If you are one of the many New Yorkers who has ordered a package from Amazon in the past few weeks, chances are I or one of my colleagues helped get your delivery to your door.
I work at Amazon’s only sort center in New York City, located on Staten Island. We are the middle stop for Amazon packages coming into New York City. It is our job to sort through tens of thousands of packages and get them ready for delivery to your door.
I take a lot of pride in the work that I do to support my family. On an average day, my job is very busy and can be pretty stressful. During the holiday season, what we call “peak season,” it is absolute chaos.
The volume of packages increases substantially because of holiday shopping. Every day, every moment, is push, push, push. There are always more packages to scan and process. At our sort center, we are always on our feet, moving to different parts of the facility to handle tasks that need to be completed.
For me, peak season means I’m working more hours and spending less time with my family.
The pace is grueling. No matter how hard we work, there are times when there are just too many packages in process and we simply cannot keep up. Lanes get completely backed up with inbound packages and we run out of space to put new boxes.
My biggest concern during peak season is injuries on the job. At Amazon, workers get injured at more than twice the rate of comparable warehouses. Year round we operate at an absurdly fast pace to meet demand, but during peak season that pace skyrockets. Injuries become even more common.
In my two years at Amazon, I have seen my fair share of injuries, including a serious injury that I suffered to my rotator cuff after picking up one too many heavy boxes. I do everything possible to prevent injuries both for myself and my colleagues. I am one of the workers responsible for training new hires on how to safely use the machines in our sort center.
I tell my coworkers all the time, “your body is worth more than…
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