Amazon
I’ve been working at Amazon for a year and going on 4 months. In this time I’ve really developed in terms of work ethic. That isn’t to say the job itself is responsible. I have developed the drive to be the best that I can possibly be. It isn’t really in hopes to advance in the career latter, but just a matter of feeling accomplished. I know a lot of people compare Amazon to slavery or hell, but I see it as a job. You put a certain amount of effort in to reach a certain level of productivity and you get paid for it. When you stay on top of your game you really don’t have to worry about people being on you constantly. I suppose I have a different aspect on work than other people. I come to work while others see it as an opportunity to get paid to socialize. I’m not saying there isn’t anything wrong with being social while you work, but if one cannot balance the two they should really consider focusing on the work and socialize afterwards or during break. If you can manage to keep that in mind and stay committed to remaining productive, the job can be a piece of cake. If you’re not there for the right reasons then it will be a short-lived job. Near the end of 2016 Amazon opened up one of it’s newer types of warehouses called a sort center in my area. This was an opportunity for me to go in another direction. At the time I was making around minimum wage. For a while I was getting decent hours, but it was obvious that my life was meant for something greater. I don’t see Amazon in the position I’m in now as an end goal, but it is a step in the right direction. So when I saw that they were hiring, I immediately applied. The postings were clear about it being part-time, but I knew that I would have the opportunity to move some place where they offered full-time positions. I immediately started to search through the internet to find out what to expect. I knew that it was going to be different for me if I went to a sort center, but I was exciting to discover as much as possible before hand. After applying I learned that there wasn’t really an interview process. You apply, take the personality test, get an e-mail(they will never contact you through the phone until you’ve actually started to work and even then much of the communication is done in person or via e-mail) letting you know that they’re looking to move forward and need you to attend a hiring event, you attend the hiring event where you learn more about the Amazon site along with taking a drug test, then you attend after you pass the drug and background tests. There really isn’t a lot that goes into getting hired. As I mentioned, I worked at a sort center at the time. In the sort centers the associates are basically sorting the packages based on letters and numbers. Packages are grouped together on wrapped pallets, postal bags, or giant boxes on pallets called gaylords. When you start off you’re pretty much going to be a scanner. As a scanner you grab two packages(or a c-grip of small envelope packages called jiffies from the roller belt, scan the appropriate barcode/QR code on the first package, find the pallet it goes to, scan the same type of barcode of another package that is already on the pallet(there is a barcode on the floor when there is no packages on the pallet), and move on to the next package. In some sort centers they also separate section called small sort where a bunch of small boxes and jiffies are sorted into postal totes. This allows certain scanners to scan a large quantity of units in a shorter period of time. Typically there would be about 6-15 units in a tote going to the same pallet and the totes would be grouped up in to 12 totes on a thing called a u-boat that would all go to the same area. It was easy to get around 400-600 units scanned an hour in this function. Part of what made it easier was that you wouldn’t have to scan package to package. You could just scan the barcode on the floor in a function called flow and then just scan every package in the tote that goes to that pallet. Then there were the gaylords that could be utilized for smalls that typically had a significantly higher load of volume. In this section it was easy to maintain about 600-1200 units each hour depending on the volume in smalls and if things are set up by the gaylords for you. I’m specifically speaking about small sort because that was the part that I always worked. This became a major part of my job because for a long time I was recognized as a fast scanner and it was better suited for me to scan smalls to help them reach the goal. Of course I wasn’t responsible on my own, but with an amazing team we were able to break records. There are other functions that you can work in a sort center. Everything else is considered an indirect function. So working at Amazon involves direct and indirect functions. Direct function involves a scanner that times your task. Being off task is reflected on time added against you on your scanner. The indirect roles aren’t monitored on their time off, because they either don’t utilize scanners or the bulk of their time doesn’t involve scanning. These positions are inbound, non-con, pallet/pit pull, sort-slide, pick-off, splitter, waterspider, problem solver, TDR, gatekeeper, small sort, and yard driver. There’s also a section called C-Returns, but I’m not 100% certain if they were considered direct or indirect. When I started out I was mostly put to do pick-off. Typically they start you off scanning for a certain amount of days, but things obviously work differently when you start when a building first opens. So being in pick-off is simple, but time drags like crazy and you’re stuck in one spot. At my location this was away from the water station and you had to wave someone down to use the restroom or get water. You’re pretty much standing in one spot in front of a conveyor belt. Packages are coming down a slide and your job is just to make sure all the packages that go to the section in front of you are going there. Everything else keeps going down. Once the packages move from there, you have a splitter who separates packages on opposite ends of the belt based on the numbers. Each section/lane has a letter(i.e. A, B, C, D,etc.) and each pallet has a number (i.e. 00-49 low end, 50+ high end). So when you looked at a package it might read A-25. That means that a package goes to lane A and goes to pallet 25. Odds are this package would go down the sort slide in chute AB, the pick-off would let it pass by, and the splitter would place it on a box(or a box on it) on the low side. The start of the process involves a yard driver moving the trailers empty-full of packages. Then the TDR personnel clears the trailers, people in inbound place boxes in the designated areas (on the conveyor belt, aside for non-con if the package is too big or too odd shaped to go on the conveyor and on the pallets, or pallets/gaylords are sent to[C-Returns, Small sort, or the gaylord dumper], then the packages that go on conveyor go up to a section called sort slide [packages come down a slide and a group of people have 5 chutes to places packages: Each of the main chutes that send to two lanes and then there is a problem solve chute to the back of the sort slide. Of course this was my site and I’m sure that there could be more lanes. Who know maybe some site has 4 lanes in one chute or maybe there are more chutes on the slide sending to more lanes], then the packages go down another slide to either be pushed or let go by the pick-off, then the splitter splits from high to low and keeps the packages pushed down the lane, then the scanner scans the packages to the pallets, the waterspider [opens the pallet, wraps the pallet, closes and moves the pallet to the pull lane, and then re-opens the pallet], the pallet pull utilizes a pallet jack to pull the pallet and scan it to a trailer with the help of the gatekeeper, the TDR person checks the trailer out, yard driver moves the trailer, and the steps repeat until the end of the shift. Aside from the main process you have problem solvers fixing damaged items, Non-Con processing non-con packages(each package gets a unique label similar to one that waterspiders place on pallets), c-return processes customer/vendor returns, and then there are ambassadors(train) and safety committee(call out safety hazards and promote safe work practices) that are volunteer associates. Aside from that there are other parts that you can promote to in logistics, HR, Learning, Ops management, and Tech. When I first applied I debated over working there part-time and waiting to transfer full-time or just moving to a full-time site. Ultimately I felt it would be a better process for me to go ahead and work part-time where I was and transfer later on. Just this year I was finally able to transfer(for the longest HR was giving me the run around on how to transfer, but they really didn’t know and didn’t bother to figure out). There is a new internal transfer process on the Hub(a place that directs you to signing up for more shifts/VET, signing out for shifts/VTO or UPT/point deduction, paystub, benefits, etc.) that allows you to pick up to three sites/shifts. I went ahead and tried three different sites. My top choice was perfect for me as it was still in the same state, has an amazing transportation system(I don’t drive at the moment), and not too far from family. My second choice was the closest to family but had the worst transportation and meant moving states. My third choice, which is the one I ended up getting is about an hour away from family, isn’t in reach of public transportation, has a reduced schedule with pay differential. Basically now I work in a regular fulfillment center working a reduced schedule overnight on the back-half of the ICQA department. When I transferred they left my base pay at $12/hr (regular base pay is $11.25/hr but with raises it would be $12/hr with the length that I’ve worked for Amazon). However because of my schedule I get a shift differential pay of $2.50. I’ve looked at the raise chart in the building and it actually shows that I’m due a $0.50 raise in a few months, which means $15/hr. I’m not certain if they’re going to actually handle it that way since I’ve transferred, but I’m content where I’m at for now nonetheless. At the sort center I didn’t get a single raise. So now I work 36 hours making $14.50/hr at three 12 hour shifts, with an addition over-time day whenever overtime is called. I’m pleased at this because I’m able to have a good chunk of the week for myself. However working the overnight shift has pretty much adjusted my sleep schedule to a night owl. So as I’m typing this on my day off I woke up in the later part of the day and I’m staying up over night. I figure I could fix that, but it’s easier to just stick with that schedule. Something that thrilled me the most was when I applied for my first apartment. When I was putting in my information I realized just how much pre-tax I’ll be making. It’s incredible to me because it’s more than double what I was making a little over a year ago up to just before leaving the other site(sure I got overtime during peak, but when it died so did my check). When I applied I showed the leasing office person my transfer offer that showed my pay rate and shift. The numbers didn’t add up for approval by 1 hour of work based on the 3x policy, but they were able to work things out for me. Now I live in walking distance to a bunch of stores and 5 miles from Amazon. There is also a bonus incentive plan called VCP that they offer that puts a little more money in my wallet by the end of each month. It’s basically a percentage of the sites productivity, percentage of your hours worked, on the amount you made for the month. So from my understanding if I don’t miss any work, right off the back I get a bonus of 4% of my paycheck from the month. So that’s $83.52. However another 4% can be added based on productivity of the site. That’s little of my individual contribution, but it’s pretty neat to even get anything. So in the event that both are in perfect standing I could be looking at $167.04 extra on a paycheck. That might not seem significant, but it is to me. There are many different roles you can work in at the Amazon Fulfillment centers. If you’ve looked into them already you have probably already heard about stow, pick, and pack. You are more likely to go into one of those roles, but I’m going to focus on ICQA as that is what I’ve picked to do. ICQA stands for ‘Inventory Control, Quality Assurance’. In ICQA you’re basically ensuring the inventory numbers match what the system says we should have and what we actually have and that products that become damaged are handled. Working in ICQA at Amazon you can come across items that are damaged, stolen(not really called suspected unless packaging is missing part or all of a product... i.e. a bag of candy with a hole ripped open or an empty box of sunglasses), sets broken up or not broken up which could result in a customer getting more or less of what they ordered, and products being misplaced. In ICQA, you’re part of the team that finds these issues and fixes them. Part of what makes this process possible is a system that already establishes potential problems. For example a picker or stower might have gotten an error message in their process and failed to fix it. This could be because say a picker grabs a bottle of body wash. They might have not realized it, but the bottle was supposed to be bundled. So their attempt to pick that item won’t be correct if they pick an individual bottle when it is supposed to be part of a set. So there is a process that you typically start off in ICQA called Simple Bin Count. In this process you are just counting every single thing in the bin after scanning the bin and putting in the number. If the number matches the system’s number you move on to the next bin it sends you to, if it doesn’t it gives you one more chance to put another number. You have to double check to make sure every item is removed from the bin(sometimes small things get caught in between the bin screen and flap or at the top of the bin near the back on the shelf). ICQA is more about quality. So it’s important that your number is accurate. So if that number comes back different it’s important to carefully examine to make sure nothing is potentially a broken set, make sure things aren’t stuck to each other, and count every thing one product at a time back into the bin. Every time you count you’re also supposed to check the quality of the product. You’re checking for damages. If there is a damage, suspected theft, broken set, no label on the bin, a missing/broken bin divider, or a shelf that might be unstable you basically pull an andon in the system. There’s a process that allows you to do this in the scanner. You do this, place sticker on both the product and the bin describing the issue, make sure the problem is at the top and front of the bin, and move on. A problem solver will at some point come along and fix the problem. Sometimes a count can become wrong because an item has fallen or has been left out of the bin. Whenever a product is left on the floor, you must place it in a bin called “Amnesty” where someone in the Amnesty role will find the proper location. You’re expected to have a scanner, cart, and the proper PPE with you when you’re in this function. Sometimes you will have to reach extremely low levels, so there are floor mats provided to make it more comfortable. You’re also required to utilize a 2 or 3 step latter for anything about your shoulder level and keep three points of contact(two feet firmly planted and one hand on the vertical support bar of the shelving unit/3 step ladder handle/floor rails). Priority is quality. That means that it doesn’t matter how fast you are going and how much you count in a short period of time, if you’re constantly making errors. ICQA is a place to fix errors, so your goal should really be to have 0 errors on your part. Of course you will always get errors in this position because of other people, but that doesn’t always mean you’re doing something wrong. It just means that when it happens you need to slow down and focus. You want to make that final count matter like your job depended on it, because after a while it really does. There is a strict escalation process when you process too many errors that can quickly lead to termination. You will have a rate based on speed, but for the most part as long as you are staying on task that should not really be an issue at a steady pace. Another issue to be concerned with is a thing called time off task. You have 5 minutes between each bin before you start to allocate time off. As soon as you hit 5 minutes that time starts to add up. This can become an issue when you take the time to hold conversations. It might not seem too significant, but time really does add up. Some other things that can result in adding time off is taking to long to jump to another part of the building when it takes you there, utilizing regular time to use the restroom for longer than 5 minutes(as long as you keep your TOT low out there on the floor it won’t be an issue for you to use the restroom), having to recount and stop counting a large quantity bin(sometimes you have to stop or start over when a picker or stower comes by), and then there is the issue of when you pull an andon. The system doesn’t count pulling the andon in the time you scanned the last bin to this bin. So the time it took you from scanning the bin before the one that got the andon all the way to the bin after the one with the andon is the time allocated. Sometimes the system will send you to the complete opposite side of the building, but as long as you walk with an urgent sense of purpose you should be able to get to the next bin in 3-4 minutes. It doesn’t mean that you should move to urgently when counting the bin and just accept an error though. You can get fired a lot quicker with TOT task(after certain TOT you can jump straight to termination, but the error reports are posted weekly), but as long as you’re not goofing around or dragging around from the time in between bins you shouldn’t be hurt too badly in TOT. At most as long as you’re doing your job you might get talked to by a PA or manager, but the issue can easily be resolved by discussing the obstacles. There’s also other functions aside from Simple Bin Count, Amnesty, and Problem Solve. You also have Cycle Count, Simple Record Count, audit, etc. I’ll admit I don’t know everything. I’ve recently started ICQA so it’s all still new to me. I was trained in SBC and recently SRC. In SRC you’re basically being sent to a bin, you can the bin, the scanner tells you a specific item to pull, you scan the appropriate item in the bin, if it’s the right item you will be asked how many of that exact item is in the bin, if it’s correct it will move on, if it’s in correct you will be asked again and have a chance to correct it. You will be told the title of the item and it will also have the barcode number on the title, but you can scan anything if you’re having trouble finding it right away. Sometimes it’s easy because it might say “Blue Messenger Bag” and that instantly pops out. However other times it might describe something, but that something is in a plain box with nothing but the barcode with the barcode number. It’s a good idea to check the ambiguous boxes before moving on. However if it doesn’t show up in the bin you can just press n and scan the bin barcode once more to move on. All the same andons apply, only this time you also have an option report being unable to scan the barcode on the item(also with the CC). Rate and TOT isn’t enforced with SRC in terms of employment, but there is a rate you’re expected to perform if you want to remain in SRC that varies on any given day. I haven’t been trained in Cycle Count, but this is a process that was explained to me in my initial training and I believe I was actually supposed to be trained in it before SRC. CC is basically the same as SBC except instead of counting every item in a bin, you’re scanning every item. They’re going behind SBC to verify if bins are actually defective(when the number the SBC enters doesn’t match the system’s number). Their speed rate is much lower, obviously because it takes more time to find the proper barcodes and scan them. While you’re not supposed to, with SBC it’s sometimes as simple as peering into a bin and seeing what you have. While CC they don’t have that advantage. It’s really not a great advantage at times though, because that speedy process can sometimes slow you down even more. Sometimes all it takes is to move a box around to discover the tiniest product or sometimes you assume something is one product only to realize it’s a group of products perfectly aligned. Once you get that error message you have to completely sweep and recount one by one or you risk getting errors. My mistake starting out was taking those risks and my errors were extremely high the first week. Speed in training has a learning curb, but with errors I got negatively doc’d the first week. That’s the one major disadvantage of ICQA. I’m not sure if other positions are so strict with errors or if they have a learning curb on errors. It’s a part of being part of a team that’s there to fix errors though, so it’s somewhat understandable. It did get me startled, because now my worry is getting settled down here only to get fired.
For the most part I don’t mind the job. I actually find myself enjoying SRC. Sure it can get annoying having to search hard sometimes for a specific item, but I find myself having more of a drive to keep moving. This function actually does more moving around. That’s one thing I enjoy though. My old site I moved around a lot too and that helped the day move by quickly. When I came here I was surprised how quick time felt for me, because at times SBC can leave you in the same spot counting several bins before you’re actually moving. I have heard automated stores don’t even require much of any walking as the bins are sent to you by little robots that can lift entire shelves. I couldn’t imagine doing that. I think I’d have to jog in place just to feel like I’m doing something. That’s the downfall of ICQA though. You’re doing a repetitive job and with the long hours it can get boring. With SRC I’m moving. Sometimes I’ll have just one product in a bin to scan and it’s the most obvious one and then several bins down I’m able to quickly establish which item to scan before the item has even popped up on the screen. I will admit that sometimes I wish they had a picture that popped up. I imagined this was what happened for pickers before already, but I suppose not. It would make sense and it could be utilized by having more advanced tablet style scanners with recognition scanners. I could just picture a special automated recognition scanner in receiving that establishes a six corner scan of every product. Then once the picker/SRC person is sent to a specific bin to find a specific product they receive an actual image of the product as it was in receiving. This would save so much time, because I’ve found myself scanning multiple items just to see if there is a chance one of them might be it (refer back to when I mentioned ambiguous boxes with nothing but a barcode on them). Sometimes it’s easy as the titles are very descriptive or it’s something I already counted, but other times it’s frustrating. Another improvement I could say Amazon needs is location.Sure they give you a tour when you first get boarded on, but you’re not going to remember everything. You might quickly memories East and West side and the main mods on both, but then you might get thrown off by the additional little mods added long the way. The other day I was told to go to a part of the building I had never actually been to. The map showed me where the general letter mod was(you also have letters and numbers that tell you where to go). Well this particular bin was telling me to go to something like P.1.N24A100(which means 1st floor Mod N24 Row A Bin 100). The map just showed the location for Mod N, but it was somewhat scattered on the far end of the West Side near where the forklift operators work. At first I was freaking out because it was about 30 minutes until the end of the shift and I spent a good 5-10 minutes just looking for the bin with no luck. Eventually I pressed K to skip the bin until it sent me to a mod that I recognized. I’m not even 100% certain if I am allowed to do this, but at the time I was just thinking about TOT even though now I just remembered that I don’t have to worry about TOT in SRC. It did happen before in SBC once before, but luckily it was just 5 minutes before lunch so I was able to just sign out, clock out, and start fresh. The part that had my mind blown is when I was looking I immediately found an Area Manager and they checked the same little generic map they gave me to hang with my badge and then just told me to radio in help. I feel like if they had an advanced scanner that had a little GPS tool that showed where you are and where you need to scan next it would be so much better. I also feel like it should have a calculate function, because the other day I was doing SBC on bulk pallets and I can’t recall a time I did math in my head or in writing for that matter without a calculator. I know it’s a shame, but I felt myself slow down and get EXTREMELY nervous when the error message kept popping up, then the next night before I trained for SRC the manager and PA told me I got 6 errors and was borderline of the threshold.
I’m hoping that Amazon continues to do everything it possibly can to improve and grow in job creation with more focus on low turnover. I prefer working at Amazon as a warehouse associate over many other things, but I can’t help but see potential outside of working FOR Amazon. One thing that I had my mind on before working for Amazon was actually looking into selling on Amazon. I’ve had people voice their concerns whenever I brought it up and thought of it as a chance for primary income, but I think I’m ready to at least test the waters. Working in ICQA at Amazon doesn’t give me any advantage as a seller in terms of figure out what does and doesn’t sell. People are going to send in their inventory through FBA regardless if it sells right away or even at all. All I see is just inventory on shelves and in bins. However I do feel I have the special perspective of how inventory is treated and what types of things are quicker to get stolen from or get broken up. For starters I just can’t see myself actually selling food unless the profit margin is EXTREMELY high because all it takes is one nasty little worker to poke their little dirty fingers in the a bag of candy or food to make that item completely unable to sell. There is just so much that I need to learn and figure out and that is why I’m glad I have four days off to truly think about things and work them out, before I actually dive into it. I’m hoping to one day be able to no longer work for Amazon, but for now I’m looking for ways to supplement the income I make now from Amazon passively and impassively.
