Viral TikTok laments how Amazon robots cause workers’ ‘rates’ to drop

A video on TikTok is going viral for claiming that Amazon’s robots in its warehouses sometimes move too slowly, causing workers’ rates to drop.

TikTok user @_xo.cillamunster posted two videos of the Amazon robots late last week. In one video, they wrote: “These damn robots fucking with my rate, there’s no work.”

The first video shows several of the robots, which are stacks containing various items, moving across a warehouse floor.

In the other video, the TikToker filmed a screen that showed several “pods” slowly arriving, with more robot stacks in the background. In the comments, the TikToker claims Amazon is overhiring, making warehouses too crowded, which makes the robots go slower.

That, in turn, makes their rate drop.

“It’s just funny,” the TikToker wrote, “that they over hire and the little bots start moving slowly.”

She also added that she wasn’t complaining, and that she loved working at Amazon.

The first video has been liked nearly 28,000 times on TikTok.

Amazon warehouse workers have a “rate,” which is how many items they process over the course of an hour. If they fail to meet that rate, as the Verge points out, the worker can be fired. The term “make rate” is used by workers to describe “keeping up with the hourly stow, pick, or scan rates expected of them,” according to Business Insider.

The retail giant has faced criticism in the past over its treatment of warehouse workers, including infamously how they have resorted to urinating in bottles to keep up with the productivity tracking.

Earlier this year Amazon attempted to push back against the urination claims, but its tweet addressing the claims immediately backfired.

In May, Amazon unveiled a small booth called the “ZenBooth” that was designed to allow for its overwhelmed employees to “focus on their mental and emotional well-being.” The booth was immediately called “dystopian” and the company deleted a tweet about it amid criticism.

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