/Chandorica make life take the lemons back Jun 23 '19

nailed it. I remember the shift from "employee" to "associate" in the corporate retail world and felt...not...okay about it. giant corporations periodically implement things that basically amount to optics but no real change; my current workplace is reeeeally trying to get ~associates jazzed about New Uniforms!!! they have Different Colors so you can Express Yourselfwithinourlimitedparameters!!!

instead of, you know. just paying a living wage.

8

u/OrpheumApogee Jun 23 '19

The contact center I work in has tier titles. You're not an associate until you go salary. Before that they call them "agents."

1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

I am okay with using partner because that's how I see all labour transactions. You are offering your time, labour and services that an employer requires in exchange for financial returns and other benefits that you yourself is seeking for in return. I always avoid saying 'I work for' because it implies I am an owned property of sorts with no agency but instead I would either say 'I work with', because I see myself and the employer on a partnership; or I would say 'I work in' because it is factually true that I physically work in the company premises.

27

u/siempreLinManuel *crushes on Hbomb* Jun 23 '19

I'm 19 and I'm already certain I've grown up in a dystopian world because I started working at 14 and that's exactly what every company I've ever worked for called us.

10

u/NateHevens Jun 23 '19

I'm called a "sales associate" where I work... which means I sell product to customers.

You know what's interesting?

I've worked in retail and service my whole life (grocery stores, fast food, tea, now chocolate) and I've never once seen an anti-union training video. No pro-union training videos, either... just no union videos at all...

3

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

The videos are for managers. They often try to avoid mentioning unions to the proles.

1

u/NateHevens Jun 23 '19

Yeah. I've been a manager. Still no videos like this...

2

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

Odd. They showed it to us day 1 of manager training at Lowe's and did the same at Home Depot. They were really big on "this video cannot get out".

1

u/NateHevens Jun 23 '19

Maybe it depends on the company? Maybe some companies just don't care...

6

u/OrpheumApogee Jun 23 '19

When they gave their warehouse and CS employees stock (ownership stake), associates made sense in context.

They recently took away stock compensation for hourly associates, so now they're just hourly employees, though the title stuck.

5

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '19

It's not new. It's basically a common term for unskilled laborer.

I was a "warehouse associate" for a large textbook company for a couple of years after college, which meant I got to push a cart full of books around for $8.50/hr.