A few weeks ago, The New York Times’ exposé on the bizarre, ruthless workplace culture at Amazon sparked a far-reaching (and long-overdue) national conversation about Americans’ relationship to work. This is probably because so many of us read the accounts of what it’s like to work there and thought, “Wow, even the ‘good jobs’ are bad.” As a seasoned Prime-addict and millennial who’s seen too many of my peers struggle to find the nice, reliable jobs we knew from our parents, I couldn’t help but feel a bit crushed.
But the cold hard reality is that exploitative working conditions are taking hold everywhere, and its no wonder that Amazon remains unapologetic about its ‘unreasonably high’ standards. As Emily Peck calls out, we’ve enabled a culture in America today that lets companies go unchecked by the people they seek to employ. Without a standard for what we expect from our jobs, it’s easy for a company like Amazon to hide behind a comfortable facade of higher pay, trivial benefits, and cult-like prestige.
Money matters, of course — and most of us would at least consider putting up with a rough workplace for the chance to better support our families, pay off our student loans, or burnish our resumes for the next gig. But what Amazon fails to realize, and what Zeynep Ton (MIT Professor and Author of The Good Jobs Strategy) and most recently Dustin Moskovitz, have sought to point out, is that American workers are not just a labor cost to be minimized, burned through, and pushed out. But instead, they’re a vital force that has proven time and time again to have a very real and positive impact on a company’s bottom line — But only when that company works for its employees as its employees do for them.
American workers are not just a labor cost to be minimized, burned through, and pushed out. But instead, they’re a vital force that has proven time and time again to have a very real and positive impact on a company’s bottom line — But only when that company works for its employees as its employees do for them.
American workers are not asking for much, and they have far more reasonable expectations of their employers than most think. As part of a growing new campaign called Workshift, I met Nyaisha Lee, a 21-year old from the Bronx, New York. Her story is one of many that I have heard as Workshift travels the country speaking with workers.
She may just be starting out, but she’s already had to face many of the challenges that continue to plague workers today, like needing to make enough to help support her disabled mother. As Nyaisha shared, “I don’t need to live a lavish life, I just want to be comfortable, to have security. Just give me a nice moderate house, a nice little car, my own space, and I will be happy. When I finally reach the point where I am not worried about meals or living paycheck to paycheck, I know I can take a breather. I just want so much more for myself, and for my family.”
It’s no secret that there’s a good jobs gap in this country. We’re too often flooded with stories of hard-working Americans like Nyaisha who are in a constant struggle to make ends meet. Eager presidential hopefuls regularly offer promises to create more American jobs that can better meet the needs of our people, yet we consistently come up short. And it appears that this gap is ever widening in an economy plagued by jobs-light, where a living must be too often cobbled together through part-time, gig-based work that continues to rise.
As the lessons from Amazon have shown us, the challenges of finding a good job are real for people in every industry. But American workers cannot stand idly by as bad jobs grow worse. And it’s time we all stop doing more with less.
To that end, I’m proud to be a part of Workshift, working toward an America where all jobs share a few simple values we can all agree on, like:
- Stability to know our bills are paid and our livelihoods are secure
- Opportunity to grow our skills and build towards a brighter future
- Flexibility to care for our loved ones and tackle the unexpected
- and Pride to be respected for our work and contribute to something greater
Over the past several months, we’ve been speaking with people across the country who hold all types of jobs, and what we’ve heard is that these are the things we’re all looking for. Not napping pods. Not flying nannies. The simple values you can find at any job, whether fast food worker or fighter pilot.
As we near Labor Day and celebrate the hard-fought wins of a previous generation of workers who established the 40-hour, 5-day work week, it’s time to set a new people-vetted standard for all jobs that work for workers, business and communities.
Just this year, Wal-Mart, Target, and many other national employers began turning an eye towards a new model of doing business that seems to put workers at the center. But there is much more work still to be done.
The good news for us is that the American people can do, as Amazon’s top recruiter put it, “really big, innovative, ground-breaking things” too. Together, we can set a new standard for good jobs that work for all of us.
Isn’t it time for #GoodJobsForAll?
