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Thank you for posting this. I doubt working for Amazon is as bad as its most severe critics describe nor as good as Amazon itself might portray it. But there is enough information out there to make me think I wouldn't want my son or daughter to be working there.

Of course, as some have posted, people that don't like their job can (and should IMO) leave it. And that's what the article's author did. The issue that the article raises, for me, is not that Amazon is evil but the seductiveness of technology and how it is increasingly pushing genuine human interaction to the fringes across all aspects of our culture, not just in the workplace. Witness Tinder. As conservatives we should be concerned about this trend.

Respectfully, and I should have stated it more clearly in my post, is that when I was doing my young adult grunge work we didn't have any time for socializing. And we were usually too tired and hot to talk much anyway. When I was busy hoping on and off (or reaching out from) my load jack, conveyor belt, or cherry picker (depending on what part of the warehouse I was working in on any given day) to grab a case or two at a time, stack them on my pallet(s), then stop to wrap the pallet(s) of groceries, connect back under it and load it onto the truck, I simply had no time for chit-chat. Nor did anybody else. Plus we were horribly tired.

For example, as big as college football was, I might work the whole Saturday and not hear from anybody who won or lost until I got into my car to head home.

And in my case, I was often low on sleep because I stayed up late working on my computer science homework. Any time I had a problem I couldn't look it up on the internet because there was no such thing at the time. I had to slowly read through manuals to figure out my problems, make my code pass the Borland C or C+ compiler on my DOS machine until it ran well, then use my phone to slowly FTP my code to my school's UNIX server, and use Hyperterminal to interact with the VI editor to modify it to work on UNIX. All of that was slow and tedious, which meant I had to stay up late. So I was like a zombie at work on many days and not worth socializing with even if we had the time.

The point is, and I agree with the author on this, nobody should look at these jobs as long-term career jobs. They're a step up or two from the minimum wage jobs as far young adults learning to work goes. As long as you can see it for what it is, it's a good job.