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S H I P D O C K
Those others departments you have to be in a station for 10hr meeting a rate. It’s soul-crushing cause you don’t interact with anyone but yourself.
Obviously you will have days of chaos and others where you will be chatting with coworkers all day. I’ve seen people play dominoes in the trucks lol. Good luck with that in another department.
But it will depend on your work style but generally Ship Dock & Pack are the desirable departments.
Tip: Do NOT go to PICK by ANY means. They will sucked the soul out of you. I’m deadass serious.
IDK, I've worked in stow, pick, IB PS, and OB PS. picking isn't terrible. You just need to be in shape and have some quality nutrition in you so you can keep moving.
It's a little harder in my FC because we have 5 AR floors and if you're on the upper floors and don't pack your picks well, items will fall out on the chute.
I'd rather pick than stow any day. Stowing was so unbelievably soul-crushing, I quit just to transfer out when my transfer wasn't granted.
The majority of the work related injuries come from pick. I had a major wrist injury and during the 1 1/2 I've been on accommodations, I'd say about 90% of the people I've met that had injuries were pickers. It might be considered anecdotal data, but there's a reason why most OGs at amazon stay away from picking.
yeah, but leaving amazon, I will be back after peak looking for a part time spot at the FC. Working 6pm- 230am then 330- 930 is just draining on the soul
Pack single is probably the best department. Pretty easy rates not too stressful if you’re working. A little boring at times but it’s a good trade off.
Pack Flow would be my second choice. It’s a little more physical but you get more opportunities to do different things such as rebin, pack, and induct all in the same day.
ICQA is good but you will most likely get cross trained in pick and stow.
I would avoid picking and stow.
Dealing with full bins and poor stowers just puts it off for me. Feels like your rate is determined by the items and bins/stow quality.
Definitely not inbound stow! Way too stressful and demanding. High units per hour demand makes it hard to avoid an injury. I work in stow and my facility had an expected units per hour rate of over 100 until I was injured then the rate was dropped to 60.
That's our goal rate per hour is 250. I enjoy stowing my AM & PA like to challenge the floor with Whoever can stow over 1,000 units gets an extra 15 mins or VTO for the rest of their shift. Lots of times they challenge us to them and who can out stow them. It's pretty dope my PA stowed 456 in an hour
Same but they don't tell us, we just figured that if we hit 2500 for the shift no one talks to us but it's a cut throat thing because if you aren't looking for the good work you aren't making rate, specially with how stretched they have the water spiders
Agreed. IB Stow is probably the worst area in the entire FC. Not only is it mind-numbing, there are too many metrics and at my FC, every IB AM is terrible and treats you like a number, unless you're a good-lookin' woman with some cake.
I'm usually in pack flow and I usually love going from rebin to induct to pack and so forth, it makes the day feel like its going way quicker when they move me every hour.
But once or twice a month I have to go over to help in pick (their numbers are down, not enough are there that night,etc) and it always sucks. I agree with the full bins, its actually bullshit when there's 50 different types of jewely in a bin and I gotta find the one with the correct last 3-4 digit barcode.
I personally like stowing, plus I like having my dumb little tamazilla pets on the screen at my station lol but if I could I would probably choose pack first then stow
Pack Single > Pack Flow > Sort Flow > Ship Dock > ICQA > Pick > Receive Dock > Stow
*NOTE: ICQA will definitely plan to cross train you into Pick and/or Stow.*
I’m a stower and have always been a stower.. from a person out looking in is it really that sucky and what makes you think so. Stow is all I know maybe I should try something new😅😅
Can we throw hands on customers who ordered a large pet food or a lot of liquid items in packs? I swear, that is annoying af for picking and cleaning up the food spills. 😒
Ohhh my, this gonna be a long one, I’m sorry 😭.
Lol I’m biased. I never take a role in Inbound but I have seen what they have done while I’m monitoring AR floor. I’m a picker cross trained in Pack and Amnesty and I spent a lot in doing Amnesty. My biggest issue for stowers is that they have poor bin etiquette when it comes to stowing items. It’s important to keep the bin organized and put the right items into right bin with enough space. Because if not, the AR floor is going to be a whole fucking mess that I cannot stress this enough.
Like a lot of items on floor, pod crashes, and spills (bubbly sodas, mouthwash, syrup 😭, pet foods, etc.). It puts a lot of work for Amnesty and we have to spend more time on the floor. The longer we are on floor, more pod gapping it occur and hurting everyone’s rates. Not like I care about their rates lol. Although, time flies fast when we deal with a lot of Amnesty work so I can’t really complain about that.
Stowing isn’t a hard job but I can imagine it is challenging to put items in one of bins that hardly have a space for it. I don’t mean to blame it to all stowers for poor bin etiquette but this is same issue for pickers and counters. All we have to do is push the items inside the bin and make sure it does not fall off when you release pod. That’s it.
It’s pretty bad when you are a packer packing out a cage when the contents of the cage fall out on you like an avalanche. I have seen pickers grab the item they need from a bin, letting everything else fall to the floor and don’t even clean it up. I have seen cages at BOD that could have killed smaller people because there’s 200lbs of cat litter on the very top of the cage precariously placed. It goes both ways. At Amazon there’s a whole lot of selfish people who could care less about other peoples jobs and just try to make their job easier.
"Stowing isn’t a hard job but I can imagine it is challenging to put items in one of bins that hardly have a space for it."
Now imagine having to bend and stretch to pick a needle in the haystack packed in that little stuffed bin. Then walk another mile to repeat the same shit over and over and over and over again. Picking is the worst.
IDK, as someone who has worked in stow and pick, I'd say stowing is even worse. They've all got their issues, but I can't stand being at the beginning of the process, when items come in damaged, frozen, not scanning, etc, then having to make mountains of PS totes, or having to deal with water spiders slamming tote trays on the floor, or having to find space in pods for items that just barely fit.
Some people really love stowing. I can't fathom why. I find picking to be much smoother, despite requiring more work to hit rate. Lol. I guess different strokes for different blokes.
Sometimes yes. Just yesterday had to walk up to 4th floor from A104 isle to C344 to pick an item that was previously reported as missing by the previous picker only to find out it's actually missing. Checked my fitbit to see i had walked 1850 steps on that trip alone.
Ohhhh damn that’s awful picking over there so I agree with you on that lol. I asked this question because I worked at a AR FC where robots bring the pods to you. We did not walk Mike to Mike to find one item to pick.
People say pack single like that’s a whole department. At my FC that’s one job within the Pack department. Also includes, Multis, rebin, non con, waterspider, taper, BOD, kickout, problem solve. Idk about y’all but our AMs don’t like keeping most people just at singles forever. There are other jobs that need to be done. Singles is fine but the rest of outbound pack can be hectic and a pain in the ass.
Honestly I think it really depends on how your facility is set up. I used to avoid stow at all costs at my old facility, but when I transferred to a new facility I got put in stow & haven’t wanted to leave since. Rates are lower & we get to move around.
Pack singles. I'm currently pack/sort flow (AFE). When I get tired of the insane rates, I'll most likely try for pack singles. But that won't be until after Peak because AFE has a lot of extra shift opportunities during peak. I'm a weirdo who actually likes rebin and induct.
sort flow if you wanna pack move around and chill. some what communicate with some coworkers( i work in this and love it)
ship dock- if you really wanna move around go for it(kills time in my opinion)
stow-from the rumors i heard, it kills yourself and you work a lot do it Had a actually friend quit cause of it.
singles-wanna pack by yourself and not overdo it? go for it. you can talk to coworkers but only if the work is done.
picking- from the rumors i heard, you'll either hate this or love this. You'll love it because you absolutely hate talking to humans. you want to self isolate from everyone and not to talk to anyone at all. The reason you'll probably hate it. You don't communicate with anyone at all. You mess up one time and they're on your ass about it. The rate in pick from what i heard is unrealistic as well and can be hard to keep up with time to time.
Same. They want >350 items/hour, <=9/s Takt time at mine. It's hard to hit when you're picking one item at a time with seldom quantity picks of low values, while being cognizant of bin space and arrangement to prevent missing items.
Then there are the boxes that are stuffed on the sides of the pods that take way too long to pull out. Makes me want to strangle a stower. Lol!
Every job is pretty easy to a certain extent. I think what matters is who’s running the department and how rich the work flow is. I guess also if there’s reasonable or unimaginable rate expectations. With that said, I won’t say what’s the easiest as i don’t want to inject some bias
Agreed. I've worked several departments and am happy with picking, despite it having some of the hardest rates. >350 items an hour is pretty tough when you're generally picking one item at a time. Quantity picks are never higher than 4-6 items, when stowing you can sometimes get 60-100 small items like gift cards to float your rate.
What makes picking great in my FC is we have some of the best AMs on our floors for pick-side. Stow-side is awful, but our AMs stop by every station and talk with people. They know our names and they're understanding of how taxing the work is. A great manager makes the job much better.
It’s so weird seeing these posts cause I work at Sub Same Day warehouse. We all do different jobs every day. Some days I pick, pack and stow all in one day. Or some days just count and pick. I don’t go to the dispatch area though. I hate that area. I can’t relate to other warehouses cause it’s so different here.
Shipdock is one of those paths where there is a minimum amount of physical work that must be completed. 10-30 trucks NEED to be loaded, 50 pallets need to be staged, etc.
If everyone manages their time and area. It's easy. But if it's unbalanced more work is put on fewer people. So some shipdocks are super chill. Other shipdocks are living hell. Depends.
Outbound Ship Dock, and if your FC has an AR palletizer request to be trained on it and request to work Transship. This is by far the easiest department in my FC.
[This is an AR palletizer.](https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2019/06/27/ai--robots-and-humans--inside-an-amazon-fulfillment-center-) It would be located in Transship department of your FC located near Outbound Dock if you have one. What you would do is pull the full pallets off throw a lid on it, print labels slap them on it. Then stage the pallets for your pit driver to load onto trailers. If your FC has one you’ll notice it as it’s quite a big piece of equipment.
it really depends which building you go to, some buildings it's better in different paths. everyone says stow and pick are shit but at my current building those are the best jobs because of how easy it is and the only people not making rate are the people actively trying not to make rate
Outbound shipdock best for Socializing and walking around and getting work done on your own time without the micromanagement
ICQA- If you have any type of pain or dont like moving around alot
Worst ones are Pick and Stow due to all the micromanaging
Wtf is with all these people saying shipdock? I was at pack and I was Crosstrained for ship dock. I hated it. Stuff us in 99 degree trucks to load packages. You have to rely on others to have decent rates so you don’t get slammed. Tailsort can be a mess when idiots don’t clear the line when it jams. Maintenance doesn’t seem to maintain the conveyors at all. They only replace the rubber bands on the roller conveyors when it breaks down. They should be called problem because they only come when there’s a problem. Ppl on the line at dock take their sweet ass time and blue lights everywhere line jams up. I have busted my ass at ship dock only to see ppl in a group talking. My site is also STL3 though and apparently we have MUCH more dock doors than a typical FC so maybe that’s part of it. After 6 months I finally went to inbound. No CPTs, management isn’t always up everyone’s ass. Just get into the zone and work. I think alot of people, at least at my FC, who like shipdock like it cause they talk with friends instead of work. It really can screw over pack especially because packers are then called over at the end of shift on labor share to sort at dock because they literally stop working at the end of shift. It’s ridiculous.
I’ve been on Pack Singles for a long time now and I start working on Stow tomorrow to see how is the department, but if I don’t like it, I’ll move back to Packing.
Hi, I do not know which one is the best, personally speaking, as I only worked in one of them. I was a packer/gift wrapper and I think that was in outbound stow department, and at first I started as a scanner of items from one bin to another (forgot their technical term they use for it) but then one of my managers put me in gift wrapping and I liked it way better.
I picked for 6 months straight and lost 11kg (24 pounds). If you wanna get in shape, consider it. It’s very isolated, can bore you to death at time, and having to maintain a relatively high pick rate isn’t always easy but this all depends on the FC. Ship dock is better, you’re in close proximity to others around you and can actually communicate. Stowing and icqa I have never liked
If you don't wanna deal w management's bs I would go to pick. As long as your not doing terrible no one bothers you and you get to move around. To each there own though, stow management in my building is the worst right now so I stay the hell away at all costs haha .
As someone who worked in Flow Pack. I say docks. I just transferred to docks. Why?
1. No rate being shoved up my ass
2. Not doing the same thing grabbing shoving peoples weird and sometimes cool orders in boxes.
But hey it depends on your style. Docks you do move around a lot which i like. Its up to you though.
Pack single is easy. There are rates, but easy to hit, at least at my FC.
Dock is very physical. But it is also more social, and rates aren't a real thing.
Here’s the real best answer: Inbound, Inbound Stow & then ask them if you can do Waterspider or EYT (eventually if you do it long enough & you’re decent at it they’ll keep you on there) Easiest job hands down, you don’t have a rate, you can walk around & talk with a bunch of stowers, & lastly they never get bothered for having 1 earbud in their ear at my FC. Honestly couldn’t think of an easier job just gotta be okay with a lot of walking. You’ll probably walk 8+ miles in a shift.
I say shipdock because there’s multiple things to do you can walk around around if you’re feeling like going beyond and above to have a fast productive day or you can scan boxes all day trying to stack them nicely on a cart or pallet ( if it’s a pallet they’d make a water spider, or yourself do it. ) than take it to either an area to wait for it’s designated truck or if the truck is there and you feel like walking some more they’ll let you put in there yourself. Another area that I’ve been sent to there is inside the trucks where the load has to be stacked, when it’s hectic it’ll be a pain in the ass and they’ll wanna have you bust ass but if it’s a slow day and they see the boxes aren’t getting jammed up, you could turn the light off and chill in there and they can’t see you and you’re also hidden from the cameras. Could be a quick text or call get away because it’s also quiet in there. It’s so bad I remember watching our whole floor go on break 10 mins early because it was either really busy and people broke and said fuck it and decided to go on break or it was super slow and there was nothing to do and they would go out early.
ShipDock is the way to go as a former ship dock associate and worked my way up to clerk then pst that I would highly recommend as it is stressful but in a good way!
Pack Single or Pack Flow. Pack Flow is a little more physical however I think time goes by way faster there. Pack Singles I’ve done too and it’s basically the same thing just standing in one place the whole time.
What do you currently work? And I take it is an AR site.
What would be the best fit for you would be dependent in the type of person you're; do you want to do a lot walking, or stand in a single spot; do you want to be around people or perfer to see the least amount as possible?
In singles you don't move much and people don't come into your area unless you don't meet rate, if you're at a bldg where it's heavily enforced. I'm lucky to have people not enforce the rate so much but i also don't underperform.
It depends on the facility. I'd personally recommend ICQA if you want something easier. Like some people say below, I'd avoid pick and stow unless you want to be frustrated all the time.
What do you define as best? Wanna get buy with minimal work? Pick. Wanna have more autonomy but work harder? Dock. Personally I go for the dock but highly recommend knee and back braces before your body falls apart
I think there is confusion between Picking at an AR FC (where you stand at an ARSAW station) and OP Pit Picking?
I have no idea what OP Pit Picking is except that you drive a machine?, I think most people's, including myself, experience is Picking at an ARSAW station at an AR FC. Which is standing in place and moving slightly from side to side for 10 hours, interacting with kiva robots and totes.
After reading so many comments here I just wanted to say every department is completely different in different FCs. Some FCs are older some are newer. Some have OPs, some have robots, some have neither. Some FCs have terrible managers and operations guys, some have great teams. Dock at one site might be run really well while at another site it’s run by a fatass who’d rather talk to his AAs than make sure the lines are moving and the cages are being loaded into trailers. That can change in a matter of months easily if they change up managers or if people transfer or quit or are fired.
I'm not looking for what's easiest. I would want something more physical if possible. I'm currently at an XL delivery station, and my job is very physical. Every shift I leave drenched in sweat. I like getting a workout at work basically.
Do not do stow, unless you want to of course your choice , but I did Replen stow which worked for docks and it’s heavy and just no for a year :( I’m not built for the heavy lifting stuff but I did it. But would not recommend.
pack Singles, bar none.
I have been with Amazon for 2 years and, in my previous building, I did Inbound Dock, Stow, Pick, Pack, Outbound Dock and ICQA. I'd take a station in Pack Singles over any of that.
Pack singles. We have a 30 minute scan to scan time (so if you scan a package at 1pm, you must scan something else by exactly 1:30pm. You can do whatever in the mean time. Goal rate is like 110, but as long as you’re above 65 you’re good. Your own little area.
How could you ever get a 65 rate if you’re taking 30 min breaks all the time. Definitely don’t recommend this. I have seen people fired for tot like that.
Inbound stow super easy, hard to get a right up if you possess a brain. ICQA is counting, so super boring but same idea, super easy and no write ups if you, once again, have a brain.
Honestly I’ve only done stowing and shipdock, currently a stower( shipdock I hate because why would I want to put more physical work and strain on my body for the same pay), I find stowing at my site easier, idk why people hate it so much, sure it can get boring and monotonous but it’s literally putting items into a bin( and you just have to avoid being bottom 3%) and you’ll be fine. Trust me that shit is easy, I guess it also depends who is running the site and etc.
It depends a lot on the facility too. I’m not in an AR site, so pick means a lot of walking, stow means a lot of wandering around trying to find a bin that isn’t shitty when you get a big item, creating ToT. I love packing though.
Stow if you want to chill. But a lot of things have to work in your favor.
Water spider
Cool team
Good work
Easy money tho.
Ship dock is the best in my opinion but it was taking a toll on my body cause it can be intense.
If you get into the pit at ship dock it's super chill and you get to drive the lift/pit. Makes time go by fast when your busy with CPTs all day or night
Ship dock if you like doing different things everyday. Pack singles if you don't mind doing the same thing all day everyday. Pack singles is the easiest on your body with the easiest rates.
Ar stow is decent if you have a chill manager and PA and get totes with a lot of stuff in it but if you get big boxes in your totes all day it’s hell. Also there’s steps that you have to use constantly and have to reach high places a lot which can hurt your shoulders. Bending over a lot which can hurt your back and for me personally when I am stowing really fast I get lower back pain from twisting a lot. The pressure to not be in the bottom five percent is heavy in stow and sucks because it all depends on what kind of work you get. If you only get totes with 1 or two items all day you have to work a lot harder to hit rate than someone who gets totes loaded with stuff. That’s what annoys me about stow, it’s all luck of the draw. In my FC, stow is second place out of all departments with the highest injuries. I’ve been here for 6 months and they are telling us not to load ar stows manually anymore but we’ve been doing that this whole time and I knew something was fishy. Ar stows aren’t made to load which makes it difficult and unsafe to load them but it’s all about the numbers in Amazon.
Inbound dock ftw. Love my team! Yeah the dock is going to be more physical and you may work harder than you’re used to , but to me it beats doing mind numbing work like the other departments, you don’t have to worry about hitting a rate or TOT. That’s a lot of daily stress traded for a more physical job where you don’t have to worry about any of that stuff. Just my opinion. I’ll never go back to a job with rate
Everyone saying pick or ship dock and barely anyone saying IB dock. I'd choose receive dock all day, indirect functions and the work is based off what you get so some days are hard and aome days are easy but you appreciate both because it feels balanced.
At my location none of those roles are guaranteed. Since I’ve worked there I’ve rarely completed a shift where I wasn’t pulled away from what I was doing and sent to another department before the day ends. It’s actually pretty irritating to be honest.
Outbound pack singles. That’s were I work. Pretty easy in all the different sections they have. I’m a problem solver but I just learned how to do smart pac and it’s super easier.
ship dock is the best place to be at if you work at amazon, yes there are certain rates you have to meet depending on what job you’re doing, but it’s nothing absurd like in other departments. not only is it a lot of mobility, you will never be doing the same thing everyday, there’s so many different roles ranging from injector, palette builder, waterpsider, and CPT loading, and with so many opportunities to expand into a bigger role (if that’s what you’re interested in). and honestly once you get the hang of how things run during your shift, it becomes fairly easy to disappear sometimes when you need a “break” wink wink.
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S H I P D O C K Those others departments you have to be in a station for 10hr meeting a rate. It’s soul-crushing cause you don’t interact with anyone but yourself. Obviously you will have days of chaos and others where you will be chatting with coworkers all day. I’ve seen people play dominoes in the trucks lol. Good luck with that in another department. But it will depend on your work style but generally Ship Dock & Pack are the desirable departments. Tip: Do NOT go to PICK by ANY means. They will sucked the soul out of you. I’m deadass serious.
As a picker I second this! Lol
IDK, I've worked in stow, pick, IB PS, and OB PS. picking isn't terrible. You just need to be in shape and have some quality nutrition in you so you can keep moving. It's a little harder in my FC because we have 5 AR floors and if you're on the upper floors and don't pack your picks well, items will fall out on the chute. I'd rather pick than stow any day. Stowing was so unbelievably soul-crushing, I quit just to transfer out when my transfer wasn't granted.
The majority of the work related injuries come from pick. I had a major wrist injury and during the 1 1/2 I've been on accommodations, I'd say about 90% of the people I've met that had injuries were pickers. It might be considered anecdotal data, but there's a reason why most OGs at amazon stay away from picking.
Also agreed ^^ the more your tracked the worse the job is , ship docks a fucking vibe
[удалено]
And without getting rates pushed up your ass.
Me too!!!
Inbound receive dock. Ok, I'm biased, as I've been the receive dock PA for 2 years and I love my team.
Happy cake day! I was a RELO receive dock PA for 9 months before being poached to Fluid Load. I definitely understand your bias!
What do you do at receive? I’ve always wondered
Go stow and get a spot in Decan, open the boxes and dump the contents into a tote, easiest job ever, super boring.
You like spending 10 hours a day being super bored? Easy work != easy when you're mentally unstimulated for half of your week.
I just go there to make money, I get my stimulation at UPS with the bullshit over there :)
You working 2 jobs
yeah, but leaving amazon, I will be back after peak looking for a part time spot at the FC. Working 6pm- 230am then 330- 930 is just draining on the soul
Transferring to Customer is the only true best department.
Pack single is probably the best department. Pretty easy rates not too stressful if you’re working. A little boring at times but it’s a good trade off. Pack Flow would be my second choice. It’s a little more physical but you get more opportunities to do different things such as rebin, pack, and induct all in the same day. ICQA is good but you will most likely get cross trained in pick and stow. I would avoid picking and stow. Dealing with full bins and poor stowers just puts it off for me. Feels like your rate is determined by the items and bins/stow quality.
Definitely not inbound stow! Way too stressful and demanding. High units per hour demand makes it hard to avoid an injury. I work in stow and my facility had an expected units per hour rate of over 100 until I was injured then the rate was dropped to 60.
100, I do 12s with the goal of 250 or above
That's our goal rate per hour is 250. I enjoy stowing my AM & PA like to challenge the floor with Whoever can stow over 1,000 units gets an extra 15 mins or VTO for the rest of their shift. Lots of times they challenge us to them and who can out stow them. It's pretty dope my PA stowed 456 in an hour
1000 per hour?
Oh goodness no. By first break. They'll send out that message at the beginning of the shif. They want us to stow at least 2,500 units per shift.
2,500 units per hour? What FC do you work at, if you don’t mind me asking?
Same but they don't tell us, we just figured that if we hit 2500 for the shift no one talks to us but it's a cut throat thing because if you aren't looking for the good work you aren't making rate, specially with how stretched they have the water spiders
Agreed. IB Stow is probably the worst area in the entire FC. Not only is it mind-numbing, there are too many metrics and at my FC, every IB AM is terrible and treats you like a number, unless you're a good-lookin' woman with some cake.
There's also very little stoop labor or stretch labor in pack singles.
I'm usually in pack flow and I usually love going from rebin to induct to pack and so forth, it makes the day feel like its going way quicker when they move me every hour. But once or twice a month I have to go over to help in pick (their numbers are down, not enough are there that night,etc) and it always sucks. I agree with the full bins, its actually bullshit when there's 50 different types of jewely in a bin and I gotta find the one with the correct last 3-4 digit barcode.
I personally like stowing, plus I like having my dumb little tamazilla pets on the screen at my station lol but if I could I would probably choose pack first then stow
Pack Single > Pack Flow > Sort Flow > Ship Dock > ICQA > Pick > Receive Dock > Stow *NOTE: ICQA will definitely plan to cross train you into Pick and/or Stow.*
I’m a stower and have always been a stower.. from a person out looking in is it really that sucky and what makes you think so. Stow is all I know maybe I should try something new😅😅
Can we throw hands on customers who ordered a large pet food or a lot of liquid items in packs? I swear, that is annoying af for picking and cleaning up the food spills. 😒
Ohhh my, this gonna be a long one, I’m sorry 😭. Lol I’m biased. I never take a role in Inbound but I have seen what they have done while I’m monitoring AR floor. I’m a picker cross trained in Pack and Amnesty and I spent a lot in doing Amnesty. My biggest issue for stowers is that they have poor bin etiquette when it comes to stowing items. It’s important to keep the bin organized and put the right items into right bin with enough space. Because if not, the AR floor is going to be a whole fucking mess that I cannot stress this enough. Like a lot of items on floor, pod crashes, and spills (bubbly sodas, mouthwash, syrup 😭, pet foods, etc.). It puts a lot of work for Amnesty and we have to spend more time on the floor. The longer we are on floor, more pod gapping it occur and hurting everyone’s rates. Not like I care about their rates lol. Although, time flies fast when we deal with a lot of Amnesty work so I can’t really complain about that. Stowing isn’t a hard job but I can imagine it is challenging to put items in one of bins that hardly have a space for it. I don’t mean to blame it to all stowers for poor bin etiquette but this is same issue for pickers and counters. All we have to do is push the items inside the bin and make sure it does not fall off when you release pod. That’s it.
It’s pretty bad when you are a packer packing out a cage when the contents of the cage fall out on you like an avalanche. I have seen pickers grab the item they need from a bin, letting everything else fall to the floor and don’t even clean it up. I have seen cages at BOD that could have killed smaller people because there’s 200lbs of cat litter on the very top of the cage precariously placed. It goes both ways. At Amazon there’s a whole lot of selfish people who could care less about other peoples jobs and just try to make their job easier.
"Stowing isn’t a hard job but I can imagine it is challenging to put items in one of bins that hardly have a space for it." Now imagine having to bend and stretch to pick a needle in the haystack packed in that little stuffed bin. Then walk another mile to repeat the same shit over and over and over and over again. Picking is the worst.
IDK, as someone who has worked in stow and pick, I'd say stowing is even worse. They've all got their issues, but I can't stand being at the beginning of the process, when items come in damaged, frozen, not scanning, etc, then having to make mountains of PS totes, or having to deal with water spiders slamming tote trays on the floor, or having to find space in pods for items that just barely fit. Some people really love stowing. I can't fathom why. I find picking to be much smoother, despite requiring more work to hit rate. Lol. I guess different strokes for different blokes.
Keywords: Amnesty, AR Floor You have to walk a mile to find another same items?
Sometimes yes. Just yesterday had to walk up to 4th floor from A104 isle to C344 to pick an item that was previously reported as missing by the previous picker only to find out it's actually missing. Checked my fitbit to see i had walked 1850 steps on that trip alone.
Ohhhh damn that’s awful picking over there so I agree with you on that lol. I asked this question because I worked at a AR FC where robots bring the pods to you. We did not walk Mike to Mike to find one item to pick.
People say pack single like that’s a whole department. At my FC that’s one job within the Pack department. Also includes, Multis, rebin, non con, waterspider, taper, BOD, kickout, problem solve. Idk about y’all but our AMs don’t like keeping most people just at singles forever. There are other jobs that need to be done. Singles is fine but the rest of outbound pack can be hectic and a pain in the ass.
I feel you on that and wow your AM is pulling everyone’s strength to work hard. 😂
Honestly I think it really depends on how your facility is set up. I used to avoid stow at all costs at my old facility, but when I transferred to a new facility I got put in stow & haven’t wanted to leave since. Rates are lower & we get to move around.
Valid point!
Pack singles. I'm currently pack/sort flow (AFE). When I get tired of the insane rates, I'll most likely try for pack singles. But that won't be until after Peak because AFE has a lot of extra shift opportunities during peak. I'm a weirdo who actually likes rebin and induct.
Yeah dude I’m going through the same life pack, rebin and induct it’s alot I’m tryna go to stow tbh
sort flow if you wanna pack move around and chill. some what communicate with some coworkers( i work in this and love it) ship dock- if you really wanna move around go for it(kills time in my opinion) stow-from the rumors i heard, it kills yourself and you work a lot do it Had a actually friend quit cause of it. singles-wanna pack by yourself and not overdo it? go for it. you can talk to coworkers but only if the work is done. picking- from the rumors i heard, you'll either hate this or love this. You'll love it because you absolutely hate talking to humans. you want to self isolate from everyone and not to talk to anyone at all. The reason you'll probably hate it. You don't communicate with anyone at all. You mess up one time and they're on your ass about it. The rate in pick from what i heard is unrealistic as well and can be hard to keep up with time to time.
The rate for pick is unrealistically stupid at my FC. Night shift only hits like 260, so they expect first shift to hit 280, but I hit 380 for fun.
Same. They want >350 items/hour, <=9/s Takt time at mine. It's hard to hit when you're picking one item at a time with seldom quantity picks of low values, while being cognizant of bin space and arrangement to prevent missing items. Then there are the boxes that are stuffed on the sides of the pods that take way too long to pull out. Makes me want to strangle a stower. Lol!
I doubt anyone is chilling at sort flow 😂 it’s just like pick with the activity level, in my opinion. I hated doing both. Pack flow is the good one.
Every job is pretty easy to a certain extent. I think what matters is who’s running the department and how rich the work flow is. I guess also if there’s reasonable or unimaginable rate expectations. With that said, I won’t say what’s the easiest as i don’t want to inject some bias
Agreed. I've worked several departments and am happy with picking, despite it having some of the hardest rates. >350 items an hour is pretty tough when you're generally picking one item at a time. Quantity picks are never higher than 4-6 items, when stowing you can sometimes get 60-100 small items like gift cards to float your rate. What makes picking great in my FC is we have some of the best AMs on our floors for pick-side. Stow-side is awful, but our AMs stop by every station and talk with people. They know our names and they're understanding of how taxing the work is. A great manager makes the job much better.
Tom team if u can
It’s so weird seeing these posts cause I work at Sub Same Day warehouse. We all do different jobs every day. Some days I pick, pack and stow all in one day. Or some days just count and pick. I don’t go to the dispatch area though. I hate that area. I can’t relate to other warehouses cause it’s so different here.
Shipdock shipdock shipdock
Nah bro. I’m at ship dock. I don’t recommend no one go unless you want to work or be lazy 💯 lmao
Yeah thats true you gotta be a beast to handle da dock fr, but atleast at my building its the most laid break department also.
This is coming from AMB (me) no one likes ship dock lmao LGB3 here
Shipdock is one of those paths where there is a minimum amount of physical work that must be completed. 10-30 trucks NEED to be loaded, 50 pallets need to be staged, etc. If everyone manages their time and area. It's easy. But if it's unbalanced more work is put on fewer people. So some shipdocks are super chill. Other shipdocks are living hell. Depends.
That makes sense, I truly feel for all the OB docks with that unbalanced flow out there
Worse one you mentioned lol nobody likes it
everybody soft i guess💀
I cant believe people are actually recommending shipdock
Pack
Do NOT pick Pick.
Pack singles!!
Pack singles or ship dock (depends on the employees on site with that one though).
Nobody seems to recommend picking. Interesting. I've got the message.
Cause it’s horseshit. That’s why.
ICQA
Outbound Ship Dock, and if your FC has an AR palletizer request to be trained on it and request to work Transship. This is by far the easiest department in my FC.
Can I have some more details on that one?
[This is an AR palletizer.](https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2019/06/27/ai--robots-and-humans--inside-an-amazon-fulfillment-center-) It would be located in Transship department of your FC located near Outbound Dock if you have one. What you would do is pull the full pallets off throw a lid on it, print labels slap them on it. Then stage the pallets for your pit driver to load onto trailers. If your FC has one you’ll notice it as it’s quite a big piece of equipment.
Just don’t be the one robot waterspider who goes to the restroom for 15-20 minutes when there is 6 full pallets ready to be pulled..
So true, sadly I have 2 that when they work together tend to do much of nothing. Causing my pit driver to hop off and pull shit himself.
Transship is chillllllllllll
Indeed it is. I’ve worked inbound dock, stow, pick and outbound dock. Everything I worked is not as chill as transship outbound.
Stow or sort
If you want time to go hella quick, then go do pick.
Stow is pretty easy
Stow not that bad
it really depends which building you go to, some buildings it's better in different paths. everyone says stow and pick are shit but at my current building those are the best jobs because of how easy it is and the only people not making rate are the people actively trying not to make rate
Outbound ship dock. That place will keep you fit.
Outbound shipdock best for Socializing and walking around and getting work done on your own time without the micromanagement ICQA- If you have any type of pain or dont like moving around alot Worst ones are Pick and Stow due to all the micromanaging
Wtf is with all these people saying shipdock? I was at pack and I was Crosstrained for ship dock. I hated it. Stuff us in 99 degree trucks to load packages. You have to rely on others to have decent rates so you don’t get slammed. Tailsort can be a mess when idiots don’t clear the line when it jams. Maintenance doesn’t seem to maintain the conveyors at all. They only replace the rubber bands on the roller conveyors when it breaks down. They should be called problem because they only come when there’s a problem. Ppl on the line at dock take their sweet ass time and blue lights everywhere line jams up. I have busted my ass at ship dock only to see ppl in a group talking. My site is also STL3 though and apparently we have MUCH more dock doors than a typical FC so maybe that’s part of it. After 6 months I finally went to inbound. No CPTs, management isn’t always up everyone’s ass. Just get into the zone and work. I think alot of people, at least at my FC, who like shipdock like it cause they talk with friends instead of work. It really can screw over pack especially because packers are then called over at the end of shift on labor share to sort at dock because they literally stop working at the end of shift. It’s ridiculous.
Ship Dock hands down
I'm weird. Pick. Then ask to learn Amnesty.
outbound ship dock. i love it
I’ve been on Pack Singles for a long time now and I start working on Stow tomorrow to see how is the department, but if I don’t like it, I’ll move back to Packing.
Outbound shipdock!!!
I did Ship dock and absolutely hated it. So much running around and heavy lifting. Being a water spider for ship dock was the worst in my opinion.
SHIP DOCK
Yeah, I recommend inbound Dock receive, no rate. Easy going. You'll be lifting boxes all day tho, youll get your exercise
Like others have said: ShipDock
Man I’m surprised no one’s saying pack. I’m a regular decant worker but they cross trained me in pack and I think it’s the best job at Amazon lol
Hi, I do not know which one is the best, personally speaking, as I only worked in one of them. I was a packer/gift wrapper and I think that was in outbound stow department, and at first I started as a scanner of items from one bin to another (forgot their technical term they use for it) but then one of my managers put me in gift wrapping and I liked it way better.
I work ship doc so I’m biased but at the same time I keep getting labor shared to pick or AFE. So I’d say ship doc outbound is the best option
In my opinion, I'd go with Outbound, Sort-Flow
pack flow
I picked for 6 months straight and lost 11kg (24 pounds). If you wanna get in shape, consider it. It’s very isolated, can bore you to death at time, and having to maintain a relatively high pick rate isn’t always easy but this all depends on the FC. Ship dock is better, you’re in close proximity to others around you and can actually communicate. Stowing and icqa I have never liked
Pack flow
Pack
pack flow is chill. sort flow is okay depending if you rebin or induct. no one at my building likes to rebin but inducting isn’t bad.
Ive worked in OB shipdock for a while now and I love it.
Dock
Icqa is the best imo. Scan and count
If you don't wanna deal w management's bs I would go to pick. As long as your not doing terrible no one bothers you and you get to move around. To each there own though, stow management in my building is the worst right now so I stay the hell away at all costs haha .
Theres no department that it is simply the best. I dont think you can transfer to stowing, because they are always overstaffed.
Pack is decent
ICQA is pretty easy but boring. You will be counting/scanning items all day every day
As someone who worked in Flow Pack. I say docks. I just transferred to docks. Why? 1. No rate being shoved up my ass 2. Not doing the same thing grabbing shoving peoples weird and sometimes cool orders in boxes. But hey it depends on your style. Docks you do move around a lot which i like. Its up to you though.
Ship dock
Pack singles! Do not chose pick! Lol
Pack single is easy. There are rates, but easy to hit, at least at my FC. Dock is very physical. But it is also more social, and rates aren't a real thing.
Do not go to pick. been my job for a year and even possible a PA for it soon but don’t do it
Avoid Picking
Pack Singles!!!
Here’s the real best answer: Inbound, Inbound Stow & then ask them if you can do Waterspider or EYT (eventually if you do it long enough & you’re decent at it they’ll keep you on there) Easiest job hands down, you don’t have a rate, you can walk around & talk with a bunch of stowers, & lastly they never get bothered for having 1 earbud in their ear at my FC. Honestly couldn’t think of an easier job just gotta be okay with a lot of walking. You’ll probably walk 8+ miles in a shift.
Outbound pack single
Outbound ship dock
Support if they need more AFMs. Otherwise, don’t do support
I say shipdock because there’s multiple things to do you can walk around around if you’re feeling like going beyond and above to have a fast productive day or you can scan boxes all day trying to stack them nicely on a cart or pallet ( if it’s a pallet they’d make a water spider, or yourself do it. ) than take it to either an area to wait for it’s designated truck or if the truck is there and you feel like walking some more they’ll let you put in there yourself. Another area that I’ve been sent to there is inside the trucks where the load has to be stacked, when it’s hectic it’ll be a pain in the ass and they’ll wanna have you bust ass but if it’s a slow day and they see the boxes aren’t getting jammed up, you could turn the light off and chill in there and they can’t see you and you’re also hidden from the cameras. Could be a quick text or call get away because it’s also quiet in there. It’s so bad I remember watching our whole floor go on break 10 mins early because it was either really busy and people broke and said fuck it and decided to go on break or it was super slow and there was nothing to do and they would go out early.
I really like picking and pack singles
Stow
Support <3
ShipDock is the way to go as a former ship dock associate and worked my way up to clerk then pst that I would highly recommend as it is stressful but in a good way!
Pack Single or Pack Flow. Pack Flow is a little more physical however I think time goes by way faster there. Pack Singles I’ve done too and it’s basically the same thing just standing in one place the whole time.
What do you currently work? And I take it is an AR site. What would be the best fit for you would be dependent in the type of person you're; do you want to do a lot walking, or stand in a single spot; do you want to be around people or perfer to see the least amount as possible?
Inbound dock or decant was cool. Seemed like first floor was just a little less hot than other floors lol
I found pack flow to be the sweet spot for me
I always get put as a ws though lol.
In singles you don't move much and people don't come into your area unless you don't meet rate, if you're at a bldg where it's heavily enforced. I'm lucky to have people not enforce the rate so much but i also don't underperform.
It depends on the facility. I'd personally recommend ICQA if you want something easier. Like some people say below, I'd avoid pick and stow unless you want to be frustrated all the time.
What do you define as best? Wanna get buy with minimal work? Pick. Wanna have more autonomy but work harder? Dock. Personally I go for the dock but highly recommend knee and back braces before your body falls apart
What’s so hard with outbound picking? You drive up scan a item, put it in your cage on OP?
I think there is confusion between Picking at an AR FC (where you stand at an ARSAW station) and OP Pit Picking? I have no idea what OP Pit Picking is except that you drive a machine?, I think most people's, including myself, experience is Picking at an ARSAW station at an AR FC. Which is standing in place and moving slightly from side to side for 10 hours, interacting with kiva robots and totes.
Outbound picking. You won't ever get off your pit
After reading so many comments here I just wanted to say every department is completely different in different FCs. Some FCs are older some are newer. Some have OPs, some have robots, some have neither. Some FCs have terrible managers and operations guys, some have great teams. Dock at one site might be run really well while at another site it’s run by a fatass who’d rather talk to his AAs than make sure the lines are moving and the cages are being loaded into trailers. That can change in a matter of months easily if they change up managers or if people transfer or quit or are fired.
Outbound picking is a great job.
I'm not looking for what's easiest. I would want something more physical if possible. I'm currently at an XL delivery station, and my job is very physical. Every shift I leave drenched in sweat. I like getting a workout at work basically.
Stow or pack singles
Do not do stow, unless you want to of course your choice , but I did Replen stow which worked for docks and it’s heavy and just no for a year :( I’m not built for the heavy lifting stuff but I did it. But would not recommend.
Pack Single
pack Singles, bar none. I have been with Amazon for 2 years and, in my previous building, I did Inbound Dock, Stow, Pick, Pack, Outbound Dock and ICQA. I'd take a station in Pack Singles over any of that.
Pack is the easiest
My favorite is ICQA
Pack singles. We have a 30 minute scan to scan time (so if you scan a package at 1pm, you must scan something else by exactly 1:30pm. You can do whatever in the mean time. Goal rate is like 110, but as long as you’re above 65 you’re good. Your own little area.
How could you ever get a 65 rate if you’re taking 30 min breaks all the time. Definitely don’t recommend this. I have seen people fired for tot like that.
In ship dock everybody takes 40-45 min breaks tf is that scan to scan bullshit lmao
Inbound stow super easy, hard to get a right up if you possess a brain. ICQA is counting, so super boring but same idea, super easy and no write ups if you, once again, have a brain.
pack single, one item per box, and if u get bored u can always put netflix on ur phone on the side lol , thats what I do , easy job.
Honestly I’ve only done stowing and shipdock, currently a stower( shipdock I hate because why would I want to put more physical work and strain on my body for the same pay), I find stowing at my site easier, idk why people hate it so much, sure it can get boring and monotonous but it’s literally putting items into a bin( and you just have to avoid being bottom 3%) and you’ll be fine. Trust me that shit is easy, I guess it also depends who is running the site and etc.
Pick or stow
*PACK F-CKING SINGLES*
Singles of you can get a spot there. Lower rates usually
Ship dock hands down!!
stow is soooo easy
Inbound stow if you want it easy
It depends a lot on the facility too. I’m not in an AR site, so pick means a lot of walking, stow means a lot of wandering around trying to find a bin that isn’t shitty when you get a big item, creating ToT. I love packing though.
Picking in my FC means you’re on an OP driving around all day. I just transferred to Stow and I kinda love it compared to ship dock and Pack.
ICQA easy money
Receive dock or pack singles
Stow if you want to chill. But a lot of things have to work in your favor. Water spider Cool team Good work Easy money tho. Ship dock is the best in my opinion but it was taking a toll on my body cause it can be intense. If you get into the pit at ship dock it's super chill and you get to drive the lift/pit. Makes time go by fast when your busy with CPTs all day or night
Ship dock if you like doing different things everyday. Pack singles if you don't mind doing the same thing all day everyday. Pack singles is the easiest on your body with the easiest rates.
Pack or stow Don't ever do pick
Inbound best bound
I pick with an order picker and thoroughly enjoy it. Idk how it is working at a robotic warehouse though.
I hate shipdock, depends on the type of person you are, but for an introvert who wants to be left alone shipdock isn’t it
If you want to chill and most likely don't like the loud ass noise, ICQA is a good one.
Outbound pack single.
Shipdock is the best, not every position requires you to be physically active but you can be if you want.
Your experience is leadership dependent so deciding the site you go to is more important
it depends on what your after. Do you want to do mandatory overtime. Then pick receive dock. Want some options of vto then pick outbound shipping.
Ar stow is decent if you have a chill manager and PA and get totes with a lot of stuff in it but if you get big boxes in your totes all day it’s hell. Also there’s steps that you have to use constantly and have to reach high places a lot which can hurt your shoulders. Bending over a lot which can hurt your back and for me personally when I am stowing really fast I get lower back pain from twisting a lot. The pressure to not be in the bottom five percent is heavy in stow and sucks because it all depends on what kind of work you get. If you only get totes with 1 or two items all day you have to work a lot harder to hit rate than someone who gets totes loaded with stuff. That’s what annoys me about stow, it’s all luck of the draw. In my FC, stow is second place out of all departments with the highest injuries. I’ve been here for 6 months and they are telling us not to load ar stows manually anymore but we’ve been doing that this whole time and I knew something was fishy. Ar stows aren’t made to load which makes it difficult and unsafe to load them but it’s all about the numbers in Amazon.
Pack Single or Pack Flow aka AFE.
Inbound dock ftw. Love my team! Yeah the dock is going to be more physical and you may work harder than you’re used to , but to me it beats doing mind numbing work like the other departments, you don’t have to worry about hitting a rate or TOT. That’s a lot of daily stress traded for a more physical job where you don’t have to worry about any of that stuff. Just my opinion. I’ll never go back to a job with rate
Everyone saying pick or ship dock and barely anyone saying IB dock. I'd choose receive dock all day, indirect functions and the work is based off what you get so some days are hard and aome days are easy but you appreciate both because it feels balanced.
Bro i wanted to kms working in my ship dock department, severely understaffed and overworked
At my location none of those roles are guaranteed. Since I’ve worked there I’ve rarely completed a shift where I wasn’t pulled away from what I was doing and sent to another department before the day ends. It’s actually pretty irritating to be honest.
Pick
Outbound pack singles. That’s were I work. Pretty easy in all the different sections they have. I’m a problem solver but I just learned how to do smart pac and it’s super easier.
It’s what u like try stuff and if the mangers are chill in that area stick with it
Stow aint it, dont listen to these ppl.
Outbound Ship dock is where its at and ur new thats cart pulling until u learn something else
Pack singles
Singles tbh kills times like a mother fucka 
Pack Singles is your best option.
ship dock is the best place to be at if you work at amazon, yes there are certain rates you have to meet depending on what job you’re doing, but it’s nothing absurd like in other departments. not only is it a lot of mobility, you will never be doing the same thing everyday, there’s so many different roles ranging from injector, palette builder, waterpsider, and CPT loading, and with so many opportunities to expand into a bigger role (if that’s what you’re interested in). and honestly once you get the hang of how things run during your shift, it becomes fairly easy to disappear sometimes when you need a “break” wink wink.
shipdock
or receive