I just did my first ship from store shift yesterday. I'm actually a softlines person and usually assigned to the fitting room. For whatever reason, the LOD thought it would be a good idea for me to learn how to do this. (I have one shift in two weeks doing ship from store which, I had assumed, was just a way to get me a few more hours). We're relatively new to this. We have one team member who does it full time, then, when he gets too busy, usually somebody in leadership helps out. I was told a few other people had been trained but nobody has stuck around very long. I don't know whether it's due to the nature of the work or something else.
Today, my body hurts all over. We don't have the space to do this. There were 3 of us working in this little area yesterday. The usual guy, the LOD and me. Usual guy was unhappy to have to train me because we weren't going to meet our deadline at the rate things were going, he had to go to lunch or be out of compliance, and there I was, relatively clueless. The LOD had done it in the past but not recently. All the bending over really caught up with me. If we had space to spread out and lower tables so that the really big boxes didn't sit on the floor, it would have been a lot better. But right now, we simply don't have the space to expand the area and having worked there, I cannot imagine how we'll keep up with the holiday season.
I don't mind back up once in a while, but I really am happy in softlines, mixing with customers. In the backroom, I don't see anybody, it's hot as hell, and incredibly tedious as well as physically demanding. Plus, I'm not exactly one of the younger team members either. I'm reluctant to say anything because I really do need the hours and I don't want to come off as inflexible. But I'm scheduled to go in in about an hour and I can barely walk today because my back hurts so badly.
Has anybody been actually working on ship from store for a while? What is your setup like and does it ever easier? Right now, we're in a trial phase so I keep hoping we'll expand the space allocated to it if we're successful. But what I really hope is that I don't have to do this too often!!
