One Week Down and a Surprise Visit

We survived our first week on the job. Taking the example of Evelyn who is on week three, we left this morning thinking one week down and seven to go. We were hired to be pickers and are doing the night shift on M,T,Th, & Fri. This week, however, it was Sunday orientation and then M, T, & W. So we are off now until next monday at 5pm. We work 10 hours with a 30 minute lunch so our hours are 5 pm until 3:30 am. It is a long shift and you are on your feet for all but about 45 min. Ten hours on your feet is definitely a challenge and by the end of the shift all you want to do is get off your feet for awhile. We also have to get into bins at floor level to retrieve items and so we are doing squats all night long. I’m guessing this week I’ve done several hundred squats. Between walking and squats I am getting back into shape. The other work campers say it takes a couple weeks before some of that gets easier.

This place is pretty amazing. It is over a million square feet and some of the areas have 3 levels. Eveyln did a great job on her blog of explaining the job that she and Kevin do in packaging. We got to see the Crisplant packaging area and got to see the packers in action. We are pickers and I’ll try to give you an idea of how this works. When you order something from Amazon.com it goes into the system and if it comes to Coffeyville then the items show up on a pickers handheld scanner. If there are multiple items they actually may get picked by multiple people. Our scanner tells us to go to an area in the plant and scan a tote (big yellow plastic box) which we put on a cart that we push around. Then it tells us an item to find by giving us a row and bin identifier. We go there and then scan the bin, find the item, scan the item and put it in the tote. After so many items, so much weight it tells us the tote is finished and we take the tote to the nearest conveyer belt and off it goes to sorting, then packing and finally to shipping and then arrives at your door The scanners prompt you for everything you do so that makes it easier to keep from making mistakes and it even tells you when its break time, lunch time and time to leave. Even seeing how it all works I am amazed at how they make it all work so smoothly, it is truly impressive. The people we work with and for have been great so far. This is not a difficult job to learn but make no mistake it is physically a challenge.

Lu and Terry 

Now for the surprise. I got an email yesterday from the friends we met in Wisconsin, Lu and Terry, saying they were on the way to Tulsa and realized how close it would be to Coffeyville and were thinking of stopping here for a night. It couldn’t have been better timing. Normally we would be working on Thursday but not this week, how perfect. We had been told there was a good little place to eat in Liberty, just a few miles north of town, so that is where we went for dinner. It was so good to see them. Sometimes you meet people that you just click with and that is how we feel about this couple. We are already looking at some ways we can spend some time together, maybe some work camping jobs along the way. I have to say it was the perfect way to end a long week. 

I’m going to see if I can get John to write a Captain’s log on out first week at Amazon too, but until then.......

Happy Trails..........................