Sociology
Published on Nov 22, 2015
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Efficiency is shown in this article when the author states "means my job is to find, scan, place in a plastic tote, and send away via conveyor whatever item within the multiple stories of this several-hundred-thousand-square-foot warehouse my scanner tells me to. We are broken into groups and taught how to read the scanner to find the object among some practice shelves. Then we immediately move on to practicing doing it faster, racing each other to fill the orders our scanners dictate, then racing each other to put all the items back." Page 1. This shows how there are bare minimum workers moving through the vast warehouse searching for the items they need.
Photo by mescon
Calculability is shown when the author states "From the temp agency, Amalgamated has ordered the exact number of humans it should take to fill this week's orders if we work at top capacity. " page 2. This shows that they only calculated the bare minimum amount that they would actually need to get the job done.
Photo by Seattleye
Predictability is shown when the author states "lots of retailers se temporary help in the peak season" page 2. This shows how the company will predictably hire these temps just for the season just as every other company does during the season so that they can easily hire more people to pack more, yet they will not have to pay the same price as a regular worker.
Photo by TomServo83
Control is shown in this article when "Amalgamated has estimated that we pickers speed-walk an average of 12 miles a day" pg 2. This shows that most of the work was controlled by human and human interactions opposed to such interactions with machines. It shows that the company relays on man power versus machine power.
Irrationality is shown in the article when the author states "The computers screening us for suitability to pack boxes or paste labels belong to a temporary-staffing agency." Pg 1. This shows how they are teaching people how do simple things such as packing boxes. It is also explaining how this is quite irrational that they have to learn such simple task.
Photo by Knight725
