Best way to incentivize performance in warehouse/distribution jobs?

I worked in a big box warehouse after high school while I was getting my associates degree. It wasn’t non-stop like a distribution center is, but we had our share of BS and like kopek says, management made all the difference. Good managers you wanted to do right by and for, and the bad ones you just kind of slacked off under and avoided.

My son works at a UPS distribution hub these days, about 25 hours a week in the evenings. He’s the guy loading the trailers or air cans. At 6’4" he’s the guy making the walls. He’s been there about a year, and when he drags himself in on Mondays(they’re the worst) he kvetches like an old man and I think it’s hilarious. :smiley: I tell him “stay in school kids!”

The other day he came in extra late and exhausted. He said most of the night had been very slow, mostly standing around waiting on things to load. Eventually they discovered why. Some bright spark had shipped a huge magnet in a poorly shielded/too small box and it had adhered to the side of a sorting chute and caused huge backup that they didn’t understand. The sorters thought the loaders were loafing. The loaders thought the sorters were slacking. When they found out what it was my son said he fell over laughing. Then worked his ass off for the next two and a half hours to catch up and clear the backlog.

Oh, and if you buy a gas grill from Amazon, know that someone out there hates you. :wink:

Enjoy,
Steven