RNO1 - Day 4 - NBI

I related briefly yesterday that most industries develop their own internal 'inside baseball' kind of language made up mostly of NBI (Nothing But Initials), and Amazon is no exception.  I'm still in the shallow end of the pool when it comes to refreshing my Amazon 'second language' skills, but I'm getting there slowly but surely.  I talked about our VRC (Vertical Reciprocal Conveyor) training yesterday.  In addition there is the BMVD (Books, Movies, Video games, CD's) bins, and TICO bins (I don't know what all these initials stand for yet), but it has to do with 'Toys') where everything else but BMVD stuff goes, plus PIT, which stands for Power Industrial Trucks...essentially all forms of fork type lifts.  Then there are proper nouns used to describe quite pedestrian objects. A Gaylord is a very large trash can.  There are reports referred to as Sherlocks (why I don't know at this point), and the list goes on endlessly.  Some, like BMVD, I was able to figure out on my own, but in most cases, unless you have a translator, you are lost.  As the days pass into history I'll relate more of the most interesting ones.

Before our Friday night shift TLE and I took a walk around Sparks Marina Lake.....it's starting to warm up again after the cold front that dropped snow on the local mountains passed on east of us.  TLE tells me that the site of the Legends Outlet Mall, as well as Sparks Marina Lake used to be a rock quarry.  If so, it is a great re-purposing of what must have been an ugly scar on the landscape.  After our 3 mile walk I spent a portion of the afternoon reading, and then beginning the task of cleaning 2 months of salt air, and general grime off the Newell....I began small just working on the lower rear portion of the coach.  Over the next week I hope to get the rest of the coach in spic 'n span condition once again.

Friday was the last of our 5 hour workdays, and beginning this coming Monday we will be officially working four 10's (10 hour days).  Our shift will continue to start at 6 pm, but will now end at 4:30 am.  We will have 3 breaks during our 10 hour shifts......rest break at 10 pm, 'lunch' at 12:30 am, and a final rest break at 3 am.  Breaks (paid) are 15 minutes, and lunch (unpaid) is 30 minutes.  That first four hour stretch will be the tough one, but I get their reasoning......everyone is much sharper and more productive the first few hours, so why not maximize productivity during that peak performance stretch?  Of course, in California these intervals would not work, but Nevada law is different......thank goodness.  Personally, I like the fact that as the shift wears on the breaks come more frequently.  In Campbellsville the breaks were evenly spaced, and, frankly, would have appreciated this type of schedule more.

On this shift TLE and I were still being supervised pretty closely by Art, but we just went right into 'stowing' mode.  My first cart took about 45 minutes, but the second one seemed to have nothing but problems.    After our 8 pm break the next two hours and forty-five minutes went pretty smoothly as I processed one cart after another.

We clocked out at exactly 11 pm, and were home just after 11:3o.......we will now be off until 6 pm Monday evening....technically a 2 day break, but it will feel more like 3.

Thanks for stopping by!