This whole thing started when I received a PM (private message) on the blog Facebook page, which is rare. It was from a gentlemen named Arnaud Leparmentier. He said he was a journalist for the French daily, Le Monde. He was writing to tell us he was going to be in KY the following Monday and Tuesday and could he come speak to us? I was totally skeptical and before even telling Bill, I looked him up. Turns out he was for real. I asked Bill what he thought, leading him to research the name also. He said I had nothing to lose by calling and seeing what he had to say, so I dialed the phone number that was included in the message.

Seemed Arnaud was doing an article about RVers and their lifestyle and he also mentioned Amazon. Somewhat hesitantly, I agreed to let him come the following Monday after work.

Interestingly, my friend, Tracy, had also been recently interviewed about the RV lifestyle and Amazon. Hers was a live segment for the Canadian “On The Money.” She did very well and it was so exciting for her and the whole RV community.

Still others, in our small Campbellsville, Kentucky, Amazon Camperforce community, were approached by a Japanese news channel, and NBC. Some interviewed, some opted not to.

I have no concrete basis for this next statement, other than a “gut feeling”, but I suspect the interest has been raised due to a book that was published recently, Nomad Land, Surviving America in the 21st Century, by Jennifer Bruder. In her book she talks about full-time RVers who are working at Amazon and other workamping gigs.  Other workamping jobs include working the Sugar Beet harvest, selling Christmas trees, camphosting and the like.

The picture she paints isn’t pretty, in fact, it’s downright ugly. People being forced out of their homes for various reasons, forced to live in their “old and beat-up” RV’s, forced to work “less than” jobs – jobs no one else wants to do. I would never say the people she writes about don’t exist, I’m sure they do. They have my sympathies for their misfortune. Nomad Land’s lack of a balanced story can make it appear it is about all RVers, which is simply not true. The first clues that she was strictly going for sensational writing was this statement:

“a 61 year old ex-general contractor stows merchandise during the overnight shift at an Amazon warehouse, pushing a wheeled cart across for miles across the concrete floor. It’s mind-numbing work and she struggles to scan each item accurately, hoping to avoid getting fired.”

As a stower, you will push a wheeled cart across a concrete floor for miles. It isn’t as many miles as a “picker” will do, (my husband walked between 10 and 15 miles a day) but probably about 5 or even 6 miles a day.  Is that a lot?  I guess it is, but you are told that way before you agree to work there. I say “agree to work there” because as long as you acknowledge that you can manage the physical part of the job, you are offered the job. At that point, the only thing that could hold you back would be not passing a drug test or background check.

I will even say “It’s mind numbing work” is accurate. I was not a stower, but I know some who were, and it was no less boring than packing or picking. Mind numbing boring work. After two or three days, you have the job down pat and can probably do it in your sleep.

The next part, “she struggles to scan each item accurately” gives me pause. I will say again, I was not a stower, but I had to scan things and it isn’t rocket science, not even close. But, who knows, maybe the person she wrote about did struggle. If she struggled, it is sad because Amazon goes out of their way to make sure you are comfortable in doing your job. Generally, someone shadows you for the whole first week to make sure you are doing it right. Maybe this person didn’t have a good trainer. It’s possible.

The last part, “hoping to avoid getting fired” is where I have to really speak out. I have known many people who have worked as part of Camperforce in Campbellsville for YEARS and I have never heard of anyone getting fired. There are production standards, but they are so easy to meet it is almost ridiculous. Again, I was not a stower, but when I, without even trying, can consistently get 130%, I cannot imagine how someone can’t. Even days I was not having a good day, chatting with others, taking an extra bathroom break, etc. I still managed to get better than minimum production. Is it possible this person really didn’t “get it”? Yes, of course it is, but my point is, she would almost have to try to get fired. Camperforce was only expected to do 85% of regular blue badge employee production rates. The offered help at every step to keep you from getting low production. I seriously cannot imagine anyone on Camperforce being afraid of being fired. It just never happened.

So, Ms. Bruder’s book is full of this type of sensationalism. It isn’t hard to understand that people want to hear more about these poor people. I find it interesting that she has written this book to show how people working these workamping jobs are being exploited. They are “trudging back to their frigid campgrounds”, etc. Personally, I believe she is the one exploiting them. They are working an honest days work, earning their money, then moving on.

What she does not say is that there are most of us doing these workamping jobs by choice. We have sold our homes, bought our RV’s and hit the road because we WANT to. My daughter (with her Masters in English, and owner of a writing coaching business), says Ms. Bruder can write her book about whoever she wants and doesn’t need to talk about anyone else. Okay, I get it, that’s a valid point. I still can’t help but feel like when someone only tells one side of the story, it potentially makes it sound like the ONLY side of the story.

So, enter Mr. Leparmentier. He wanted to write about us and working at Amazon. Was I concerned he would not write what we said? Yes, a little. Was I concerned the picture he would paint in his article be another sensational half truth? Yes, a little. His newspaper, LeMonde, seemed reputable, on par with The Washington Post I was told. Bill and I decided to try and balance the story told in Nomad Land.

Arnaud arrived and quickly put us at ease. He wanted to hear our story, the why’s and how’s of living full-time in our 40′ 5th wheel, and why we did workamping, including Amazon. So, we told him our story. Below is a link to the article he wrote, in French, followed by an English translation.

LeMonde Article

Our photos were taken a different day by Nathan Morgan, a freelance photographer hired by LeMonde.  He came a couple of days before we were scheduled to leave, during our paid 5 hours off. He took some of us packing up, some looking at a map, some just of us.  If you click the above link, you will see which made it into the magazine.  Below are a few he sent us that I just liked. He and his wife and baby live in Nashville and he was very interested in our lifestyle, so we chatted awhile about it.

The whole experience was pretty amazing. As far as did Arnaud say what we said, I’d say he got a few of the details mixed up but he did get the gist of it. He did make us out to sound a lot better off (financially) than we actually are. I’m not sure I’d say our 5th wheel, while very nice, is “sumptuous”, but I suspect some got lost in translation.  My daughter suggested we pay $.12 per word to have it properly translated, but we really didn’t want to spend +/- $200 on it.  I don’t know which generic translator was used above, but Arnaud sent it to us.