Have you ever peed in a bottle because you were afraid of losing your job? No? Yeah, me neither. I once peed in a cup to get a job, but that was a completely different situation. I urinated in a strange place to prove I could be a reliable, drug-free employee. It’s a silly prerequisite for employment, to be sure, but requiring anything else involving your urine would be unconscionable, right? Apparently not if you’re an Amazon manager. Amazon employees are reportedly holding in their pee all day, or, in dire situations, using a bottle as a receptacle. Why? Because they’re afraid they’ll be fired if they use the restroom.
Why Won’t Amazon Employees Use the Bathroom?
Amazon warehouse workers have been facing increasingly more demanding goals, the number of shipments they can fulfill in a day. They have to perform more order fulfillments in less time than they’d otherwise be capable of doing. Their equipment hasn’t grown more sophisticated, but managers are asking more from employees. That means employees have to optimize their working hours in creative fashions. Many employees are finding the time to complete their goals by holding their pee. Employees report they’re refusing to drink water while working. As warehouse work is often strenuous and physically demanding, going without water is incredibly dangerous. However, those who drink water find themselves worried that their bodily functions will cause them to lose their jobs… so they’re using bottles that they carry around with them.
Managers likely know of their employees plights. All Amazon warehouse employees are required to carry or wear devices to track their movements throughout the fulfillment center. They’re being treated like prisoners, tracked like citizens in a dystopian society, and they’re risking bladder infections and dehydration for minimum wage.
No, Really?
If these conditions sound too cruel (and unsanitary) to possibly be true, you’re not alone. I, too, had my doubts. However, these claims been separately confirmed both by Amazon employees through a survey from Organise and a book by journalist James Bloodworth. Bloodworth went undercover as an Amazon warehouse employee for his book Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain. He didn’t just take a job as a warehouse worker, he also lived with them. He found a flat in the same neighborhood as his fellow laborers, one he could afford on Amazon’s wages. His book shows the horrors of Amazon’s rapid deliveries, the human cost of a “gig economy.” It’s a story many know too well: no benefits, low wages, terrible and inconsistent hours, and, unforgettably, urine-filled bottles.
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