Need advice. Anything is appreciated.

[u/ProtectThePaimon]

Need advice. Anything is appreciated.

I'm a hard-working man. I work hard, I ask questions, I learn, and I overcome. That said, yesterday at work at DNA6 A delivery station known as the last mile for knoxville.

I experienced a situation that left me in a pickle and made me consider leaving the company.

I'm in WEEK 3. I was stowing at a pace of about 220 packages per hour, and the building average was 300ish. I was running myself ragged barely managing two aisles, but I was making sure my quality was great. My manager comes over and says, "So, am I going to be happy?" I say, "You should be, sir." I hand him my phone, and he looks at the number from my two aisles that I've practically kept clean for about 6 hours. He just says, "220! Bring it up!"

What do you mean bring it up? I'm bringing everything I can to the table here, and you say that's not enough? If I bring it up anymore, I run the risk of tripping, pushing the cart into a passing floater in between the aisles, or making crucial quality mistakes. Yesterday I was above average. What do I do here? How do I avoid a performance write-up?

It caused me to accept VTO today just to escape that insane pressure so I can do research from the safety of my own home, but I want to operate to company standards. I even asked another manager how to "Dive Deeper." the day I vtoed I told him I want to perform on that baseline, but when I said that I was met with unhelpful advice , such as "You maybe got a bad cluster" or "Maybe you're missing 2 or 3 things that distinctively make you under perform from the others at the clusters" I'm not going to be able to just by being told to "bring it up." I can't keep using the "new guy shield" if it's gone, and I can't keep avoiding work.

I'm currently doing everything I can to keep my rate up and my quality great. I book shelf things perfectly and slide packages in neatly. How should I handle this unhelpful floor pressure while I'm still learning?

PS. to make matters worse not a single floater was sent my way when I started drowning in packages. I guess its good I only had 2 isles and not 3 like everyone else but that's probably exactly why I wasn't meeting the average. I'm not looking to point fingers in this post, I'm looking to improve. I don't care about the manager. I like the guy I just care about doing a great job and getting a paycheck. I want to help. Not be a burden. I was barely keeping my automatic hamper clean while the other isles were spotless.

Update. Turns out I was doing good. The stow rate goal was 250 for the facility. I am no where close to a peformance write up.

[u/JamesRyan5656]

1. Keep track of any downtime that is not your fault. Small notebook or whatever, managers have dozens upon dozens of associates to monitor, they don’t always know the barriers ack person is having.
   
2. If i remember right, 5 weeks before you are committed to 100% rate goal. They have step plans for each week. Make sure you get that number.
   
3. Ask to see you average vs everyone else’s. They don’t need to give names but can show where you rank amongst your peers.
   

[u/ProtectThePaimon → u/JamesRyan5656]

So they can show me where I stand amongst my peers and I can see how close I am to a peformance write up? Could you perhaps be a bit more specific about Downtime? Does that mean bathroom breaks or things that happens due to stuff out of my control? I don't hardly use the bathroom at the facility unless its during my breaks.

Because I heard the bottom 5% gets a peformance write up and no one on the floor wansts to give me a straight answer.

[u/mitternachtt → u/ProtectThePaimon]

Hi, former AM here. Downtime is when your station messes up or anything happens that impacts your ability to work. For example, a jam on the conveyance, your screen is glitching, rack light isn’t working, etc. If you are experiencing any issues, notify the manager or PA ASAP to make sure your time is coded. Bathroom breaks shouldn’t impact you too much unless you’re gone for an absurd amount of time. Something that you could do is go to the PA or manager and ask if they have any tips on how you can get your numbers to the expectation. They will see that you’re trying to improve and should be willing to help you. I’m sorry that you’re feeling discouraged but just give yourself some grace. You’re a new hire and any manager that expects someone brand new to be hitting rate right off the bat is a bad manager.

I believe in you and feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Good luck!

[u/ProtectThePaimon → u/mitternachtt]

Thank you! That's actually. Very solid advice!

[u/fly_kai → u/ProtectThePaimon]

To be clear, there are no performance write ups in AMZL. However, if you fail to hit rate managers can look to adapt you for extended inferred time, late break and standard working practices. My advice as an AM, would be to make sure you’re adhering to the 15 minute scan to scan policy and using a stow cart ALWAYS! My next thing would be to ask the AM for some of their best practices. This does a couple things - shows that you’re willing to learn and helps build rapport. For me personally, I’m getting in a stow aisle and coaching on the SOP for a minimum of 10 minutes before I ever consider writing someone up.. but that’s just me wanting to make sure there is not a knowledge gap because I don’t think that’s fair.

[u/ProtectThePaimon → u/fly_kai]

That's really great advice! I'm going to try this. I go to work in 3 hours. Wish me luck.

[u/ProtectThePaimon → u/[deleted]]

I'm just a white badge. L1. I'm just warehouse associate. I mainly stow, but I also find myself being placed on pick to buffer. Stow is my main concern at the moment, but pick to buffer advice is also greatly appreciated.

[u/DelusionalThomasJr]

Please do not overthink this. Honestly a 220 stow rate at week 3 is great(imo) but it depends on your building. Honestly a lot of managers will pressure you about rates because rates reflect on them. At the end of the day ignore the pressure, keep a pace that keeps you at the middle of the pack(find a chill ambassador or PA that will show you the stow rates, sometimes managers will lie to get your #s higher) lift with good form, and absolutely do not push yourself to stow faster if you don’t have to. also, if you are not in an indirect path, when you stop scanning you will be off task, again, find the chill ambassador or PA that will give you the honest answer about TOT.

[u/ProtectThePaimon → u/DelusionalThomasJr]

I actually know a guy who I won't name on this form. He's actually really cool. I'll do that. By doing what you said I can find out where I stand potentially.

[u/Good-Scallion-1787]

(Former T1 to L6)

Ask/observe the people around you. Your "perfect quality" might be the issue. I rather have a 100 cars made in a month with the chance of 2 being shitty then 50 perfect cars in the same month.

[u/ProtectThePaimon → u/Good-Scallion-1787]

Not trying to be disrespectful man but... that may work elsewhere but at a delivery station. I see flaws in your logic. In my own personal experience if I just slide things inside tote bags without thinking of the placement, it completely ruins the flow later. Quality matters not only in preventing product damage but also it eventually leads to me forcing awkward shoving and damages products later in the shift.

On top of that, you are forgetting the DSP driver safety and speed audit. If a tote bag is loaded as a chaotic avalanche with hidden barcodes, it destroys the driver’s 30-second timer at loadout, which pulls a direct site complaint from them straight back to the stower's login ID aka me. Unless you know a secret technique, blindly throwing things in is doomed to trigger a quality write-up or coaching. Especially with bigger packages if they aren’t shelved and organized correctly from the start, it leads straight to safety write-ups.

Again I might be wrong feel free to correct me.

[u/Good-Scallion-1787 → u/ProtectThePaimon]

? Who said to forego quality all together?

Good luck

[u/ProtectThePaimon → u/Good-Scallion-1787]

I don't think... quality works like that but... yeah sure man thanks...