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!

ONE MONTH AT AMAZON

I have now worked a full month here at Amazon.com and all I can say is: I SURVIVED!!-So far….
This past week has been a true test on all of us-both seasonal workers and the permanent workers that work all year there. 

Just like anywhere you go-rumors fly around: some being true-some stretching the truth.   This week it’s been hard to filter out all the rumors going on.  One thing is for sure in Plant D the tension has been extremely high making it a difficult place to work almost in perfect harmony.

It all started out on Sunday when 1st break rolled around and we all were asked who wanted to take VTO (voluntary time off).  As it is, Sundays are what we call lull days; when hardly anyone is there.  I kind of liked Sundays because not too many bodies running around.  Anyways, a few took the VTO while us die-hard turned it down (like me) and continue to work.  Once again after lunch, during Stand-up exercise/announcements VTO was asked.  Again a few more left.  At 1:30pm we all were told to clock out and go home at 2pm and not to come in until 8am on Monday.

Needless to say I was actually disappointed about not receiving my full 40 hours of work this week. with it only being the beginning-what would the remaining of the week bring?

Come Monday they came around this time asking if anyone wanted to take VTO on Tuesday or Wednesday or both days!  Again my answer was NO!  Gosh darn it, I was hired to work, work and work.  I was looking forward to the extra money to fuel our motorhome this summer and finally not having to not work a summer!  Now I’m to the point that I’m really worried about job security here at Amazon.com-specially with the holidays coming up.  Also on Monday I was moved around to 3 different Prep areas (normally called Prep Cells).

Here is where rumors start. The full-time workers are blaming us seasonal workers.  They say we are coming in and taking over their job where they don’t get their time in.  Rumor is that in receiving-there will be no overtime and with them constantly bringing in more workers, they won’t be enough work for everyone. Another rumor is because of several other new fulfillment centers opening-all the products are being sent there and not to us.

  One guy that was normally in stowe (putting items in proper areas after we receive them) was brought into help with prep.  The women in that area treated him rough-so he went home (note: it was his last day as he was moving on).  Another lady was brought over from outbound due to an injury and was placed on light duty until further notice.  They have her biting bullets and she too is close to quiting.  Only thing keeping her is she knows it’s temporary and she will be back in outbound soon.  Another lady who has been in prep since the beginning-the regulars had her crying.  So the morals of the plant isn’t very good right now.

On Tuesday I jumped from receiving to prepping back to receiving; which at times a few of us stood around waiting for product to come down the line.  We all held our breath as to if we were going to be sent home….

After lunch on Tuesday I finally went to one of our person in charge and said that I really don’t want any time off and if there was maybe an area that I could move to where I wouldn’t be asked day-to-day to take VTO.  She said that there were 5 people gong to picking (where we have to locate a purchase item and send it to outbound to be package).  I asked her if I could be one of those 5 and she told me I already was. 

Now I’m excited because again rumors are that there are no VTO in picking and they will work longer.  Plus I will now get the walking that I so much miss.

Wednesday morning I’m pumped up and ready for a new adventure.  As promise my name along with 4 others (one of which I have worked with) are up on the board to report to picking school at 7:45.  Until then we go to receiving line until it’s time.  We are all there ready to go.  We get signed in and pick up a scanner just to be told: “not going to happen this week”….our mouths dropped and we asked what was going on.  They claim miscommunication.  They also claim that they are not going to train 5 when they just asked 40 to VTO and they got more Seasonal Workampers coming in on Thursday for picking school! 

At this point I’m really, really frustrated and was just about to go ahead and take VTO-go home and weigh my options here at amazon.  We were assured that we would be back to picking school next week.  But at this point I hold nothing to face value-because there is no guarantee what next week will bring.

The Big shots (as I call them), are gearing up for black out.  This next Wednesday they are having a black out parade inside the plant, then everyone in the plant will meet in D section for a “party”.  It’s hard to be in the mood when tensions are high right now.  They also stated that work will start picking up and be more steady…

I was sent back to receiving and was told I would stay there until maybe next week…I guess only time will tell what will happen.  As down as I felt I really didn’t care if my percentage was up or down.  Surprising enough-my percentage was over hundred percent and work was constant.
After talking with some of the other workers, I soon learned that others have asked to be transfer to picking and they were not chosen….So now I’m curious as to what the new week and this next month will bring here at Amazon.com.

Yes, I’m going to stick it out.  I really do like working here, I just don’t like the uncertainty it’s bringing.  Many of us seasonal workers come a long way to work and not to be left dangling on a string from day to day.

BUBBLE WRAPPING

When I was younger and would receive something that was wrapped in bubble wrapping, I would have fun popping all those bubbles!  As I grew up, the kid in me didn’t change any and again I would have fun popping those bubbles!  Brian would make the comment that maybe some day I would grow up!

Well, after starting work for Amazon.com, I think I finally grew up!!!  This past  week has been a challenge on my hands.  I have been taken off receiving and mainly been in prepping.  All glass items must be put in bubble wrap to prevent breakage.

The bubble wrap is a special wrap.  It starts out on this huge roll, we pull out as much as we need, wrapping the precious glassware several times; cutting the wrap.  Then on the ends we pop,pop and pop all the bubbles.  By doing this it creates a very tight seal around the product.  This way if someone should accidentally drop the item-it should not break. 

so how much is determine that we should use?  Enough that it should never break while in this bubble wrap.  I do feel for the consumer who purchased the item, because getting this wrap off is not the easiest thing to do!

Cutting and popping after a while takes a toll on your hands.  We have exercise that we do at our morning stand up and after lunch again.  This does help, but I continue to use those exercise in between and even at hope.  My hands this week have received a few cuts and nicks, but nothing serious.  I keep a small supply of band aides always with me and I also bought liquid skin to help the owees from re-breaking open the next day and this seems to be helping so far.

Now bagging is a much simpler process, but still requires a lot of usage with your hands.  All apparel must be place in bags; including hats, gloves, sock,  and ect.  So if we get a large quantity of socks or gloves, they have to each be place in individual bags and sealed.  There are also several other items that also maybe place in bags and of course we have different size bags to use.

In order to keep the pace going fairly fast, one must not slow down for any length of time, remember we are on a schedule to get the product to the customer in the manner that they wish to receive it.  And we haven’t yet gotten to peak season….

One thing is a given: the next time I receive something in the mail that is bubble wrapped-I won’t be popping those bubbles anymore!!!

WEEK TWO AT AMAZON.COM

I have now worked two weeks at amazon.com, call me crazy, but I actually like the job and the challenge it provides.  Yes, I do come home in the evenings tire and this past week, a little bit more sorer; but I’m also pushing myself to work harder.

I felt that my last two days of work wasn’t as productive as I would have liked.  It seems all that could go wrong did go wrong.  On Tuesday, right off the bat, I manage to cut my finger on God only knows what, but was bleeding all over the place.  It turned out to be a minor cut on my finger, but I’m a bleeder and just decided to keep on bleeding. 

Then we had trouble with the folks from night shift.  When boxes comes off the semi, they are opened and a skew is placed on the box.  Well the night shift we think got lazy and assigned the same screw for all the boxes and when they came down the line to us-well all kept getting the same message that nothing matched, causing us to turn on our Red Lights and Yelling “Red Light”.  On top of that we were short hand with problem solvers, so what folks we had doing that job was running around with their heads chopped off.  Within two hours of our shift-I think we all were ready to go home and start drinking!!

As the day went on-all did get better, but productivity was down for us.   the next day we again had the same problem, but this time it was our day people.  They were not putting on skews and once again, boxes had to be sent back…which again caused us to have numbers down.
Two of us got bumped off of receiving and placed on prep.  I really don’t mind prepping, but we got stuck placing hangers on coats.  That was a job I didn’t care for.  There were 3 of us, one put the hangers on the coat and two of us had to re-tape the plastics to keep the coats clean.  We got 4 pallets done before we ran completely out of hangers.

I had signed up for Overtime on Thursday.  Come Wednesday afternoon we were told unless we had the experience in prepping we wouldn’t be needed.  I went up to the supervisor and since I hadn’t had enough experience in receiving after prep, he would prefer I waited another week.  So maybe this next week I will finally have enough experience that I can finally do the voluntary overtime.
Each day we learn new things, and like the government, it appears that every week things will change at Amazon.com on how it should be process through.  I go with the flow and I do as my superiors above me tell me to do.

We have seen a few that given up and has pulled out.  No where does it state that the job would be easy, in fact is states the opposite-so you really need to come in here with an open mind and know that when you go home at night it’s a given you will be tired and a bit sore-but in the end it’s worth it-or at least to me it is.



I’m more determine to make week 3 much better and a productive week!

WEEK ONE-RECIEVING

I’m up bright and early to report to work by 6:00am. First thing we do is swipe our badge to clock-in, then it’s stretches and announcements. all newbies are assigned to a trainer. They need 4 people to go into receiving-not knowing what I was getting myself into-I raised my hand….

But before we can actually go out on the line we have to go through “school” or training on what we will be doing.  We have to learn what certain abbreviations mean. (And I’m still learning). After lunch then we were thrown to the wolves-well not literally. We had plenty of supervision and someone always there to answer our questions. 

We sign onto a computer with our username and password then we have to scan our badge.  Now we are ready to start receiving.  Boxes have been open and given what looks like a skew.  The boxes come down a conveyer belt and we have to put the boxes on our workstation.  Now comes the fun part-opening the boxes to see what’s in them!  Each items in the box also have skew.  We have to scan the skew, place it on the cart.  the computer keeps track of what and how many is in the cart.  And yes, we even have to scan the cart!  we have two different scanners that we can use, one is where we just swipe the item under it and it picks up the bar code (called the grocery scanner) or we have the hand held.  They prefer us to use the hands free scanner, but there are times you have no choice and you need to use the hand held scanner.  Even though we may have a dozen or better of the exact same thing, we still have to scan each item separately.

Thus far I have scanned loads of Halloween costume, power drinks, office supplies up the wazoo, tools, just to name a few things.  We have to separate apparels and they have to be on a completely different cart.  I hate doing apparels, because they come in large boxes and we have keep sizes, skew, colors all separate and that can become a nightmare not to mention slow you down.

If we have any questions on an item or something just won’t scan we have to turn on our Red Light and Yell “Red Light”.  This happens more times than we all would like.  someone comes around (they are literally called “Problem Solver”).  They make the decision if something should be prepped, or if it’s too small and needs to be place somewhere else or they decide if the product is considered damage when we get it.

On my 4th day ( and my Friday) we all started out with problems all morning long.  Apparently the night shift either got lazy or didn’t know what they were doing, but put the same skew on all the boxes and when we received it-our scanner didn’t like it and the boxes all had to be sent back!  We all kept yelling “Red Light”.  too boot we were short handed on ‘Problem solver” so the poor guy was running all over the place!  Then I got picked on-my red light burnt out on me!!!
Now that I have the scanning business down pat and I actually got my percentage up there, they move me to the prep line!  So now I’m learning yet another part of the job.

In prepping, you prep each individual item to according to it’s needs.  If it’s glass-it gets bubble wrapped, if it’s small individual item it gets put in bags.  The full-time year round workers prepare everything, so it’s easy to figure out what the item needs to be done.  We also learned recently that if it’s a liquid chemical, like car wax, it too has to be individually in a wrapper.

Each day we learn new things and as the days do go by it does get easier.  I do go home totally exhausted and a bit sore.  I’m a bit disappointed for I was hoping to walk more than I do, but I still love what I’m doing.  And I love opening the boxes, because you just don’t know what you will be getting.  I haven’t yet open an “naughty” things, just men's underwear!

Wonder what week 2 will bring?….Being first week, we cannot do overtime, and our area is doing volunteer overtime, so maybe by week 2 I can do that overtime.

Over the course of the summer I did a lot of reading on Amazon.com and some actually sounded frightful, but for me I’m enjoying this new adventure. 

WEEK ONE-ORIENTATION

The Day of Orientation I was really nervous and I was also getting over some kind of flu/bug.  So when I had to be at Amazon.com by 8:30am I prayed that I could handle it and not get sick.  I awoke feeling a bit queasy, but as the morning went on-I got better.

Not knowing what doors I was to go into, I decided to drive the first day and get there early.  So I found a parking spot and watched where everyone else was heading.  I saw a couple that I recognize from the park and I decided to follow them in.



Upon arriving I thought I was going into Fort Knox!  once you proceed through the door, your first greeted with security.  Of course they were ready for us.  We were handed a visitor badge and we had to sign in-matching the number on our badge.  I was number 22.

We then had to wait at in the lobby to be escorted any farther.  The first group was being led in while we waited.  Then came out a gentleman that introduce himself as Paul Strum.  He was nothing like I expected-although I’m not sure what I really expected…Anyways he made a point to greet each and everyone of us.  The most that amazed me of him-is the fact he just about remembered all of our names!

There was to be approximately 80 of us workampers to come in for orientation so they had to split us up in half.  The other half had orientation on Wednesday (glad that I didn’t get moved). First order of business was lining up against a wall and getting our mug shot.

the remainder of the day was spent on how amazon.com works and in the afternoon we had to go through Safety school.  Then it was time to finally get our badge; now we won’t need an escort if we left the conference room.  Oh, we were allowed to go to the bathroom unescorted-but that was it.



Our badges has to be on us at all times while inside Amazon.  It’s stress strongly to us that when wearing it around our neck it has to be a break-away necklace for safety reason.  If it should get caught in the conveyer it needs to break away from you.



We also at this time got our schedule and when I got mine I went; WHAT?  They put me on nights and in outbound.  I don’t mind outbound, but I really didn’t want nights.  My shift was to be from 5:00pm-3:30am.  Okay, the question I had is:  Would Leah let me sleep in the mornings?  probably not….

So I pulled Paul aside and asked him if there was any chance of changing to daytime.  He told me to give him a week and then come back to talk to him.  Okay now I’m accepting the idea of working nights and thinking maybe it won’t be so bad after all.  Then Paul’s associate, Dana calls my name and of course we all joke that I am already in trouble before I even get started!  (LOL)

She hands me a strip of paper that now has my username and password and informs me that I am now on days and I’m in Inbound/Stowe. My shift would now be 6:00am-4:30pm.  We all get our own username and password.  Even out on the floor we have to use computers.  I guess everything is computerized now-a-day in our crazy world.

So now orientation is done with and the following day (Monday) I would report to the “D” section of Amazon.com to start working in stowing/receiving.