The idea of ​​4 years ago has come true. Amazon warehouse "mini game" plans to expand to 20 states in the United States

The Washington Post reported a few years ago that Amazon was trying to "gamify" warehouse work through some social "mini-games" to encourage employees in warehouse distribution centers to improve their work efficiency. Employees with outstanding performance could receive rewards such as virtual pets. The program was called FC Games and contained 6 different arcade-style mini-games. But then the program "disappeared."

However, the Information reported recently that Amazon is currently preparing to expand the program to warehouses in 20 states in the United States .

However, these games are often simple virtual representations of how fast workers can complete tasks. For example, one game called Mission Racer simply shows a warehouse employee driving a car on a track while another picker sorts products into the appropriate boxes. This fully demonstrates Amazon's "full focus" on improving production efficiency.

“We ’re excited that employees have told us they can choose to join these workstation games and are ready to expand the program to more warehouses,” said Amazon spokesman Kent Hollenbeck . “ Employees have the choice to play the games, can switch between different games based on their preferences, play anonymously, or not play at all. ”

Amazon warehouse workers are divided over the games, which some see as a way to ease the boredom and repetition of long hours, while others worry they are a step toward a more sinister and dystopian performance metrics system designed to track workers and push them to work as fast as possible, and which could lead to workplace injuries.

Still, Amazon’s goal of making its workers more efficient in increasingly tedious warehouse jobs is clear.

As Amazon’s warehouses become more automated, ostensibly to free up workers for the most repetitive and dangerous tasks, they are in fact forced into more singular, often rote roles that involve less movement and more repetition and are increasingly focused on hitting performance metrics, much like the efficiency of robots.

Amazon’s unsafe working conditions have also been criticized by the outside world, especially its “blatant disregard” for workers’ safety during the epidemic , which has aroused strong indignation from all walks of life.

It can be seen from this that no matter how interesting the game is or how wide its promotion scope is, a safe working environment and guaranteed employee benefits are the real needs of every Amazon employee, and are also the corporate style that is welcomed by the whole society.

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Warehouse Games