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>You either have enough capacity to perform safely or you do not. Honest question, in this situation if you need 1000 workers during the holiday season but onl

>You either have enough capacity to perform safely or you do not. Honest question, in this situation if you need 1000 workers during the holiday season but only 200 during the rest of the year, what do you do with those 800 extra workers for 11 months? Retail is inherently seasonal, that's why Black Friday exists and why during Christmas my packages are delivered from a U-Haul truck instead of a UPS truck. So if you're not using seasonal workers, do you over-book your warehouse for 11 months, or under-book your warehouse during your most profitable season?

haskellandchill 8y ago
We could get rid of the holiday season.
- shubb 8y ago
  If they had to, I'm sure retailers would use pricing to force a flatter purchasing pattern. If prices doubled by November, you'd shop in August right? As well as holidays there are sales. Do sales increase total yearly spend for the industry as a whole? Otherise, couldn't retailers just agree to stop doing them?
toomuchtodo 8y ago
Honest answer: You reallocate non-fulfillment staff to fulfillment during crunch periods. > In Final Holiday Push, UPS Grabs Its Accountants to Deliver Packages > Parcel giant works to clear problems caused by surge of e-commerce orders coupled with tight market for seasonal workers https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-final-holiday-push-ups-grabs-its-accountants-to-deliver-packages-1514040922 https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-final-holiday-push-ups-grabs... Not much choice in the matter when unemployment is at historic lows. If you can avoid the AMZN fulfillment sweatshop as a seasonal contract worker, you're going to.
- leetcrew 8y ago
  unless "seasonal" is understood to imply extremely little skill/experience, why would you expect repurposing accountants to be a better solution than hiring seasonal fulfillment people? if you hire them a couple weeks before you need them, you should be able to train them to be at least as useful as an accountant in the warehouse.
- freehunter 8y ago
  Then who is doing the accounting work? If accountants are so expendable (especially if they're expendable at the peak of tax season), why do we have extra accountants floating around?
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- notahacker 8y ago
  That's an emergency solution to not having any available seasonal workers, not a better way of running your logistics than hiring extra people that actually want money for working in your warehouse over the holiday season (who probably have more relevant industrial work experience than your accountants anyway)

haskellandchill 8y ago

We could get rid of the holiday season.

shubb 8y ago
If they had to, I'm sure retailers would use pricing to force a flatter purchasing pattern. If prices doubled by November, you'd shop in August right? As well as holidays there are sales. Do sales increase total yearly spend for the industry as a whole? Otherise, couldn't retailers just agree to stop doing them?

toomuchtodo 8y ago

Honest answer: You reallocate non-fulfillment staff to fulfillment during crunch periods. > In Final Holiday Push, UPS Grabs Its Accountants to Deliver Packages > Parcel giant works to clear problems caused by surge of e-commerce orders coupled with tight market for seasonal workers https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-final-holiday-push-ups-grabs-its-accountants-to-deliver-packages-1514040922 https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-final-holiday-push-ups-grabs... Not much choice in the matter when unemployment is at historic lows. If you can avoid the AMZN fulfillment sweatshop as a seasonal contract worker, you're going to.

leetcrew 8y ago
unless "seasonal" is understood to imply extremely little skill/experience, why would you expect repurposing accountants to be a better solution than hiring seasonal fulfillment people? if you hire them a couple weeks before you need them, you should be able to train them to be at least as useful as an accountant in the warehouse.
freehunter 8y ago
Then who is doing the accounting work? If accountants are so expendable (especially if they're expendable at the peak of tax season), why do we have extra accountants floating around?
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
notahacker 8y ago
That's an emergency solution to not having any available seasonal workers, not a better way of running your logistics than hiring extra people that actually want money for working in your warehouse over the holiday season (who probably have more relevant industrial work experience than your accountants anyway)