A 50-year-old wrestles with the gig economy

As usual, I’m late to the game, which is probably a testament to the fact that I’m 50 years old and don’t have any teenagers or twenty-somethings in the house.  I usually “discover” music artists about 3-5 years after they are hugely popular, and see movies after I read an article about the digitally-remastered 25th anniversary release.  A pop culture aficionado I am not.

Amazon Flex started in 2015, so in pop culture age, it’s already about 70 years old, which seems just about right for me to join this small sector of the “gig economy.”  I don’t even know what that term means, and I’m too lazy to figure it out.

There are literally thousands and thousands of articles already out there about Flex.  As Lance Armstrong says, “Give it a goog” and you’ll find enough YouTube commentary and blog content to fill your weekend.  Just remember, if you jump in the Reddit hole, you may never make it out.  

So let’s get to it.  Hi, my name is Marc, and I’m an Amazon Flex driver.

Signing up was pretty easy.  You do EVERYTHING on the phone app (you can’t do it on the computer even if you want to).  I suspect that since actually delivering with Flex is totally dependent on the phone app, requiring completion of the signup process on the app is intentional.  If you can’t navigate the application process, the outlook for you as a delivery person is probably not good.

I had to fill in the basic information, including bank account (so they can pay you), vehicle and insurance, driver’s license, etc. Once all of that is processed (it only took a day or two) then they run a basic background check.  After you clear that hopefully-not-so-difficult hurdle, there are 8 training videos that you must watch on your phone.  Most of them are 5 minutes or less and include titles such as, “What to expect on your first delivery,” “Safety reminders,” “Making Amazon Fresh deliveries,” and “Dog safety tips.”  

The videos aren’t very helpful.  They aren’t “live” videos with real people.  They are kind of cheesy animation videos.

For example, the video “App Overview” doesn’t show the actual app – it’s the same cheesy animation stuff.  And it’s a minute and a half long.  As I said earlier, the entire delivery process is based on the app, and yet you don’t really get to see any of it until you actually show up for your first pickup.  

I wasn’t smart enough to do the YouTube research before I signed up for my first delivery block.  That probably would have given me a better comfort level and reduced my anxiety for trip numero uno.  

Before I get to that first pickup, a short note about the schedule and blocks.  Being in San Diego, there are about 5 or 6 Amazon locations around the county.  During sign up I “picked” the one nearest to me.  But I didn’t realize that what I am “offered” in the app doesn’t have any correlation to my preferred location.  Probably because I’m new, but I’ve never been offered anything other than evening shifts, and they are at the locations most distant from my house.  I’ve done all five of my shifts at the Rancho Bernardo location (North county), which is 20 miles away from my house via the slower route, and 30 miles away via the fastest route.  I’m a creature of habit, so I keep going back there, although I have been offered blocks in National City (south San Diego) and Carlsbad (even farther North county).

The easy way to explain Flex is to say it’s like Uber for Amazon, but that’s not quite true.  The primary way that Flex drivers make money is by accepting “blocks.”  Blocks are a set amount of time, normally three hours around here, but I can’t speak to other cities or locations.  When you sign up for a time block on a given date and time, you can cancel up to 45 minutes prior to the start with no penalty.  If you cancel too late or don’t show, it goes into your “record” and could result in the loss of your authorization to drive.  

I feel like I’m backtracking, but let me explain what I mean by “offers” since that was confusing to me when they talked about it in the training videos.  As a Flex driver, you don’t have access to a scheduling page where you see the full schedule and sign up for available slots.  You can only sign up for blocks that the app presents to you as an “offer.”  And they aren’t that abundant.  When I finish a block, the app will typically offer me blocks for two days later (sometimes the next day, but not often) in the same Rancho Bernardo location or National City.  I stick with what I know.  If I don’t find a full-time job soon perhaps I’ll branch out and try the other locations.

This is as boring as replacing the toilet paper on the holder.  I can’t believe you’re still reading.  Does ibuprofen ever lose its potency?  I just took some that has to be 4-5 years old.  I digress.

The first block that I accepted was a 5:15 – 8:15 block that paid $66 (all blocks have a pay amount associated with them).  When you accept a block, you are expected to arrive at the pickup location within a 20-minute window: 15 minutes prior to block start time to 5 minutes after start.  If you don’t arrive in that window and check in on the app, it is reported as a “missed block.”  And yes, the app is location enabled, so it won’t allow you to check in unless you are actually there.

I arrived early, at about 4:55 and discovered that you can’t actually check in prior to the 20-minute window, so I parked in the nearby lot to wait for 5 minutes.  At 5:00pm sharp they started to let cars in.  It looked to me like there were about 20-30 cars lined up by that time.  The gate attendant asked for my name and checked me off the list.  

And then I realized that nothing in the training video about pick up was reality.  I don’t know why I was surprised.

Video: Roll down all windows and turn on hazard lights when entering the warehouse.

Reality: No warehouse, just a bunch of yellow-vested people directing cars in a parking lot like when you arrive at an amusement park or concert venue.

Okay, if I learned anything from the New Jack Swing era and Tony! Toni! Tone! it was that it never rains in Southern California, but I didn’t expect to be loading packages outdoors in a parking lot.  But that’s the way it works at that location.  You pull up to something that looks like a luggage rack and that’s where you load.

Video: Warehouse personnel will check you in.

Reality: You check in yourself on the app.

I followed directions and pulled into my spot.  I looked on as all the other drivers around me were getting to work loading packages in their vehicles.  I stood there like an idiot until I was able to get the attention of one of the yellow-vested workers and sheepishly said, “Uh, I’m a first timer.  What am I supposed to be doing?”  

He asked, “Did you check in?”

“I gave my name to the person at the gate,” I replied. 

“That’s not checking in.  You check in on the app.”

I then had to ask him to show me how to do that.  He called someone else, probably the supervisor, who was actually really helpful once she found out that I was an idiot newbie.  The app asks if you've taken your temperature that day and it's below 100.4.  Of course! (Lie.  I'm fairly confident that for 99.8% of the Flex workforce answering that question in the affirmative is a lie).

The first thing you have to do is find a piece of blue paper with your rack of packages that has the length of the block (e.g. 3.0 hours) as well as a QR code on it that is the very first thing that needs to be scanned.  When you scan that QR code with the app, it loads all the information for that planned route.  It includes a listing of the packages that should be on the rack.

Video: Each shelf of the rack that contains packages will have a QR code that allows you to scan all packages on that rack into your phone without having to scan them individually.

Reality: Nope.  Not true.  Doesn’t exist.  

It makes sense that for accountability purposes you have to individually scan every package before you load it into your vehicle.  That way the app knows that you actually have taken possession of all of the packages associated with that route and helps you identify any missing or extra packages prior to leaving.  Not having any actual experience with the app (there is no demo version or practice area on the app; you don’t have any idea what the interface looks like until you scan a route QR code) it took me awhile to even figure out how to scan the packages.  The next time you get a package from Amazon, take a look at the box.  It likely has at least two different barcodes and up to four different QR codes.  Confusing to say the least.

But the scanning process is not hard once you know what you’re doing.  Super easy.  But for first timers, well, not so much.  Ordering a sandwich at Subway is easy if you’ve ever done it before and you know how it works.  Pick your bread, pick the kind of sandwich, which cheese, toasted or untoasted, and then choose toppings.  Easy right?  But can you imagine someone from another country going into Subway to buy a sandwich and not understanding how it works?  It's only easy if you know how it works.  Same with the Flex pickup process.

So, with help, I finally got my packages loaded in the Toyota Highlander and was able to figure out how to start the directions to the first delivery point on the app.  

I drove into the lot to load or pickup right at 5:00 but didn’t drive out of the lot until about 5:25. Even only having done it five times now, it seems that 10-12 minutes is really long enough to scan and load if you know the process.  My five trips have averaged 28-30 packages.

Of course, it’s not a race, but it’s a matter of maximizing your earnings.  I was 10 minutes or more into my delivery window when I drove off the lot.  Optimally you want to be driving off the lot at the start of the actual delivery window.  Unfortunately, you can’t really do that now… more on that in the next edition.

So it really is that simple if you want to call it that.  You accept a delivery block, show up, load the route and packages, and then you’re on your way.  That’s when the real fun starts. 

This still seems to me to be incredibly tedious and boring storytelling.  Congratulations if you made it to the end and let me know if this is at all interesting.  I gotta be honest, I’m boring myself too.  I need a break, so if you want to read about my experiences with the actual deliveries, stay tuned.  

But trust me, I understand if you’d rather go back to the Reddit hole or video land. 

46, only up from here

Well my main motivation was to get rid of the ugly ugly post from 4 years ago about the impending dumpster fire of the Trump presidency. We were hopeful that he wouldn't be what he was. And he turned out to be everything he said he would be, amplified, to its awful awful conclusion. Our democracy survived, barely. But it remains on life support. That was a battle, part of a bigger war on democracy in the US of A. President Biden won't fix it, he can't. No single person can. The fight continues every day to protect voting rights to put as much power into the hands of voters as possible. I'm hopeful but not yet optimistic. We've got a lot of work to do in this country. Let's get to it.

45th President of the United States

Today the media (inclusive of social media) is sorely reminded of just how wrong they were, as Donald Trump gets sworn in as the 45th President of the United States.

What I personally take away from the events leading up to his inauguration is to not under estimate just how unhappy the American people really are with the current state of politics. Many are masking their unhappiness by glamorizing the past eight years and our outgoing President. I understand.

But recognize that many voted for Trump (and against Hillary) because he represents the polar opposite of what is our current political system - the good, the bad and the ugly. Well today America inaugurates into office "an experiment" that many hope will usher in significant change to our political system.

Will it happen? I have no idea, but I have hope.

On Trump's agenda is a health care strategy better than ObamaCare, taking a tougher stance on illegal immigration, a constitutional amendment to set term limits on members of Congress, removing restrictions on American energy production to increase self-sufficiency, and carving better deals on trade to restore jobs here in the US.

As a country I hope we can focus on the issues we face and how best to develop solutions to address them, not the man taking the oath today. He was elected, just as other past presidents were, and has a lot of work to do to restore our country's waning faith in our political system. He is imperfect in a multitude of ways, just as all past presidents are and have been, perhaps even more so. I collectively share the disgust for many of his actions and words.

But I don't hope Donald Trump fails. In fact, I hope for exactly the opposite. He needs knowledge, facts, understanding, support, wisdom, empathy and compromise. He needs that from all of us.

In these unprecedented times I pray now more than ever that God Bless the United States of America.

Motivation and other leadership miscellany

My study of leadership began around 2001 when I started duty as a facilitator in the Navy leadership continuum (as it was known then; it doesn’t exist anymore).  I enjoyed it enough to do my Master’s degree from Liberty University in Christian Leadership.  I’ve always had somewhat of an interest in it, but I will be the first to admit that after a few years, it all seemed to be the same kind of stuff.  The “new” leadership theory was just the old stuff repackaged in a slightly different form, just like they do with candy in the grocery store.  More on that in a minute...

One of my classes during this term is “Leadership and Management in the Intelligence Community.”  My professor is Dr. Mike Mears, and he’s a pretty amazing guy.  I love his class.  It’s not really about leadership in the intel community, but leadership in general.  I can’t believe how smart the guy is.  He can quote from studies and books like he read them yesterday, and he is loaded with personal stories from his consultations with so many well-known leaders, both government and commercial.  But what impresses me most is how he boils down so much leadership theory to “being a good person,” or as he sometimes likes to say in class, “Don’t be a dick.”

We had an assignment for a class discussion to watch this video by Dan Pink called, “The Puzzle of Motivation.”  I admit that my first thought was, “Yeah yeah yeah, they always say that money doesn’t motivate people but…”  As I mentioned earlier, I thought this was going to be another “repackage” job.  But I will admit that I was blown away.  The science and research part of it is just crazy.  And when it was all done, I started thinking about the stuff in my leadership bag that I use to try to motivate Sailors, and was embarrassed to find that it was completely extrinsic stuff.  Time off work, awards, recognition, Starbucks cards, promotions - these are the things that I’ve assumed people want the most.  I’m not saying that they don’t ever want those things, but they don’t get to the core to build a culture that makes people want to stay and work with or without those other things.  I feel like I’ve been missing the mark for years.  I’ll be taking a hard look in the next couple of weeks to see what I can change to give people autonomy, mastery, and purpose (see the video - it’s a TED talk so it’s not too long).  It’s certainly no easy task, but I feel like I need to make a change to some of my personal leadership philosophy.

This class is causing me to do a lot of introspection about myself and my strengths, weaknesses, etc.  I’ve done a couple of assessments that I had not done before.  I did Marston’s DISC assessment which I thought was very interesting because it gives you two results: how you view yourself and how you probably actually act.  I wasn’t too surprised that my own perception was very balanced across the board.  Dominance was a little lower than the others, but influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness were all equal.  But how I actually act was completely different.  Dominance, influence, and conscientiousness practically disappeared, and I was extremely high in steadiness.  I read the description of a high “S” in the DISC assessment, and it was pretty spot on for me.

I also did the StrengthsFinder 2.0 through Gallup.  That one cost a bit of money, but my professor loves it and highly recommended it.  My top five traits from 1-5 were: developer, connectedness, communication, positivity, and input.  I need to do some more reading (I took it today so have only done a cursory look) to see how I can apply an understanding of those strengths.  

If I’m honest with you guys, I’ve suspected for years that I’m not really gifted with the strengths to be the guy at the top.  I’m really more suited to be a supporter and helper - kind of a right hand man.  It’s what I do best, and I actually enjoy that aspect of my work now.  I like lightening the burden for those that I work with by handling mundane or “lighter” tasks.  Thinking of a few years down the road, I don’t know how that translates to a resume or job interviews.  The military focuses so much on leadership and being the leader that saying, “Hey, I’m better suited to be a helper” wouldn’t be viewed as such a great things and I suspect it may be the same when I am applying for civilian employment.

As a side note, one of the things we’ve discussed in class is that the bottom 15% of leaders (the worst leaders) think that they are in the top 25%.  They are clueless and have no self-awareness.  I’m consoling myself with the thought that because I tend to be introspective about how I’m doing as a leader, hopefully I’m not in the bottom 15%!

You guys have a LOT of experience leading and developing people.  I’d love to hear your thoughts on motivation and the value of these assessment tools that supposedly help you identify strengths and weaknesses.  I still have a lot to learn.

Out with the old, in with the new

“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier.’”  - Alfred Lord Tennyson

For you Ed, and for all of us, I hope that it is happier.  

2016 had some fairly big events for me.  I decided to go back to school (and did!), made a commitment to RAGBRAI (and did it!), got a dog, started going to counseling, bought TWO new bikes, and started a new job.  I guess when I line it all up like that, it seems pretty significant.  As usual, there were weeks I found myself saying, “I just need to get through this week,” but then there were other times when I felt like I must be missing something, just because I had a lot of time to choose what I wanted to do.  

I’m not sure how I’ll feel about 2017 next January.  The monumental task that I have before me in this new year is a thesis.  I need to identify a topic soon and start my research.  My goal is to graduate in the summer of 2018 when my classes are finished.  I don’t want to have to ask for more time to finish my thesis.  

Hardly a day goes by that I don’t think about my Navy retirement.  Most of the feedback I get from the people that have retired before me is that it’s never too early to start preparing, so that’s what I’m doing.  I am scheduled for a retirement brief in February, which is a requirement to attend the one-week retirement preparation class, which I will hopefully attend sometime this year as well.  It’s a little bit scary to me to think I could be retiring as early as Spring/Summer of 2018 if the Navy decides that they won’t let me finish out my 30 years in Maryland.  Regardless of whether it’s 2018 or 2020, the planning has started.  I’m dreading things like LinkedIn, resumes, etc.  But it must be done.

My social calendar for 2017 is probably a bit ambitious.  I’m hoping to make it to Colorado and San Diego/LA at some point this year.  I’d love to squeeze in some time in Monterey, CA (we have some friends there and I haven’t been back since 1989), and I have an old Navy friend in Louisiana that I’ve been hoping to see for years.  The last two are doubtful considering I am definitely taking a week to ride from Pittsburgh to DC, and I may have to use two weeks of vacation for college (if the Navy won’t give me that time) this summer.  First world problems.

I know we aren’t very consistent with this blog, but I do enjoy the shared history that it writes for us, regardless of where any of us lives.  Happy New Year guys, I love you both very much.

Ringing in the New Year

Well, 2016 sucked!

It was the worst year that I can remember for lots of reasons not worth gushing about because it's over ... thankfully.

Because 2016 sucked so bad, I'm so grateful for the support I received from my family over the past year.  My beautiful wife and continual supporter; my inspiring and loving kids; and my extended family for their love, guidance and support.

I learned a lot about humility in 2016, and I hope that will serve me well in the coming year.

So what's ahead for my family and me in 2017 to get excited and be optimistic about?

Oh, a few small things (tongue firmly in cheek) ...

• Me making a 'career pivot' and diversifying professionally beyond just being an HR guy.
• Holly dipping her toes back into the working world, continuing her role as SuperMom in the family.
• Haley becoming increasingly grown up and finding her way as a college student; finding the college major and career she wants to pursue.
• Alex closing out his high school days, deciding where he will go to college and venturing out as a young adult to bigger and better things.
• Luke growing out of those awkward teenage years and thriving in high school as an upperclassman; recognizing that he will have three bedrooms to choose from since he'll be the only one of our kids "stuck" living with Mom and Dad.
• Our family contemplating whether to remain in Denver, move back to Iowa, or split the difference and move back to Kansas City.
• All of our kids continuing to 'make us proud'.

I'm optimistic and hopeful that we'll make the right choices with these life decisions and 2017 will be much improved from 2016 for us.  It's going to be, it has to be.

Wishing you and yours the very best in 2017!  

Thanksgiving

No doubt, Thanksgiving was the holiday that we spent with Dad's side of the family.  I don't know exactly how much we saw our cousins on that side of our family, because my memory may just be skewed by the massive amount of time that we spent with our cousins on Mom's side.  But either way, it's interesting that it didn't seem to matter how much we saw the Franks - there wasn't anything awkward about it when we did get together.  We behaved as if we spend every day together!

I remember the "hunts" that we used to do, and what I remember most is the year that we actually killed a rabbit.  Of course it was dumb luck, because even though we had the sharpened sticks and other weapons, somebody (I think it was either Ed or Marty) stunned the rabbit by chucking a bottle at it.  Once it was stunned, we all swarmed like sharks with blood in the water.  It was dead within seconds.  I remember that although we were pretty proud of our work, Grandpa didn't seem to thrilled about cleaning a rabbit.  It wouldn't surprise me if he never did and that thing went right in the garbage.

On to the controversial topic of... apple pie.  I never really liked Grandma's apple pie, but that may be because I didn't really like apple pie at all as a kid.  Grandma was usually kind enough to make a chocolate pudding pie for me.  Please don't excommunicate me from the family, but even when I became an adult and started eating apple pie, I wasn't crazy about Grandma's version of it.  Maybe it was the texture.  Her apple pie was very mushy, and even to this day I like chunky apple pie.  Sorry Grandma, but I wouldn't worry about it.  I think I'm alone in the "not the best apple pie" camp.

Food...  I think the idea of eating loads of food is a purely adult take on Thanksgiving.  When I was a kid I don't think I was that crazy about Thanksgiving food.  It was food that you just don't typically eat.  Mashed potatoes?  Couldn't stand them as a kid.  Turkey?  Can I have a drumstick?  Casserole?  I never liked casserole as a kid, especially something like green bean casserole.  Pumpkin pie?  Ewww!  I'm not doubting that there was a TON of food at Thanksgiving, but for me, that wasn't really the draw.  I think my best hope was for an unattended dish of M&Ms or something like that.

I do like Thanksgiving, because it still is considered a holiday that you are supposed to spend with extended family.  That's the focus.  Christmas, due to the complications with Santa Claus delivering presents and the perceived obligation of family gift exchanges, etc., is a time when many people want to "hunker down" with their own individual family unit.  It's just less complicated than trying to get together with other family.

In fact, we should just get rid of Christmas altogether, huh Brad?  ;-)