Ch-ch-ch-changes

Snow on the Flamingo

It's amazing how many changes can occur in just a couple weeks. Two big ones here. One’s the weather, like most of the USA we have been sent into the deep freeze (at least for central Kentucky). Today the high was 23 degrees and the low about 12. It is suppose to gradually get better over the week, so that’s some good news. We did get a little snow around the edges but really not much in the way of white stuff. Luckily most of the cold and rain/snow came on our days off.

Now for the bigger change. Last week Amazon made an offer for 100 work-campers to move to Louisville to work in the Jeffersonville, IN (right across the river from downtown Louisville) fulfillment center. This is a center built only 2 years ago and is owned by Amazon. The facility deals mainly with clothes. The unemployment rate in Louisville is pretty low and there are an abundance of seasonal jobs there so they are having trouble getting enough seasonal workers for this peak season. The first offer that came through was an extra $500 bonus. The campground they were going to work with is the Kentucky Exhibition Center which is across the river from the warehouse. Driving in rush hour, pulling up stakes and moving didn’t really make much sense to us for an extra 500 and obviously not to too many others either since only about 30 people signed up. So they sweetened the offer, the bonus went up to $1000 and Amazon would provide shuttle service from the campground to work and back so we wouldn’t have to do the driving. This offer was much more appealing and we accepted the offer along with more than 70 others. So Sunday we will be packing up and moving an hour and a half north of here. We seem to be moving the wrong direction geographically but it’s only for a month. The bonus money will pay for the cruise John and I have planned for when this is all over. 

There are some differences here. We will be working days, which for me will be a challenge since I am not a morning person. However I got up early for years of my work life so I know it’s doable and the good news is it is only for a month. The other change here is they work 11 hour days for peak which will make a 55 hour work week. Because we are Camperforce workers, we are only required to do 10 hour days and 50 hour weeks but the shuttle will only make one trip and it will be after the 11 hour shift so we might as well work it and that makes our overtime weeks 55 hours. I think we are both ok with that. The overtime hours are all at time and a half so it means a better paycheck. 

A cold snowy day for errands.

This will be the third facility we will have worked at for Amazon. Coffeyville, 3 years ago and Campbellsville now. Both of these are older facilities that I believe Amazon leases. John and I are both interested in seeing what a facility they build from the ground up and own will look like. We picked a lot of clothes in Coffeyville and it was ok except for the hanging items so we will also get to compare that to a facility that was built for dealing with clothes.

The Amazon Camperforce has proved itself a great resource for the company, so that is why they have reached out in this direction. I don’t think Campbellsville was happy to loose 100 people they had already trained but the needs of the overall company override that. This will be a new adventure for those of us going. One of the Amazon people that worked the Camperforce program here will be going with us for 3 of the weeks. Kelly will be there to be our liaison and to help this facility know the structure of our program, which is a good thing. Most of us are older workers who work hard and are reliable but may not be as fast as the younger workers they are more familiar with.

So off we go on a new adventure! We will let you know what we think in a couple weeks.

If I don’t get back to the computer for awhile we want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving and I hope that you enjoy the time with family and friends.

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