Amabot (Amazon.com employee nickname)
Amazon.com is an Internet commerce company with headquarters in Seattle, Washington. A New York (NY) Times story about Amazon.com in August 2015 noted about “Amabot” (Amazon + robot):
“‘If you’re a good Amazonian, you become an Amabot,’ said one employee, using a term that means you have become at one with the system. In Amazon warehouses, employees are monitored by sophisticated electronic systems to ensure they are packing enough boxes every hour.”
“Amabot” had been used in the book Amaonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot.Com Juggernaut (2004) by James Marcus, but it referred to Amazon’s website, and not its human workers.
Another nickname for an Amazon.com employee is “Amhole.”
Wikipedia: Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (/ˈæməzɒn/ or /ˈæməzən/) is an American electronic commerce and cloud computing company with headquarters in Seattle, Washington. It is the largest Internet-based retailer in the United States. Amazon.com started as an online bookstore, but soon diversified, selling DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, video downloads/streaming, MP3 downloads/streaming, software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys and jewelry. The company also produces consumer electronics—notably, Amazon Kindle e-book readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV and Fire Phone—and is the world’s largest provider of cloud computing services. Amazon also sells certain low-end products like USB cables under its in-house brand AmazonBasics.
Google Books
Amaonia:
Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot.Com Juggernaut
By James Marcus
New York, NY: New Press
2004
Pg. ?:
Then it was time to meet our new master: Amabot. The name said it all. Content was dead.
New York (NY) Times
Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace
The company is conducting an experiment in how far it can push white-collar workers to get them to achieve its ever-expanding ambitions.
By JODI KANTOR and DAVID STREITFELD AUG. 15, 2015
SEATTLE — On Monday mornings, fresh recruits line up for an orientation intended to catapult them into Amazon’s singular way of working.
(...)
MOTIVATING THE ‘AMABOTS’
Company veterans often say the genius of Amazon is the way it drives them to drive themselves. “If you’re a good Amazonian, you become an Amabot,” said one employee, using a term that means you have become at one with the system.
In Amazon warehouses, employees are monitored by sophisticated electronic systems to ensure they are packing enough boxes every hour.
(...)
Recruiters, though, also say that other businesses are sometimes cautious about bringing in Amazon workers, because they have been trained to be so combative. The derisive local nickname for Amazon employees is “Amholes” — pugnacious and work-obsessed.
Amazon Seller Forums
Thread: “Nearly every person I worked with, I saw cry at their desk”
LoCo
Posted on: 15 Aug, 2015 10:12 AM in response to: Petri Dish in response to: Petri Dish
The article says the good Amazon employees are referred to as “Amabots”.
Well, I guess that answers my question about who is sending all those “canned” emails and suspension notices. Couldn’t figure out if was people or bots. Guess it’s Amabots.
Twitter
Cristina Nualart
@cnualart
Amholes & amabots. Less bureaucracy and more unfairness - and no life for Amazon workers. Or addiction to work. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0&referrer= …
3:11 AM - 16 Aug 2015
Twitter
frenetic eclectic
@eclecticfriend3 frenetic eclectic retweeted Andrew Spooner
Amabots make Microserfs look lazy? frenetic eclectic added,
Andrew Spooner @andrewspoooner
“Amazon: Devastating expose accuses internet retailer of oppressive and callous attitude to staff” http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/amazon-devastating-expose-accuses-internet-retailer-of-oppressive-and-callous-attitude-to-staff-10458159.html …
3:23 PM - 16 Aug 2015
Twitter
Minnie Stacey
@minniestacey
#Amazon’s best workers are known as ‘Amabots’ because they’re so ‘at one with the system’ they are almost cyborgs: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3200220/Staff-tears-regular-sackings-button-make-sure-don-t-waste-time-loo-workers-say-s-like-work-Amazon.html#ixzz3j0q8zopk …
3:40 PM - 16 Aug 2015