Tough Day Out of the Way

It became obvious as soon as we arrived at work yesterday and sat in the break area for our morning "lull" before starting work - there were lots more people and new faces in the group. There were even a couple people we remembered seeing last year that have done what we did and that's to switch from the night shift to day shift. What that means for us is that there are more people stowing and it will be tougher to find areas that have empty bins for placing merchandise, and fewer carts to take that have merchandise to stow. It promises to get even more difficult as more people arrive and begin working. The official start for "peak" season hasn't arrived yet - probably around the end of October. The indication was that Amazon had planned to hire about 450 workampers this year which is double the number from last year. We're sure they are getting closer to that number. Even though there are lots more people working, they are spread over several different, staggered shifts, so we will see new faces almost every day. Our first day back after having 3 days off is always tougher on us anyway.

We are definitely in a downward trend as far as temperatures go. It is again only 52 degrees outside this morning and the whole northeastern part of the country is having a cooling down. I doubt if it will go over 90 anymore for the rest of the time we are here. The 80's will be just fine for the next couple months, but we don't need any freezing temps this early. The satellite TV news we watch on the major networks originates in New York City and we saw that there are counties in New York that have frost warnings already.

There was an indication yesterday that there might be mandatory OT for us this week. The fulfillment Center that is located in Indianapolis is closing down this weekend for repairs, and deliveries are being diverted to our facility. We were wondering how people that plan trips on their days off can handle last minute mandatory OT. If you don't work when asked, you receive points on your record, and if you accumulate 5 points in a 6 month period, your out. Those points are also handed down if there are performance deficiencies or unexcused absences. It's almost like school all over again where you need a note from the doctor to be excused. It's easy to see why they have those rules, as many of the regular employees are young people that probably have little desire to work.

It's time to get ready for day 2 of our work week, so have a great weekend...