WTF?! It seems that the suffering Amazon delivery drivers must endure doesn't all come from the job itself. A new report highlights how customers are asking some of them to dance in front of surveillance cameras, and the footage is then posted on TikTok.
Motherboard reports that the TikTok users are leaving notes on their door or using the Amazon app to ask drivers to perform dances for their cameras. Clips are then posted on the social media site. It doesn’t appear that any of the drivers gave their consent for the videos to be posted online.
@its.just.leah Maybe he was singing this song in his head…it matches pretty good. Tag him if you know him #ringcam #amazondriver ♬ original sound - ❤💙CiiNnY WaLkEr💙❤
One driver in Wisconsin told the publication that a customer used the Amazon app to request that they do the chicken dance. The employee ignored the request on that occasion.
While some of the videos seem to show the drivers enjoying their performances, and plenty will likely refuse the requests, it’s concerning to wonder how many are dancing only to meet the customers' demands and avoid potential consequences, such as negative feedback. There's also the question of TikTokers increasing their popularity at someone else's expense.
@oliviamoyes I love Amazon Drivers! #fyp #trending #viral #foryoupage ♬ SexyBack (feat. Timbaland) - Justin Timberlake
“Technically if the delivery associate doesn’t follow the instructions they can get dinged on their metrics for not doing so,” a delivery company owner from the Midwest told Motherboard.
A different driver was clear about how they felt: “I’ve only seen these requests in the app. If they said it in person, I would probably smack the shit out of them.”
@haduken559 I said bust a dance move for the camera and he did it! Lol thank you amazon driver guy! You’re awesome!!! #AmazonPrime #Fyp #Flossin #ForYou ♬ Hello - OMFG
Most of us wouldn’t want to be made to dance, have it filmed, and put on TikTok as part of our job. But the sad truth is that Amazon drivers have more things to worry about. If it’s not the huge pressure from making deliveries within a schedule so tight that they don’t have time for bathroom breaks, hence the (alleged) practice of urinating in bottles, it's AI surveillance cameras in their vans and unrepaired damage to vehicles. According to one upstate New York driver, “There’s way more shit that’s a problem than that stuff. My sideview mirror has been broken for the past six months. On the highway, I don’t have a passenger mirror.”