Month: April 2020

A big surge in orders isn’t the only reason Amazon is struggling to keep up

By Casey Newton / The Verge / April 1, 2020

It’s been clear for weeks that Amazon faces an unprecedented challenge in coping with the fallout from COVID-19. With tens of millions of Americans now dependent on online delivery for their food, medicine, and other essential items, the nation’s No. 1 e-commerce company is buckling under increased demand.

And as fulfillment center employees are diagnosed with the virus across the country, Amazon’s already-restive workforce has escalated its efforts to win better pay and safer working conditions. Among other things, employees at affected locations have simply walked off the job.

Chronicles of Everyday Life

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Hard Crackers / March 17, 2020

“When my son was murdered, I read Job,” Regina said.

Regina was my ride-share driver, fifty-something, and a seat-full of voluptuous curves. She was chatty and she talked with her hands vociferously, which was only a little scary. After each burst of information, they’d reclaim the steering wheel.

Usually, Regina told me, she has a gig driving a charter bus up to Boston and back, but then she has to wait four or five unpaid hours before she can return her passengers to Philadelphia. And if they don’t tip well, she’s better off with Uber or Lyft. She has a lot of friends, but they’re not all real friends, “Not like the real close ones, you know?” She has fewer of those, but they’re good ones. She also has mixed-race grandbabies she has to worry about, given, well, everything.

Originally posted April 1, 2020
By Friend of the OB Rag

Hi there, I’m your property manager. You probably think of me as “the landlord,” and more likely in even more unflattering terms – in most real estate fields it seems 80% of us are typically conspiring to make the other 20% look bad. I’m sorry about that, really, but please try to understand there are a few of us out there who want to do right by you.

I’m also a tenant, as are a lot of us managers. Some of us work for discounted rent in an owner’s building, but I rent my condo from a different owner whose properties I don’t manage. Being able to see things from both sides of the spectrum, I’m hoping my insight will prove helpful to at least a few people.

What do I do? Just about everything that an owner doesn’t.

‘Who Would Have Thought …’

By Judi Curry

Ever since my husband became ill with lung cancer and had difficulty talking, I have never slept well at night. (I can take delightful naps during the day – but then I don’t sleep at night!) Because it was difficult for him to talk, or even get out of bed, he would turn on the light when he needed help and it got to the point that even a small flashlight would wake me up.

Now, ten years later I am still having difficulty sleeping but added to the sensor lights going on because the skunks, squirrels, raccoons and other animals think that my home is a thoroughfare, I am worried about the outcomes of the COVID-19.

I am not necessarily worried about myself in spite of being in the age group that is – or used to be – the most vulnerable,