Amazon tries to make warehouse work more fun by turning real tasks into video games
- Amazon is trying to make warehouse work more fun via an interactive game
- Games include titles like MissionRacer and Dragon Duel and are point-based
- The more tasks an employee can complete, the more their score goes up
- Points can be traded for Amazon-branded goods in the company's merch store
- Comes on the heels of more revelations regarding grueling work conditions
Some of Amazon's warehouse workers don't have to choose between work and play with the introduction of company-created video games that turn tedious tasks into productive fun.
A detailed report from The Washington Post describes how the company has installed screens at many of its warehouse workers' stations that allow employees to turn tasks like assembling orders and moving items into competitive games.
Game titles include options like MissionRacer, Dragon Duel, and CastleCrafter and typically involve a productivity-based point system.
The more tasks a worker completes, the more points or progress they make in the game.
Amazon is using video games to help increase productivity and make working in its warehouses less tedious.
In a report from Fast Company, a picture of a screen displaying 'Dragon Duel' at one of Amazon's warehouses shows how the game operates on a simple point system - 16 points for each product they pick - and shows a ranking system based on the scores of other employees in warehouse.
Points earned through the games not only increase employees' clout in the warehouse but can also earn workers 'badges' and 'Swag Bucks' - a type of currency for Amazon employees that can be exchanged for Amazon-branded merchandise like sweatshirts, mugs, and more, according to the Post.
Employees, or players, also have the option of challenging their co-workers to games or alternatively, playing solo.
The process of introducing functional games into the workplace, known as gamification, has had mixed results in workplace.
Sometimes, the process can imbue otherwise mundane tasks with meaning and even an add an element of fun, but according to one expert interviewed by the Post, the line between enjoyment and added stress is a fine one.
'Competition is only enjoyable for a short time ... As soon as workers start underperforming against their colleagues, it becomes less fun and can actually be counterproductive,' Game Designer Jane McGonigal told the Post.
Whether the games are fun or stressful is a fine line according to one expert quoted in a report from the Washington Post.
Other more extreme cases have even seen the gamification of tasks lead to great instance of workplace injuries.
While workers quoted anonymously in the report seem to mostly approve of the games introduction into their workplace, Amazon continues to face criticism for the treatment of many of its workers, especially those in its fulfillment centers and warehouses.
A recent report from The Verge revealed that Amazon uses a stringent AI-based metric system to not only monitor its employees performance, but to sometimes terminate employees automatically if they fail to meet benchmarks.
The pressure to perform up to company standards in Amazon's warehouses are reportedly so great that a recent survey found 74 percent of its workers in those facilities feared using the bathroom because a break could affect their output.
According to a recent estimate by Amazon, in about a decade warehouse employees may not even need to take bathroom breaks, as the company may have its fulfillment process entirely automated.
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