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Amazon’s no good, very bad month

Good morning! This Wednesday: Amazon's many problems, Andreessen Horowitz launched … a blog, Jack Ma has a new hobby, and the Chromification of Windows.
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Amazon is not having a great couple of weeks.
First there was the news from the Strategic Organizing Center that Amazon's warehouse injury rates are about 50% higher than the national average (and double that of Walmart's, its closest competitor). Then, if anyone was still skeptical about Amazon warehouse working conditions, The New York Times put the questions to rest yesterday with an 11,000-word feature investigating Amazon's treatment of its workers. Finally, the White House topped it all off by naming Amazon's biggest foe, Lina Khan, as chair of the FTC, where (as we laid out on Monday) she'll be well-positioned to launch her antitrust crusade against the ecommerce giant.
But about that worker treatment...
Amazon's own internal workplace technology makes all of its problems worse, which is probably the biggest takeaway from the NYT's novella. The HR filing systems and apps are often overwhelmed, breaking or glitching because of the sheer amount of unanticipated requests for support.
Amazon's fulfillment center turnover rate is way higher than that of its competitors, and it seems to be deliberate. Company leadership reportedly believes that people get lazier and less motivated over time, so guaranteed pay increases end after three years of work, and new incentives are added to get workers to quit.
Amazon also doesn't promote many workers to manager level; instead, the company tries to hire college grads as managers. This is again in direct contrast to Walmart's business practices, where a majority of managers are elevated from lower-level and lower-paid positions.
All of these management problems still don't steer everyone away from Amazon. For the majority of workers, these hurdles don't change the reality that the job is easier to get, better-paying and offers better benefits than almost anything else available at similar experience and skill levels.
I sat down with one fulfillment center worker, Allegra Brown, last week to talk about why she's stayed at work despite chronic pain caused by her job, and she summed it up pretty well: "Honestly, if you think about it, I could leave this job, the problems are still going to be there. It's a good job," she said. "It's just the stuff that happens. If they fix the problems like that, if we weren't so overworked like that, it pays decent money. It's not bad."
Right-to-repair for tractors isn't like right-to-repair for phones, John Deere's Jahmy Hindman said:
On Protocol: Andreessen Horowitz launched Future, its new in-house media platform. Which is really just a blog, but somehow became a controversial one in tech-media circles. Either way, Marc Andreessen's first post is a good one.
KMD Partners bought Liberty Bank. KMD is also CreditNinja's parent company, though it and Liberty Bank would remain separate companies under KMD's watch.
The Linux Foundation is planning to hold events in person again this fall, and said it will require all attendees to prove they're vaccinated.
Krafton is going public. The maker of PUBG plans to raise up to $5 billion, which would make it South Korea's largest-ever IPO.
Have you noticed all those cartoon-character avatars starting to pop up on Twitter, Instagram and elsewhere? They're all coming from the same app: Voila AI Artist, which can Disney-fy your mug in any number of ways.
Per Snopes, there are some data-security concerns to be aware of, so be careful what you do and share. But as long as you're comfortable with it, Voila is a fun tool, especially if you're looking to update your profile pic while still in the throes of no-haircut, all-sweats, why-put-my-contacts-in quarantine life.
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