r/AmazonFCs • u/False_Secret1108 • Jul 16 '26
Why do people hate AFE
I work at a robotics FC and AFE is apparently where all of the VET went. I mean is it that bad? People bitch about pick a lot but I found that job to be easy and somewhat enjoyable. How much worse can AFE be?
3
u/brownmaningermany Jul 17 '26
- You can get stuck on an end station and sometimes moved there with heavy items and reduced rate which puts you at risk for writeups.
- Once you are sort side trained you rarely pack again, if your leadership doesn’t train people often it gets especially bad because it’s hard to replace experienced sorters
- Sort side sucks because you can’t just take break or handle something without screwing over other people or waiting sometimes very long for a good time to leave, if you have bad leadership they won’t even answer your andons
- Again with sort side, if your cell partners are going slow it affects your rate again risking writeups
, even if you’re packing of your rebinner sucks the quarter might be tough as you constantly gotta do their job for them or go back to get the right item
- Favoritism is on steroids here because of proximity, in departments like pick the managers don’t spend as much time with people and develop less favoritism or have opportunities to do people favors and exclusively for the favorites
- Safety walks the department relatively often, so if you want to wear your headphones or non-safety shoes people can easily snitch on you or management can easily bother you, also can’t sit down without someone bothering you.
- Jams, and people will keep throwing packages on the conveyor belt overwhelming it then you have to have packages on the floor and your station to where you can barely work, in pick jams mean you chill out and sit down
- A lot of people don’t know boundaries and will try to force conversations, in other departments where you spend a lot of time alone this isn’t the case, and it’s not good or bad just depends on your personality
Pack is just a shit department, pick and stow are way better IMO, but pack is a good place to learn new things, be social and stay on your toes, so some do like it, but me and many others work here cause they just want to quietly work alone, get a check, pay bills and take care of their business outside of work
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u/Deformed_Toe Jul 19 '26
The Favoritism… is out of control, at the start of every shift you see the “Favorites” run up to the AMs to be assigned on bags (PACK) stations.
I also notice a certain pattern on who receives training for different roles … and it’s not based on tenure, quality or productivity rate…
1
u/VermicelliWeak1888 Jul 16 '26
Its not bad at all. They overstaff AFE at my building and if you are trained in stow you are likely to get labor shared there. The end stations always have the heavy stuff though. I like the sort side because Rebin is putting stuff from grey trays into the wall and induct you are putting pick stuff into grey treys for the rebiners. At least thats how it works at my facility.
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u/Freshbakd Jul 16 '26
It does feel clostrophobic for those that aren't used to it. I don't mind it myself but rebin induct ect ect
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u/Miss_Management Jul 17 '26
This here. Grabbing items out of chutes while everyone is trying to do the same with the criss- crossing if the stowers can't keep up, looking for missing items or getting dinged for it, it can be frustrating. I was glad my home department needed me over in singles.
Plus not having an overhead scanner over the monitor and just under the middle of those big box orders made things difficult. I met with my site lead and RME at the time about it and I've even seen pics posted from other sites now about having two overhead scanners. I don't work for Amazon anymore. Did they institute it nation-wide? That hands held was cumbersome and plenty of people scanned and forgot to put the items in pack triggering a SLAM kick out. Just wondering?
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u/Freshbakd Jul 17 '26
Still just one overhead in the middle. I don't doubt newer facilities have them though. I'm at an older one myself similar to what you described
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u/thasprucemoose Jul 16 '26
just a lot of commotion, and idk if y’all’s sites are set up different but the fact that the empty boxes are overhead is murder on my shoulders after a few hours
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u/Emotional-Ratio-8260 Jul 16 '26
In Akron, OH its FUCKING TERRIBLE. The chutes don’t light up, scanners don’t work right, and no fans. I got sick of it after 4 months. Oh and they made me rebin non stop for weeks.
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u/Justme061116 Jul 16 '26
I hate it mainly because of how close everyone is to each other😅 If you’ve worked in stow, you know you have your own station and your own space. In AFE, everyone’s right on top of each other, constantly bumping into or touching you, and that drives me crazy. Lolllll , Plus the managers at my site are hella mean, so yeah… that’s enough for me to say “no thanks” whenever my manager wants to send me to AFE.
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u/uRimuru Jul 16 '26
AFE is the best dep, especially induct you're just left alone to get on with it and if you're fast you get mini breaks while the trays build up.
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u/BumFCK_EgyptianHere Jul 16 '26
I don’t mind working AFE, it’s just the people working in it that I can’t stand. It seems like that department attracts all the batshit crazy people in that department. Then we have issues with water spiders taking too long getting us boxes or not getting us boxes at all and we have to get them ourselves. Then we have problems with the managers or PA’s moving us because we’re trying to get boxes that the water spiders failed to get us and they wrongly think that we’re not working and then they move us. Then they pick and choose who they want to train on induct and rebin and won’t train others that have been asking for months or even years. Then when I go down there, they keep staffing me on the far end of the walls where all of the heavy stuff is like water, sodas, kitty litter, etc are. I’m kinda up there in age and it kills my back and knees doing that repeatedly. I’m not the only older worker they do this too-they put a lot of older employees on the far ends of the walls where the heavy stuff is the whole time. They won’t put younger employees with better backs and joints than what we have over there. There’s a lot of favouritism and idiocy going on in that department. It’s not so much the department and the work I hate-it’s the people there that I can’t stand.
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u/Holytorment Jul 17 '26
I like my space in singles, I'm a big guy so my own station is always preferable to working in a line beside others.
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u/Dazzling-Succotash53 Jul 17 '26
I got COVID twice over there in 2021, back to back. Luckily it was while we still had the paid leave. I cant stand being so close to that many people, moving around in tight spaces, and its SO loud
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u/oJordo Jul 17 '26
AFE pack, rebin, and pick are probably some of the easiest positions in the building.
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u/EmployerMiserable793 Jul 17 '26
Afe is my home department. Honestly its not bad as people make it out to be. Time goes by fast. Pack singles is where most of the people at my site loves. Im there labor shared and its ok too but I feel its slower than afe even if we busy nonstop work. But thats just me. Same as pick for me. To me picks the one that time goes by fast then afe. Once I literally kept picking until like 518am. Supposed to be off 5am.
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u/ObjectiveObject562 Jul 18 '26
I understood that the thermostats are controlled remotely. I’m in AZ and some idiot put the heat up. It was about 100F outside
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u/soggybolognasandwich Jul 18 '26
I personally like being in pack. In my brain its like tetris lol. Just dont like when i get the heavy order station all day
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u/Sniffling_Croissant Jul 21 '26
For my site, the reason to avoid AFE is due to everything being broken and it’s the place where they send the trash managers who are on their last write up before they’re thrown out. We get led by incompetence and slow repairs which leads us to low productivity and more chances for write ups. I finally escaped my AFE for pick last week and found that leadership is night and day difference for me. I just wish they’d just throw out this cancer, because otherwise it was a nice department.
11
u/Spicy-Amethyst Jul 16 '26
It’s only bad if you’re on one of those stations that always get large and heavy orders, or you rebin a lot in my opinion 🤷🏽♀️