12. Did you know that Amazon drivers cannot take pee breaks?

Hiya 👋🏽

We’ve got a well-packed newsletter entry for you this week whose workplace callout will make your jaw drop. Before you dive in, let’s have a little re-cap about the last entry.

The highlights of #wearedistributed entry #11 were Irene N Gitau as our Global Employment Advocate of the Week, the unfair work conditions gig workers in India are experiencing, the importance of health benefits, Toggl and Otter.ai as the Distributed Company and Tool of the Week respectively.

You can read more about these highlights here.

Ready to see what entry #12 has for you? 👇🏼

Global Employment Advocate of the Week

This week we’re highlighting Lauren Razavi as our Global Employment Advocate of the Week!

She was recently celebrated as a “Remote Innovator” in Remote’s 2023 Influencer Report for her thoughts on remote and borderless work, digital nomads, the future of work, and ‘Internet Countries a concept she discusses a lot as a leader for SafetyWing’s Plumia Initiative and her writing for her newsletter Global Natives. 

Her idea of a new passport and countries on the internet are daring, bold, innovative, and maybe even a little controversial, but we’re impressed with her unique viewpoints that are working towards a better future of work for remote workers.

Here’s a peek at some of the topics she discusses in her newsletter and on her LinkedIn Feed.

Workplace Callout

This week’s Workplace Callout, whew! Just take a seat.

Amazon delivery drivers are suing Amazon because they say they have to pee in bottles and defecate in dog-waste bags, an inhumane consequence of the company’s delivery performance requirements.

The lawsuit, which was filed in Colorado, currently has three Amazon drivers as its plaintiffs. The employees of the giant company claim that Amazon’s performance metrics for how many deliveries a driver must make per day are unachievable.

The metrics are so unrealistic that if the driver takes any time away from their route to rest or find a bathroom—they will fall behind and be penalised. 😡

This is not the first time this particular issue is being brought to light as it was first mentioned in 2021 and then again in 2022 when it was reported extensively by a Vice article, which stated that,

Despite the company admitting to this issue, no change has been made to improve employees’ experience on the job.

See excerpts from the lawsuit. 👇🏼

“This case is about one of the wealthiest and most powerful companies in the world, Amazon, maintaining work policies that require its delivery drivers in Colorado to urinate in bottles in the back of delivery vans, defecate in bags, and, in many cases, to restrain themselves from using the bathroom at risk of serious health consequences.”

One driver, Ryan Schilling, often had to pee in a bottle while on a route. In some cases, according to the lawsuit, “he had the overwhelming urge to defecate and felt that he could not hold it until the end of his shift. Knowing that he would be punished if he slowed or went off course to access a bathroom, he defecated in the back of his vehicle in a dog-waste bag.”

Another driver, Marco Granger-Rivera, has had to pee in a bottle “every day” while working for Amazon. “On a few occasions, while racing to perform deliveries and without easy access to a bottle or the ability to stop for long enough even to urinate in his van, Plaintiff Granger-Rivera has been on the verge of urinating and defecating in his pants.”

Leah Cross, a third plaintiff, has “typical female anatomy,” which makes it more difficult for her to pee in a bottle while on the job—the lawsuit claims that this violates Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act. “Amazon fails to provide its drivers with reasonable access to bathrooms, which has an illegal disparate impact on people with typical female anatomy.”

Unbelievable. Inhumane. Wrong.

These are just some of the printable words we can use to describe what Amazon is doing to its drivers. For an issue that has been called out various times, it does seem like the company is not ready to make life on the job better for the drivers.

We can only imagine their experiences and hope that this lawsuit nudges the company to take another look and make positive changes to its employee culture and performance metric.

In a statement by Amazon spokesperson Sam Stephenson, “We want to make it clear that we encourage our Delivery Service Partners to support their drivers. That includes giving drivers the time they need for breaks in between stops, providing a list within the Amazon Delivery app of nearby restroom facilities and gas stations, and building in time on routes to use the restroom or take longer breaks.”

Green Flags for Job Seekers

While job hunting, it is normal to spend some time on the company's website. When you do, here are a couple of things you might come across.

Employee testimonials, different awards for good workplaces, and values that mention words/phrases such as diverse, distributed, and people-first practices. 🙄

As comforting and reassuring as this might be, we cannot fully trust these reviews which is why companies with a detailed Glassdoor presence are a green flag.

Glassdoor holds a growing database of millions of company reviews, CEO approval ratings, salary reports, interview reviews and questions, benefits reviews, office photos, and more.

Simply put, Glassdoor is a Yelp for employees.

Since Glassdoor is a public forum, it encourages honesty and participation because its reviews are anonymous (reviews can be left by current and former employees). Glassdoor also recently revealed that:

• 75% of hiring managers say that reputation affects recruitment capability

• 83% of job seekers are wary of working for a company with a poor reputation

• 55% of job candidates said they would reconsider their job application if the company had a negative profile

This means if you want to know about the highs and lows of a company unfiltered, Glassdoor is the best place to check.

P.S. It can be quite worrisome if a company has no Glassdoor presence, fewer than 10 reviews (especially if they've been operating for a while), or has a rating below 3.5. #wearedistributed recommends that a great rating is 4.0 and above!

Although with company size, there are different expectations, here's what we mean 👇🏼

• 1 - 10 employees - 4.5+ ratings

• 11 - 50 employees - 4.2+ratings

• 51 - 250 employees - 4.1 ratings

• 251 - 500 employees - 4.0 ratings

• 501 - 1k employees - 3.9 ratings

Distributed Company of the Week

This week’s Distributed Company of the Week is Gitlab, an AI-Powered DevSecOps Platform that offers a fully remote and flexible work schedule for its employees.

They have a 4.2 rating on Glassdoor from 462 current and past employees, with many reviews praising the company culture for its positivity (a good enough reason alone to work there.)

Their company values, mission, and work-life philosophy are all transparent and available online in their handbook, which you can check out here if you’re interested.

We also like to include a review with a good balance of pros and cons:

No company is perfect and it takes a lot to run a successful and sustainable business so always take our recommendations with that in mind.

Distributed Tool of the Week

#wearedistributed is big on employee perks and benefits as this is a great way to recognise a people-first company. However, some companies do not give EQUAL benefits to their distributed team which is a downer.

Compt.io, a lifestyle perks software that helps build inclusive and equitable experiences for ALL employees is our Distributed Tool of the Week. 🎉

Built to support inclusive global teams, Compt.io is an IRS-compliant and finance team-friendly reimbursement platform that helps companies offer inclusive, personalised, and flexible compensation and benefits programs.

Best known as an employer favourite as their offerings have improved employee engagement by 90%, Compt.io offers the following. 👇🏼

• Manage employee stipends focused on family, wellness, development, or any other of their over 25 total categories for any team setup ( In-office, remote or hybrid).

• Give bonuses for real-time recognition and reward by giving employees what they want - funds to spend on what's meaningful to them, supporting their unique lifestyles.

• Reimburse business expenses quickly and easily by offering a simple and effective expense management solution at a fraction of the price of other expense management apps.

• Compt.io doesn't just make employees happy, HR and finance teams benefit from their products too. Companies can get tax compliance and international support for local and international teams.

Compt is currently helping teams in over 60 countries already so If you’re a global worker or recruiter that wants to recommend Compt to their workplace, do check out their full list of perks, and how they work so you can book a demo.

Global Employment Term of the Week

Ready to learn something new?

The global term of the week is Implicit Communication

Implicit Communication is the way we interact with people that’s not direct and verbal. This includes body language, facial expressions, hand gestures, tone of voice, choice of words, timing, and a lot more. This type of communication is especially nuanced and difficult to convey when it comes to working remotely and digitally with co-workers, bosses, and others.

Well, that’s a wrap on another week’s newsletter. We hoped you weren’t too disturbed reading about the horrible accusations against the way Amazon treats its employees, and we hope you found Compt.io and Lauren Razavi interesting to learn about.

Thanks for joining us for another newsletter!

Are you searching for global roles in candidate-centric and people-first companies? Visit our global job board.

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