Data is absolutely central to this efficiency. Amazon gathers information on virtually everything its workers do from their pack rate to downtime then pits workers against each other on the basis of these metrics. The company is always looking for ways to gather more information Amazon recently acquired a patent for employee-tracking wristbands that could monitor workers movements and vibrate to nudge them when it thinks theyre slacking off. The detailed profile Amazon keeps on its workers, coupled with a rank and yank philosophy where companies rate employees against each other and cull the lowest performers ensures that its workforce is continually evolving. According to a 2015 New York Times investigation, one former Amazon human resources director called this culture purposeful Darwinism. It will be no surprise if Amazon becomes the first business to fully automate. A company that resents even its workers basic right to a break will only find people a frustration to its aims. Amazonians who left their workstation to go to the bathroom would be promptly hounded by senior employees. Stories abound of workers afraid to stop, pissing into bottles at their desk. Your tracker, after all, is recording. As such, everything you need to do must be done on your breaks. But given the size of the warehouse and the fact that to get in and out of it, you must go through airport-level security it tends to take three to four minutes to just make it back to the canteen. If you get a full five minutes to sit down, youve done well. The suspicion with which Amazon regards its staff is reproduced at every level of the operation from the frisking that accompanies every exit and entry from the warehouse to the generally cold manner in which management addresses their inferiors. I couldnt help but see the class politics at play. It was as if you were expected to be grateful just to have been given a waged job and work in full apprehension that, on a zero-hours contract, that privilege is not a right.

"I worked for Amazon for six months in 2013. When someone mentions it to me, my mind flashes to the headlines from my time there: 60-hour weeks, backbreaking efficiency targets, draconian redundancies, illness, depression. Relentless, the word lurking behind the consumer-facing infrastructure, is the reality for Amazons workers."

Assuming Amazon is maximising profits by operating its warehouses in the manner described above, is this ethical from the following perspectives:

i. A utilitarian perspective (who are the key stakeholders? How is their utility affected?);

ii. A Kantian perspective (what fundamental rights are at stake?); and

iii. A virtue ethics perspective (are those involved displaying virtues or vices in their actions?).

iv. A Critical Theory perspective (is labour alienated?)

Write a short paragraph on each perspective