We spent the last part of 2009 trying out workamping at Amazon.com’s fullfillment center in Coffeyville, Kansas. We finally have enough of the details brought together to share our assessment about the financial rewards, hours involved and challenges.
As we generally earn our income doing various technical & marketing consulting, both remotely online and onsite, we thought it would be interesting to check out a different way of earning an income while traveling. We even got featured on Gizmodo about our experience.
Workamping is an awesome concept that matches up businesses that need temporary workers, and RVing travelers who would like to earn a little bit of income, or have some of their living expenses paid for. Workamping opportunities range from hosting a campground to temporary work with wages.
When we did this gig, Express Employment Professionals in Independence, Kansas was working with Amazon to bring in workampers to help out with their holiday rush of shipping. Now Amazon has formalized this workamping program and calls it Camperforce. You can find out more and apply directly at that link.
The Hours and Pay
We worked the night shift (5p – 5:30a) – so our wage in Kansas was $11/hr and $16.50 for any hours worked in a week over 40. They also offered a bonus in the last week of $100 to anyone who completed their mandatory 55 hours.
Here are the hours we worked during our four weeks there, and our gross income for the month:
Not bad, together we grossed $5,354 – with our low living expenses, the income is still funding us, and will well into March. (If you’re reading this in e-mail or RSS, view the full post to see the embedded weekly breakout.)
In addition, they paid for our camping spot. We selected Elks City State Park in Independence, which afforded us a scenic and secluded spot, and cost Amazon about $470 to park us for our time there. Some people consider this additional compensation as they would have been paying for camping anyway, but as we generally only pay for camping about 20-30% of the time, we more looked at it as one less cost of employment.
Costs we incurred to take on the gig included:
- A 40 mile a day commute, that cost us about $126 in gas for the duration.
- Needing to buy supportive shoes and insoles for all the walking and standing.
- Buying some extra shirts and underwear in the last couple weeks, because we were lacking time to get to the laundrymat.
- A big bottle of Advil.
If we were to do it over again – we may have opted for one of the very crowded and muddy, but only 5 miles away, campgrounds in Coffeyville. Especially post-Thanksgiving, when time off became a thing of the past.
The massive overtime hours only occurred starting on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving). Up until that time, workampers were only assigned four – 10 hour shifts a week, and were frequently being let go early, thus reducing their potential income. Amazon hires on workampers starting in late August. This can be a good arrangement, as you earn up to $440 a week working only 4 days, having 3 days to yourself – while having your camping paid for. A good number of workampers who had been working those hours quit once the overtime kicked in. For us.. we were there specifically to experience the mad holiday rush, and rack up the OT.
We started our gig the week of Thanksgiving (November 22), and our first week was capped at 40 hours. Immediately following Thanksgiving, everyone was on ‘scheduled’ overtime of five – 11 hour shifts a week. Scheduled overtime means, it’s mandatory – and you will start racking up ‘points’ if you miss a shift. Accumulate enough points, and you’ll be let go. The last two weeks of our time there, they offered an additional optional 5 hours a week of overtime (which you could choose to work as a half shift, or adding an hour to your shift.). We coordinated with our managers to work four – 12 hours days and two – 6 hour days – as that left us more daytime hours to be available to our ‘real’ work clients.
During each shift, you are given two paid 15 minute breaks, and forced to take an unpaid 30 minute meal break.
The Bad
I include this not to complain, or gain sympathy – but rather to prepare anyone considering this gig in future years to be fully aware of what you’re getting into.
Especially once the mandatory overtime kicked in, we felt like our time was owned by Amazon. For the few waking hours we weren’t working, we were trying to stretch our muscles, shop/preparing food for our lunch break or commuting. Amazon frequently didn’t give much notice that you had been assigned an extra shift on your regular off day. This made It tough to cram in our normal non-Amazon work obligations.
Your lunch break is 30 minutes long – but there’s no time to leave the Amazon campus, you spend at least 7 minutes of it walking to/from a time clock/your station/a break room, and you must be at your stand up station precisely at the end of the break after clocking back in. This essentially means your actual lunch time is not even 20 minutes, and is spent in one of their break rooms. You also needed to arrive to the parking lot at least 15 minutes before your shift (uncompensated) to clock in and make it to your station in time. On the flipside, there didn’t seem to be any problem with leaving your station a couple minutes early to clock out at the end of your shift.
Once you escape a typical corporate job you tend to value time differently when working for others. I look at not just my time on the job – but any time that I’m not spending doing what I want to be doing. And those hours aren’t compensated. I feel each work day cost me an uncompensated minimum of 2 hrs a day (lunch, commute, early arrival, etc). Which essentially means, even with OT pay, our gross pay rate was averaged out at $11/hr.
The work is very physically demanding. Chris and I both are in pretty good shape, and there were days we’d come home in tears of pain.. and we were assigned to what is considered the ‘easy’ job – Sortable Singles (packing single order items into single boxes.) The first week or so, we were both living on Advil to keep swelling down. I ended up in Amazon’s ‘Amcare’ Center once for extreme pain in my wrist and arms due to swelling and abrasion from the boxes. I had to call in sick one day simply because my feet were too swollen to fit in my shoes. Some of the positions required 15-20 miles a day of walking. We were some of the younger workampers there, most of a more traditional retirement age – I’ve gained new hope that in 30 years I may still have the energy to take on a gig like this again.
But, once we acclimated to the physical challenges of lifting, squatting, walking and packing 12-hrs a day, it became much easier for us. And even fun! And asking for a couple 1/2 days definitely helped break things up for us.
The other complication is that Kansas has state income tax, which was withheld from our paychecks. Filing an income tax return in Kansas is mandatory, however they don’t make it easy for once-in-a-lifetime non-resident earners to file. Right now, we’ll have to wait about 6 weeks for the forms to reach us, and then they’re anticipating 12-16 weeks to process them manually. We could efile using a tax service – but most don’t handle non-resident state income earnings, and those that do – require you re-entering in your entire federal return (which for us, is most complicated). Most annoying, and a lot of hassle for about $200 due in refunds to us.
The Good
Even despite the challenges mentioned above, we both definitely consider our time workamping at Amazon to be totally worthwhile… as a new experience.
Our managers in our department were awesome – very accommodating, friendly, appreciative of us and ‘got’ that full time RVers are not their typical workforce. The folks at Express were awesome too, and we had someone from their office visit our station every shift to check in and make sure things were ok. Amazon takes safety seriously, and we felt that our physical safety was a priority for them. We were given cool t-shirts commemorating ‘surviving’ the peak season, and Amazon did provide meals a few times.
I actually made the following post to my personal journal towards the end:
How much would you pay to:
– Have a physical training coach for 60 hours a week, who whips you into shape with squats, miles of walking, weight training, stretching and more?
– Have your fingers literally on the pulse of consumer trends in your industry ?
– Have access to figuring out the operations of what makes one of the world’s most successful companies tick?
– Get your mind into a month-long zen state of meditation by doing receptive tasks, and feel grounded to take on the world?
This sort of hands on transformational coaching and experience is worth thousands.
But act now.. and you’ll not only get all this for FREE.. you’ll be paid to have it!
We truly were fascinated by being a cog in this huge machine. We learned so much about consumer culture, big distribution centers and got to interact with many locals in Kansas who were grateful for their employment at Amazon. We got to pick the brains of a lot of full time RVers about the workamping lifestyle. And we each lost a few pounds and came away better toned.
Now, will you see us working there again? Unless circumstances lined up perfectly and we had nothing else going on – probably not. We’re experience junkies, and did it to try something neither of us had done before. It wouldn’t be nearly as much fun to do again.. and if we did, we’d make sure we got a different position. And we’re unsure of how the new dynamic would be without Express Pro involved.
Other posts we made about our Amazon.com experience:
- Adjusting to the Night Shift – Working Vampire hours
- Inside Amazon’s Coffeyville Warehouse – More information about the actual work we were doing
- Digital Fasting – Not being able to bring cell phones into Amazon, had us disconnected for a month.
- Secret Lives of Amazon’s Elves – Our feature on Gizmodo
Has anyone else worked the sugar beet harvest and the Amazon CamperForce? I want to know what the average age is? I am a female and in good health but I am 70 years old. I still work part-time cleaning houses (not easy work) and do care giving. I have worked hard my whole life and have worked 12 hour shifts when I worked at a nuclear plant. Once for a year and a half, with only a couple of days off. I know that was quite some time ago but I do remember.
Larry Brabrec commented about 2-1/2 yrs. ago, said amazon was more physically demanding. Comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
There are many who do the Sugar Beet Harvest, but we have no personal experience with it.
Much appreciated your article and still thinking about giving it a go, for as you put it, “we were there specifically to experience the mad holiday rush, and rack up the OT”. We just (wife &I) completed our 2nd year at the sugar beet harvest in MN. Another interesting gig. Earned our money this year as there was no down time. 11 days, 12 hour days and no down time. Last year the harvest took 4.5 weeks. Downtime is created by heat, cold and rain. As a site foreman, my days were a little longer. Time & half after first 8 hrs daily, Saturday all time & half with Sunday at double time. Interesting, informative, physical and at times boring. And you are working outside. But, it sounds, not near as physical as Amazon. As a foreman, I put in more physical effort then my crew and still plan on doing a 3rd yr.
Well We are at the start of our new lifestyle. You have been a blessing with your experiences. New at this I am scared out of my mind, on the other hand my boyfriend is so very ready. Leaving a job of 34 years I am ready to be my own boss. I am sure as we continue getting ready(2 months to go) and take your advice my mind will be at ease. We just subscribed to your youtube channel and in less than 48 hours have learned so much already. Thank You very much
Everyone says the pay is fantastic. I was paid $10 an hour at Aramark for an accounting job without all of the pain. Although getting in shape may be a bonus. Not sure that this amount of pay is considered that exceptional.
For workamping positions, it is fairly exceptional however – I don’t know of many other temp jobs, requiring no specialized skills, you can as easily sign up for as a nomad that pay as well.
Now compared to our regular day jobs? Nope, not exceptional pay by our standards in the least. But it was a fun experience to get paid to do 🙂 And many RVers do love the accessibility of this work opportunity to help keep their fuel tanks filled.
Also – the Amazon job has lots of opportunity for overtime – up to 60 hours a week. If your goal is to earn a lot in a short span of time, it is one of the best work-camping options out there.
I am wondering what you work campers from amazon do with your dogs during the day or night if you work ot and can’t get back to RV? Also which place is the best to work at. We were thinking Fernley because it’s close to home, but not very good reviews. Thanks LS
Hi Laurie –
We have a cat, and we ended up taking her to her ‘Grandmeows’ while we worked at Amazon – it was just easier than worrying about her freezing in the RV while we worked, or getting bored. Others with dogs seemed to either have only one spouse working, doing split shifts or training their dogs to use artificial turf or something.
As far as which facility is best.. we haven’t a clue. We only worked a month at Coffeyville 3 years ago, so our experience is quite limited and outdated now. Would highly recommend joining one of the many RVing forums that talk about Workamping and reading the many threads on this topic.
Best wishes
Sounds great but an unanticipated emergency such as illness/injury or situation at home would cause more anxiety than the freedom of migrancy pretends to offer. What if you had a major mechanical breakdown on your RV/home? What if you couldn’t complete the work cycle? Was there an “early ‘termanation'” clause in the camping piece if you didn’t stay the full season? Thanks so much. Enjoying the book.
An illness, injury or break down can happen anywhere and at anytime – whether you’re stationary or hyper mobile. And you handle it in exactly the same way – by handling it. It’s really no different on the road than it is in a more conventional stationary lifestyle. If your oven breaks down in your sticks-n-bricks home, you have to schedule a repair person to come out, fix it yourself or replace it. Same with a RV breakdown. You take time off work, or schedule it around your obligations.
The sense of freedom doesn’t come necessarily from being mobile… but rather from releasing yourself from getting anxious over things that might or might not happen, and are usually out of your control anyway. When you’re agile and trust in your ability to handle the ‘bad stuff’ when it occurs, you become a lot less anxious overall in life. That’s where my freedom comes from. And it’s definitely not ‘pretending’. That we choose to be nomadic, is just a lifestyle choice. There are plenty of valid reasons to choose to be stationary, but a false notion that sitting at home waiting for things to break is somehow more sane – is not one of them.
And as in anything in life before signing up for a commitment – knowing the cost to back out is key. You decide if you can handle it or not. In the case of our Amazon gig, the back-out cost was very low. I believe it was something like that if we didn’t get 48-hrs notice, we had to pay our drug screening costs, which was only like $60. There was nothing about the camping, and in most campgrounds, Amazon pays directly to the campground only for the eligible nights. We approached it that we could walk away at anytime if we wanted or needed to.
For a different view —
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2010-11-26-amazon-temporary-workers_N.htm
Let’s be 100% frank — anyone thinking of this, ought to be GOOD SHAPE. If not — it will be NOT GOOD. That “minor” fact often gets lost in the AMAZ sales stuff.
Facts — what a concept.
Russ – anyone who takes on a physically demanding job at a warehouse should indeed be in good shape. Amazon stressed over and over in advance how physically demanding the work was, I don’t think anyone we worked with was caught by surprise. And yet, there were people of all ages able to handle it just fine.
We tried to reframe it as “getting paid to workout” – by the end of our month we had both lost weight and were in physically great shape.
That USA Today article you linked to comes across as exceedingly negative – “Many have lost their homes and live on the road, home schooling their children along the way. Others are retirees who had planned to see the country but now work along the way to supplement depleted investments. … This is supposed to be freedom and a good life. Now it is a sad note.”
A sad note?!!?
Actually – making a living via temporary jobs while having the freedom to travel the country without the burden of a fixed home base is exactly what a lot of people consider the good life. I don’t remember meeting any other Workcampers at Amazon who felt forced to be there, most (at our location) thought it was a great job and a great way to work a month or two to build up the funds to afford several months of play and travel.
– Chris
Just to let you know, the Big Chief RV Park, across from Amazon was filled with workampers working there. The folks and Amazon were great. We are looking forward to seeing them next year. Sharon, Park manager
I was in Coffyville this past Monday applying for a temp Amazon job with Staff Solutions and afterwards I drove out to the facility to get an idea of where I would be commuting to. I live in Oklahoma about 50 miles away. As I drove by I noticed a newly built RV park directly across the road from Amazon. It already had nearly 100 or more RV’s stationed there and I was wondering if they were temp workers. After stumbling across this site I can now assume my assumptions were correct. I thought it was an odd place for an RV park but it now makes since. Enjoyed your insight to the job which will be helpful in relieving any anxiety on my part. Do you know if permanent jobs afterwards are a reality or blue sky.
Yup.. apparently the RV Park (which was supposed to be completed for last year’s temp season) is open this year. According to friends I know working there now, it’s part Amazon workampers, and part construction workers from other projects in the area. Also, seems the number of workampers is quite down this year, and many have already left.
Can’t say about permanent positions. But do recall several folks on temp status who got hired on permanent after meeting all requirements (attendance, performance, etc.), or at the very least – were able to stay on into January.
Thanks for the post. I am considering this job for next season. You said you would want a different position if you ever went back. What position would you want?
.-= Mar´s last blog ..Rose Garden at the Riverside Park in Victoria, Texas. The fragrance in the air was gloriously intoxicating. =-.
If I could request a job at Amazon and be granted it, I’d want to try Picker next. The thought of walking 15-20 miles a day sounds wonderful to me. However, my desire for a different position would be a survival skill to keep from getting bored by doing the same thing. I doubt we’d go back to Amazon.com anytime soon, as we just simply have other things to keep us busy, funded and entertained. We did our stint more as a fun experience.
I’m glad I found this post – I’m getting ready to be nomadic for a while and was wondering whether the Amazon gig would be realistic for me. I didn’t think it would – books can get heavy and I have a bad back – and your post has confirmed that.
There are a couple of things I wanted to mention. First, mandatory breaks are usually a result of a state labor law, so that might vary with the location. Also – it doesn’t surprise me that Amazon isn’t using Express this year. Temp agencies are expensive, usually costing a client at least another 50% of the hourly salary. So if you were making $11/hr, Amazon was paying Express probably around $17/hr for you. If they don’t need the services the agency provides – like screening potential staffers – they could save that extra $6.50/hr, and offer higher salaries to the temps. Or they could just hire more people for the same salaries. Either way, they have more flexibility with their money. (And that’s why temp jobs disappear when the economy drops.)
Keep in mind, though – if you registered with Express to work at Amazon last year you can continue to look for opportunities with Express. I think all their offices are independently owned, but they do communicate with each other and will send your test scores and work records to their other offices as needed. I just finished a long-term assignment with them and specifically asked about that when I knew I was going to be moving. Express has offices in many states, so that might be something to consider. (And it’s probably true of other nationwide temp agencies as well.)
Wow, seeing the hours and pay you got just blows me away. That’s what I was hoping for in Fernley, but I only netted $1k after six weeks of working at that sh!t job.
I so envy the experience you had out there because in Nevada, it was just one step above working as prison labor. The only difference was that we got to go home at night (or whenever they made us leave early, which happened about 50 percent of the time). You’ve heard me bitch about it so I’ll quit.
Just glad to see that you guys made some decent cash to keep funding one of the best lifestyles in the world! Congrats!
Great write-up of what sounds like an interesting experience, as well as sounding like my own personal hell. The logistics of it fascinate me, as I told you in the trailer on shuttle night, but the process sounds a bit too much like a young Cimmerian at the Wheel of Pain.
.-= James Schipper´s last blog ..Nomadic Serendipity and the Space Shuttle Launch =-.
“Once you escape a typical corporate job you tend to value time differently when working for others. I look at not just my time on the job — but any time that I’m not spending doing what I want to be doing.”
I’m the same way, and this is a critical distinction that most folks don’t understand. Jobs are not just about the time you’re at your desk/station/whathaveyou, but about any extra time necessary to remain employed. Commutes, unpaid breaks, etc, should all be carefully considered when looking at a job. In my own job as a dog walker, I never thought about the fact that I’d often be driving to and from the office to pick up and drop off keys, all of that time being unpaid. Sure, it’s “part of the job”, but it’s hours of my life that are being taken without pay.