The transport sector is so cutthroat, and so is the warehouse work. They force you to compete with your colleagues, and it's not in a "fun" way, it's a "whomever does the worst will get fired at the end of the week, or told by the employment agency that we don't need you." People end up sabotaging each other because they need the job.

But it's because they're forcing humans to try to compete with automation, on a broad scale. All of the companies who have the money are moving in the direction of automation because it's cheaper and better than labour, and all the companies who don't are bleeding their workforce dry trying to keep up.

And this isn't new either, it's just exacerbating an old problem.

This started when all the big marts started artificially lowering prices to attract consumers. What started as loss-leading became "let's see how we can have this price all the time." To do that, they have to tie their manufacturers into contracts where they will pay less than what it costs to make the item, but promise to buy in bulk. Then they tie the shippers into contracts where they will pay them less than what the mileage will cost, but promise to be exclusive.

Then, when those contracts come up, they refuse to pay more than their previous contract. Indeed, they usually offer less. If the shipper or manufacturer refuses, they just find somebody else who will take the old contract price and start again.

They squeeze blood from the stone to get more people in their doors, and that blood comes from the people on the bottom end of the totem pole - drivers, loaders, order pickers. All in the name of getting cheap consumer goods.

We're our own worst enemies.