The Deck at 260: Part 1

The new series I have now is The Deck at 260. If you ever drop by my spot and hang on the back deck you can see we have some fun! 

The  big topics this week are Mother's Day, the new Pope,  Food Truck Days and the REAL ID talk. 

Mother's Day is tougher and tougher when yours is gone. However I love to celebrate with the many mother friends and figures I know. Y'all deserve this celebration! 

People are all giddy about the new Pope being born and raised in Chicago. Since I obviously need to do more research, I wonder where that small car (Pope mobile) originated from. 

Here's my take on the REAL ID: just get it. It's not as hard as you all are making. For my fellow minorities, it may be more in future years. You may need it to vote, need it for housing and credit applications, etc. I would rather have it and not need it than the other way around. Hate the DMV as much as myself. Find yourself a small one in the cut. Two I recommend in South Carolina are Fort Mill and Chester. 

Food Truck Days are awesome for us foodies. However us foodies want to see a variety of foods and not just desserts. There are dozens of food trucks out there, please have 2-3 with actual meals and 3-4 with desserts. If your festival doesn't have that, please don't invite me. 

Ok tune in next week on the deck where we may talk about summer movies, the New York Knicks and being and working outside. 

The New Guy Part 17: Goals and New Direction

I had some milestones this month, 15 years of blogging, 9 years with #imjustdrew. I took a well deserved 10 days off. 

That said, I reevaluated myself before my time off and briefly during it. Here are my May goals that I will revisit for June. 

Develop my supervisor/PA to be an AM

Improve my safety scores by talking to all of my associates and ensuring they are answering the questions honestly 

Keep things as simple as possible 

Continue on Project #RiseUp to increase rates and decrease inactive time

Keep SSD running smoothly

Assist the floor when I can

Hold AMs accountable when they're not helping during my operation 

Learn more on gatekeeping and running 

Have 2 Dragonflys submitted daily 

Continue to work on zone callouts daily

Launch Arabs for Amazon by June

I'm about to start another series which will probably be "Sessions at 260 Out By The Deck" or something of that nature. 

The New Guy Part 16

I now end an up and down March and begin April with optimism, knowledge gaps closed, lessons learned and a greater plan. 

Myself and my counterparts have been reading "From Good To Great". The main takeaways from the last chapter was to have a disciplined staff and make a stop-doing list instead of a to-do list.

Here's my stop-doing list: .

Working 12 hours every shift

Skipping meals and snacks

Complaining and making excuses

Neglecting admin and certain tasks until the end

Allowing any disrespect from FLEX drivers or associates 

Failing to update my blog and Twitter

Make clear expectations to the team for stowdown transition, support during PSLO and my role in crash sorts at the end

Doing it all myself instead of delegating 

Just listening: provide feedback

Not having a clear plan from the past, checklist, etc

Neglecting what metrics are needed to focus on

Start doing: 

Focus on DPO routes

Picklist to picklist times 

Follow up with other sites for best practices.

Shadow the best stower and the lower stower.

Have someone for EOS Watchtower daily.

Utilize accommodations associates better 

Dive deeper into high picklist times 

STU/ADAPT long breaks and long staging times. 

Ensure LP2 has enough carts

Ensure enough of every device. 

Follow up with ACES

Have daily, weekly pick contests.

Get safety callouts clear 

Have as many Dragonfly entries as possible and close them in real time

It's time to get this shift to the top performance and cost wise! #StepByStep

The New Guy Part 15

Spring is here and I'm feeling the new season. 

I'm meeting with my higher ups about other things, metrics and such I wish to learn about. I'm seeing steady improvement and some growth all the way around. 

I'm currently trying to keep my associates engaged, reporting safety issues, being as efficient as possible on same day, sharpen my multi-tasking, develop, delegate and migitate all inactive time. I'm focusing one day at a time, one shift at a time. 

Perhaps we could hashtag this #leanandclean since that's how I want my operation to run. 

The New Guy Part 14

The growing process is just, that! 

I'm now trying to improve process efficiency, raise rates and other numbers. I also have more admin to do. 

I am determined to get better and learn and continue to develop methods and solutions for improvement.

Fortunately my company has trainings continuously to assist in this matter plus support is always there. If I don't feel supported I will escalate. 

It's a process right now and I just want to be the best I can be, not get called out so much, reduce the questions and doubts, and run an efficient operation. I set daily, weekly and monthly goals. 

The New Guy Part 13

I'm a month into running Pick and Stage and SSD now, 6 months into the role. I'm now working on tightening up my metrics especially on cost and quality. 

SSD is looking better as I get the associates I want staff there and commit to the ones staffed for safety. I'm also focusing on pad safety and on worse case scenarios. 

Pick and Stage is more of a struggle as I try to keep inactive time down, rates up, and not finish too early nor late. I'm learning my associates, getting a supervisor (PA) soon, determining how to correctly determine cost cutting, and I have an experienced manager whom is helping me get there. 

My long term goals haven't changed. I'm now setting daily and weekly goals. 

The New Guy Part 12.

This week saw me experiencing some worst case scenarios, learning more about inner details of sub-same day and starting and conducting ADHOC sorts (crash sorts). I did them at previous sites but my current one is a little different. 

I'm adjusting my day to get a sharper cadence especially now with added admin and more balance. I won't always work 11-12 days and I'm trying to keep those to 10 hours. 

I did get praised for keeping Pick and Stage running well this week and for delivering the most writeups in a week. I delivered so many my laptop crashed if you needed a number. 

It's almost a month overseeing this department and 5 months in the overall role. I want to continue to fill gaps, communicate effectively with all involved and be awesome! 

The New Guy Part 11

I do love the number 11 as it's one of my special numbers. 

I'm slowly feeling more comfortable running pick and stage as I'm filling in the gaps far as admin, time management, people management and finally inner office politics. I'm ensuring I work well with my counterparts and are setting clear expectations for whomever deals with me and seeing what I want. 

I'm getting a supervisor soon (process assistant) which means so much in my role far as delegation and my flexibility. 

I'm in charge of affinity groups now at my site which I'm happy about as the powers in the executive office attempt to strip away DEI. I'm also working on improving area readiness and career development for those that wish to move up in the company. I see these as site gaps (aside from the affinity groups which I was assigned). 

I got a good review from my manager and will continue to work to be great. 

The New Guy Part 10

Welp it's always Day 1 at Amazon. 

I found out post Cycle 0 that I'll be going to Pick and Stage. It's a later shift that focused on staging the routes for dispatch. I'm also over same day, the early waves. 

I have a solid team around me and have been trained well. It's bridging knowledge gaps, developing a cadence and getting ready to run it alone this upcoming week (talk about a stress test!). I've did parts of it on Cycle 0 but it was slightly different. 

I look forward to yet another challenge and narrowing down my L5 promo doc project.  Currently I'm looking at area readiness, inactive time mitigation and employee engagement. I'll fill it on Safety stuff where applicable also. It's time to get it!

The New Guy Part 9

We're in 2025 now of course. Cycle 0 is wrapping up soon with myself set to go to Cycle 1 as a sort AM. 

I felt like I gained a lot of experience, growth and development the past couple of months. Deion and Shirley were great, knowledgeable mentors. They never allowed me to fail but wanted to ensure I could stand on my own two feet. I had awesome Interim Process Assistants and critical role associates that really helped me and I'll rely on them throughout my year in this role. 

My site lead send out an email for 2025 outlining our cost goals. That's definitely on the list of opportunities for my continued growth. I also want to help create a more safe culture, reduce inferred time, fully utilize Engage and ADAPT to set the proper tone for those associates that need improvement and guidance. Additionally, I want to know more of the ins and outs of the sort floor, continue my growth on the dock and with Pick and Stage. Finally I want to be more adept with running DCAP, routing, the end of shift wash, bridging PerfectMile, writing good, detailed ADAPTS and Thrives, keeping my connection scores favorable.and executing shift plans. 

I obviously have aspirations of getting promoted to an L5 and doing these smaller tasks can help me when it's time to form my promo doc. 

I'm going to start yet another new series and I may return to this one and others from time to time.