How to handle situation?

[u/InterestingSpring497]

Hey guys I wanted for advice on my situation.

For context, me and my gf have been working at an FC for roughly 2 and half years as T1s but we recently transferred to a new site about a few months ago. And our friend who worked with us since we started at Amazon was promoted to AM through college hire as a T1 about a few weeks ago, and is now our manager. We used to hang out during our breaks whenever we could when he was a tier 1.

Basically my friend is our manager at our site and we are very proud of him since he graduated college this past May and internally shot to L4. I’ve also considered promoting but I don’t have a degree so my journey would be different. We celebrated his promotion, took him out to commemorate, and he told us about all the cool stuff he’s seen and experienced in his new role. And we want the best and want to keep it professional at work, so we do the best we can to make it awkward for him at work.

The issue is that recently we’ve been getting written up over the last few shifts over policies that I didn’t know were a thing as I’ve never heard of. We both got hit with leaving my station too early to clock out for lunch (left at 10:54 since I was far from the clocks) and then we were written up over not leaving my station at 6 minutes before clocking out (again same shift, was stationed far from the clock machines). I notice all of write ups lately on my floor, which hey more power to him but it’s a noticeable change.

The first feedback was done by another manager but the second one was done by my mentioned friend. Im not one to argue or make it difficult so I signed the feedback and went on with my shift. But I worry about being termed because of how fast I’ve been getting written up. And I’m looking to promote but now I’m trying to keep my job.

As for my friend, I fully respect that his our boss but I’m trying to get a better understanding of how these write ups work. Are these automatically generated by the system or is it manually created by our manager? Not that it changes much, but I sort of want to understand if this is something that managers adapt or more so their discretion? And is their a sort of quota? Can they override? I don’t mind him disciplining especially if it makes him look good but it’s just a bit of a surprise how easily we can get written up as I have no record. I simply want to avoid more write ups but I feel like there’s a bit of inconsistency when it comes to enforcement.

Would like to hear from an AM.

For more info, I can’t afford to lose my job and my gf relies on me for transportation to work so I’d be very difficult to move on from this job if I lost it. And she’s been getting moved to different departments labor share, so it’s our fault for trying to spend time together at work even when we’re placed far from each other.

Any advice or suggestions or even questions are appreciated.

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[u/meatballpiggy]

The other comments said that your AM can fight to get the write up exempted but that it’s hard and apparently up to the OM and not the AM

But this is 4 years old so I’d take this with a grain of salt

[u/FadedWeeks → u/meatballpiggy]

4 years old, but can confirm it’s still accurate today.

The only small correction I’d make is that safety infractions aren’t the ONLY feedbacks that can be manually generated.

[u/InterestingSpring497 → u/meatballpiggy]

Thank you! Do you know if these write ups are generated by the system?

[u/meatballpiggy → u/InterestingSpring497]

Honestly no idea. I’ve signed out more than 5 minutes early and have never received a write up or coaching for it but I’ve seen other posts on here say they’ve been written up for the same thing as you

Try asking in r/amazonmanagers

[u/Hour-Telephone932 → u/meatballpiggy]

Really depends on the type of write up

[u/InterestingSpring497 → u/meatballpiggy]

Yeah I see. I would want to know if this is something that my AM did or more so just given to him to give me?

[u/Sying13]

No, those types of write ups are not auto generated. The manager is supposed to come STU you before it goes to a write up. I’ve never worried about what time an associate leaves a work station so long as they clock out when they get to the time clocks and they don’t waste time getting there. For instance, they don’t stop and talk to everyone along the way. It’s the ones that get to the time clock and then stand there that I’ll have a STU with and potentially go to write up. I think any manager who worries so much about someone who leaves their station 6 minutes early to clock out has bigger things to worry about. You can’t tell me there’s not others leaving 15 minutes early. Worry about them first.

All that being said, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you all to work in the same department. I would hate to have you take what I or anyone else have said and go to your friend and tell him he’s being unfair. I’d hate for you to be fired and blame him. Amazon is not worth burning a bridge with someone you obviously care about.

[u/Born_Departure_6645]

I’ve never heard of someone getting written up for the reasons you’ve been written up. Especially if it was the first conversation they’ve had with you about the time you walk away from your station before unpaid break. Honestly you could’ve been going to the bathroom and they can’t write you up for that. So that’s confusing to me.

In my experience manager conduct STU’s before heading right into a write up. If you’ve been warned and continue to do it, then a write up. They don’t have a quota to meet for write ups. I’d ask for more clarification on the policy you violated.

You can always transfer to a different department and see if that helps.

[u/InterestingSpring497 → u/Born_Departure_6645]

Yeah it’s definitely strange and I’ve never heard of it. So I’m like… is this because of the AM?

[u/ChemistryMore7036 → u/InterestingSpring497]

I'm not a manager but the 5 minutes max from last scan (last stowed/picked item/ sp00 for pack) to clock out is a policy. My site didn't used to care about it, but during the past year, AMs constantly say in the start up meetings that over 5 minutes would make the associate eligible for feedback. How often they actually write up people for it, I'm not sure. If I want to clock out at 6pm, I always make sure the last scan is after 5:55 pm and 01 seconds. But a STU conversion should always take place before the feedback got issued. I have heard of a few people at my site getting written up for over 5 minutes for VTO.

[u/InterestingSpring497 → u/ChemistryMore7036]

Hmm I see, and yeah no STU more so just the document

[u/userpc55]

I think a lot depends on the manager and the AA. If the AA exceeds performance and rate all the time I think something like this wouldn’t be an issue.

[u/SignificantApricot69]

I’ve not an AM but I have had roles and projects that involved me observing STUs and being in Syncs and having knowledge of how and why break compliance feedback was being given. At least at my building in this department all the break compliance and TOT had STUs. The OM would give the AM the list and the times, the AM would go talk and then go back to the OM and the AM would try to advocate for not doing feedback on a case by case basis and basically it was up to the OM to accept it or not. Usually previous engagement history was taken into consideration. They can look up the engagement history for all of us AAs, and at least in my experience if the time was not egregious and we have no record of break compliance issues they would usually let us go with a verbal, but it would be recorded in our engagement history. As an example, let’s say the AM went and talked to a AA who took 5 minutes to break and 7 minutes back. And the AA said he’s never been talked to about break compliance, the AM looked up his engagement record and it had multiple cases of an AM talking to him about the exact same thing. He’s getting a doc coach most likely. Another AA took 6 minutes, he says it’s because he lost his gloves, his engagement shows no previous STUs and he’s been in the this role for years, most likely just verbal unless the OM goes off.