MY HUMBLE OPINION-AMAZON.COM

Now that I have officially completed my first season with Amazon.com in Coffeyville KS. Here is my humble opinion about the whole thing:
Upon my phone interview with Paul from Amazon, he was very pleasant on the phone and very honest in the interview. He came right out and stated that the job could be physically demanding. He asked if I was able to lift at least 50lbs, if I was able to walk at least 10+ miles in a 10 hour shift, if you would be offended by some of the things that might come through the fulfillment center. If you can answer those questions honestly-then you won’t have any problem working for amazon.com.

• Never did I have to really lift 50lbs, and they are very adamant that you “test” the load before even trying to lift. If you feel you cannot lift, then don’t hesitate to ask for help and get a “buddy lift” (another person to help you with the heavy item).
• The only time you may walk 10+ miles if you are a “picker”, then you could easily walk more than that; especially during peak season. Another one that could get you that many miles is also a stower (a person who puts the items in designated area). I was a receiver so I basically stood more than I walked. They do require that if you stand more than 15 minutes in the same spot that you get a rubber mat.
• Good solid shoes is a must and some are not even allowed, so before you go out and buy those shoes, find out first what are allowed and what are not. There are two different tennis shoes that are not allowed, the one is an exception as long as the wires on the heel are covered. Stay away from steel toe shoes!
• You will have to go through security every single time you leave the plant area. So be prepared to have your break time cut down by a minute or two.
• I never knew they could put so many shifts as Amazon has done; I believe that there was a total of 13 shifts. All day shifts started at 6:00am (inbound) or 6:30am (outbound) and you worked until either 4:30pm (inbound) or 5:00pm (outbound). Night shift started at either 5:00pm or 5:30pm depending if you were inbound or outbound. Regardless what you worked, we all did at least 10 hour shift. You might start beginning of your week on Sunday and end on Wednesday or maybe start on Monday and end on Thursday and so forth and so forth. There was one called the Donut shift and no they didn’t get donuts for going in but their shift might start on Monday, work Tuesday, have Wednesday off and then work Thursday and Friday and have the weekend off. There were couples that worked only 2 days and had the rest off. So many scenarios that you wouldn’t imagine that a job placement could do-but Amazon did!
• During peak season (right after Thanksgiving and going all the way to Dec 23rd) your hours could increase to 50, 55 or 60 hours. Workampers are only required to work 50, but they do have the option to go up to 60 hours if they choose too.
• All work force campers completed on or before the 23rd of Dec. Depending on when your shift work week ended. Amazon will pay for one extra day of camping the day before you start and one day after you completed your end of term. you do NOT get your bonus if you leave your assignment before your officially end date. I was shocked to see a couple of campers leave and they only had one more week left to go.

• We did get a few flack from the regular workers, but I learned for the most part to do my job, try my best to get along and not let them get to me. I would great them with a smile, tell them good morning or to have a good night and before I knew it, I did become friends with them. Once in a while I would ask for their input (even though I knew the answer)-this made them feel that you needed them and they then in return would actually respect you back.
• You had several vested folks running around, red vest, green vest, yellow vest and an occasional brown vest.
  • Red vest: were your Ambassador and did mainly training. They guided you and answer you any questions and were there the first week of your job.
  • Green Vest: were your PA’s (Process Assistant): If there was a job shift they would tell you were to go. Amazon also works on a percentage and they would come around about 2-4 times daily to let you know where your percentage was. Or if you had a screw up, they would come and tell you what you did wrong.
  • Yellow Vest were your managers of your dept.. You may easily see two or three of them running around your area. One is generally higher up than the other, but the same, if you have a question or problem, you go to them.
  • Brown Vest were the work campers force supporters. If we had any questions to relay to Paul or Dana we would go through them or they might do a safety check with us to make sure we are following Amazon’s guidelines in safety.
• Amazon is very strong on Safety and are very strict in areas of Pit Drivers and running or working around the conveyers, there is absolutely no room for errors and they won’t hesitate in firing you if you violate the serious safety rules! You do go through safety school on your first day during orientation. So pay attention-it’s really not rocket science but more common sense than anything.
• Your first day is called Meet and Greet which basically was orientation. You watch several videos (they are boring), you took a quick quiz to see if you could read and comprehend what they wanted (very easy and simple and almost funny). Here is where they will take your pic and you will get a badge before the end of the day and you will know what shift and areas you will be working. It’s an all day affair.

I mainly stayed in Inbound trained in receiving and prepping. Prepping was sort of fun, but hated to hang coats on hangers! When Peek time came around many folks that were stowers and some receivers got moved over to outbound with many extra overtime. Here is where I really got frustrated because all the managers knew that I wanted as much OT as I could get, and I didn’t get moved. I got stuck in inbound and the tension between all the workers for some reason got more tense.
I won’t denied there were a few occasions where I just wanted to walk out, but I didn’t. I didn’t come this far to loose the bonus that I would receive at the end of completion. The lesson I learned is that I should have gone to HR right away with my issues instead of keeping them to myself. When I finally was denied extra OT that is when I did go to HR and both Paul and Dana did their best to get me my hours.
I did get some training in Outbound and enjoyed the different pace of work. However several of those that got transfer during peak season, they ended up quitting. I think if the managers would pay a little more attention to the workampers, they would get better cooperation and a lot less walking out on the job.
Here is a low down and description of each job that a workampers may do:
Inbound consist of shipment coming into the fulfillment center, being received and/or prepped, then onto the stowers who put the item away.
Receiver: Semi’s come in and workers unload the thousands of boxes/cases of products. Most get put on a conveyer and receivers check the items into the fulfillment center. The item is scanned and checked in through a computer system. They have to make sure there is no damage to the product upon checking in. It’s place on carts to be stowed away.
Prepping: consist of varies things. If an item if fragile and could possible be broken between transship, then it’s wrapped in bubble wrap to protect the item. If it’s anything apparel or cloth it has to be placed in bags or if it’s a child’s toy that is cloth it has to be bagged. Any liquid items that could possibly open up has to be bagged. Coats have to be placed on hangers. This is just a few things that maybe prepped.
Stower: the stowers now take the cart and find temporary placement for the product. They carry a hand held scanner so that once the product is placed, they have to scan both the product and the bin that the item is going into, so that the picker knows exactly where to go to get this item when needed. Some products have designated areas that they have to be in.
Outbound is now where the pickers goes finds an item that has been ordered and goes to shipping to be shipped out.
Picker: When item is received online through amazon, a picker goes and locates that item and places it in a bin. They too carry a hand held scanner and this is where they get their information to locate that item.
Crisplant: is the packing dept. Orders come off the conveyer and run through a chute. Again checked to make sure it’s the right product being shipped and there is no virtual damage.
Shipping: there are so many ways an item can be shipped. It all depends on how the customer has requested it to be shipped to them. Once the product is placed in the right size box, it also gets scanned and is sent down a conveyer where the address of the shipment is placed and ready to be shipped out.
Now here are some “funny” words that I call them that we had to learn quickly the meaning of:
Water Spider: is a person who takes the carts from the receivers and sends them to the stowers. Or they could also be the person that stocks the boxes for the shippers.
Gaylord: are huge boxes that shipping items are placed in once ready to be shipped to be taken out and loaded.
Asin: stands for Amazon Standard Identification Number. It’s a bar code that identified each item that is scanned into the warehouse.
There are many more that you will learn, but these are the ones that I laughed at the most!
There is really a lot that goes in to ship an item out and is amazing how it all works. It was a fun experience and look forward to more years as a seasonal work force campers for Amazon.com
One thing is for sure: this is NOT a sit down on your butt kind of job! It is physically and even mentally demanding-but I would and plan on doing it again. It does get frustrating, but you learn to cry a little, laugh a lot and make lots of new friends!
Note: All that I have described here, is how Amazon.com operates it’s fulfillment center in Coffeyville KS. So it may vary at other fulfillment centers. I hope this gives you just a general idea on how it all works.
Amazon’s Motto: Work Hard, Have Fun, Make History!

CRAZY OR WHAT??

Since traveling on the road for over 11 years now, we never have made a move this late in the season.  We always have been somewhere and settled way before even Thanksgiving.  But this year being a little different since working at amazon.com, we didn’t hit the road until literally days before Christmas!
Leaving Coffeyville, we had decided to make one of the AZ Casino’s our place to stop to enjoy Christmas at one of their delicious buffets and who knows-pluck a few dollars into the slot machine.
Upon getting ready, we knew that a bad snow storm was hitting in the direction we wanted to go, so we got held up in Sayre OK until the storm passed and the Instate cleared. 
The more we thought about it, the more exciting it sounded to be parked in snow!  We would bundle up and yes, even Leah and go play out in the snow on Christmas Day!  What a better way to enjoy the day and then go pig out on the Christmas Buffet!
Well, here’s where it starts to get interesting….
Upon leaving Amarillo TX and heading towards NM border we knew that we would start to see the snow accumulation.  Heading towards Tucumcari we only saw a dusting along the roadway and thought to ourselves that this was nothing.  We were thinking that a dusting to these folks was a blizzard…but as we got closer to a town called Edgewood NM, the snow started to get deeper.  There were areas along the I-40 corridor that hadn’t even been cleaned off along the shoulders yet.  All the rest areas Westbound were still closed and not plowed out yet.  They were just opening Eastbound rest areas as we plucked along.
   

Needing a break and wanting to stretch my legs, Brian found a Wal-Mart right off of I-40 in the town of Edgewood.  The exit was slushy but cleared enough to master the motorhome and tow, until we got into Wal-Mart’s parking lot.  They apparently don’t know the word “snow-plow”!  It wasn’t plowed at all, and being Christmas Eve, it was chaotic!  There was no place safe to park the motorhome without the fear of getting stuck since there appeared to be 10-12 inches of the white stuff. I  manage to go in one entrance and out the next exit to learn that I could not make the left turn I needed to head in right direction.  So ended up going down  the road, in the wrong direction of our destination and not knowing what was ahead.
I found a shopping center where I barely could get the motorhome in one drive and back out the other just to turn around!  upon the entrance I scrapped the back-end.  Brian goes to investigate and finally those skid wheels we purchased did their job well!Now turned around back in the right direction, We decided I didn’t need that rest after all so onward we go to the Casino!
We were tossed between Dancing Eagle and Sky City Casino.  Both had RV Parking, however Sky City sounded to have a wonderful Christmas Buffet-so Sky City here we come…
Monitoring the weather closely in that particular area, we knew that both Casinos got hit hard with the snow storm.  So Brian called to find out if even the RV Parks would be open and even plowed out.  Sky City told us that it was being done as they spoke-or so we were told.
Upon our arrival to Sky City Casino in late afternoon on Christmas Eve, we were again greeted with lots of slush and snow!  It made it difficult to even get fuel, but manage.  We paid for our site and was told that the campground was plowed out and ready.  The RV Park is across the road from the Casino/Hotel/Travel Center.  As we crossed over the road, to our dismay, we couldn’t even try to get into the RV roadway let alone find our spot that was buried yet under all the snow! 



We left the motorhome sitting in the roadway, unhooked the car and went back over to the travel center where we paid and complained.  They got the guy over to plow it out while we sat waiting…thinking boy, we gotta be crazy or what?   It took well over an hour and half just to get us a path in and into our site. 
Now we are stuck here until they finish up on Christmas Day so that we  can pull back out bright and early Monday morning to much warmer weather-AZ!




Upon getting up this morning-it was only down to –7below outside!  I think this is the coldest weather thus far since traveling.  So did we stay warm inside? You betcha!!!  With the help of the electric heater and the motorhome furnace running until we got up, then Brian turned on our Cozy World brick heater.  We never hooked to the water direct and what we have in the tank didn’t freeze either. 


We opened up the window blinds and discovered all the windows had ice on them!




Since the sun has come out all the windows are cleared up.  We are just waiting for the afternoon sun to hit the slide side so that we can bring it in and not wait till tomorrow.  As the day moves forward we are to warm up to a mighty 36 degrees.
Another Christmas Day to remember and to put in our memory book

MS GARMIN-HILARIOUS!

When we purchased our motorhome and decided to travel summers we also decided on a GPS system to help guide us as well. 


After researching and picking a few  goo-roo’s brains, we decided to take the middle road and purchase a Garmin.  Ms. Garmin has proven her self and helped out greatly; especially getting us around metropolitan areas such as Denver, Fort Smith, Amarillo, Albuquerque and Phoenix. 


So once again hitting the road and on Interstate I-44, we wanted Ms. Garmin to help us around Tulsa and Oklahoma City.  So leaving Coffeyville KS we put in the Wal-Mart in Elk City OK, the nearest destination we could possibly get to Sayre OK.  We had it in mind that this time we would just take the Toll road and stay on Interstate-specially with the weather being a bit unpredictable this time of year.


Well, Ms. Garmin had different ideas.  She wants us to take a southern route to jump onto I-40.  So when we ignored her direction, and she consistently would say: “r-e-c-a-l-c-u-l-a-t-i-n-g” in that little annoying voice of hers.  She obviously did not want us to take the toll road and kept telling us to take every exit we would come across.  We always figure that they were set up to take the most economically way, so why in the world was she trying to take us 60 miles farther south-was beyond us.


but this is when she really got hilarious; when we ignored her once again on taking an exit, then she became insistent that we did a u-turn in the middle of the interstate!  Ironic enough she knew the locations of where there was a break in the barriers for emergency vehicles to do their u-turn, but no way we could!  We finally got tired of hearing her annoying voice and just shut her down.  We would get through Oklahoma City the old fashion way:  Brian being my navigator and the good ole’ Rand McNally maps!


As our old buddy, Ron would say: “Why buy a Garmin when you can buy a $2.00 map?”  Maybe he knew something we didn’t…

A PENNY, NOTE & GIFT CARD

This past few weeks has been a little harder on me.  What has happened is that many folks that I started here with Amazon got moved to outbound and I got left behind in inbound. 


So lunch time and break time became lonely place for me and even on the floor those that were still around were the regular workers, treating me as if I just got there.  On a few occasion I had to remind them that I have been there and I knew how to do my job.


This was becoming a depressing note for me at on a few occasion I was ready to just walk out-but instead I would walk to the bathroom-shed a few tears go back out and held my head high and went on with working.


A lady seen I was feeling lonely and came over and has in braced me with her kindness and friendship and ever since has been a great friend and I will always remember her-Thanks Val!  And along with her came a sweet older couple.  Val has gone out on the limb to even talk to plant manager to let her know how this past week or so has effected me.  The plant manager came over with a smile and had a nice chat with me-which has helped brighten my spirits some.


Determined to make the next 3 weeks as pleasant as possible I got to work one morning and in front of my locker was a penny-heads up.  Of course I had to laugh and thought of my co-worker who got moved over to out bound and thinking he put the penny there for me.  “A Penny For Your Thoughts”.  So I kept the penny and will keep it with me.




At lunch time I got my lunch out and found a napkin in it.  Thinking who got into my lunch and put a napkin in it.  I took it out and found this note written on it:




Leave it to George to write that I’m still short (He is also the one I think put the penny in front of my locker).  That made my day and another laugh.  Of course those around me wonder why I was laughing at a napkin until I showed them my note!    You see George and Bonnie and Nancy we all became good friends and those three got moved to outbound.  I’m still glad that George can still pick on me!


In the mornings after we clock in we do stand-up before going to our designated stations.  It’s here that they get announcements, stretch our muscles before work.  We do this again right after lunch. 


This past week they have been doing 14 days of Peak Drawing.  They drew three names and those winners won $10.00 Amazon Gift Certificate.  This particular day they ante it up to $25.00 dollars and instead of three winners they went to just one.  I was the winner that day!  Needless to say I stood there dump founded when my name was called!






to top the day off, my percentage on the receiving line was way up as well-and I wasn’t even trying to make quota-but I manage to go above and beyond my own expectation and Amazons.

COUNTING DOWN

Well as the countdown begins and it starts to get busy, my blog web pages may have to be short and sweet for now…But again-you just never know what I might write or when….with that said:
After two months of working at Amazon and avoiding volunteer time off we are now in full swing with the countdown to Christmas. Earlier this week we started with voluntary overtime that turned into mandatory for us this past Thursday for inbound.

Several folks including all that I have met and became acquainted with has been moved to outbound with plenty of overtime for them.  I have been left in inbound in receiving/prepping.  We are only getting 1 day overtime while outbound is doing 2 days of overtime or coming in one hour earlier.  Those that I have met didn’t want the overtime as I did. 

Also this past week while working on the receiving line, Christmas songs were playing, putting some of us in the Christmas spirit, then comes along those that didn’t want the music;  turned it off and started to play hard rock music. It sadden my heart to really know there are scrooges out there…
On the positive side of Amazon:  The week of Thanksgiving we had a meal catered in from a local catering company.  We had Turkey, mash potatoes with gravy,green beans cranberry salad and for desert bread pudding.  It was very tasty.  those that had to work a couple of hours on Thanksgiving Day got to take home a pumpkin pie.  This next week we are having another meal catered in and this time it’s stuff chicken breast, rice pilaf, and I don’t remember the rest of the menu.  Management also has been going around handing out small little trinkets to us workers.  Also all of us workampers received a workampers force T-shirt.

      

So the countdown begins…..only 3 weeks left and I’m done for the season with Amazon. Will I return to Amazon again next season? Probably, but not here in Coffeyville. I’m wishing for Fernley NV since we plan on spending the next several years that way touring the West.

You know I think I could get use to this kind of a lifestyle…Work maybe from Sept to Dec for Amazon.com and then the rest of the time off to tour around; Yep let the countdown begin!