Latest / Spending time with Dr. Christina / The Amazon experience: More on my experience at Amazon

Transcript

The Amazon experience: More on my experience at Amazon · Spending time with Dr. Christina

• 0:00
  Hello everyone and welcome back to my podcast
• 0:03
  spending time with dr. Christina. We're in the
• 0:05
  final episode episode number seven of season
• 0:08
  eight about the Amazon experience But something
• 0:12
  tells me I'll be revisiting this again in the
• 0:15
  near future. So This episode is about more of
• 0:20
  my experience at Amazon I've hinted along the
• 0:26
  lines of the discussion of why I was there. And,
• 0:29
  you know, I happen to know women that are professionals,
• 0:34
  that moonlight, and they do a lot of different
• 0:36
  things like this. They do Amazon, they do DoorDash.
• 0:40
  Everyone kind of has a side hustle. And I know
• 0:44
  a lot of early retirees that also at Amazon for
• 0:48
  that reason. Also remember talking to my nephew
• 0:53
  who thought I was a little bit out of touch and
• 0:56
  you know when you are a Professor teacher, you
• 1:01
  know, sometimes you see a lot of things going
• 1:03
  on in the classroom with students and especially
• 1:07
  with college students and they're telling you
• 1:09
  oh I can't find a job or my job is like this
• 1:12
  and you're thinking Wow really is your job like
• 1:15
  this because man, I remember things just being
• 1:18
  a lot different when I was You know doing certain
• 1:22
  jobs when I was in college and I will say a lot
• 1:26
  of those students were right Because when I was
• 1:30
  in college and you know, I remember in graduate
• 1:32
  schools when I got my first full -time job It
• 1:36
  was in a professional environment Not necessarily
• 1:39
  in my field per se but it was professional and
• 1:43
  a lot of things were just not tolerated so Things
• 1:49
  have definitely have changed and evolved about
• 1:52
  what's allowed and what's not allowed in the
• 1:54
  workplace. However, I think overall it was just
• 1:58
  a culmination of just a lot of things. I had
• 2:00
  friends going there. I wanted to stay busy. I
• 2:05
  was at a point where I was actually feeling burnt
• 2:07
  out anyway in my field of law and academia. It
• 2:13
  was a nice break to just do something different,
• 2:17
  to just cut the strings and do something different,
• 2:20
  experience something different. And during that
• 2:24
  time, I met a lot of great people at the delivery
• 2:29
  station. I saw very small bumps there, you know,
• 2:37
  things that could easily be fixed, you know.
• 2:42
  fulfillment center as I mentioned that was another
• 2:45
  animal and that's where I felt like my normal
• 2:49
  professional cap would come on and say hey this
• 2:53
  is not right what are you guys doing is this
• 2:56
  for real so that was a very interesting experience
• 3:01
  and sometimes it was a disheartening experience
• 3:05
  to see certain things go on in the workplace
• 3:08
  but overall I wouldn't change it for anything.
• 3:14
  I think it was something that, hey, I'm glad
• 3:18
  I stopped. I'm glad I did it. Lesson for me,
• 3:22
  lesson for them. And so it was interesting. However,
• 3:30
  I will say that I met a lot of wonderful people,
• 3:34
  right? We always remember some people that stand
• 3:37
  out. And I remember one girl at the delivery
• 3:42
  station, there was Dee Dee, there was Lisa, there's
• 3:46
  a lady we called Old Miss Young for the most
• 3:49
  obvious reasons, and then we had at the fulfillment
• 3:54
  center, I remember so many wonderful people,
• 3:56
  there was Mia who I first met, always extremely
• 3:59
  helpful, and it was Maya, there was Jo Jo, just
• 4:04
  tons of tons of people that I've met there. There
• 4:08
  was Selwyn and his cousin. There was Greg. There
• 4:13
  was just a lot of people. Oh, and there was so
• 4:16
  many that I remember that were just awesome.
• 4:22
  There was also Tamara. There was Victoria, her
• 4:26
  boyfriend, Kyle. I mean, really some delightful
• 4:30
  people. One young man escapes my My memory right
• 4:35
  now, but he was from South Africa Wonderful young
• 4:38
  man had the best manners. It was so good to meet
• 4:41
  him, but I met loads of people and It was a pleasure.
• 4:49
  Oh, I cannot forget these two guys two Cuban
• 4:53
  Americans Really really wonderful. They were
• 4:56
  PAs. They were always very nice And I love folks
• 5:02
  from Cuba, really, really delightful people.
• 5:06
  Remind me of when I went to school in Miami.
• 5:09
  And really, it was great. I met people from around
• 5:14
  the world. And I think that's what I really enjoyed,
• 5:17
  because for the most part, my career focused
• 5:20
  on international law. And so you deal with people
• 5:26
  all over the world. You deal with people from,
• 5:29
  you know, the Americas, the Caribbean, Africa,
• 5:34
  and India. So it was great. It was great to speak
• 5:38
  Arabic again to some of my friends. It was great
• 5:40
  to speak Spanish again. It was great to engage
• 5:44
  with other folks and speak French again. So it
• 5:48
  really gave me an opportunity to remember Remember
• 5:54
  my career remember my passions remember things
• 5:57
  that I enjoy doing and I enjoy working with people
• 6:03
  from all around the world and I also enjoy Champion
• 6:10
  causes that are just intolerable For the least
• 6:16
  the discrimination the racism the hate You know,
• 6:20
  those are things that I spent my career um you
• 6:24
  know dealing with uh issues like that so for
• 6:29
  the most part it was a good experience and just
• 6:33
  like with any job you take the good with the
• 6:35
  bad right the things that you would think um
• 6:40
  that have no value they End up having value and
• 6:46
  a tremendous amount of value And what I mean
• 6:49
  by that is that sometimes you think that a job
• 6:52
  is just a job But for so many Amazon, it's a
• 6:56
  career. It's their life It's what they in a way
• 7:01
  breathe every day They find a lot of joy with
• 7:05
  it. And while for the most part it can be like
• 7:09
  a high school for many It also is a place where
• 7:15
  a lot of people come together, make a lot of
• 7:20
  friendships that last. And while it's not like
• 7:24
  that movie Nomads Land at all, it really isn't.
• 7:28
  And that, I will say, was one of the reasons
• 7:30
  why I was open to checking Amazon out. It's not
• 7:35
  like that. And anybody that is thinking they're
• 7:38
  going to get an RV and they're going to travel
• 7:40
  the world and they're going to work at Amazon,
• 7:42
  just kind of nip that in the bud, pencil it,
• 7:47
  come back to that and reevaluate it. Because
• 7:51
  I think it's the kind of job and or career for
• 7:56
  some where you should be plugged in. You should
• 8:02
  be nearby. right like any job if you can have
• 8:07
  a close commute be invested support the mission
• 8:12
  of the organization believe that it's a place
• 8:18
  that Has a value to you meaning you're on the
• 8:24
  same page with the policies with the laws With
• 8:29
  the management you should be on the same page
• 8:33
  And this is something you know I learned very
• 8:36
  young from one of my professors in school anything
• 8:39
  That you take on your job Your home your church
• 8:44
  agree with it agree with the culture agree with
• 8:47
  the premise agree with the policies so In any
• 8:52
  case, the whole Nomadsland vision was a wash
• 8:56
  for me. I didn't really see that happening, but
• 9:01
  I do applaud everyone that is working at Amazon
• 9:06
  and they don't have the best of situations going
• 9:11
  on. Maybe they are living in their cars. Maybe
• 9:16
  they are living in their RVs. and they're working
• 9:20
  at Amazon. God bless you all and God strengthen
• 9:24
  you all for what you're doing, whether it's by
• 9:28
  choice or just a housing issue. God bless you
• 9:33
  all because it's definitely not easy. But on
• 9:37
  a positive note, I will say that anyone that
• 9:43
  is on that particular route I think there's a
• 9:47
  lot of camaraderie there because people actually
• 9:51
  do work at Amazon seasonally and they form these
• 9:57
  friendships and their bonds and they're able
• 10:00
  to do so many things and share resources together.
• 10:03
  And then there are people that are living there
• 10:06
  full time in their vehicles. I know I saw a special
• 10:10
  report on a lady that was at the Staten Island
• 10:12
  location. She lived in her car. She Couldn't
• 10:16
  afford the apartment anymore didn't want to have
• 10:19
  roommates And so she lived in her car nevertheless
• 10:24
  At least Amazon is paying a better wage Than
• 10:29
  most places out there that will enable a lot
• 10:33
  of people to do this so again, God bless all
• 10:38
  of you that are in that particular position that
• 10:43
  you are Commuting from your car you're commuting
• 10:46
  from your RV in order to to work So that says
• 10:50
  a lot and I hope that you're recognized for it
• 10:53
  I hope Amazon opens up more doors to help anyone
• 10:57
  that's facing housing issues or Choose to live
• 11:03
  that lifestyle so in closing Again, Amazon was
• 11:08
  an interesting experience. I do believe at a
• 11:12
  later time I'll revisit this topic and talk more
• 11:14
  about it and more about the blue collar work
• 11:17
  that I looked into in this year time frame when
• 11:22
  I just wanted some different experiences. But
• 11:25
  overall, again, I think when I, you know, when
• 11:32
  I think back about, you know, what I've gotten
• 11:34
  from the situation, it helped me. to remember
• 11:38
  my passions and what I really like to do in life
• 11:41
  and this is one of them returning to journalism
• 11:45
  where I started out and also returning to law
• 11:48
  because there's still quite a bit that needs
• 11:52
  to be that needs to be handled out in the world
• 11:57
  and it could be just one person at a time but
• 12:00
  whatever it is we all can Find our passions and
• 12:05
  find what we enjoy doing. If it's not Amazon,
• 12:10
  whatever it is, find it, get plugged in, and
• 12:14
  do it to the best of our ability. So again, so
• 12:17
  many wonderful people that I have met. and that
• 12:21
  I found a lot of joy in a lot of folks like anybody
• 12:25
  else. I could have passed on, but in, you know,
• 12:30
  for the most part, we all we all learn from these
• 12:36
  experiences what works and what doesn't. So.
• 12:40
  I thank you all for joining me for this seven
• 12:44
  episode series of the Amazon Experience and I
• 12:47
  wish you all a very good week and thank you again
• 12:50
  for joining me.