Feature Issue on Employment and IDD

I work at Medart Engine’s distribution center here in Anoka. It’s like an Amazon distribution center, but for lawnmower and snowblower parts. If a customer places an order, we grab them and ship them out.

This will be my fourth year working here. I’m pretty much everywhere in the warehouse each day, and I’m the supervisor’s assistant. I check and make sure everyone’s working, see if they need help to make sure all the parts are there for an order, and help co-workers find parts if they are having trouble. At end of the day, I print out manifests, and sometimes set the alarm, and close up shop. Like I said, I’m basically everywhere.

I started as an order puller. If a customer orders a spark plug, we go to the location of the spark plug and we’ll pull it and bring it to the front. Sue Featherly, my employment consultant at Rise, told me about this place and said she thought I could do it, so I tried it. I had been working in retail, but it was too stressful. Co-workers didn’t want to help me, and customers were just being kids. They would also get mad if I wouldn’t load something for them, even though it is posted that employees can’t do that. I wasn’t happy.

Here, the people are nicer and friendlier. I don’t have to interact with customers who misbehave. Sometimes I have to tell workers to not be on their phones or have to warn them if something they are doing is dangerous, and that can be hard. I think they respect me, though.

After a few months of pulling orders, I felt I could do more and my boss was thinking that, too. My boss approached me and asked if I wanted to try working more hours and doing more jobs. She said she thought I had done well, so I said, sure, I’ll give it a try. I just took it day by day at my own pace and asked questions when I needed to. I started working 16 hours a week, and now I’m up to full time. I have a 401k plan, and I save money from every paycheck for things I need. I get medical assistance from the state (under a program called Medical Assistance for Employed Persons with Disabilities). Eventually, I’ll have to get a new car if the one I’m driving now gives out.

In a couple of months, we are moving to a bigger facility, and I plan to stay with them through the move and beyond. I’m a pretty low-key guy, but I do like that feeling at the end of a shift when I know we shipped everything out well that day. That feels good.