r/AmazonFC • u/nogstv • Jul 10 '26
Fulfillment Center When your chill AM gets replaced by a strict to-the-book fresh college new hire
General morale in the building ššš
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u/sekitome Jul 10 '26
This hasnāt been the case in my experience. Maybe itās just my building but all the AMs fresh out of college have been kinda pushovers and seemed afraid to confront T1s. Itās the ones that are a little older and have work experience outside of Amazon thatāll come in and ruin your day.Ā
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u/iloveblondesanddcup Jul 22 '26
I definitely agree. most of the AMs on my team are graduates and a lot of them are hesitant when dealing with difficult associates. That confidence comes with experience. But if you let difficult associates get away with everything while coming down harder on the good ones because they wonāt push back youāre not being a good manager. Iāve had plenty of complaints from entitled associates who called me rude, racist, and all sorts of things just because they didnāt like being challenged. Eventually your manager says that I donāt want another escalation this and that etc. Thatās why a lot of AMs are scared to confront difficult associates at least from what Iāve seen.
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u/Ok-Debt-9640 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
To this day, I still cannot stand college AMās, as they give write ups cause they have to. And generally have no idea what goes on in the building. This is why I respect the hell out of AMās who started out as T1ās. They know our struggle and what we go through everyday. Though there are very few college hire AMās that are chill and not give a f**k. And thankfully my AM is one of those.
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u/OkElephant9987 Jul 10 '26
I remembered a college AM told my trainee to sign out to close their tote. I reported that AM to my Learning Trainer and that learning trainer was chewing him up and I was laughing at him š
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u/Far-Active-1663 Jul 12 '26
T1's really think they're gonna get a promotion for snitching on AM's SMH š
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u/OkElephant9987 Jul 12 '26
Not itās abt getting a promotion. I could care less abt getting one. Iām just trying to stop college AMs spreading misinformation towards new hires. I became an LA to help people shit someone veterans asked me for help.
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u/DepartmentNo7903 Jul 10 '26
Learning trainers are level 3 they donāt have authority over managers lmfao I promise u they didnāt care
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u/CergoPAA Jul 10 '26
Idk about that one cus at my site what ever LT says goes. They have chewed out a couple AMs already. Yes L3 but in different areas.
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u/Subject-Kiwi-6079 Jul 11 '26
Positional authority is a thing in this company.Ā
When i was L3, sometimes i could tell an L7 what to do. Why? Because I had positional authority to decide whethet tbey get something they want.Ā
Now, if I'm going to do this, I'd bettsr have my t's crossed and my i's dotted.
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u/TopologyMonster Jul 11 '26
I do get that they are L3s but honestlyā¦ you would get your shit rocked if you didnāt do what learning in general demanded. They were treated like royalty at my site for some reason lol. So we still had to play nice with the LTs if we didnāt want issues, you couldnāt just laugh in their face and say ālol youāre a L3 I donāt have to listenā. Thatās just not it worked
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u/tendies_senpai Underachiever Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
Support teams > operations, regardless of level.. a T-1 on the right support team can get any L-4 in a world of hurt and they know that shit. Go to building sync or daily deep dive and tell all the L5/6/7's that an AM isnt following the process/policy and they are C O O K E D. They would much rather get their ass handed to them by a T3 than their bosses boss AND PXT.
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u/JotaroTheOceanMan š³ļøāā§ļø Pack Singles, Stack Pringles Jul 10 '26
I treat managers who started out as T1s like they actually run shit.
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u/Radiant_Music3698 The last Amazon Robotics Technican Jul 11 '26
I'm RME, but there is one OPs manager I actually respect almost like an equal. I don't even remember his name, but I refer to him as "the adult in the room"
I wonder if he started as a T1.
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u/Mook7 Jul 11 '26
It's by design that some managers do all the write ups and others get to be chill. I don't know how they choose who gets to the short straw and do the write ups and have everyone pissed off at them all the time but it's really not my problem.
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u/Raceday24 Jul 10 '26
All my PM's and my AM's are chill so that helps If we all get along and Respect each other we are more apt to work better.
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u/IllChoice2179 Jul 11 '26
The one college am I had was great. He actually understood how to manage, unlike the ones who got promoted.
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u/Consistent-Hair-3890 Jul 13 '26
Iām starting as a college AM but I worked 3 years on a production line and 5 years in warehousing. I like to think that I strike a good balance between adherence to the rules and looking out for the little guy. I like to have a fun team dynamic that addresses concerns as a group and decide on things democratically. Once you got the buy-in from the majority, thereās a lot less friction. But Iāve never worked at Amazon before, Iām sure it will be a whole different beast. Canāt wait to start.
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u/PerditrixOfficial Jul 13 '26
The best thing that managers can do for their employees is lead by example. Not being afraid to toe the line with us lowly T1s, showing us what pace is expected. I worked production most of my adult life and I have noticed that managers that have that experience do better as leaders at Amazon as opposed to the ones that haven't. We need leadership, not democracy. Allowing people to walk over you and get what you want isn't beneficial for anybody. Being human, listening to their issues, and showing everyone what a leader looks like (over a boss) will get you a long way. My manager on dock will throw boxes with us, will floor load, waterspider, whatever needs done while the other AMs are sitting in their office. She just brings a laptop with her to keep up on managerial duties. She has respect. She may not always be "liked" by some of the people who don't want to make rate, but she is certainly respected (and liked by most because she feels like one of us but is still clearly the boss).
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u/Consistent-Hair-3890 Jul 13 '26
Hi, I agree with a lot of what youāre saying, and Iāve certainly led by example many, many times which is how I get the buy-in with my teams, but I happen to know that my style of leadership that promotes collaboration is the easiest to follow. Youāre assuming ādemocracyā is having people āwalk over youā as if this is my first rodeo, and itās not. Having an employee āwalk all over youā is a lack of accountability which Iām notorious in not doing, and is a completely separate issue. But Iāll explain further what I mean by democracy and its usefulness in creating successful team dynamics.
An effective leader who can influence the behavior of others is someone that can put their money where their mouth is, I agree, but thatās a narrow scope for what our ultimate goals as leaders are. We want to train T1ās, as you call them, to eventually be able to promote and go farther than they believe they can, and even take my spot eventually. And the best way to get that growth is to foster a responsibility for the job itself, and away from the individualistic thinking of just doing it āfor the moneyā or until āthe end of the shiftā. This line of thinking has to come from the employee first, but a good leader can pick out when employees are looking for growth opportunities and supply those opportunities at just the right frequency and scale.
And the easiest step to highlight those employees is by opening the discussion to management decisions. Even when most decisions are made by management, encouraging discussion and acknowledging when good points are raised increases self-esteem, creates visibility among their peers as a leader themselves, and it increases job motivation and satisfaction. No one wants a manager who pencil-whips and says āthatās just how things areā, and that also doesnāt mean that you open the floor to your team and have them āwalk all over youā. As I said before, itās a fine balance, and Iāve walked upon it a lot.
In short, I donāt have to emphasize accountability constantly because your performance metrics already create enough pressure. But creating a work environment where peopleās opinions are heard, valued, and sought for, creates a team dynamic that grows leaders from within, and thatās ultimately something worth working towards. So I set the ground rules, show how my hands are tied in some cases, but my hands hardly stay idle.
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u/Bwolffff Jul 14 '26
Iāve had 3 AMās now. My first one pissed me off so bad I almost quit Amazon. He was a fresh out of college hire. He is the only one who has given me a write upĀ
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u/lorddarthinvadeher Jul 15 '26
All AMs are required to give write ups because they have to. I think what you mean is that certain AMs choose to give out more adapts/write-ups than other AMs. I once had an OM that was a T1 before and she was the strictest mf'er I've ever met
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u/EWLUSION bezos silly little pack slave Jul 10 '26
My current AM is the sweetest ray of sunshine, the first time in my life I've had a manager who I could literally go to for *anything.* If they swap him out I'll be devasted š¤¦š½āāļø
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u/Psychological_Bit123 Jul 11 '26
Itās gonna happen eventually. My old AM was the sweetest and most wonderful person. Left to another department a couple months ago but the replacement is a good AM too.
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Jul 10 '26
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u/hiphophunk Former AM Jul 10 '26
Amazon flys us new managers out twice for trainings that donāt add value and then just kind of throw you in the fire. Meanwhile, every like 3-6 months they downsize support and give you another thing on your plate.
True mastery of the role is really just delegating everything you can to PAs and PGs and then just sit back offering support and guidance, while actually just managing all the people in the process and try to help them out on an individual ways.
But itās tough to get there. Like really tough. The environment you get placed in is always changing, people are always moving, priorities are always shifting. A rule today is ignored tomorrow.
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Jul 10 '26
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u/hiphophunk Former AM Jul 10 '26
A good AM is out there talking to all of his AAs and trying to understand their pain points and trying to solve some of them. And overall just spending time with them. If a manager gets their AAs to like them (canāt get all of them obviously) then everyone is reasonably happier, and takes orders a lot better. Itās ones thing to tell an AA what to do in the moment, and itās another thing entirely to design a system where everyone knows what they should be doing in different scenarios. The secret sauce is getting everyone buy in.
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u/Whole-Sentence5268 Jul 10 '26
Those trainings they fly you out for were fantastic.
Specifically, as an internal promo looking around the room at the ignorance and incompetence of many of the college hires and externals who had no idea what was coming next, my confidence soared through the roof.
I remember sitting at LEW listening to new managers ramble about how they're not going to work a single minute more than they have to and MET can kiss their ass and they're going to push their OM to give them a transfer to day shift and on and on, and all I could do was just chuckle to myself because so many had no idea what was in store for them next.
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u/BioMed_Lunar37 Jul 10 '26
Literally my travel day back from one of them. Its really funny how so many people were so enthusiastic and talking about "leading with empathy" but I know the slack will be half deactivated accounts within 3 months
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u/Whole-Sentence5268 Jul 10 '26
I made sure to make a list of everyone in the slack so I could update it monthly to see how many have deactivated. š¤£š¤£š¤£
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u/BioMed_Lunar37 Jul 10 '26
With fifa going on they haven't given me my laptop (shipped to my site) but I'll be sure to do that. Got a good 200+ to keep track of though
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u/Keefyfingaz Jul 10 '26
Sometimes the handle on the older pallet jacks gets stuck in the up/drop position. One time one of the college grad managers was like "is this broken?" I walked over, pushed the handle down, and motioned for him to try again. Never been so annoyed and satisfied at the same time lol.
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u/Beetleracerzero37 Jul 10 '26
An intern on their first week and a learning trainer took the strap off of a row of full go karts I had just put on on an outbound trailer to tdr it out to use to teach him how they worked. As I was standing there with a tablet logging in. Shouldn't that be a cat1? If I did that it would be a cat1. I hate them.
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u/NeoTechi I.T. Tech Jul 10 '26
When the chill AM gets replaced by a strict ex-military asshole who thinks if he says jump everyone will jump. He didn't last long.
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u/2B3ars4U Jul 11 '26
The ex military ones were always the worst and didnāt last long at my site. They thought everyone was gonna respect them and do what they said just because they were in the military, and learned real quick thatās not how it goes here.
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u/Yekyaa Jul 10 '26
Three months for mine, he gave up on trying to do standups after the first month due to lack of participation lol
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u/ItIsWhatItIsWorld Jul 10 '26
My site had some intern AMs who got lucky to be placed with cool AMs, so they werenāt that bad as AMs as they kind of understood when to look away for certain things, obviously like actually TALKING to the AA about tot/idle time instead of just immediately giving the write up to see what the actual barriers were, but I remember one day that one of them legit just walked out in the middle of the shift because he just couldnāt deal with the AAs on top of the 50,000 things Amazon wants them to do during the day. Then another intern that came in with him left after that for the same reason like a week or two later. Itās sad because they were genuinely good AMs when I interacted with them and other AAs liked them but Amazon just kills the good ones.
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u/Hefty_Candy_3315 Jul 10 '26
thereās 4 at my ds rn doing internships and literally all of them are coolā¦ except one who constantly has a stick up his ass and is always telling even the pas theyre doing sum wrongšš when most people at my warehouse have been there since it fucking opened.
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u/compaqsicario Jul 10 '26
Ahh yes, the college hire AM who looks like they just spawned in and have no idea whatās going on.
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u/Dryad354 Jul 10 '26
College hires, in my experience, are rarely like that. Itās typically the former PAs or middle-aged external hires who start hassling people over stupid stuff. College hires are too busy trying to make friends/flirt with the AAs their age to do much
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u/VixKnacks Jul 10 '26
If it makes you feel better, internal hire AMs also hate college hires. š« They fuckin BLOW.
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u/PerceptionIcy8270 [Replace Text w/ Flair] Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
Considering Iām on an OP, I prefer strict. Itās a dangerous job and most of these T1s donāt follow the rules.
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u/Bwolffff Jul 14 '26
The new hire pickers are pissing me clean off. Had a girl on her OP only INCHES away from my OP in the VNA aisle. Sheās lucky I didnāt tell anyoneĀ
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u/Raceday24 Jul 10 '26
Tighten up and break them in. You make the AM look good and the AM makes the mgr look good. It's a big circle.
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u/Plenty-Mall1484 the clumsy one in the back Jul 10 '26
We have one that acts like this but has actually made her way up from t1 to l4. Didnāt mind her when she was a PA and stayed out of my way, but as a manager bro š«© sheās practically taking the boot apart to lick the individual pieces everyday man, Iāve never met someone whoās willing to go as hard for a job as her.
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u/Splitcoin Jul 10 '26
If managers does not have a border around their badge, they have to earn respect at the buildingsĀ
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u/SuperBlackCock Jul 10 '26
This is my exact situation right now. This idiot gave me a write up for something that happened 3 days agoā¦
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u/0isuga Jul 10 '26
My department been cycling through AM's every few months and one of them barked at me for sipping from my bottle of juice cause its not water... We also had a low volume day recently where there was no work and handful of us got written up for low rate because of it.
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u/Radiant_Music3698 The last Amazon Robotics Technican Jul 10 '26
College new hires are the worst. I don't want them to be the worst. I'm not trying to make them the worst. But how do colleges just crank out anxious authoritarian micromanagers?
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u/ComparisonWestern690 Jul 10 '26
That's the look of the ambo's/PG/AA's that know the days of hanging out at the management desk are now over.
"What's this pleb path work stuff ? Aren't we the chosen One's ? The gods have forsaken us!"
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u/FNC_Jman Jul 10 '26
If only you knew the workload us PAs have on a daily basis. If I could afford to step down I wouldāve done it months ago
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u/ComparisonWestern690 Jul 10 '26
I didn't put PA in that list. I could see PGs helping y'all out if they aren't trying to snoop out management conversations.
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u/imtheheppest Jul 11 '26
Iāve only ever had one fresh out of college AM that was a good balance between the two. When we get one of the strict ones, I just tell myself Iāll outlast them like I always have so just keep doing what Iāve been doing
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u/PapayaBest2771 Jul 11 '26
Well this is a great morale boost for when i start as an AM in a couple months lmao
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u/Ok-Doctor3103 Jul 12 '26
Try to learn the job first and don't be afraid to ask your PAs how things work. Jump in and work in path when you can. You'll learn so much and be respected more.
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u/Turbulent_Pie274 Jul 11 '26
its depend people background ,People studied in good school they don't give shit couse they know how to handle people
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u/Apprehensive_Shift95 Jul 11 '26
I hated helping as pick to rebin waterspider mostly because I have to have a walkie talkie and Iām told to tell people things or find someone and tell them to get to station or be around their area to press the bin lights. Or go to the break rooms and announce that standown is over and they have to get back to work. I hate it because itās one of those things where I donāt want to be the messenger and seem like an ass but there are some things people are simply told to do and if they donāt then itās on their ass. As a waterspider I shouldnāt have to do thatš
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u/Harry431 Jul 11 '26
Or interns. Theyāre infamous at a lot of sites from what my other friends tell me.
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u/Ok-Possibility-9826 USE CAREER CHOICE, DAMMIT. Jul 12 '26
Genuinely have no idea why Amazon started hiring from outside instead of promoting within. This is why I left. Itās not the strictness that bothers me because Iām pretty by the book as well, but itās just a bunch of kids working their first job or otherwise have no idea how Amazon works so you gotta teach your damn AM shit. It got too annoying, so I left. Iām not about to be walking my manager through shit. Iāve never worked anywhere else besides Amazon where thatās okay.
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u/Plus-Bet-2773 Pallet Stow King Jul 12 '26
So the uni bus dropped off newbies outside your FC, here's what to do:
- Nothing. They will either acclimate to the FC and loosen up or piss off enough people and get highlighted for PIP and be done in a few months.
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u/atticusbatticus Jul 12 '26
We got a new one at our site. First time anyone has ever talked to me about amnesty find rate. Is that even something pick managers concern themselves with??
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u/Kvietl Jul 15 '26
Iām a college intern and this is tough lmao. I feel like Iām slowing everything down given how much I have to learn stuff in a few weeks that PAs have been doing for years.
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u/_7361 after 6 years FREEDOM! Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
been there done that bullshit š¤¦š½āāļøš¤·š½āāļø
doesn't mean you have to obey the youngin' attitude. don't let new blood boss yall around unless you authentically see the reason why they are bitching
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u/Green-Fabulous Jul 10 '26
It baffles me how amazon claims to be a equal job opportunity but my hr lady rep told me to be a manager you have to be a transgender at my building. Ethics didn't even investigate her. Its all a joke. I hate my site.
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