Amazon Recap- Almost Done!

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Greg and I survived the week! Six 10 hour days for him, and five for me. We kept hoping all week for word of an early release, but as of today we are still scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. The Hazlett, Texas warehouse got word that they finish up Tuesday, but each warehouse sets its own schedule.


We did get informed this week that our warehouse will not use work-campers next year. This was the first full season for Jeffersonville, as a small test group was brought up from the Campbellsville, KY location partway through last season. We thought maybe they canceled the program because there was no longer a labor shortage in the area. This area seems to have attracted a fair amount of immigrants, and our warehouse reflects that. We have a large group of Spanish speaking workers, as well as African and Middle Eastern, with some Asian languages mixed in. Our department, Picking, is not as diverse, as English reading skills are required to read the clothing labels.


Yesterday we discovered that they are not hosting another year of workcampers because of our group. Management got tired of all the “bitching and complaining” and said they wanted no parts of the program next year! Now, we were the last bunch to arrive and have only been here six weeks, and because of our late start have pretty much decided not to try to get to know the larger group that has been here much longer. We've been working and keeping our heads down, so we've only heard a few rumors about that type of behavior. I expect we'll never know the full story, but we feel that all our expectations have been met. The experience has pretty much been what we were led to believe it would be based on our interview and our multi paged contract. Not gonna' play the blame game. We do need to figure out where to apply in case we do this next year. We are being offered early applications to get us to the top of the list and need to give them our top two choices.


Anyway, this week was more of the same. After we are done I'll post a “Day in the Life” of an Amazonian. 5 am came extra early this week! A few more friends left. Rachel and Gavin took off for Iowa for a family funeral. We missed the young couple as they were a part of our lunch and break group. Lyle and Lynda went with us to Big Four Burgers and Brews for a farewell dinner on Friday night. We will especially miss them. This experience would have been a whole lot tougher without new friends to commiserate and gossip with!


Greg and I are spending our two free days, (Greg has only had one day a week off the last three weeks), relaxing, doing laundry, and starting to stow the rig and prepare for leaving. We are hoping to be dismissed after shift on Tuesday. Even if we still work Wednesday we'll be prepared to hitch up the car and drive a few hours towards Maryland until we get sleepy and find a Flying J. For now, our plans are to spend a week in Maryland with family and head south to Florida the first week in January. Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park will be a great, quiet and beautiful place to volunteer from January through March!