Too much mindless repetition, too little job rotation - Temp QVC Employee Review

I worked in the returns department in the Lancaster, PA location. If you're applying there, check with the temp agency or company to make sure you won't be doing unboxing or putting items on a conveyor belt repetitively because if so it won't be worth it. Read my entire acount for the details. First, confiscating our phones before we go into the floor is asinine. I don't care about productivity or what could go wrong if they distract us. I care about worker dignity, and taking phones violates it. The metal detectors at the entry were a bit much but I guess understandable given the need to prevent theft. Still, you've got to wonder who'd want to steal the stuff they have in there. It's cheap stuff marketed to mostly one-time customers. The website mentions wanting to have return customers as if they feel the need to dispute this. They have the temps doing horrible jobs. The job upstairs was the worst I have ever done in my life. Every few seconds, you've got to take clothing and boxed shoes and chuck them onto moving trays on conveyor belt. If you were to do this all week, doing about 10 per minute, you'd do 19,200 per week. That's a lot of mindless repetition. What's worse, you've got to check the bags for ones labelled "EXTR" or "As Is" and chuck them in a nearby bin instead. You must scan with your eyes at least 5,000 bags per day and perhaps double the number. If you do this too long, you'll go crazy, but if you can last long enough, they will replace you with new temps and put you on a job which isn't as bad. If you're lucky, you won't have to wait too long, but the company is shifting operations to Bethlehem, PA in March 2021, so they're downsizing, and the Coronavirus has discouraged them from hiring new employees, so you may be damned to this duty for a while if you get it. My advice is to quit and save your nervous system and sanity. The company is dying because its customer base is literally dying or switching to online purchases. The result is that its net year over year income was down 24% from Dec 2018 to 2019. Also, it is a unique demographic. The customers are 98% female. I counted 343 female names and 7 male names on 350 boxes/packages. An additional 10 or so had a man and woman's name together, but I suspect in all cases the woman was the buyer. They seem to be mostly middle class, retired women sitting on their couches all day eating bon bons who happen to spot something they like while flipping through the channels. Anyway, one other duty in the place is miserable: unboxing. You must take a small knife and cut open cardboard boxes, swiping them on the sides and down the middle before opening the four flaps and arranging them so they stay closed on their own. If you open 2 per minute, which is the sluggish pace you will inevitably adopt after being made to do it all week, you will do roughly 4,000 per week. It is better than being upstairs, but it is still miserable. It taxes your nervous system to do something repetitively for that long. It doesn't strain your muscles and joints so much as your mind and nerves. Permanent employees avoid that job. Most won't do it for more than a few minutes and a few times a day, and you've got to wonder about the sanity of the ones who do it more than that. Their minds and nervous systems seem dull yet hearty enough to handle it. Regarding the other duties at the place, the material handler job is easy. Those guys don't work too hard. Stacking boxes on pallets is easy too. If you can get one of those jobs, the only thing you'll have to worry about is getting cheezy pop music stuck in your head. I noted each time they played a song I liked, and it was about 1% of the time. Some employees like all the music though. In my case, I wish they would shut it off and give us peace. They even play it in the bathrooms. There is no escaping it. Processing returns seems pretty gross to me. That is the main job at the place. I would bet 50-100 are doing it at any given time. I saw one lady pressing a returned dress up to her face and sniffing it. I would never do that. It could have armpit sweat, butt stink, or some other foul residue from the buyer on it. You couldn't pay me enough money to do that.