[Anonymouse]

Well, my first week at Hermes is done. The job is immensely complex and difficult; it runs like this:

1) Turn up for work and report to reception for work assignment, i.e. which area I'll be working in

2) Report to team leader in said area for specific bay assignment

3) Take parcel out of cage or trailer or off pallet

4) Place parcel on conveyor belt, barcode facing upwards to be scanned

5) Repeat from 3 until break time

6) Have half-hour break

7) Repeat from 3 until end of shift

8) Er...no, actually that's pretty much it.

The training course was very demanding - training consisted of being instructed to do 3 & 4.

There is a somewhat blasé attitude towards handling at Hermes, I've noticed, but I handle the goods carefully. On my last shift, for example, one trailer I was unloading was filled with stacks of boxes - some of which were IMO way too heavy to be on top of such tall stacks. I had to effectively cause a controlled partial collapse of each stack so as to grab the top box and then each box below that in turn, making sure as far as possible to prevent the parcels from dropping onto a) the floor and b), far more importantly, me. Had I not been 5'10" with long arms I doubt I could have coped alone.

I didn't always manage it; I got knocked on the noggin a few times, fortunately not by anything heavy. Only 5 of the 500 or so boxes I handled on that trailer were damaged, and water damaged at that - one had fallen in transit, split open and damaged the other four when the contents leaked. None were damaged by my careless handling because I didn't handle them carelessly.

It would have been simpler and quicker (and arguably safer for me), admittedly, just to push over each stack - but that might have damaged some. So with me, at least, your Amazon (or Missguided, or ASOS, or Prettylittlething, or In The Style [Clothes won't change the world but the women who wear them will], or Wynsors, or whatever) goods are in safe hands...from cage/pallet/trailer to conveyor belt, at least.

After that, of course, it's out of my hands.

Next week will be a short one for me, i.e. only Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights - the only shift running on Christmas Eve is the 6am - 2pm shift, which is just as well because of course there are no trains or buses on Christmas Day and thus I'd be stuck at Hermes if I worked Thursday night. Saturday and Sunday I'd be off in any case.

Thus for the first time since February, I am finally, finally getting a few days off work!

To explain: I was originally planning to take the last week in August (for Redemption '20) and the first week in September off, but Covid-19 and being sacked from AO put paid to that. Then at ASOS I booked a week off in November to coincide with my birthday, but then of course I left to work at Missguided. There I booked the same week off, but then of course I was laid off and thus I only got the holiday pay, not the actual holiday!

True, it's only 2 days (4 with the weekend), but it is a break. I need it. This year's taken a lot out of me what with one thing and another, and I...am...tired.