We’re not entirely sure how we’re supposed to take this news, but Amazon is installing ZenBooth meditation rooms in its warehouses as part of the company’s WorkingWell initiative.
These are little spaces where its warehouse workers can escape for a few minutes to “…watch short videos featuring easy-to-follow wellbeing activities, including guided meditations, positive affirmations, calming scenes with sounds, and more.” They sound positively terrifying.
Why do you need a ZenBooth?
They’re terrifying because you’re not supposed to have to take frequent wellness breaks in a dedicated room in order to work at a warehouse. Lately Amazon has been under fire for how it treats its workers, but most of its solutions seem tailored towards keeping the drones running until they just completely fall apart. This doesn’t appear to be much different.
The AmaZen ZenBooth (yes, really) was apparently created by one of the company’s employees, Leila Brown. She said “I wanted to create a space that’s quiet, that people could go and focus on their mental and emotional well-being.”
“The ZenBooth is an interactive kiosk where you can navigate through a library of mental health and mindful practices to recharge the internal battery,” Brown added. Which… doesn’t sound like the sort of feedback you’d get from someone working long hours without breaks on the floor at an Amazon warehouse. And while the ZenBooth, and the company’s other wellness ideas, might be well-meant, there’s no guarantee that employees will even be able to visit them for some downtime, since some company warehouse staff report that they’re not being given the breaks they were supposed to have before this.
Source: Vice
