Well, it’s been 7 years since I’ve wandered the aisles of an Amazon fulfillment center during the Christmas rush. I’m at a different location now. The last time was at Campbellsville KY, where the RV park was a short 2 block walk from work. Now I’m working at Murfreesboro TN and staying in an RV park in Smyrna TN. That’s about a 20 minute drive down I 24, usually not too bad but metro Nashville traffic can really get intense. The first few days I used Google Maps and about 6 times per trip I would get a notice about a disabled vehicle.
Is the work any different? Not really. There are a few small differences that I’ve noticed. Here at BNA3 (Amazon slang for Murfreesboro) , they have 2 start of shift briefing locations instead of the 1 at Campbellsville. That means you have to get logged in to your scanner a few minutes early to see which side you’ll be picking and go to the correct briefing/stretching location. They also use walkie talkies extensively. That makes it much easier to get help anywhere in the warehouse but it also means they can’t pipe music out to take our minds off the drudgery of the work.
After a 7 year break, I obviously had questions about my physical abilities. Good news/bad news there. 3 weeks in and I haven’t been bothered by blisters or chafing rashes like the first time. My feet are in fairly good shape. I can still walk after a 10 hour shift without problem. But…… have you ever heard a sportscaster talk about an athlete losing a step late in their career? I know the true meaning of that now. While I can still scoot down the aisle at a pretty quick pace, it’s not quite as fast as it used to be. I got one more surprise – my eyesight. Those scanners have fairly small type so I frequently have to use my reading glasses. I don’t use glasses for distance or own bifocals so I do a lot of flipping the glasses on and off the top of my head.
My attitude has also changed. The first time around I was constantly trying to get the highest numbers possible, strictly an ego thing. This time I’ve come to a couple of realizations. First, no matter how quick I pick, my pick rates will always be limited by the scanner and by the stowers. The scanner tells me where to go and what to pick. If it sends me on a 20 second walk to pick just one item several times an hour, my numbers will be low. The best hour I had at Campbellsville was standing at a bin full of gift cards for the better part of an hour, picking 10 or 20 at a time without moving. Stowers are the people who put merchandise in the bins for me to pick. If they jam a bin with many similar items, I have to spend extra time pawing through the entire bin for the one item I need. Beyond those 2 limitations, it simply doesn’t make sense for me to kill myself trying to get high numbers. I get paid the same regardless of my pick rate. As long as I meet Amazon standards, I keep getting paid. They also print out reports of all the pickers rates and hang those on a board for review. There are still many pickers with lower numbers than me so I feel fairly secure in my job.
Right now, I have 4 work weeks left. At least 2 of those will be 50 hour weeks. I’ve done one 50 hour week so far but the extra day was in the middle of my 3 day weekend. Future overtime will be 5 days in a row so I’ll be a very tired puppy by the end of the week. The permanent employees refer to a workday as 4 quarters, marked by 2 breaks and lunch. After talking to some coworkers, it seems like many of us are surviving from one quarter to the next. With my first pick of the day, I start counting down to the first break, then to lunch, then to the afternoon break. Maybe they need to figure out a way to get that music in the warehouse to get our minds off that.
My last scheduled shift is 12/21. I’ll take a few days off and tow the 5th wheel down to MS for the winter.
