Disclaimer:  We  are not spokespersons or officially affiliated with Amazon in any way. This account is of our personal experience as seasonal employees in the Cambellsville, KY distribution center in 2017.  I in no way speak for the company or my co-workers, and am only recounting my personal experiences.  Also, any details I get wrong in this or any other post are due to a misunderstanding on my part and are not intentional.  To start at the beginning of our Amazon experience, click here for the first Amazon post. 

Day 35

In case I am not mentioning it enough, by our last day of the 50 hour week, my body is really hurting. I don’t know how those people who are working 60 hours are doing it, because at this point I would give anything to take an extra day off. It’s not just losing the OT money though that keeps me going in, because they are also having an attendance raffle.  If you have perfect attendance the first week, you can win $100. If you have perfect attendance the first and second week, it’s $200. And perfect attendance three weeks in a row is $300. That’s pretty serious money just for clocking in. The first week two work kampers I actually know won it.  It’s a pretty smart way to keep people coming into work in the home stretch. Plus I keep telling myself we are almost done, which does help.  It’s not only us that are stressed though, the pressure is being felt all along the supply chain.  We know someone who has a husband that works full-time at UPS and they are working crazy hours to keep up with Amazon. We also have a friend who is working seasonally for UPS and he just wrote a terrific detailed description of what that job is like.  It’s really good, you should check it out.

My point is that the concept of Amazon Prime and two day shipping sounds great, and usually it is, but the seasonal stress it puts on the distribution system is pretty amazing. It never really occurred to me before doing this.  I just liked getting my stuff by Christmas and was always annoyed when the last minute shipping wasn’t available. I had no idea how much went behind that click of a button, and if nothing else, I am grateful for all I have learned in this job.  I am not kidding about that.  I have learned a ton about process that I am not sure I could have learned any other way, and I am 100% sure I will be a better process analyst going forward because of it. It’s a major silver lining for me.

(When I was in the Air Force I worked for the military version of the postal service. For part of that time I supervised mail transfer between commercial airlines and a military air mail terminal, and for part of it I worked at the air mail terminal itself, about an hour from Heathrow airport near London. I don’t know how it’s done now, it’s been 30 years, but back then all mail between the US and overseas military bases was transported via commercial airlines, and the carrier depended on where it was coming from/going to. So the mail would come into Heathrow from the US via these six or seven airlines, and would be transported by truck to the air mail terminal, where these big 70lb bags of letters and small packages would be sorted according to what base in England it was headed to, then a smaller truck from each base would pick it up, and drop off mail going out, and then those bags would be sorted according to where they were going in the world, and the truck would take it to Heathrow.

Pretty simple process handled almost exclusively by a bunch of kids not even 21 yet. And it happened day after day after day after day. And that was just tiny old England, there were other terminals all over the world, much larger ones. The Frankfort one was legendary for the volume it processed through western Europe. This was still the cold war, after all, and we had lots of bases there. I was always amazed at how smoothly it all worked, and how much volume there was. Every day the equivalent of a 50′ semi trailer would go back and forth. Once it was all sorted out into the various containers for each base, the piles of mail sacks would vary in size based on the size of the military base, anywhere from 1 or 2 bags for a tiny installation, to 30 or 40 for a large base with fighters and bombers. And then I experienced my first Christmas season. For two months, there would be two semi trailers ever day instead of one, going in both directions. Sometimes three. Every day. For weeks. We had scores of temporary help from bases all over the world to handle the volume. The larger bases had piles of mail bags that would literally be stacked 20 feet high in pyramids, and took several people working in a vertical chain gang to pass the sacks from one to another to build these pyramids.

It was mind boggling, a truly staggering amount of mail being moved every day. I would stand there and look at the terminal when it was full and just shake my head in amazement at how a single envelope with a Christmas card in it would multiply to the point where it created a stack that big. I remember thinking how important it was, what we were doing, that every one of those envelopes was something special between two people separated by thousands of miles and multiple time zones, in a time when there was no internet, no email, no texting, and overseas phone calls cost a fortune, and every time I would sling a bag of those envelopes to or from the conveyor belt I was a small part of the chain that brought someone a moment of home, a bit of good news, a picture to be cherished, or a little extra money. It was pretty damn cool. Of course, this is all just leggings and beanies and gift cards, but it’s kind of the same thing. Anyway, Merry Christmas. – Lee)

Our last night of the week started out a little rough.  I felt a bit like I had the flu (tired and achy all over) but it was just being tired.  They had fruit again on break, which was nice, and that and a cup of coffee at lunch really perked me up.  The tight pick paths helped as well, and I spent quite a bit of time in every area I was in.  I also had a stretch where I was going in right after the stowers and not only were my items right on top (love that) but the bins themselves looked really great.  I picked an entire tote of beanies at one point which was pretty easy and fun and in general my whole mood lightened. One thing that happened throughout the day that was interesting was several of the locals came up and talked about when we were leaving.  Then they started talking to me about their long term plans (which usually included leaving the area and going someplace else) and I was happy to listen.  I know from first hand experience how hard it is to leave the place you grew up in, but it’s a big wide world out there and certainly there is more economic opportunity in other areas of the country.  I’m used to people being curious about what we do and how we did it, so it didn’t surprise me that since we are leaving folks wanted to talk about our lifestyle, and like I said I am always happy to talk about it.

Lee had an interesting day, because for some reason he was moved to the A building.  No idea why, but after weeks in the E mods he was suddenly in a new section and it took him a while to get acclimated.  Probably a good thing, since he had something else to focus on and he got to pick some non-apparel items he had never seen before which is always fun.  Speaking of that, I am enjoying my time with non-apparel but it is definitely taking a toll on my body.  More concrete floors, poorer lighting, and lots more stairs, but overall I am willing to pay that price for the variety.  I was on one floor though where at least 15 light bulbs were out and I felt strongly enough about it that I felt I needed to say something.  The fulfillment center is having a large capital project to replace lighting next year, but in the interim some sections are really dark.  I talked to the shift manager first, but when I was told an outside company replaced the bulbs I felt I needed to do more.  I was on my way to the Voice of the Associate board, where you can write down concerns, when I happened across the operations manager.  I was surprised he was there so late, but when I asked to speak to him he immediately stopped what he was doing and came over.

I made my case that poor lighting was both a quality and a safety issue and he took notes while I was speaking to him.  I used my best professional tone, which seemed to get his attention, and ended with the statement that I could live with issues caused by bad ballasts (they would be upgraded with the project), but if it was just a burned out bulb, “For God’s sake just replace the light bulb.” He smiled when I said that and repeated it with me, and I felt pretty good about saying something and being heard.  Once again I will say the management team here is really great about that and I had his undivided attention while I was talking to him. Hopefully he will follow up the conversation with some action, but if nothing else I tried and expressed my concerns in a constructive way. So things ended up good, but I am really glad we have a couple of days off and then one more week and we are done!!

Tracy:   20,108 steps ( 8.88 miles) (estimated based on 85% of Lee)
Items Picked:  839

Lee:    23,657 steps ( 10.45 miles)
Items Picked: 753

Interesting Item Picked:  The funniest thing I picked was a Belly Stuffer. It was a large fake belly and the box said good for “beer bellies, Santa suits, and fake pregnancies.”  What an odd combination lol.  That’s not my winner for the day, it is definitely a beanie.  I picked a tote full of this particular kind and I have to say they are really cute. I seriously think that for the rest of my life whenever I see a beanie I will think of Amazon so it’s only fair that they made it into my top picks. 

Days Off

We spent Friday going to the Jim Beam Distillery with Kelly and Bill (which I wrote a separate post on), but Lee also squeezed in some time to start packing up.  Towards the end of the day we all learned our last day would be Thursday, which was great for us because it was a regular day.  It meant one more 50 hour week, but we were fine with that especially when we learned we had earned 5 hours of paid time off.  After 320 hours you get 5 and we needed to make sure that we took it prior to our very last day.  We must have just squeaked in, because we didn’t think we were going to earn it, and I decided I wanted to take it Tuesday evening, because it would break up the week.  One of the nice things about paid time off is you don’t have to ask anyone’s permission.  You just schedule it on the HR hub and then write it on a board when you go in (if you are leaving early one day) and that’s it. I like this method very much because it takes the supervisors personal preferences out of it.  You earn the time and you take it when you want.  In a company this size that is the way it should be.

Saturday we got our mail in the morning and I had a present from my oldest daughter Kyrston. It was a hard copy of Eat Real Vietnamese Food Cookbook, that I mentioned in an earlier post.  Not only did she read my post, but immediately sent me the cookbook for Christmas.  I really am a very lucky Mom and was so touched by her thoughtfulness. And I plan on trying every single recipe in that book and NOT cutting it up!  Love you sweetie!

Lee spent the rest of the morning packing things up and then 3pm we met up with Karen and Al at Brothers BBQ.  They are longtime friends of Bill and Nancy’s but since they work night shift we have not been able to see them outside of work.  They suggested this time for lunch/dinner and the restaurant because they think it is the best restaurant in town.  I’ll be honest I had my doubts, especially since I am not a hug fan of BBQ to begin with,  but was I pleasantly surprised.  I had The Dude (a mixture of pulled pork and brisket in a sweet sauce and it was really really good.  Plus the conversation was fantastic.  Al and Karen have been working RVers for 7 years and we spent lots of time talking to them about their experiences.  They gave us lots of great information on how they have been traveling and we absolutely learned a lot from them.  And since our friend Nancy really wanted us to spend time with them (as much as possible I try to do what Nancy tells me to do), I was so glad we managed to spend time with them before we left.

Lee (who is always annoyed when I make him wait to eat to take a picture), Al, Karen, Bill, and Kelly

My sandwich was really really good

Day 36

The day started off really great.  I was feeling very peppy, mainly because the end was in site, and with two days off I felt pretty good.  And two really nice things happened. First off, I was passing by one of the managers and noticed someone had left a tote with items in it on the bottom of a cart.  I stopped and put the tote on the conveyor belt and the manager called me over.  He thanked me for doing that and said he really appreciated how positive my attitude was  and then gave me a $10 gift card.  It was very sweet of him and I appreciated his taking the time to do that.  As I’ve said before, I think being a nice and positive person is important regardless of how my day is going and it was really touching that he recognized that.  Not that long later we were buying our items with our Cambellsville cash and unfortunately they were out of the coffee mug I wanted.  I went outside on break, but when I came back in one of the HR people caught me and told me she had found a few mugs in the back.  Not only did she remember that I wanted one, but personally went back and grabbed them for us and we got the last two with handles.  Again very sweet, and it was so nice of her to go to that kind of trouble,

With those two experiences fresh in my head I really wanted to take a moment and answer the question I have been getting from most of the full time employees I have met.  They all want to know if we are coming back, and although I will answer this question fully in my recap and summary, my short answer is: probably not.  I like the people here very much and I am impressed by the managers in particular.  I like the overall atmosphere, the way we are treated, and the campground is just fine.  I don’t even mind the work most days and appreciate all the little things they do to try and keep it as fresh as possible.  What I can’t handle is the pain.

I’m not a completely stoic person when it comes to pain, but I have had three children (one of which was with no drugs at all), so it’s not like I am not familiar with it. But every day we have worked (and most of our off days) my feet have hurt pretty bad.  I expected some level of discomfort.  I have done my stretches, taken Advil, and paid particular attention to any area that is bothering me and changed my work habits to help.  So I have avoided the strains and sprains that many people have experienced.  What I haven’t been able to do anything about is my feet.  They just hurt.  And since the pain is not muscular there isn’t much I can do it about it.  At this point I understand what is causing it, but walking on concrete is part of the deal, and even on those days that I am mainly on upper floors they still hurt.  Most days I start the day with them hurting, end the day with me hobbling along, and I go to bed hurting to the point where it frequently wakes me up at night.

To net $10 an hour I am not OK with that. Many people are.  Many people are older than me and seem to be handling it just fine, and the full time employees all say that “you get used to it.”  Maybe so, but it’s been over a month now, and I’m not used to it.  I’ve taken some flack in the comment section about how we take these jobs and then complain about them and that’s really been bothering me. First I wanted to say, I’m doing everything I can to not let my attitude spill over onto the people I work with, and it appears to be successful as you can see from above.  But more importantly, you as readers should know that this experience has been colored by that pain.  I try to break things down as objectively as I can, and as much as possible provide a balanced view, but it’s hard for me  to focus on the positive when I am hurting.

So let me summarize my thought process.  Lots of people like it here and come back year after year.  I like the people, especially the managers.  Almost everyone has been very nice to us.   The work is OK and there are opportunities to try different things.  The money we make will barely cover our expenses and will not cover our costs to get here.  My feet hurt all the time.  For me, most days, the last item trumps everything else.  If we were making more money I would probably feel differently. If the work was more interesting I would probably feel differently. But on balance that is where I am at.  Simply put (and the short answer I have given people who ask) it isn’t enough money for how hard the work is.  I feel slightly embarrassed saying that to people who do this day in and day out for a living and I always add (and mean it) that I have an incredible amount of respect for those people who do this for a living.  But I am too old for this.  And again feel slightly embarrassed because there are many work kampers much older than me doing this. So I start to think I am a big wus and then I stand up to get some more coffee, wince in pain, hobble to the coffe pot, and think no…for me it’s not worth it.  So to the critics out there I don’t know what to else to tell you.  As my kids say, “You do you, boo.”

Tracy:   27,909 steps ( 11.65 miles) (Lee found my fitbit…hooray…it was actually in the truck)
Items Picked: 856

Lee:    17,807 steps ( 7.86 miles)  Lee got to go to pack in the fourth quarter
Items Picked: 812

Interesting Item Picked:  I ran across an item that I know everyone has someone in their life that needs this.  It was a windup poop emoji toy that poops out little pieces of candy.  I know, it’s silly, but it made me laugh and seriously you know someone who would love this. 

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Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.

Disclaimer:  We  are not spokespersons or officially affiliated with Amazon in any way. This account is of our personal experience as seasonal employees in the Cambellsville, KY distribution center in 2017.  I in no way speak for the company or my co-workers, and am only recounting my personal experiences.  Also, any details I get wrong in this or any other post are due to a misunderstanding on my part and are not intentional.  To start at the beginning of our Amazon experience, click here for the first Amazon post. 

Day 30

We weren’t sure what we were doing today, but since it was the end of another 50 hour week, we were both glad to be in pack again.  Our Thursdays are the start of the shifts for what they call back half and we had different managers and mostly different employees we were working with.  One of the benefits of our mid shift is we get to see all the shifts at some point in our week.  One of the bad parts, is all the managers are a bit different and aside from our personal manager (who is spread a little thin covering a small group of packers and pickers) we don’t get to know people as well.  That’s why I was so pleased at the end of the night when the second half night manager came to our area and made it a point to introduce herself.  She took the time to find out a little about us and then sincerely said, “We are happy to have you.”  Those little moments really matter to me, and the Amazon management team does a really nice job of that, especially with us Camperforce folks.

But despite the consistency at the manager level, there is definitely a different “vibe” on the different shifts.  Night shift tends to feel a little looser in my opinion and consequently runs a little less like a well-oiled machine.  Unlike picking, where we see only our small piece of the puzzle, you get a more complete view of what is happening while in pack and I find that a little distracting.  That being said the people are almost always very helpful and last night I had several instances where I needed assistance and it was promptly offered, and in a friendly manner. I also picked up a couple “tricks of the trade” from one helper in particular and those short-cuts will definitely come in handy if we get placed on pack again.

Once again we ran out of work, around 7:30pm, but after break things picked up again and there was plenty to do.  I find apparel the easiest to pack by far, but if I do apparel for too long I start getting some back pain.  The non-apparel items almost always require boxes and for some reason that doesn’t hurt, probably because each box is a different size and requires different muscle movement.  Speaking of which, the magic box size appears to be a 1A9.  When in doubt, I always try that (based on Lee’s recommendation) and 8 out of 10 times it works.  The screen does provide solid recommendations, but on occasion it comes up with Unknown.  That always seems to happen with NFL gear for some reason, and I guess that is because the system doesn’t have the dimensions.

Tracy:  8,273 steps ( 3.48 miles) 
Items Packed: We received our weekly report and I packed 3,070 items this week at a rate of 152% productivity which our supervisor said was a great number even for non-camperforce.  Only one person on our shift beat me that week. Guess who that was!

Lee:     (miles)
Items Packed:  3270 with a rate of 183% productivity.  We don’t call him the Packmaster for nothing!

Interesting Item Packed:  The thing that really caught my interest were two boxes of Trojan Ultra Thin condoms. If you are a person who needs these, going ultra thin just seems like a bad idea lol.  I stopped and showed them to Lee and he made a joke about their slogan should be “living life on the edge” and we shared a laugh. My real pick though today were these really cute  Jon Snow tree ornaments.  If you are a fan of Game of Thrones the likeness is amazing and I love how they said “Let it Snow.”  I liked the double meaning plus the actor is a cutie.

Days Off

We had lots of stuff going on during our days off, but before I start on that I wanted to talk a little about healthcare.  This is a significant challenge on the road for many people, but despite all the ups and downs and concerns, we have signed up for an ACA program out of Florida for 2018.  Our premiums are actually less than last year with the subsidy, and we are going with it although I am still pretty nervous about the whole thing.  We feel really lucky we chose to domicile in Florida, because we have several Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans available, but our friends who are domiciling in North Dakota or Texas are not so lucky.  And in the interest of sharing as much information as possible on the subject, I wanted to pass along a recent post by some friends of ours.

Les and Sue have been full timing longer than us, and we have seen them along our travels in Quartzsite and Texas.  Like us, they work pretty frequently and are not 65, so healthcare is a major concern.  They decided to join one of the faith-based health groups that sprung up in Texas and had reason to use that insurance when Les (who is a very healthy guy) had an unexpected heart attack.  The post details that experience, along with how they were treated by the health care professionals, and is absolutely worth the read.

OK, so our days off.  You may have seen on the comments on one of our blog posts that we were contacted by a show called On The Money on the Canadian Broadcasting network to do an interview.  Since they wanted to do the interview live, we needed to push it until Friday, and then I spent some time pre-interviewing with the producer.  It’s interesting how much mis-information there is out there about our lifestyle, so I spent some time talking to her about the way things were on the road.  I also made it very clear that there is a ton of diversity in the lifestyle, and I couldn’t speak for all of us, but just my own experience.  I hope I at least broadened her perspective, but we will see how that translates to the actual interviewer.  Willing to give it a shot though and we will be skyping with them today, so will let you know how it goes. It’s pretty hard to sum up our story in a 2-3 minute interview.

I also had my final interview with last summer’s employer to discuss the Lead position for next year, which I have been waiting for. The interview went well, and I will find out next week if I was selected, but I do know there was a lot of interest in the job, so I won’t be surprised whatever happens.  I have less direct campground management experience than other candidates, but am hoping that my other work skills and the fact that I did a good job this summer will work to my advantage.  Either way I have a Plan B if it doesn’t work out, and in some respects I feel as if whatever happens is meant to be.  Definitely at a crossroads here and I always feel it’s best to pay attention to the signposts in that situation.

Right after the interview we worked out the technical details with the producer of the show.  She wanted to use Skype instead of Facetime, so it took us awhile to get that connection working.  I looked really tired in the phone camera, but being married to a former TV director has it’s perks.  He put a super bright light on me, which helped with the dark shadows under my eyes and at the end of the day hopefully it is something I can live with.  Afterwards, Kelly and Bill are coming over for a pot roast I fixed and I am definitely indulging in a glass of wine!

The interview started with a technical glitch which threw me, but we managed to fix it in time.  Interviewing with someone you can’t see is challenging, but he did a nice job of leading me through it.  He definitely had some things he wanted me to say though and his questions were very leading, but  I was prepared for that and think I did pretty well.  I certainly don’t speak for all of us to do seasonal work and I needed to be very careful I didn’t speak for Amazon employees, but hopefully I told my truth without over generalizing.  Lee was absolutely pleased by the way it went so that was good and if nothing else the interviewer mentioned the blog a couple of times, so maybe a few more people will learn about us.  If you are interested in watching it for yourself, you can find the video here.

Afterwards, it was back to normal life and we had Kelly and Bill over and ate some pot roast, and as always, conversation flowed.  We talked about Amazon, our kids, life on the road, politics, you name it.  We can cover a lot of topics very quickly. Usually they host, because I was not crazy about how my RV was laid out for entertaining, but with the new couch and having 4 nice chairs for our dining room table it worked out pretty well.  They were my hosting test bunnies and I think it worked!  I know that sounds strange, but one of the downsides of our front living room model is we have three levels in our RV, which works great when it’s just us, but not as great when people come over.  It’s funny because when we bought this model we talked about it, but since we thought people would rarely be in it we didn’t worry about that so much.  Little did we know how many friends we would have and how often we would need an inside place to entertain.  Yes, we prefer being outside when we can, but there are lots of times when the weather doesn’t cooperate.  I can’t tell you how many meals I have cooked and taken into Kelly/Bill, Deb/Steve, or Cori/Greg’s RV’s because I didn’t like our layout.  With the changes we have made it still doesn’t work for six or more, but I think we definitely made 4 people work. You probably think I am making too much of this but let me show you.

Lee in our upper living room level laughing at a job Alexa told us. We love our new Echo Dot! We have seats for four on the upper level. More if we make people sit on the floor lol.

Kelly sitting down at the table which we pull out into the middle of the kitchen and Bill is walking into the upper level which holds the bathroom and bedroom.

We have room for four people and just enough room for one person to finish the dinner, but not two. Lee kicked me out and served!

Pretty happy with how the pot roast turned out.

So as you can see, it’s tight, but we can make dinner for 4 work OK, which makes me very happy! Our preference will still be eating outside, but this is nice for those bad weather days.  Speaking of which, the temps here finally got below 32 degrees at night and since our furnace isn’t working consistently Lee came up with an interim solution.  He bought a small ceramic heater, plugged it into the open 30 amp socket at the post, ran the cable through a storage compartment door, and then taped the door shut to the basement.  As much as I don’t like having an electric heater in the basement, it is way better than the alternative of having our pipes freeze up, and it is working well, keeping the underbelly at around 50 degrees. He also got a wireless remote thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature. (This is a decent temporary solution, with the added bonus of once the furnace is fixed, we have an additional spare heater, and that remote temperature sensor will come in handy as well. It doesn’t take much, and the heater is probably overkill, but I always say if you’re going to kill something, you might as well overkill it. – Lee) Again not a permanent solution, but it will work in a pinch and help us muddle through until we make it to a warmer climate.  I say that, but I am not sure where a warmer climate is this year.  It snowed in Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas this week and several of our friends are dealing with that in their travels. We may get a sprinkling ourselves later this week, so I’ll let you know how that goes.

Saturday was cold and snowy so mostly we stayed inside.  I did venture out and got a hair cut and also picked up a pizza for my meals this week for work.  Lee went out and grabbed some food at the grocery store and tried to go to AT&T to get our bill resolved.  Unfortunately there were 12 people in the store and only one employee working so after 1/2 hour waiting he decided to come back another day.  I really don’t understand why we can’t deal with this online or over the phone, but the company does have it’s quirks.  While I was out I went to the Dollar store and bought some gel cling ons, which I put on the window.  Kelly had some on hers and I liked the way they looked and at $1 a sheet couldn’t beat the price.  We also had steak dinner and then watched a movie so it was a nice and cozy day despite the temps outside.  They haven’t cancelled our mandatory OT for Sunday yet so we are planning on going into work, which is a good thing.

Day 31

I was surprised when our Mandatory overtime wasn’t cancelled for Sunday, but since we wanted to work anyway, it actually made things easier.  I did want to mention, for those of you who would like to try Amazon but are not interested in working a mandatory 50 hour week, there are ways around it. One easy way is to take advantage of any voluntary time off that they offer to offset the mandatory time.  To the best of my memory, they have had voluntary time off every week we have worked so we could have worked Sunday (our mandatory day) and then taken time off on Tuesday or Wednesday.  If voluntary time off isn’t offered, the other choice would be to call in and take an attendance point.  You can have up to 5 attendance points without losing your position and since we are here for such a short period of time that gives you lots of days off to play with.  Each call-in is one attendance point (being late to a shift or back from lunch is half a point), and you could definitely use those.  All that being said, you might need to work at least one 50 hour week, depending on their staffing. And if you really want to make some money doing this, working overtime is well mandatory.

The day started off a bit rough, as I strained my left wrist early on and then had to baby it throughout the day. My fitbit also popped out of its holder at some point and despite retracing my steps I couldn’t find it.  I have to say I am not a huge fan of the fit bit.  It has lots of functionality (none of which I use) and is small enough that, for me at least it is easily lost.  Since we only have 9 working days left I am not going to invest in another step counter, but rather estimate my steps based on Lee’s.  I looked back and pretty consistently I take around 85% of Lee’s steps in a day (not really sure why that is), so for these last few days my step counts will be 85% of his.  I apologize to the data purists out there, but I think I have collected enough information at this point to be able to give solid information on our averages which was really the whole point of tracking it.

I settled back into the routine pretty quickly and actually felt my time as a packer made me a better picker.  I found it was easy to pluck the right item out of the drawer and I definitely was having an easier time reading the descriptions.  Lee, of course, settled in quickly as well (with 303 picks in the first quarter), but he was not happy.  He really liked packing, and wanted to be back doing it, but that’s just not how things work here.  It’s important to note that once you are given a job, it’s very difficult to change it.  Two years ago my friend Kelly managed to change from picking to packing, but this was with doctor’s visits and doctor’s notes and even that was not easy.  As they have said time and again, positions are assigned based on business need and although they do ask for personal preferences up front regarding job and shift we have spoken to many people who are doing something completely different than they wanted.  I make this point, because you should know that going in, and because if the job you are assigned to doesn’t work for you, it’s likely you will just need to make the best of it.

All of that being said, this is temporary for us.  At the end of the night I passed a young woman who I had seen before but never spoken to, and asked her if she had a cold.  She said she wasn’t sick, but rather tired because her baby wasn’t napping.  Turns out she has three kids (ages 6,5, and 1) and she works the night shift then goes home, gets the older ones off to school and then takes care of the baby.  She sleeps when the baby naps and she hadn’t slept much the last few days.  Her story (which was told very matter of factly) reminded me of when our kids were close in that age and I spent a year working nights and doing something very similar. To this day that whole year is a bit of a blur, and just getting through every day was a victory. It gave me instant perspective.  As tough as this experience has been for us some days, it has never been close to her experience, and we get to leave this job and move on pretty soon.  This is her life, at least until the kids get older or her circumstances change, and if she can handle it with a pleasant attitude we certainly should be able to.

Tracy:  23,212  ( 10.25 miles) (estimated based on 85% of Lee)
Items Picked:  960

Lee:    27,309 steps  (12.06 miles)
Items Picked: 901

Interesting Item Picked: It was another day of all clothes, but I did run across an Adult Wolf hat which I thought was pretty weird. It didn’t look very warm and struck me as odd for some reason.  I just didn’t get it.  My favorite though for the day was a baby bib that said “We both know that isn’t an airplane.”  It took me a minute to get it, but then it made me laugh.  

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.

Disclaimer:  We  are not spokespersons or officially affiliated with Amazon in any way. This account is of our personal experience as seasonal employees in the Cambellsville, KY distribution center in 2017.  I in no way speak for the company or my co-workers, and am only recounting my personal experiences.  Also, any details I get wrong in this or any other post are due to a misunderstanding on my part and are not intentional.  To start at the beginning of our Amazon experience, click here for the first Amazon post. 

Day 27

We had another full day of packing, and because we are on mid-shift they had a little trouble getting us started, but pretty quickly they sorted us out (no pun intended) and had us trained on multi’s.  Unlike singles (where the items come on a conveyor belt in totes, and each order is only a single item) with multi’s you get a large cart on wheels that has multiple cubbies, and in each cubby is a person’s order, always more than one item. You scan a label on the cart and the computer leads you through, bin by bin, not only knowing the items you should have but recommending a box or bag for the combined size of the items.  That was pretty amazing to me and also generally spot on, although occasionally we would either upgrade or downgrade to a different size to include more packing materials.  The same general rules of which items could go in which types of bags of boxes still applied, and Lee in particular loved the puzzle of determining what would go in each box.

The expected packing rate is different on multi’s, with the expectation you will pack 185-200 in an hour, and although Lee met that target his first day (big shock for any that know him lol) I lagged a bit behind at 160 an hour.  I was OK with that because I deliberately slowed myself down and I had a largely error free day at that rate, which I thought was good for my first multi day.  Speaking of that, we had a nice conversation with the pack manager, who is the first manager we have met who is our age.  Turns out she had been there since the first day, in 1999, and the changes she has seen in process are pretty spectacular.   We chatted a bit about how things used to be and it impressed me even more to realize that Amazon has made so many process improvements in such a relatively short period of time.  The company I worked at for 15 years, for example, had been in business over 100 years and change came to them extremely slowly.

Everywhere I looked in the packing process I saw technological improvements and it was impressive.  My favorite is probably the tape machine, which is a simple idea but has been a game changer.  There is a reservoir of water on what looks like the bottom of an old fashion cash register and you select the “auto” button and not only does the correct amount of tape come out, but it’s also pre-wetted so you can just slap it on.  Yes, if you change box size you need to manually select the button, but all of the buttons are clearly marked by size so this just takes an extra second or so.  Really nifty.

And physically we held up very well, with my back only getting a little stiff in the fourth quarter.  I found that doing lots of apparel in a row made me a little stiff, so I intentionally looked for some carts that had other items to change things up a bit.  Almost all apparel goes in a poly bag, which is super easy, but the motions can get repetitive.  Almost all other items are in a box, which requires different muscles and changes things up a bit.  The tricky part, for me,  is making sure you do enough apparel to keep those numbers up, because apparel goes much faster. It’s just a matter of dropping the clothes in the bag, which is hanging right in front of you, peeling off a plastic strip to expose the glue, and flipping over and sealing the flap. In all fairness that’s mainly because I don’t know all the box sizes yet, and fumble a bit on certain orders.  Even after two days I find myself learning what fits in which box, and I am sure by the end of the week I’ll stop struggling with this so much.  Lee of course has that kind of brain and just “knows” what fits where, which is probably why his numbers are so much higher than mine.  That’s what I am going with anyway!

Oh, and on that note, our pick supervisor came up and found us and let me know my rates last week were 133%, but more importantly I had 100% quality.  I was really glad to hear that, since that was a goal of mine and slowing down definitely seemed to help.  Lee though got some news that was pretty special.  Turns out that after 5 weeks, he was the number one camperforce employee in picking this year, with over 144% productivity and 100% quality five weeks in a row.  I told our supervisor that he would be impossible to live with now, which he laughed at but he seems a little confused by us.  We get that a lot actually, because we are different than many camperforce they see, but that’s mainly because we are younger and tend to be a little competitive. I’m impressed Lee did so well, because for once we are not the youngest people in the camperforce work group.  He is competing with a few kids in their 20’s and 30’s and still rocked it. Anyway, enough bragging on my husband and I am sure many of you are wondering why he worked so hard, but Lee really just has the one speed.  And the quality thing, well if you knew him you would know everything he does he tries to do perfectly.  That’s just how he is hard wired.

So it was another interesting day, and we will be working all week up there so I’ll let you know how things progress.  We like it though, because if nothing else time is going very quickly and we find we are less tired at the end of every day.

Tracy: 6,833 steps ( 2.85 miles) We parked in the back today and used the breakroom near the packers which really saved on steps
Items Packed: I don’t have totals but it was 160 per hour

Lee:    6,003 (2.65 miles)
Items Packed:  191 per hour

Interesting Item Packed: For the person who has everything try the Starfrit Rotate Express.  It is an electric peeler for potatoes, etc and both Lee and I laughed at why someone would need this versus a good old fashioned potato peeler, but hey some people always want the new gadget…Denny!! 

Day 28

I am writing this one directly after our shift, because it was a rough one and I wanted to talk about it while it was fresh in my mind.  Keep in mind this was one day, and experiences do vary, but I think we have learned enough now to point out what we don’t like about packing.  We started the day off and once again, no one knew where to put us.  That worked out OK though because we did multi’s during first break, and then singles until lunch.  Multi’s was interesting because at one point Lee and I were both working off the same cart (they were premiums and needed processed quickly) and not only did the computer know who was doing what, but there were no errors.  Pretty amazing. Singles was actually pretty fun, and since I felt more comfortable I liked how easy it felt compared to multi’s, plus we were flying through it.  Kelly was also in the station right across the conveyor belt from me and she gave me some box suggestions when I got stuck a couple of times, which was really helpful.  Both of us ended up doing pretty well in singles (my rate was 109 and Lee’s was 144 with the goal being 110.) Oh, and I keep forgetting to mention that the day shift manager plays little snippets of songs and gives short pep talks in the loudspeaker which I think is really great.  He seems like a really good guy and Kelly really likes working for him.

For lunch we had hamburgers and hot dogs, which was provided by our supervisor, and it was pretty good.  We had a nice time talking to some folks and then went back for the second half of the shift and were on the schedule.  As good as it was to have set stations, unfortunately these ones were a bit of a mess.  There is a checklist you go through at the beginning of your work session, but since you need that first pack to be within 10 minutes of the shift we usually breeze through that.  It was clear pretty quickly though that was a mistake in this case.  I ran out of water in the auto tape machine, was missing some boxes, and ran out of packing tape in the same hour.  Lee was also missing boxes and he ran out of printer paper.

They have a really great Andon system (signal that let’s someone know you need help), and here you put on a blue light and runners bring you what you need, but on this particular shift that help was slow in coming.  To be fair, those folks have been awesome up to this point, so it was probably just an off night for the guy doing it, but it really slowed us down.  When no one comes your choices are to get it yourself or do without (ie: use other bags and boxes), and we muddled through but it slowed both of us down.  During all of this our supervisor came up and for the first time talked to Lee about a report he was on.  They randomly pulled one of his boxes and opened it and there wasn’t enough bubble wrap in it.  I’ll be honest I was pretty gleeful he ended up on a list for once, but it wasn’t lost on me that he had packed probably 1,000 items yesterday and that came out on a report.  In all fairness he said he was sure there were a lot more of those, and it was good they mentioned it so he could correct it.

Being gleeful though was probably not the best strategy because karma bit me a little and the next couple of hours got worse.  I kept getting carts with weird scenarios on them and ran into more problems with my work station.  I was getting a little frustrated, when I realized that every time I went to pick a cart it was the last one with the earliest time on it. Let me explain that.  Every rebin cart has the time on it when the premium items have to be processed by to get on the truck in time, and it’s a big deal if those items aren’t done.  People start scurrying around close to the time and supervisors start doling out the work.  I thought it would be simpler to make sure all carts were down in the proper order (as we were trained) so intentionally took the earliest cart I could find.

The problem was that at least four times it was the only cart left in it’s time slot and it had lots of difficult things on it.  One time, for example, a cart had 30 shawls that went in one box and 53 shirts that went in another.  Those “Special packs” take extra time, but since I am in training and my numbers don’t really count I kept taking them.  Those carts got worse at the night progressed though and I found myself getting particularly annoyed when I intentionally picked an easier apparel only cart (with a later time)  and after finishing it saw that the hard one with the earlier time frame was still sitting there.

And look, I get it. These rates are no joke, and for regular employees cherry picking makes sense, but so many people working the system like that means the system is flawed.  I started thinking about possible solutions like spreading those items between carts, or forcing it to really be random so the workload was more spread out, and I as I was thinking I kept working on those carts.  Finally at the very end of the night I got a doozy.  It was like every difficult item was on the carts.  Tons of serialized item orders, two lithium battery orders (they require extra stickers), 10 very heavy curtains all in one big box…etc. At this point I started to get really mad, so I walked over to the supervisor’s desk.

The assistant working at the time was someone I had never met and I was really careful to keep my tone as light and friendly as possible.  I explained I was Camperforce and just cross training, but wanted to show him something.  He walked back to my work station with me, while I said I understood why the last cart was always the worst (the regulars can tell pretty quickly which carts will be a problem and at least to my eye avoid those if at all possible), but this cart looked like whoever had stocked it took every problem item and stuck it on one cart.  That was a totally different problem to my mind, and I told him I just wanted him to see it and then I would shut up about it and get it processed.

He walked up to the cart, looked it over and then made the colossal mistake of telling me that was the type of cart he would “go for.”  I looked at him dumbfounded.  It was one thing to commiserate a bit and then say it was what it was, but really?  I started pointing out all the unusual items on it, but he was holding firm, and then I was done. I mentioned that it was statistically improbable that I would get the last cart in a time segment four times in a row, which meant other more experienced people had looked at this cart and passed it up.  If it was that great of a cart, I was sure one of them would have jumped on it as it would have helped with their rates.  He just kept repeating he would have picked it and I ended the conversation as quickly as possible.  That’s the first time I have felt completely dismissed since we have started working there and the experience made me pretty angry.  But I kept working on that cart and when our shift was done pushed it (half unfinished)  back in the aisle where I am sure it will sit until someone absolutely has to do it.

And just to be perfectly clear, I understand that this problem existed well before me.  What bothers me so much is that it forces me to cherry pick as well, or it’s unlikely I will be able to make rate.  Our numbers were much worse today (with Lee being at 177 per hour and mine being only 143 per hour).  The effect on rate of those rough carts does add up, and if they aren’t interspersed with some easier ones the rate is going to show that. For some reason that really bothers me and even more so because when I tried to talk to someone about it I was blown off.  Anyway, that’s what happened.  We only have one more day left in packing and then our training is done and I imagine we will go back to picking.  As much as I enjoy not being in pain every day, I do miss picking some, but I think Lee would be content to stay in packing from here on out. (I don’t miss picking at all. I like everything about packing. – Lee)

Tracy:  9,061 steps ( 3.79 miles) 
Items Packed: I don’t have totals but it was 160 per hour

Lee:   7,445 steps  (3.29 miles)
Items Packed:  191 per hour

Interesting Item Packed:  It’s interesting seeing entire orders together, which you don’t really get to see in pick.  People buy odd combinations of things and on occasion it really gives me pause.  Today someone bought a black sweatshirt and a white generic mask and I packed those together.  Seriously looked like what you would wear in a robbery and I thought it was so strange I showed it to Lee.  But in the box it went and I moved on.  Some things just make you go hmmm.  That aside my interesting item for today was Strathmore Sketch Pads.  I packed quite a few of these and they seemed like a nice gift to give the artist in your life. 

Day 29

Well our last day of training went much better.  We were on the schedule, back in multi’s, and because it was a relatively slow day the carts were more fairly distributed.  Several times we were waiting for the next cart to be ready and in that scenario cherry picking is practically eliminated.  The work I received was a nice mix of apparel with a few non-apparel carts and I felt like I was doing much better from a speed perspective.  The stations were also well stocked on both half of our shifts and we got to be stationed near Kelly again in the morning, which was nice.  One thing that I enjoy about packing (versus picking) is you do have time for longer conversations with people.  You still are working of course, but people stop by and talk a bit who are on other tasks and you can talk to the person next to you a bit between the stations.

During one of the down times, one of the assistants asked me if I wanted to do a safety audit, and this time we did them on the re binning stations. We watched people take items from big rolling bins and put them on the segregated carts and that process was also pretty interesting.  I learned the computer tells them what slot to put which item in, and the people doing it are working on two carts simultaneously.  So they don’t control what goes on the rebin carts either, which sort of proves the point from last night that the “bad carts” are not deliberately made.  Very interesting.  The coolest thing was because the big blue carts are pretty deep I wondered how folks got to the stuff in the bottom without having to bend way over and reach to the bottom to dig into them, but it turns out Amazon has a solution for that as well.  The bottom of each one is spring loaded and as the weight decreases the bottom actually rises.  Pure genius.  Seriously I don’t know what engineer thought that up, but they deserve a medal or something, because instead of bending way over and possibly missing things in the bottom corner the person can stay mostly level.  Very, very cool.

I was able to find this picture on wikipedia. In the foreground is a full rebin cart. That’s what we pack from, one slot at a time, and behind it is an empty one

This is the “rebin” truck, the image shows the spring mechanism that allows weight to push down the floor , and as things are removed, it rises so you don’t have to bend way over and reach into the bottom. Pure genius.

Anyway, it was a pretty good day and I’m really glad we had the opportunity to cross train. We aren’t 100% sure which job we are doing tomorrow, so we will find out when we go in.  All Camperforce got a message from the General Manager stating they would let us know our release date no later than December 15th “so people could plan travel” and we are curious to see if they will be having early release like they did last year. We did get a call from a gate guarding company earlier this week, so if we are released early we will have to talk about what makes the most sense for when to head to Texas. For right now though, we are just plodding right along and looking forward to having some time off this weekend.

Oh one last thing.  It’s been much colder here this week, with temps close to freezing at night and although our furnace is starting now it is not consistently firing.  Lee has had mixed luck with getting it to start when we get home (it was 45 degrees in the RV last night when we got back from work) and obviously this is a concern because the underneath could freeze.  We called the RV company who worked on it, but the service department is closed until December 27th, so once again we are on our own trying to figure this out. Frustrating.

Tracy:  steps 8,683 ( 3.62 miles) 
Items Packed: We couldn’t get our totals today because when we leave everyone else is on break.

Lee:    ( miles)
Items Packed:  We couldn’t get our totals today because when we leave everyone else is on break.

Interesting Item Packed:  I packed several books today and I got really excited when I saw Eat Real Vietnamese Food a Step by Step Guide. I couldn’t help but take a quick peek and the step by step instructions with pictures were really amazing.  Vietnamese food is my absolute favorite and I am definitely putting this on my list of future birthday presents.  My pick of the day for most people though was an Electronic Luggage Scale. The concept is you can attach it to your luggage and quickly check your rate.  For those people who travel a lot this would definitely come in handy as heavy luggage can result in some stiff fees.  No clue how it works in practice, but it made me stop and think about it and it would have been handy at one point in my life. And if you don’t have a need for that how about these Oreo Candy Canes. No idea how they taste, but if you like oreos and like candy canes, well why not combine the two!

Camper Chronicles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. We very much appreciate any purchase you make via our website links.  There is no additional cost to you and helps support our blog.  Search Amazon.com here

Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.

Disclaimer:  We  are not spokespersons or officially affiliated with Amazon in any way. This account is of our personal experience as seasonal employees in the Cambellsville, KY distribution center in 2017.  I in no way speak for the company or my co-workers, and am only recounting my personal experiences.  Also, any details I get wrong in this or any other post are due to a misunderstanding on my part and are not intentional.  To start at the beginning of our Amazon experience, click here for the first Amazon post. 

Day 25 

Although I was really sore in the morning, a long hot shower really helped, and I felt pretty good when we started out the day.  This feeling was helped along when I saw the day shift supervisor and went up to him to share my ideas about the power hour.  He not only listened, but liked what I had to say, and after talking it through decided to change the next power hour to a random drawing for anyone who was in the top 25 % of the picks that hour. He seemed to appreciate that this approach would be more inclusive and agreed that this might improve the pick numbers overall.  He’s going to give it a try next week, and we will see how it goes, but either way it was nice to be heard.

I was particularly grateful for that conversation, because not too long after that my supervisor came up and found me.  I was hoping I would get through a week without showing up on a report, but that was not to be.  This time it was for leaving drawers partially open (my name showed up 7 times on a QA audit) and although I appreciate the constructive feedback and the manner it is being delivered, I dug my heels in on this one.  I said that I wasn’t allowed to use the “amnesty” bins and wasn’t strong enough to push in all of the overstuffed drawers, so what exactly did he want me to do in that situation???  To his credit he really talked the situation through with me and was trying to find an answer to the problem, but ultimately I made it clear I didn’t feel I was the source of the problem.  He promised to pass along the feedback to his manager in the report and we landed on me calling a problem solver if I found a drawer I couldn’t close.

Calling a problem solver seems to be sort of a catch-all solution, but really isn’t one that works very well.  Yes, there are radios on every floor, but they are generally not close by and while you are reporting the problem the seconds tick away. Theoretically you are supposed to notify them of the issue and perhaps wait until they arrive to solve the problem, but frankly it is rarely done.  I am sure too many problem solver calls would raise a red flag as well, and the lost time hurts your numbers.  Plus, if they really wanted it done frequently they would have an easier way to do it on the scanner.  Almost everything else can be done simply on the scanner, but calling a problem solver and flagging an issue requires multiple steps, and often can’t be done at all. Plus, it really isn’t solving the core problem (over stuffed bins in this case), and I am going to take a minute and talk about that.

First off, let me say many Camperforce people are stowers and after talking to them I have no doubt it is a difficult job.  They are moved to a floor of a building, given boxes and boxes of stuff, and turned loose to find a place it will fit.  I’ve watched them do it, and talked to my friend Harry, and it’s a tough job, so I want to make that clear.  That being said, the pickers are the internal customer of the stowers’ process, and we have no way to provide feedback.  In general, what we have been seeing is the middle drawers are being overstuffed and the ends of rows and bottom drawers have openings.  In all fairness though, the stowers have no easy way of knowing which bins have capacity and are walking up and down aisles opening drawers and looking for spots.  They have time pressure as well to get X amount of items stowed in an hour, so I can see the temptation to shove it in where they can. (We might get more detailed information of a stower’s perspective from Harry that we can share after this post. – Lee)

They are also using ladders, and I think that is where I have a problem.  When you are on a ladder you can push the clothing down and the drawer in, but when we try to pull it open from ground level it gets stuck. Yes, we have access to ladders as well, but it would absolutely kill our ratings to pull them out on every single high pick.  So we are pulling and yanking, and clothes go flying and pushing it all back in is a mess.  (When you open a drawer you can usually tell if you’re the fist person to get to it after a stower has been there, because everything is all neat and tidy and separated (there are always several different items in a drawers, sometimes five or six different types of things) and things are pretty easy to find. But because everything is in plastic bags, as soon as you put your hand in it all starts to slide around and the orderliness is gone. Bill calls it “bin churn”, which is a very appropriate description. – Lee)

And in case you think this is all much ado about nothing, we heard from regular full time staff that there have been a high number of injuries this year from overstuffed bins.  Anecdotally we heard one person got a bloody lip from hitting herself in the mouth with a stuck drawer that broke free and there have been numerous muscle strains.  (When I first heard about the “injuries” I was honestly puzzled about how injured you get could get from having a bra or a knit sweater fall on your head from 18 inches above you. Then I ripped most of a fingernail off pulling on a drawer that stuck, and another time I pulled too hard without a good grip, expecting the drawer to pop right out, and when it didn’t, my hand popped right off and I smacked myself right in the face. Considering some of the stuff I say out loud, and all of the stuff I think but don’t say, I probably deserved being smacked in the face that day, but I didn’t like it. – Lee) I personally can attest to the cumulative effect of overstuffed bins as my shoulders were killing me the two days things were at it’s worst. And not just me, one of the long term employees mentioned she was having problems as well, so I know it’s just not newbie aches and pains. (Another issue is that some stowers put heavier than appropriate things in the high drawers. When you pull out a drawer that’s full of belts or wallets, you’re usually doing it one–handed, and a drawer that you’re holding above your head with one hand that should weigh a few pounds but actually weighs 10 or more can come down a lot faster than you expect. And a drawer full of boxes of wallets is going to hurt more than a drawer full of bras. – Lee)

So in case any of you are ever stowers in an Amazon facility, I took a few notes and thought I would pass along some “Voice of the Internal Customer” from us pickers.  Here’s a few things that make us pickers crazy, and if you can avoid doing them that would be awesome.  I know it isn’t always possible, and I totally respect how hard you are working, but please, do what you can.

• Storing heavy items in a high bin.  Keep in mind we hardly ever use ladders and when I reach up and grab a box that is heavy it almost falls on my head.  Anything with metal (luggage tags, bra extenders, belts) can have a cumulative weight effect and are much better in lower storage bins.
• Please don’t put one extra small G-String in a large bin full of other stuff.  Rooting through bins takes time and really slows us down, so when there is one tiny item among larger items it can get lost in there. I know it’s tempting, but these are much better off in one of the smaller drawers where they are easier to find.
• Bins full of socks are particularly challenging, but it is much easier for us if they are all the same brand.  Placing one “oddball” sock in a bin full of like socks essentially means we have to touch every single item to find the right one.  And Murphy’s Law says, it’s the last one we touch, so this takes a ton of time.
• Along these same lines having lots of similar items and one or two items that look the same but are different is a challenge. For example I was looking for a bracelet in a large bin one day that was full of compression sleeves.  Turns out the bracelet was in a small black pouch that looked almost identical to the compression sleeves and I have to root through 30 or so of those before I found the bracelet pouches.  That extra minute or two may not seem like a big deal, but the time has to come from somewhere and in order to stay on track for our picks per hour we need to make it up somewhere.  Plus in that particular case I had to wonder if someone did it on purpose.  It seemed way too hard of a find to happen by accident.
• Finally, even with big items when there are many of them and they are all the same size that is great, but when only one is a different size that can be a real pain. I see this all the time where there are 10 shirts and they are all small and somewhere in there is one medium shirt.  It would be so much easier to place the one medium in a different drawer where it would be an easy pick to find.
• On the plus side, Jeans are almost always done perfectly.  They are grouped by size, at the bottom of the bin, and I never mind picking jeans as it is super quick.

Just a few thoughts to pass along, and who knows, someone may read this and every great stow does equal a great pick!

One positive thing about the conversation with my supervisor was it did give me something to think about throughout the day, which passed pretty quickly.  Plus something really nice happened towards the end of the day that was the highlight of my week.  This is my supervisor’s first experience with Camperforce and since he was interested I shared a little bit of my background with him one day.  Turns out my career path of Six Sigma Black Belt and project manager was the career path he was interested in.  So when he needed to select an employee to help with his first 5S safety audit he chose me.  Not only did I get a break from picking, but as we were walking around with the safety supervisor he shared my background with him.  In the Amazon world, a Six Sigma Blackbelt is a big deal, and since I am passionate about the subject it was a lot of fun to be able to use that skill set, even in a limited way.  They were genuinely interested in my thoughts about the areas we looked at and  it’s been a long time since anyone has listened to me that way.  It’s one thing working a line level job in a place where my skills aren’t understood or needed, but quite another doing it in a place where my skill set is an integral part of the operation.  All I can say is it reminded me of who I used to be (in a work environment) and it had an impact on me. Let’s leave it at that.

Tracy: 24,691 steps ( 10.31 miles)
Items Picked: 771

Lee:    27,521 ( 12.16 miles)
Items Picked:   784

Interesting Item Picked:  I don’t have young kids anymore but Paw Patrol must be super popular because I am picking a ton of that clothing.  I also saw Sleepytime Bamboo pajamas which help with hot flashes, according to their packaging.  That was interesting to me, but they are a little out of my price range, still I will keep an eye out for some on sale and maybe give them a try. My favorite item was another T-Shirt made by Panoware. It said “A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone” which I really liked. 

Days Off

We were both very excited about having a couple of days off and although we briefly discussed going and doing some exploring neither of us really had the energy.  Instead we talked to several family members (it’s tough squeezing in the time on our days off) and had both lunch and dinner at the nearby college.  We had bought a 10 punch card for meals when we first arrived, but with our shift we are limited in the days we can go.  So Lee and I went together for lunch and then we took Kelly and Bill with us for dinner.  Both meals were really good, and they do have an excellent dessert selection, but I had forgotten how loud college cafeterias can be.  It’s a really nice option to have, especially on those days you don’t feel like cooking, but personally I don’t think we would do it again.

Saturday, Bill, Kelly, Linda, and Steve went to Maker’s Mark but again Lee and I stayed home.  We do plan on visiting at least one bourbon manufacturer before we leave, really have to do that when you are in Kentucky, but other errands took precedence.  Plus, we were having combination birthday celebration for Steve and Kelly that night and I wanted to try out some new appetizers. I am still picking away at new recipes for my second recipe book and certain ones really are best prepared for a group so I prepared Mini Beef Wellingtons (cool concept but I overdid the horseradish), crab puffs (turned out OK, but not quite good enough to make the cut, and a large loaf of cheesy bread.  The best thing about the bread was Linda had a better recipe she shared, so next time I will try it her way and hopefully will have a winner.  It was all fine, but the star of the show was Grandma Murray’s carrot cake (which Kelly ended up making), which is literally the best carrot cake any of us have ever had.  That recipe is in my existing recipe book and never fails. We had a wonderful time with spirited conversation and as always it was wonderful celebrating fellow RVers birthdays.  We are with our friends on their special days more often than I ever thought we would be, but this is the first time we were able to celebrate Kelly’s with her.

Grandma Murray’s carrot cake

Lee checking out the appetizers

Linda and Steve

Joint birthday candle blowout which was really funny

Steve and Linda are actually leaving Amazon to head back to Texas to be with family for the holidays, so we won’t be seeing them for a while.  It was nice spending more time with them and getting to know them better, and if nothing else we will be seeing them at the reunion rally.  Speaking of that, so many of our group are able to make it to the RV-Dreams reunion rally and we are pretty excited about that.  It’s rare our schedules all come together like that, but almost everyone is making a point to be there. It will be the first time we have had so many of us in one place in years and everyone is super excited about it.

Day 26

Our mandatory overtime was cancelled for Sunday, but after a few anxious hours they finally posted voluntary overtime, which we successfully signed up for.  At this point many people would be thrilled to just work a 40 hour week, but for us the overtime pay is what makes this even close to being financially worthwhile.  The good news is for those of you who would like the experience and care less about the money, so far there have been many opportunities to work a shorter week.  Voluntary time off has been offered every week so far, and it’s much easier to just work a four day schedule.  It’s a shame we can’t take advantage of that, because we would definitely have more energy to explore the area with that third day, but we are here to make as much money as possible and working that fifth day is definitely a part of that.

When we went into work, Lee walked up to the pick desk to ask the daytime supervisor a question and he asked Lee if he would like to learn to pack.  Lee’s response was an instantaneous yes and then he said he was sure I would like to do it as well.  So Lee and I were both sent up to pack for training (and given $10 Dunkin Donuts gift cards for agreeing to learn!) and we walked upstairs to the pack area.  This is the area our friend Kelly works in, so we knew a little bit about it, but we both were pretty fuzzy on how exactly it worked.  Thankfully we had an excellent trainer, who did a great job of simplifying the process while giving us the information we needed to do the job.  First she walked us through it, then she showed us, and finally we were allowed to try it under her supervision.

Learning something new and different is always fun for us, and once the training was over the time just flew by as we packed individual items.  Our experience in picking definitely helped us identify the items, but I at least had some trouble figuring out what type of box or bag each item would go in.  Turns out the system was pretty automated though and almost every item has a recommended package.  You are allowed to override it, using common sense, which I liked. There were a variety of simple rules which were pretty interesting, mainly because it never would have occurred to me.  I’ll share some of these below, which found particularly interesting because it explained why sometimes when you place an Amazon order you get a relatively small item in a box that clearly too big.  We never understood that before.

• Magnets have to go in a box because if they are in a bag they could “stick” to the metal on the conveyor belts (never would have thought of that)
• Round pill bottles have to go in a padded envelope or a box because if they are in a loose poly bag they can “roll” on the conveyor belts and not actually move along the line.  Again makes perfect sense but I never would have though of it
• Anything “crushable” including baseball hats goes in a box versus bag
• Any clothing items with wire (underwire bras, corsets, etc) need to go in a padded envelope because the wires can be bent or poke out of the bags
• All liquids have to go in boxes
• Any items with a lithium battery gets special handling stickers on them.

We spent a ton of time talking about this last one because there is a pretty high fine for forgetting these, but the system thankfully prompts you.  I was really impressed by the whole setup, especially the tape machine.  Each box has a corresponding button on the tape machine and the tape comes out (pre-wet) and cut to the proper size.  Wow!! So much better than the old days of tape guns and according to what we have heard saves the company millions of dollars.  Really cool.  Most items though (and almost all apparel) goes into poly bags, which are those slippery white plastic bags that have a “zipper” tab to pull to open (If you’ve never seen one, order an apparel item from Amazon and will almost certainly come in one. But wait until we’re done, we have enough to do already. – Lee) and those bags already have the stickers you need on them.  So basically you scan the item, place it in the bag, close it, and scan the SPOO label (like a routing number) on the bag.  Easy peasy, although I did find that if I get interrupted or was mentally focused I would sometimes forget which step I was in.

(Interestingly, nothing in this process tells us who ordered the item or where it’s going. The SPOO label gets read a few feet down the conveyor by a shower of laser beams that covers every part of the package except the bottom, and a few feet after that a robot prints out the address label and applies it. It’s called the Slammer, even though it’s very gentle, because it looks like it’s slamming the label on, and it’s amazing to watch. So the only way it would be possible to know where or to whom something is going would be to pack it, then walk down the line following it after it gets “slammed” and then read the label, but it’s not on the line for very long at all after being slammed, it just disappears downhill towards the shipping area.  – Lee) 

My biggest complaint was the sound when your SPOO didn’t scan wasn’t very distinguishable so it was easy to not get that final scan and then put the item on the belt, which causes an error.  I did several of those.  In picking, when you make a mistake, it makes a very obnoxious noise, which really gets your attention.  This noise is too close to the “did it right noise” and I did struggle with this final step.  Overall though putting things in bags was pretty easy and since we were doing single items (one per bag or box) doubly so.

Boxes are a little tougher, although the system does makes recommendations, mainly because you are supposed to put the pillow stuffing in each one as well and sometimes it didn’t all fit.  In general though if you trusted the screen it all worked out well, but definitely took longer than an apparel bag. We both had a great time and felt really good when we went to lunch but since we are mid-shift we weren’t sure what to do.  After lunch we talked to the night shift picking manager though and she sent us back upstairs to packing.  At first the scheduler wasn’t sure what to do with us, but since we wanted to be there and they had plenty of work they assigned us stations and then gave us a different trainer for the evening portion of our shift.

Our second trainer was just as nice as our first one and really seemed to like us.  They appreciated that we were serious about learning the process and both expressed to us that it was nice we didn’t “act like we knew it all.”  That’s just not our way of doing things, usually we tend to ask too many questions, but in both our training sessions that was appreciated.  And both trainers loved Lee, because no surprise he took right to it.  I was a lot more tentative and know I made some mistakes, but he jumped right in and was generating 115 packages an hour (the target is 110) in no time.  I didn’t do too bad at 92 an hour, but as I said I know I made some mistakes.

I wasn’t surprised at all he did so well, because Lee has always been a great packer.  The kids and I called him “the packmaster” back in the day, because he could always fit more stuff in any space than anyone we ever met.  Car trunks, boxes, closets, you name it, he could fit tons of stuff into other stuff.  And he’s always been a container guy.  Loves boxes and putting things in boxes, since he was a little kid, so truly this may be the perfect job for him.  (It’s absolute heaven. Sorting, categorizing, and putting things correctly into correct containers is literally my favorite thing in the world. If you’ve never seen me walk through the Container Store, you’ve never seen true bliss. They have boxes inside boxes in that place. – Lee) We knew it was going well, when they had several items that needed to get on the truck by 10pm and our trainer told the supervisor to give them to Lee “because that guy is really fast.”  He ended up with 40 Echo Dots (each one needs to go into a custom built box) and of course he processed them with plenty of time to spare.  Even I was impressed by that.  I was given a box of 8 priority items to do, and did OK, but the added pressure of a time crunch made me a bit nervous.  Still overall I think it went OK, and again the time went by much faster.

I will say though that I started to get a little sore towards the evening.  We get to stand on thick rubber mats, which is nice, but I have to lean forward a bit to reach the bags and my back and knees started bothering me a little bit towards the end.  I have no doubt there is a cumulative effect on that as time goes by, but we will be finding out as they want us to come back for the next three days.  Lee was very excited about that, and I certainly am glad to get to learn about another process in the building, but we will see how it holds up over time.  I am fully aware everything is easier when there is a novelty factor. More details to follow as we learn about it, but at this point we are both very happy about the ability to do something else.

(I also like that for the most part the pack stations are laid out pretty well and ergonomically. After a few hours I saw a bunch of ways it could be tweaked just a little to make it even better, but nothing that kept me from falling asleep. Most of it had to do with being able to move things an inch or two here and there to speed up the process even more. Each person is a little different, and the ability to change things to fit each person perfectly makes a HUGE difference without much investment. The back soreness Tracy is experiencing is likely due to the fact that she has to reach a few inches farther for the bags. Getting her or them closer would solve that. I’m not complaining, I’m just pointing out that on this scale, the time and energy spent to travel even a few inches adds up over time to big money, but for me it’s more about refining as close as possible to perfection than money. What I particularly liked was that as we worked there was a small unit of people they call “water spiders” (probably because they keep the water reservoirs on the tape machine filled, and also probably because of the way water spiders skitter around really fast on the surface of water, getting things done) that were constantly emptying our trash cans, and refilling our supplies so we never ran out. Very efficient. – Lee) 

Tracy: 7,631 steps ( 3.22 miles)  Oh yeah that’s a big difference!
Items Packed in the second half of our shift: 424  (92/hour)

Lee:  8,036   ( 3.5  miles)
Items Packed in second half of shift:  524 (115/hour) Showoff!!

Interesting Item Packed: When you are packing you get to see all kinds of interesting things as they go by, but today’s pick is definitely the Echo Dot. It’s on sale for only $29.99 and we packed a lot of these.  Not only did it require a special box, but you also had to scan them twice, once for the item and once for the serial number, so they definitely took a bit longer.  Essentially they are a smaller version of Alexa which people can put in any room and then network them.  For an RV this may be all we need and we are very tempted to buy one as our friends Cori and Greg have it and it’s pretty cool that you can just ask for information or they can play music for you.  Again this is the little version so has less power, but at this price it’s hard to say no! 

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Or you can check out our recipe book filled with 80 real recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. The cookbook specializes in recipes that have a limited number of ingredients, without sacrificing flavor and is organized into categories that matter to full time RVers such as Happy Hours, Travel Days, and Pot Lucks   You can preview the kindle version on  Amazon or the Apple version on Itunes.    It is available in paperback on Amazon if you prefer.