We received our official notice that Wednesday, December 23rd will be our last day at Amazon. At first we thought we would be done on Tuesday, because they are having a party for us Tuesday afternoon.  But then our Camperforce HR person said she is off Wednesday, and that is why our party is the day before.   As such, we did sign up for voluntary work on Monday, so we will have three 10 hour days this week.  We decided against doing the 11 hour days, since we would not be getting any overtime.  And it is nice to see daylight when we leave work, instead of arriving in the dark, and leaving in the dark.  Makena also likes it because she gets a chance to play football outside while it is still light out!

We are actually happy to go all the way to the 23rd, as this continues our goal of ‘fatter wallet, slimmer waist’!  Tuesday December 22 is the last day for guaranteed 2 day delivery, so we expect Wednesday to be very busy.

MAKING HISTORY…AGAIN

The center has been super busy, continuing to set records this past week.  Once again, we set a new all-time picking record on our shift, picking 387,000 units!  And we had back-to-back days where both first and second shift picked over 700,000 units.  Seems like a lot of people will be getting flannel pajamas, bathrobes, socks and underwear for Christmas!

MORE PERKS

We continue to earn ‘vendor bucks’ and have received $27.00 so far, which we promptly cashed out in quarters (free laundry!).  I am glad they removed the metal detectors, so I don’t have to empty my pockets!

We have also completed all three 59 1/2 hour weeks, so we have earned a total of $600.00 in Visa gift cards!  It was a long stretch, not sure if we would do that again.

In addition, I was shocked when I heard my name announced as one of the three weekly winners of the perfect attendance drawing.  I received a Kindle Fire HD 6 tablet.  I can’t  tell you anything about it, as I have not had time to do anything with it, other than opening up the box and making sure it was not broken.  That will be a project for January.

LAST YEAR FOR CAMPERFORCE AT SDF-8

In addition to telling us about our party and last day, they also advised they will not have another Camperforce program at SDF-8 in Jeffersonville, IN.  The operations manager has stated we are just too small to make that much of an impact at their center.  After 3 years, they have finally been able to hire and retain enough full-time staff to fill their needs, with supplementing temporary staff during Peak.

He did mention another location that would be a better fit for a Camperforce site, as that location is more rural, and has a hard time getting staff.  We hope they look into pursuing this location, as we would certainly consider applying to that location (since nothing is official, I won’t mention the location).  Several full-time Amazon employees that we talked to were disappointed about the cancelling of the program.  They said ‘every one of you works hard’ and ‘you folks make work fun’ is the common comments that I heard.  So even though we don’t make a significant impact with management, we certainly do with the employees.

Five Camperforce employees will be staying on and converting to full-time Amazon employees after our release.  They will continue to live in their RV’s although Amazon will not be paying for their campsite.  Each has their own reasons for doing so, and we wish them well.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Normally, Amazon pays for your campsite one day after your release day.  But for whatever reason, the arrangement here was month to month, based on your start date.  So our campsite is paid up through 12/27.  Since the weather will be in the 60’s this week (the weather has been great all season), we have decided to take advantage of our free site and stay a few extra days, instead of traveling Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  We are tired, and plan on resting up a few days, before our 900 mile trip to warm and sunny Florida.

We hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and safe travels if you will be out visiting friends and family over the holidays!

We will miss seeing our family and friends, but perhaps they can come visit or face time/skype us? (hint, hint)

Quote for the day:  “One week at Amazon, is like a month at any other job.” – Jim, a fellow carpooler and Camperforce employee