The day before I went to Detroit, the city imposed a curfew due to fears of violence. The city was also in the process of shutting off water to thousands of its residents. It sounds bad. But as long as you stay inside a sealed corporate bubble the whole time, you'll never even know these problems exist.

We have brought you quite a few firsthand accounts of the misery of working for Amazon at all levels, from the corporate offices to the warehouses. Today, we bring you tales of woe from the people who answer Amazon's customer service calls.

Target, America's third largest retailer, has been the source of multiple recent leaks to us from employees at all levels detailing the company's myriad problems. Today: a detailed look at the life of a Target buyer, and how they game both vendors and the company itself.

Koch Industries, the mega-conglomerate controlled by the evil cartoon billionaire Koch Brothers, is rolling out a new ad campaign to "tell a story about who we are." They are: people staring listlessly at a moving assembly line. God bless free enterprise. [Ad Age]

Vice Media is one of the hottest media properties in America. It's the counterculture empire that even Rupert Murdoch could love. Vice's founder, Shane Smith, has speculated his company could raise tens of billions of dollars. So why are its employees so broke and pissed off?

Amazon, the Cthulhu of retail, finds itself embroiled in a spat with a major book publisher. It's gotten nasty. And, remarkably, Amazon is losing the PR battle. Why? Perhaps because Amazon—where workers are "ground into a tired heap"—deserves to have a bad reputation.

The problems afflicting crap mecca Walmart extend beyond its persecuted work force, all the way into the corporate executive suite. A new report from an outside overseer says the famously cheap company doesn't mind burning tons of money to benefit top executives.

Beleaguered retail empire Target announced weak-ass first quarter earnings today, thanks in large part to its disastrous Target Canada division, which lost $211 million just this quarter. How did Target Canada become the laughingstock of the retail industry? A Target Canada veteran explains in detail, below.

Target, the slightly less popular and cleaner version of Walmart, is having a terrible year. Today it fired one executive, and clawed back compensation from another. What's the atmosphere like inside Target now? Allow another employee to explain.

The fact that Target executive Jeff Jones wrote a public response to an employee who complained to Gawker is considered so extraordinarily bold that it merits its own story in Ad Age. Take a moment to contemplate how low the bar for heroism in corporate communications must be.

As mainstream U.S. presidential candidates persist in pretending that global warming may not be real, at least one sector of society is already busy planning for the coming catastrophe: big corporations.

Last week, we brought you the words of an employee at Target's headquarters lamenting the way that the company is run. Now, one of Target's top executives has seen fit to respond to these criticisms. Which is a perfect opportunity for us to expand upon them.

At Amazon, the office workers tell us they feel trapped, and the warehouse workers tell us they feel exploited. Let's cover the rest of the bases, shall we? Today, a contract worker and an intern describe their own unpleasant Amazon experiences.

In the past week, we've heard from a parade of Amazon insiders—both warehouse workers and white collar employees—speaking about the serious flaws in the company's intense, sometimes inhuman work environment. Today: two more employees speak about high turnover, panic attacks, and the Amazon's military lifestyle.

Union-busting retail giant Target is having a tough time: its CEO just resigned, its stock is down, and it faces an existential threat from Amazon. We now bring you one current Target headquarters employee's thoughts on what's wrong with Target.

In the past week, we've heard from several insiders at Amazon describing the company's bizarre and sometimes exploitative workplace culture. Today, a current and a former Amazon employee expound—in detail—on how "Amazon is an amazing company. As long as you don't work here."

It is Amazon week here on Gawker.com. In the past two days, we've brought you stories from workers at Amazon's warehouses and corporate offices. Today, we bring you the stories of three different insiders: positive, negative, and nasty.

Yesterday, we brought you one Amazon warehouse worker's account of what it's like working for the blue collar side of the operation. Today, we bring you an account of what it's like working on the corporate side. (Hint: "weird.")

Amazon is the future of retail, so it's always useful to hear from real live Amazon warehouse workers about what their jobs are really like. Today: one worker details just how much Amazon values its own time over that of its employees.

Huffpo reporter Dave Jamieson wondered why so many of his Amazon Prime packages were being delivered not by UPS or Fedex, but by "independent" courier drivers. The answer says a lot about the dark side of our delivery-dependent future.