2020 Hindsight, Part 1: Adventures at Amazon

 With the year coming to an end, it's time to atone for seemingly dropping off the face of the earth for the last several months. This year has done a number on us all, as I'm sure you know too well, and most of us have felt as if we're trapped on our own little islands of isolation.

               

In a year like no other, it can be especially valuable to look back on our experiences to see what has changed and what we ought to learn--hindsight, after all, is 20/20, and even if all we've learned from 2020 is that there was no reason to complain back in 2019, we're still on to something.

With that, here's the beginning of my highlights reel for the year, and the lessons I've learned through the pandemic.

Back in April, I was searching for a summer job to cover the costs of the oncoming school year. The problem was that we were only a month into the pandemic and hadn't figured out how life was going to proceed, meaning most companies weren't taking on any new employees. The exception: Amazon, the one company doing better than ever with everybody staying at home.

If you've ever wondered how you're able to obtain your package within a day of ordering it, it's because there are people working around the clock to get it done--people like me. I was signed on for the weekend night shift, which paid better, but left me working 6:30 PM to 7:00 AM each week from Thursday night until Sunday morning. It was really like a 36-hour shift with two sleep breaks in the middle, since I had no time for anything but meals, showers and sleep between commutes.

Now, Amazon ain't a bad place to work. I met some very interesting characters, but everyone was nice, and the atmosphere was positive despite the stresses of fast-paced work. In the beginning, my body wasn't up to the strain of being on my feet for twelve hours a day, and the soreness hit me hard. At first I couldn't lift my arms above my head when I came home in the morning from the aching and weird muscle cramps I accumulated, but after a couple of months, things got better. I grew stronger and faster, and eventually I was pulling some of the best numbers on the entire floor.

Through this experience I learned all the ins and outs of the mysterious logistical machine that is Amazon, from the moment you click "place order" until your item arrives. Normally an employee would have to wait several months before getting trained in a second department, but due to a crazy mixture of circumstances I ended up learning seven different processes over the course of four months--almost every job an entry-level associate can do in that facility. The most entertaining part of the whole thing is seeing what strange combinations of products people are actually buying. Processing over seven hundred items per hour, I've seriously seen it all; here are some favorites:

• A box of fruit snacks, a teddy bear, and 300 razor blades
• four pounds of walnuts and 66 boxes of orange Jell-O
• nine high-quality water bottles and a matching nine copies of the PBS documentary College Behind Bars
• a dozen fantasy novels, a giant box of Airheads and a soap-making kit

Some of these combinations indicate people who really know how to throw a party, whereas others make you wonder just what kind of party they're putting on, or just raise general concern for all parties involved.

The four nights a week when I didn't work, I was still nocturnal--rather than flip back and forth every week, I determined it would be easier to stay on the same schedule, so I cut a piece of cardboard to black out my bedroom window and that became my life. I got up at about 4:00 PM and went to bed around 8:00 AM all week long, which meant I had plenty of time on my hands on those lonely nights off. Whether that meant painting, writing, refinishing car headlights or taking the deep dive into Korean dramas, I got very good at living stealthily, so as not to disturb everyone else's sleep.

Living the nocturnal life has its benefits, but it's hard to do long-term. Combined with strenuous, monotonous work, I could feel it wearing on me after two or three months. It's a difficult lifestyle to maintain, and I'm frankly impressed I did it as long as I did. In the end, it amounts to an interesting and valuable experience that I'd rather not repeat--but hey, all of 2020 fits that description, right?

Hic Manebimus Optime!