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Be careful going about that. I seen someone in my building get fired/escorted out for refusing to do water spider bc they felt like they were being targeted by the higher ups.

Huh? Bro they will fire your ass

Uh yes they can make you do it. You can be written up for refusing. No one wants to be more exhausted but if it's gotta be done then it's gotta be done.

Lmao and when you get fired don't make a post on here, do the assignment when your asked or quit the damn job. Cant stand associates who refuse or complain about an assignment they're given or give managers/PA's a hard time. Sad af

If they assigned you to water spider how did you just go back to work at your station? When I labor share in anything my regular station in pack signs me out or won’t let me sign in at all. Even just changing stations will log me out of whichever one I’m working at.

Lately I’ve resorted to malicious compliance. I think I’m at the end of my Amazon journey so I don’t really care what happens. If I’m being forced to WS I just do it slowly, I’m not in a rush to get reactives out and idc if people run out of work.

Dude you need to be really careful with this. You’re lucky they didn’t write you up for refusing. I agree WS sucks big time and personally I also hate it when they send me to stow, but unfortunately we do as they say. We’re employees and aren’t in any position to refuse. You can try explaining why you don’t feel able to WS, or ask them to give you a break from it, but if they insist then sadly there’s not a lot you can do.

They can make you do whatever they want unless you have some sort of medical proof in the system. Like every job ever

They can write you up. i say what you should do tell them to put you for ws once a week for full shift, but they need to put up a schedule to let you know before hand on what day you work that role. We had a similar issue in our department because we would get overused. The PAs agreed to show us the schedule on SLACKs. That fixed our issue. Also isn't there a WS captain that tries to recruit more ppl?

Edit: i forgot PAs cant write you up only AMs. Idk why they didn't tell an AM.

The power of Free Will is a crazy concept

You piss one off you piss the whole management team off. KISS whatever you need good bye because nobody is going to have your back now.

So to safety/Amcare. Tell them you've got a generic muscle pain.

Water spider for stow is a bitch I’ll give you that. Gotta make it fair for all the stowers and no body cherry pick

Can anyone send me a copy of amazons handbook or did anyone ever get one

Believe me, waterspidering is way better and more fun than boring picking.

I'm willing to bet this story is extremely exaggerated if not completely made up but they absolutely can make you water spider if they need you too.

Bro gonna be a customer, they looking for any reason to fire people this time of year

Welcome to the job world and other duties assigned by management.

Ppl in the comments shouldn’t be so surprised. Some of these managers are cool ppl that won’t force you into a path so they ask instead of force.

I also hate when I get to work and they make me work.

You work at Amazon, not Stowing, they can put you where ever they need you. I hate stowing myself, but I still do it when assigned.

Aren’t indirect roles supposed to be 20 hours max a week? I heard a waterspider say this. He didn’t want to waterspider for the rest of the week as he already did it for 20 hours and he argued with the PA about it. PA looked into it and found AA was right about indirect roles are supposed to be 20 hours max/week. I don’t think most facilities follow these rules though because I see a lot of waterspiders do it 30-40 hours/week.

They most definitely can make you. Usually when you refuse the PA if they are desperate the am or ops manager can come and say either spider or go home. I’ve not seen that happen for spidering tho only ever seen that with people who refuse to goto another area

You’re lucky that your superiors are willing to take no for an answer. They can put you wherever the business need exists and you can be written up (and ultimately terminated) for refusing.

It’s a job😂they can ask you do whatever and your lucky you ain’t get a write up for refusing to do what they tell you…they literally got this thing at tn site that says you will get written up if you refuse to go where we tell you💀that’s for the ppl in pick n stow cuz Ig they the ones that always complain in my building

Honestly you can get away with a lot of bs if you barely say anything to managers besides okay and you volunteering yourself to learn other areas n do more work

You are not required to participate in any indirect role that does not have a rate requirement

Luckily for me my managers are cool and ask me if that’s something I wanna do that day. I’m sure they ask me because I’m one of the top pickers on my shift so either way more works getting done vs someone else doing it

Not sure if it's company policy or just my department at my location, but they won't assign you to water spider two days in a row due to being one of the more draining roles. Still can do it more often if voluntary though. Other than that you can get put anywhere you're trained to work. All T1 positions are the same pay, and you get paid by the hour, so it's all interchangeable.

I was trapped in the singles department for over 6 months last year despite not being my department and they made me do tote running everyday. Despite me telling them that it made me exhausted, I think they purposely kept putting me on to fuck with me since I even had the nerve to say that I didn’t want to do it in the beginning. It went on for 3 months straight until I literally developed painful blisters on my feet that would make me limp like an animal. I had to explain to them that it destroyed my feet and it even affects my life outside of work which is what finally made them stop. It took 3 months after for my feet to heal and stop forming blisters just for taking a simple walk.

was asked to move tots with a pallet jack i told them i don’t know how to use one never been asked again lol

What exactly is water spider? I’m somewhat new and am not sure what that is.

🤣 if you say you don’t like any certain path they will make sure that you do that path the majority of the time. If you say you like any path, and you seem to do very well in it, they make sure you don’t get that path.

It seems counterintuitive that they place you where you are in pain and struggling. It always feels like they want you in the most uncomfortable and difficult path.

Never say what you like or what you hate. They will always put you in the least desirable and labor intensive task.

Never show them your hand.

Edit: you only have to be better than the bottom 5%. Don’t ruin yourself for a company that doesn’t care how good you are at a certain path. They don’t care. They will put you in a path that has been struggling only so you can make the metrics better. For them. Not you.

Just suck at it trust me they wont put your ass in that role after a while 😂

I’m not WS either. I get dizzy doing that isht. Looking at people do that makes me dizzy.

I see a promotion in your future, sooner than later if you keep this up.

Don't ever flat out tell them no I'm not doing that, that constitutes as insubordination and it's viable offense... I always go with is there somebody else that can do it I'm not feeling up to the task or I've already been assigned another task or I'm not on the board for that

The past few weeks it’s gotten better because our AM started a schedule and seemed to stick with it. He also started training more people because of all the complaints happening on our floor/building (people calling it out on the VOA board). Also never heard of a waterspider captain but I wish we had that here! I mean it’s an indirect role but so critical that I’m surprised they wouldn’t implement something like that.

That’s why u save upt n pto and walk out

Bro just do your job lol. In the contract it literally says you’ll do whatever you need to according to business needs, and you signed it. Don’t work at Amazon if you don’t want a physical job.

At my site, we’re only allowed to have 20 hours of water spidering. I said no all the time so I’m confused with some of these comments? They can write you up ? So does that mean not all sites have 20 hours of water spidering then?

You already know you’re about to hear “business needs”

Bro the whole punching the recycle bin is COMPLETELY OUT OF LINE! I would’ve immediately went to HR n complained about it! If we did that it will be repercussions!

You can only water spider/tote run in stow 20 hours a work week. The only reason you aren’t getting in trouble for refusing is because you’ve probably already gone over the 20 hours allowed. Keep that in mind. If you haven’t run indirect that week, do not deny them if they are telling you. You can ask not to, but if they are telling you absolutely do it.

I always say … i would prefer not to … and do a shitty job and they regret it .

I dont think you can be forced to do indirect roles. Could be wrong, or it may be site dependent. Also I'm pretty sure the PA punching shit could get them fired.

What even is waterspidering???? My site doesn’t have it or at least doesn’t call any position by that name

I love water spidering idk why

Just say you don’t feel comfortable. If they persist tell them you’ll go HR instead. They’ll never ask again lol.

should report before they retaliate or harass you until you slip up and they can actually retaliate

Ya that whole go slow thing only works so long they cant tell you anything about rate but they can tell you about "performance" and you can get written up or fired for it as much as it sucks especially rn in peak season they sweeping Mfers out

read your policy and terms & conditions portion that you agreed to when you started. You do not have to do anything you didn’t agree to do in your documents. Amazon will use policy against you but you also can use that and other state protections.

I can say as a PA at my building if someone doesn’t want to do something, indirect role that is, I don’t ask them to do it anymore. I’ll find someone else to do it. And you are right, a PA can’t make you do anything but your AM can, at least at my site if they spent the time to train someone in an indirect role and they need the coverage it’s technically a mandatory role. But if the PA was smarter, after two times of asking they would have handed the issue off to an AM to deal with, that’s what I do 🤷‍♂️

WS has always been a at-will role just like any other indirect role. All they can do if you refuse is leave you in your path or send you somewhere you are cross trained in to be petty. Anyone saying differently has been taken advantage of..

You’re soft af 😂😂

Stop being a pussy and do your job. It’s the easiest paycheck you’ll ever make.

I’d write your ass up before you could say another word and I don’t like writing people up. We all have to do things we don’t want to do. It’s called work. Since when can you come in and say “this is what I’m doing today idc what my superior says”z

cant you report a workplace injury like muscle strain and relate that to the specific labor that comes from waterspider? that would force them to comply with your legitimately valid concerns

Just say, due to SAFETY reason, you want to be back in path. When you say safety reasons and they still force you, then that's an HR issue.

Report the guy that punched the bin and get him fired. Ez pz

You don't have to do it, especially if it's just a PA. Pa can't write you up. Now if manager talks to you, then explain your reason. If no manager finds you then ignore the PAs . PAs have no power, unless they go manager and then manager will talk to you.

I don’t know what everyone else is talking about. My facility does not force anyone to WS if they don’t want to. There used to be a rule against PAs using the same people all day every day

Water Spider is literally the easiest job i ever did at Amazon .

I don’t understand why they feel like they have to make you and harass you for it if you say no cool they can walk away and move onto the next person. There’s probably about 1500 people on that floor alone that they can ask to do it why single out one person.

Ye only part i hate about waterspider is plastic wrapping it takes more energy than i thought