This is a new series where I ask women about their experiences working during COVID-19.
I work in the pickup department at a grocery store, so I fulfill online orders in the store and bring them out to customers’ cars at their scheduled time.
I used to work as the admin assistant for a marine hydraulics repair shop, which got closed when the shelter in place order was issued, and after 2 weeks at home, I got bored and decided to get a job at a grocery store instead of trying to get unemployment. Just before the order was extended a second time, my office job boss asked me if I was available to come back to work and I thought about and decided I was happier at Fred Meyer so I quit the office job.
I’m glad that my work ends when I clock off and I have no reason to bring work home.
Something people might not know about my job (or might find interesting) is… customers don’t seem to know that we shop for their orders the day of pick up and not a week before, when they place the order online. We just don’t have the space to store more than a day’s worth of orders.
What I like most about my job is… I love how well my co-workers all get along with each other and how well we work as a team. The only thing I would change is I wish customers were more informed about how our job works, since most of the bad attitudes I get are just from people not understanding what we are capable of.
I hope people continue to use pickup, because less people in the store is a plus for me, pandemic or not. I hate crowded stores haha.
At first, I struggled with the adjustment to physical labor after 4 years of desk jobs, but I am really glad to be so much more active. The biggest blessing is the amazing people I work with.
I’ve been practicing ukulele, cleaning my house, and trying to practice photography everyday, but it’s hard when I end up working 12 hours sometimes.
A typical day at my job looks like… I show up and my supervisor will give me a task: either go on a “run” (shopping for multiple customers at once by filling up 6 totes on a trolley) or “go carside” (deliver groceries to a customer’s car). Each run usually takes 30 minutes to an hour. We scan the labels on each tote to stage them (record where in the pickup room they are, whether in fridges, freezers, or pallets, and then get a new task. Repeat until it’s been 9 hours!
Thanks for sharing, Amelia! Let me know if you’d like to participate and share your experiences working during COVID-19! All may apply (freelance, contract, part-time, full-time, desk jobs, furloughed employees, mothers) because all women work!
