Victor Anibal Meza Lazarte

As a Sortation Associate at Amazon (morning shift), I was mostly responsible for stowing the parcels - putting the parcels in the corresponding bag or area - so they could be picked up later by us, the associates, to get ready for delivery. When assigned to stow, I used to be in charge of two or three aisles. I was also responsible for stowing same-day parcels which required speed, organisation, method, and order. I was consistently a top performer when it came to stowing.

I was also responsible for picking the parcels - bags and oversized packages - from different aisles - the warehouse had four clusters– and stage them in the staging lanes so that they could be picked up by the delivery drivers, in a process called pick and stage. This process requires visuospatial skills as well as organisation and order, and I was also consistently a top performer in this task.

Those were my main tasks at the beginning of my experience there but then I started being assigned to work in the induction area where I would take turns with two other associates doing three different tasks at a time: unloading the packages onto the conveyor belt, labeling the packages, and then pushing them to the corresponding conveyor belt - A,B, C, D - so that they could be sent to the appropriate cluster for the stowers to do their job. The work In the ‘induct’ requires strength and stamina when it comes to unloading the parcels, speed and accuracy when it comes to labelling, and fast reaction when pushing. It was fast-paced but I succeeded. I also learned to use pallets and pump trucks, as well as the safety knife to cut through plastic and cardboard.

I occasionally worked as a ‘picker’, which simply means picking the parcels from the conveyor belt and put them in a rack so that the stower working in one’s assigned aisles could do his job. It could be stressful at times and fast-paced but with repetition, one learns.

I worked also a straightener - the one organising the parcels on the conveyor belt and making sure the labels are facing up so that they could be scanned by the ADTA machine - and as a diverter - the one diverting the parcels to the corresponding conveyor belt.

I was also trained to be a ’learning ambassador‘ and worked as one for the ‘peak season’ - November and December. I basically trained the new hires in how to stow and pick as well as being the face they saw first when starting their journey at that place. I toured them around the warehouse, explained to them what they needed to know, gave advice on how to perform the tasks based on my experience and supervised their work for the first three days. They spent the first two days of work with me.