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!
Monday, December 21, 2015
Monday, December 14, 2015
Amazon Update! Life In the Fast Lane!
Monday, December 14, 2015
Last week is finished! We dug deeper into the whole Amazon experience and are ready to run the last leg. Greg worked Monday through Saturday and earned another $100 gift card as well as overtime pay for 59.5 hours. I spent Monday doing laundry and other chores and picked him up at 4:30 pm. Starting to feel out of sorts, as my post last week showed! Well, I was coming down with what was probably a noro-virus, not unexpected given the fact that we are in contact with the same surfaces that thousands of other people touch each day at Amazon. I missed work on Tuesday.
Wednesday I crawled out of bed and dragged my sorry self into work. No work means no pay and since we are here for a short time I needed to just do it! Going to an office and sitting at a desk when you don't feel well is one thing. Walking 10-16 miles a day while you feel sick is not something I'd like to repeat! By Saturday I was pretty much back to the normal end of week Amazon exhaustion. So I earned no overtime this week, but at least got in my 40 hours.
On top of not feeling well, I had to work near the guy who was so rude to me last week. He apparently saw the error of his ways, and spent the week trying to avoid me, which was nearly impossible given that we were frequently working in the same area. I discovered that he is trying to advance himself at Amazon and now seems afraid that I will report him and cause a problem. I have no intention of reporting him, but I hope he learned his lesson. He will be very glad to see me go!
This week starts “Crush Week” at Amazon. We got robocalls from the plant manager thanking us for our hard work and reminding us to keep it up. There will be orange crush sodas served one day and opportunities to pick 200 items an hour to earn a vendor buck to use for a candy bar in the vending machines, and be in a drawing for a $25 gift card. Given the spread out “pick paths” we've had all week, I don't expect anyone we know will be able to qualify.
So, another 50 hour week for me starts tomorrow and Greg started his 59.5 hour week today while I grocery and Christmas shop. No word yet if we will be released early. If not we are still working next Tuesday and Wednesday in order to qualify for our $1 an hour bonus for all time served. We only get that if we last through the 23rd, or if they release us sooner. With Amazon breaking sales records this year, including our warehouse, no one knows if we might get out early.
When you hear from me next, this week will be in the bag and we'll either be finished or two days away from finished! Can't wait...
Last week is finished! We dug deeper into the whole Amazon experience and are ready to run the last leg. Greg worked Monday through Saturday and earned another $100 gift card as well as overtime pay for 59.5 hours. I spent Monday doing laundry and other chores and picked him up at 4:30 pm. Starting to feel out of sorts, as my post last week showed! Well, I was coming down with what was probably a noro-virus, not unexpected given the fact that we are in contact with the same surfaces that thousands of other people touch each day at Amazon. I missed work on Tuesday.
Wednesday I crawled out of bed and dragged my sorry self into work. No work means no pay and since we are here for a short time I needed to just do it! Going to an office and sitting at a desk when you don't feel well is one thing. Walking 10-16 miles a day while you feel sick is not something I'd like to repeat! By Saturday I was pretty much back to the normal end of week Amazon exhaustion. So I earned no overtime this week, but at least got in my 40 hours.
On top of not feeling well, I had to work near the guy who was so rude to me last week. He apparently saw the error of his ways, and spent the week trying to avoid me, which was nearly impossible given that we were frequently working in the same area. I discovered that he is trying to advance himself at Amazon and now seems afraid that I will report him and cause a problem. I have no intention of reporting him, but I hope he learned his lesson. He will be very glad to see me go!
This week starts “Crush Week” at Amazon. We got robocalls from the plant manager thanking us for our hard work and reminding us to keep it up. There will be orange crush sodas served one day and opportunities to pick 200 items an hour to earn a vendor buck to use for a candy bar in the vending machines, and be in a drawing for a $25 gift card. Given the spread out “pick paths” we've had all week, I don't expect anyone we know will be able to qualify.
So, another 50 hour week for me starts tomorrow and Greg started his 59.5 hour week today while I grocery and Christmas shop. No word yet if we will be released early. If not we are still working next Tuesday and Wednesday in order to qualify for our $1 an hour bonus for all time served. We only get that if we last through the 23rd, or if they release us sooner. With Amazon breaking sales records this year, including our warehouse, no one knows if we might get out early.
When you hear from me next, this week will be in the bag and we'll either be finished or two days away from finished! Can't wait...
Monday, December 7, 2015
Slogging Along...
Monday, December 7, 2015
Our first week of longer hours at Amazon was rough. Greg decided to go for the most overtime allowed and a $100 gift card, so he worked Monday through Saturday. His week ended at 4:50 pm when he maxed out at 59.5 hours which is the limit. Supposedly going over that risks firing. No one knows why. We took the option given to work-campers to only work 10 instead of 11 hours for our required 5 days, so that's what Greg and I did all week, swiping in at 6:30 am and leaving at 5 pm.
The days were long and frustrating. Most days we definitely did the 15 miles being sent from one side of a floor and back again after one pick, and then back again to the original spot. Our group spends a lot of time trying to figure out the computer's logic for the “pick path”. Greg got moved to the jewelry area at the other side of the 1/3-mile long warehouse. I stayed in our previous mod running up and down all floors many times a day. I can tell by how my pants fit that I've lost weight, and my everyday walking pace off the job has picked up!
At our last break of the week on Saturday afternoon, I got a taste of the local “culture”. A fellow picker decided that I disrespected him, I'm not sure how, and just before I got up from my table to go back to work walked up and verbally blasted me, then raced off! I was so shocked and speechless as were Greg and our friends, that I could hardly finish the afternoon. I am used to professional situations where if you have an issue, you address it civilly. It was a reminder that we are the interlopers here in a working class culture. One one level, I am furious with the guy. On another level I feel sorry for him that he has issues that cause him to blast a woman he doesn't even know. His buddies were all watching my reaction, so I guess that upped his credibility in their eyes. I've got two weeks left and I get on with my wonderful life while he has to keep working at Amazon. I'm choosing not to make this an issue for him if he leaves me alone.
Greg went in to work today so I went to the laundromat without him and will go pick him up again soon. Tomorrow it's back to the grind again and 12 more days for me and 13 for Greg. I am ready to be done. I don't know how the others who came in mid-September and mid-October are coping. As one of them said, she feels like she's “brain dead”. A few work-campers managed to get put into other departments after working for a while. The powers that be said that we were only to be put into picking even though other Amazon warehouses with work-campers use them in all areas. I told our HR person that I would only consider coming back next year if I could be put into something besides picking. All the other jobs are less strenuous. She told us they might not use work-campers here next year because they only hired 60, and were hoping for 200. Some new warehouses may open up to work-campers next year, but the advantage of this one is that it is mostly apparel, which is easier to handle than heavy electronics and appliances.
One of our 14 person orientation group quit this week, as well as several others who arrived before we did. It was too much to handle physically. No quitting here! I must admit I am a bit down today. The weather is gloomy, and I am feeling tired and out of sorts. The mobile home park we are staying in is bleak as well, and we are missing family and better warmer weather. Oh, and the sun! It's dark when we leave. We are sealed up in a warehouse all day, and dark when we come home. Okay, we are in the home stretch! I'll check in again next week!
Our first week of longer hours at Amazon was rough. Greg decided to go for the most overtime allowed and a $100 gift card, so he worked Monday through Saturday. His week ended at 4:50 pm when he maxed out at 59.5 hours which is the limit. Supposedly going over that risks firing. No one knows why. We took the option given to work-campers to only work 10 instead of 11 hours for our required 5 days, so that's what Greg and I did all week, swiping in at 6:30 am and leaving at 5 pm.
The days were long and frustrating. Most days we definitely did the 15 miles being sent from one side of a floor and back again after one pick, and then back again to the original spot. Our group spends a lot of time trying to figure out the computer's logic for the “pick path”. Greg got moved to the jewelry area at the other side of the 1/3-mile long warehouse. I stayed in our previous mod running up and down all floors many times a day. I can tell by how my pants fit that I've lost weight, and my everyday walking pace off the job has picked up!
At our last break of the week on Saturday afternoon, I got a taste of the local “culture”. A fellow picker decided that I disrespected him, I'm not sure how, and just before I got up from my table to go back to work walked up and verbally blasted me, then raced off! I was so shocked and speechless as were Greg and our friends, that I could hardly finish the afternoon. I am used to professional situations where if you have an issue, you address it civilly. It was a reminder that we are the interlopers here in a working class culture. One one level, I am furious with the guy. On another level I feel sorry for him that he has issues that cause him to blast a woman he doesn't even know. His buddies were all watching my reaction, so I guess that upped his credibility in their eyes. I've got two weeks left and I get on with my wonderful life while he has to keep working at Amazon. I'm choosing not to make this an issue for him if he leaves me alone.
Greg went in to work today so I went to the laundromat without him and will go pick him up again soon. Tomorrow it's back to the grind again and 12 more days for me and 13 for Greg. I am ready to be done. I don't know how the others who came in mid-September and mid-October are coping. As one of them said, she feels like she's “brain dead”. A few work-campers managed to get put into other departments after working for a while. The powers that be said that we were only to be put into picking even though other Amazon warehouses with work-campers use them in all areas. I told our HR person that I would only consider coming back next year if I could be put into something besides picking. All the other jobs are less strenuous. She told us they might not use work-campers here next year because they only hired 60, and were hoping for 200. Some new warehouses may open up to work-campers next year, but the advantage of this one is that it is mostly apparel, which is easier to handle than heavy electronics and appliances.
One of our 14 person orientation group quit this week, as well as several others who arrived before we did. It was too much to handle physically. No quitting here! I must admit I am a bit down today. The weather is gloomy, and I am feeling tired and out of sorts. The mobile home park we are staying in is bleak as well, and we are missing family and better warmer weather. Oh, and the sun! It's dark when we leave. We are sealed up in a warehouse all day, and dark when we come home. Okay, we are in the home stretch! I'll check in again next week!
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