Warehouse Work – Tips to Not Mess Up on Your First Day

The fact that the popular adage ‘’ First impressions last ‘’ has been cliched by now does not make it any less true. However, going in with the mindset to impress others on your first day, as many of the experts on the internet would have you do, is not a great idea. 

The point of the following tips is not to win anyone over but simply, not to put them off. I have only used the word impress in the upcoming points in the sense of presenting your professional and interpersonal attributes in the best light rather than giving your colleagues an inflated idea of your abilities. 

I have drawn on my personal experience of working in a major Distribution center in Dallas to come up with these tips so that you may learn from my mistakes and not repeat them yourself. 

Socialize: 

Let’s face it – you are not going to get a lot of opportunities to display your positive qualities on the very first day. The warehouse is a very busy and fast-paced workplace – don’t expect anyone to make a fuss of you because you are new there. And so, the way to make the most of your first day at work is to become very sociable and initiate conversations/interactions on your own. 

Don’t worry, you will have enough pretense to start a conversation, after all, you are new there and are supposed to have a lot of questions. But, do take care that you ask questions without being intrusive.

At first, avoid questions that are very technical – you will learn the answer to them in time as you work. At first, stick to questions about the general working and chains of command in the warehouse and get to know who is who. 

Take your time to settle down : 

On my first day, I wanted to show that I was glad to be there and eager to work. So, when my operations manager asked if I would like to take the day to settle down or get a taste of the work right away, I marched straight to the loading area in the compound. And then began an hour of confusion and getting in others’ way rather than helping them, the details of which I shall not go into here.

The point is, you should think of your first day as the time to complete all the HR formalities and just watch and learn from others. In fact, you should go up to your manager and ask them to arrange for you to shadow the teams you would be working with. Take a sheet of paper and note down what you observe, including suggestions/questions if you have any, and have it reviewed by your manager at the end of the day. 

Be eager BUT patient:

If it is your first time working in a warehouse, you might feel like people are unloading information on you without giving you enough context, background, or time to understand it. You might feel like they just expect you to know stuff. 

And most times, you would be right to think so. But it’s alright. Trust me, The person who looks like he really knows the ropes around the warehouse, probably felt the same on his first day too. 

But, there’s no need to disrupt the workflow with questions like why are we doing it this way, where are these boxes going, what’s inside these boxes, etc. In time, you will find out. For now, just keep working along with your teammates without disrupting the flow, and you will be just fine. 

Remember always, warehouse work is about speed and efficiency. As long as you stack those boxes the way you have been instructed to stack them quickly and properly, it doesn’t matter that you don't know the reasoning behind stacking them that way.

Don’t hesitate to ask the same question more than once: 

The fast-paced and noisy environment of the warehouse, especially for someone who is not used to it yet, can make it hard to catch what the other person is saying. On top of that, warehouse workers are notorious for using jargon slang and in the first week, you will often find yourself in a position where you catch the words but have no idea what they mean, or at least I did.

On my very first day, I realized that I might cause some major mess up if I don’t just ask up front whenever I need clarification on something. And that would be my advice to you too: If you want clarifications on something, just ask.

Trust me, Blue-collar workers are much nicer and friendlier than you would expect tough, rugged, men in coveralls to be. Don’t be intimidated by their hard front, go ahead and ask that question again.                              

Be presentable. 

You can’t really expect someone who doesn’t look after themselves to be reliable to take care of the warehouse inventory. While you certainly don’t need to be formal, looking like you care about your appearance gives your superiors at work the impression that you care about the job. 

Just because it is a manual job, it doesn’t mean you can dress untidily without putting people off. For example, if you need to roll up your sleeves, do ‘em nice and tidy. Make three or four neat and complete folds rather than pulling up your sleeve up to your elbow and gathering it all up in one fold.

Talking of clothes, as a warehouse worker, you are expected to take special care of your footwear. You would be doing a lot of walking and standing at work and it would be a really smart move to put comfort first while picking out your shoes in the morning. 

And that’s it. Hope you find these tips useful and do great in your new job.