Outbound Rant/Help

[HeavyBeing]

Been lurking for a while, first time poster, new TM. A2 Outbound.
I’m on my first week of full days and holy sh*t.
I applied wanting to be an order picker, they threw me in OB at orientation. I knew it wasn’t a good fit but I figured I would try and press on. The half day training week was cool, I thought maybe I can do this. Then we reached the full days and I can’t even fathom how people have put in years in OB.
Never mind the complete anti social nature of the department, the work is monotonous and soul crushing. The people built for that kind of work deserve $50 an hour.
Day 2 of full days and my OM comes and tells me I need to get faster if I want to keep up. I’m running with lights on at 55%.
Sticking it out at this point isn’t an option. Is it worth talking to HR to get a department transfer or just ghost like Danny Phantom?

 

[Luck]

Been lurking for a while, first time poster, new TM. A2 Outbound.
I’m on my first week of full days and holy sh*t.
I applied wanting to be an order picker, they threw me in OB at orientation. I knew it wasn’t a good fit but I figured I would try and press on. The half day training week was cool, I thought maybe I can do this. Then we reached the full days and I can’t even fathom how people have put in years in OB.
Never mind the complete anti social nature of the department, the work is monotonous and soul crushing. The people built for that kind of work deserve $50 an hour.
Day 2 of full days and my OM comes and tells me I need to get faster if I want to keep up. I’m running with lights on at 55%.
Sticking it out at this point isn’t an option. Is it worth talking to HR to get a department transfer or just ghost like Danny Phantom?

You can always try asking to transfer. It won't hurt.
But I have to say my man 55% is really easy stuff. You shouldn't be struggling at all.
How many doors are they assigning you in that example?
Do you have a trainer that is coming by and helping you?
I would love to give some tips and answer some questions for you.
If you stick it out 6 months you can out in to transfer to another department even if they deny it now.
Just keep in mind cartonair (order picker) is nearly the same as doors. Its slightly easier but not THAT much easier.

 

[HeavyBeing]

You can always try asking to transfer. It won't hurt.
But I have to say my man 55% is really easy stuff. You shouldn't be struggling at all.
How many doors are they assigning you in that example?
Do you have a trainer that is coming by and helping you?
I would love to give some tips and answer some questions for you.
If you stick it out 6 months you can out in to transfer to another department even if they deny it now.
Just keep in mind cartonair (order picker) is nearly the same as doors. Its slightly easier but not THAT much easier.

They’re assigning me three doors and I can’t keep up. Trying to pace myself considering I’m gonna be throwing boxes for 12 hours and having to use the step stool really slows me down.
I see my trainer probably once a shift, they’re not the greatest. I didn’t know the protocol for closing a trailer besides using the phone. The guy came and pushed pipo in and left it. I didn’t realize they wanted me to stack more boxes in front of it so I left that door for an hour and it completely backed the line up. Nobody said anything until I asked what the deal was. The next day my OM says during announcements that ‘we need to make sure our trailers are ready to be closed before we call the closer’. Everybody says OB is the most physically demanding department and they’re not wrong. I have a buddy who’s in Inbound and he’s just sorry for me lol.
There’s maybe ten people in OB who aren’t wearing orange vests which lets me know the turnover is ridiculous. They give us a day and a half of training and we’re on our own.

 

[ItChecksOut]

You do build up endurance and learn how to manage your lane sets better. When I first started I didn't see how in the world people found the time to stand around and talk at all. I would be running myself ragged and only being around 70%. I didn't know how I'd ever run 100% but I'm a stubborn person and kept at it. It's very sink or swim but I became pretty adept at running 120 - 130% and not really stressing about it. Running at 100% afterwards was kinda boring as you'd stand around with not much to do.

Firstly you just get better at building stable walls quickly, you get better at recognizing when you need to leave the door you're at and focus on a completely different door, when you can take it easy vs when you need to go as fast as you can.

Some lanes I'd strip completely everytime, regardless of how backed up my other lanes were, some I'd only ever bring it down to just inside the truck. You do develope a feel of how you need to manage your particular lane sets.

Being taller helps as you don't "have" to use the step stool as often.... but I'm going to be honest with you most tm's don't use the step stools at all, and while I personally always built to the roof of the trailer, few others do.

Most build a wall about waist high and just chunk everything behind it, then when it's "full" they finish off the wall. You should avoid doing this but when you start running 140-150% without relief.... it is what it is.

You will learn which door closers are lazy and which will actually help you out, but typically when I called for the closer all of my noncon/pipo was in the trailer with about 10 boxes left on a completely backed out extendo. The lazy door closers I'd have everything ready but would leave the extended in as far as possible so they'd have to clear whatever boxes they let build up after I called for them.

Once you get better at managing your lane sets you will start making sure all of your noncon is being worked as it comes. I'd almost always go out and rearrange my A pallet so it would fall apart as soon as I touched it. I'd also bring anything large back with me to the door, mattresses, cribs, tvs, ect....

If you stick with it, you do get better at it, and once/if you transfer it only makes you appreciate your new function more.


Just a slight edit, but your first hour is probably the most important. Don't stand around at startup, once you know where your laneset is, go over and start working them immediately. Your handoff is likley always going to be shit, just get use to this fact. I wasn't concerned with quality for my first hour I was concerned with getting my lanes in proper shape so I wouldn't be getting the shit kicked out of me once depal/inbound really started throwing.
I almost never had proper walls coming straight into my lanes, I'd just strip my lanes and then worry with having properly built walls afterwards. I can't help what the prior TM left me, I just need to strip my lanes so I'm not playing catch up for the next 10-12 hours.

 

[HeavyBeing]

You do build up endurance and learn how to manage your lane sets better. When I first started I didn't see how in the world people found the time to stand around and talk at all. I would be running myself ragged and only being around 70%. I didn't know how I'd ever run 100% but I'm a stubborn person and kept at it. It's very sink or swim but I became pretty adept at running 120 - 130% and not really stressing about it. Running at 100% afterwards was kinda boring as you'd stand around with not much to do.

Firstly you just get better at building stable walls quickly, you get better at recognizing when you need to leave the door you're at and focus on a completely different door, when you can take it easy vs when you need to go as fast as you can.

Some lanes I'd strip completely everytime, regardless of how backed up my other lanes were, some I'd only ever bring it down to just inside the truck. You do develope a feel of how you need to manage your particular lane sets.

Being taller helps as you don't "have" to use the step stool as often.... but I'm going to be honest with you most tm's don't use the step stools at all, and while I personally always built to the roof of the trailer, few others do.

Most build a wall about waist high and just chunk everything behind it, then when it's "full" they finish off the wall. You should avoid doing this but when you start running 140-150% without relief.... it is what it is.

You will learn which door closers are lazy and which will actually help you out, but typically when I called for the closer all of my noncon/pipo was in the trailer with about 10 boxes left on a completely backed out extendo. The lazy door closers I'd have everything ready but would leave the extended in as far as possible so they'd have to clear whatever boxes they let build up after I called for them.

Once you get better at managing your lane sets you will start making sure all of your noncon is being worked as it comes. I'd almost always go out and rearrange my A pallet so it would fall apart as soon as I touched it. I'd also bring anything large back with me to the door, mattresses, cribs, tvs, ect....

If you stick with it, you do get better at it, and once/if you transfer it only makes you appreciate your new function more.


Just a slight edit, but your first hour is probably the most important. Don't stand around at startup, once you know where your laneset is, go over and start working them immediately. Your handoff is likley always going to be shit, just get use to this fact. I wasn't concerned with quality for my first hour I was concerned with getting my lanes in proper shape so I wouldn't be getting the shit kicked out of me once depal/inbound really started throwing.
I almost never had proper walls coming straight into my lanes, I'd just strip my lanes and then worry with having properly built walls afterwards. I can't help what the prior TM left me, I just need to strip my lanes so I'm not playing catch up for the next 10-12 hours.

Thanks for this. Some of that I’ve kind of been picking up as I go. As for building the false walls past 100%, my OM made it very clear if he catches us doing that it’s an automatic CA. My trainer said a lot of people in OB max out around 85% and never really progress past that in the ramp up so I have no idea how that works.
Any advice on keeping your mind occupied for 12 hours? I get most people probably go on autopilot but every time I look at the clock, it’s been five minutes. I liked having jolly ranchers at first until I realized it takes about five minutes to finish one so I’ve been avoiding that. Bathroom and water breaks help but I’m really trying to fight the monotony.

 

[Luck]

Thanks for this. Some of that I’ve kind of been picking up as I go. As for building the false walls past 100%, my OM made it very clear if he catches us doing that it’s an automatic CA. My trainer said a lot of people in OB max out around 85% and never really progress past that in the ramp up so I have no idea how that works.
Any advice on keeping your mind occupied for 12 hours? I get most people probably go on autopilot but every time I look at the clock, it’s been five minutes. I liked having jolly ranchers at first until I realized it takes about five minutes to finish one so I’ve been avoiding that. Bathroom and water breaks help but I’m really trying to fight the monotony.

Never look at the clock. Ever.
If you are getting backed up you shouldn't have time to think! Lol.
Honestly I just daydream about future projects all day.
Its dangerous because it has led me to buying a bunch of small mods for my truck I probably don't actually need.
It sounds to me like you just didn't get trained well. Not that you are really struggling.

ItChecksOut gave a bunch of great advice I would listen to what he said.
Also 9/10 times everyone who is new needs to hear this: build smaller walls.
No I don't just mean don't build false walls I mean small thin walls.
Boxes are three dimensional, use it to your advantage 😁
The optimal size to build a wall in my opinion is the width of a red overpack box. And I dont mean the wider way I mean the thinner way, sideways.
You would be surprised how very few boxes won't fit into that. Large boxes I just stack on the side of the trailer and ignore the overhang.

 

[Hal]

Oh for me large boxes were always for the top of the wall. A large sterlite box or standing up a black overpack on its side was always a great way to get my wall to the ceiling and avoid getting on and off that stepstool.

 

[RWTM]

You can always try asking to transfer. It won't hurt.
But I have to say my man 55% is really easy stuff. You shouldn't be struggling at all.
How many doors are they assigning you in that example?
Do you have a trainer that is coming by and helping you?
I would love to give some tips and answer some questions for you.
If you stick it out 6 months you can out in to transfer to another department even if they deny it now.
Just keep in mind cartonair (order picker) is nearly the same as doors. Its slightly easier but not THAT much easier.

Say what