WTF?! Imagine you're working in a warehouse where the shifts are so long and intense that your physical and mental health is close to ruin. You're also constantly monitored to ensure there's no slacking, and some co-workers have been known to urinate in bottles to avoid losing time in the bathroom. What could your employer do to improve morale? Amazon's solution was to introduce a "ZenBooth," a small kiosk that suggests workers "think about something that makes you happy."
Amazon announced it was introducing ZenBooths in 2021 as part of the company's wellness and meditation regime called "Working Well," or, unironically, "AmaZen." The program is a mix of "physical and mental activities, wellness exercises, and healthy eating support" that supposedly helps overworked employees recharge and reenergize.
The ZenBooth, which brings to mind Futurama's suicide booths, is supposed to be a mindful practice room. Inside, there's an interactive screen offering several meditation and mindfulness exercises.
The ZenBooths are back in the public eye after an employee sent a screenshot from one of the sessions to 404 Media. Titled "Savoring," it suggests users close their eyes and think of something that makes them happy, like not having to work themselves to death in a toxic environment under the all-seeing gaze of their corporate overlord, for example.
"I mean it honestly felt like a slap in the face," the employee told the publication. "It's the sort of disconnected corporate platitude that is so obviously out of touch with reality."
The Amazon employee who helped introduce the ZenBooth said that she wanted to create a quiet space where people could focus on their mental and emotional states. They have a fan, a potted plant, and a ceiling painted to look like a blue sky. Workers can sit down and try some of the guided meditations - perhaps a few of them use the booths as a quiet place to fill their p*ss bottles.
The fact Amazon is aware its stressed warehouse workers need these booths hasn't been missed, nor has the sad truth that the company is spending money on these things instead of literally anything else that would improve employees' working life, like more vacation time, longer breaks, a less intense workload, fewer human-replacing robots, and better pay.
Unsurprisingly, the video unveiling the wellness booth in 2021 attracted so many negative comments from social media users that Amazon quickly deleted it.
"We're getting bled dry as a people, and then I get a pop up at my menial labor job to 'close my eyes and think of something happy?' I'll think of eating the rich then, thanks," said the employee who leaked the video.
Amazon is no stranger to tone-deaf ideas for improving worker morale. In December, it encouraged employees to write a letter to the company mascot, Peccy, if they were facing financial hardships during the holiday season in the hope that "some of their holiday wishes" come true.
https://www.techspot.com/news/102273-amazon-solution-stressed-workers-close-eyes-think-happy.html
