How You Can Work 4, 10, 20, or 40+ Hours At Amazon Warehouse

Amazon Warehouse is excellent at providing ways for workers to choose hours that match their personal needs. With the availability of flexible, anytime, part-time, reduced time, and full-time schedules, workers can build themselves a schedule that allows them to work anywhere from as little as 4 hours a week, up to 60 hours a week. Said another way, you can choose to come in as little as one day per week, or as often as six days per week.

You can even work different hours each week via flexible shifts, not having to be tied down to the same fixed schedule every week.

What makes all this possible is the idea of shifts at Amazon. Read all about shifts in our other post for a more detailed understanding of how different positions at Amazon offer different kinds of shifts and schedules. In this post, we’re going to review a few sample hour targets and explain how you might get yourself a schedule that meets those targets.

Which facilities and roles let you work flexible hours?

Amazon offers flexible, anytime, part-time, reduced time, and full-time schedules regardless of their type of facility. Amazon has countless fulfillment centers, delivery stations, and sortation centers across the globe, meaning there is a high chance there is one in your area. Due to Amazon being a 24/7 operation, there are workers filling morning, daytime, night, and weekend shifts, offering them the freedom to select the hours that work best for their situation.

Importantly, not every position you can apply for at Amazon Warehouse offers unlimited flexibility. If you sign up for a fixed schedule role that has you coming in for certain shifts on certain days, you will have to come in for those shifts, at minimum, every week. On the other hand, if you sign up for a “flex time” role, you get to choose your shifts every week. You might have signed up for a certain number of hours, but you get to choose which hours you come in, as long as there are shifts available at those hours for the week ahead.

Fortunately, Amazon is pretty good with adjusting your schedule to meet your needs, as long as you are a good worker. However, there are limits, and it is not guaranteed. Emir Dzaferovic, a Fulfillment Associate with over one year of experience, cautions, “If you change your schedule, you will likely have to wait a certain amount of time before you can change it again. Otherwise, you will have to file a hardship exception form, which I’ve had to do before.”

So if you don’t see Amazon actively hiring for a position that is flexible enough to meet your needs, maybe you can take one to make ends meet for a few months, and then work with your manager to change what kind of schedule and hours you initially committed to.

"Flexible” and “Anytime” shifts are terms used interchangeably to describe shifts selected by the worker at their own weekly discretion. If you sign up to be a purely “flex time” employee, these are the only hours you’ll work. If you sign up with a fixed schedule, you can still take some Anytime shifts in addition to your fixed schedule. Anytime shifts are dropped on a certain day each week, at which point workers select the shift(s) and hours they are willing to work from the list of available shifts offered in the A-to-Z app.  

Part-time, reduced time, and full-time schedules are “permanent” positions where workers are required to work a certain number of hours every week. Part-time work at Amazon is considered anywhere from 20-29 hours per week. Reduced time ranges from 30-39 hours per week. Full-time is considered to be 40+ hours per week. There are overtime opportunities for these types of permanent positions as well.

How to work 4 hours a week

4 hours a week is the minimum number of hours you can work at Amazon. This type of option is excellent for anyone who is busy with other obligations. This 4-hour requirement can easily be accomplished by showing up just 1 day in a week. In some cases, however, Flex shifts are only available in less than 4-hour blocks, such as 2 or 3-hour shifts, so in these cases you may have to work them in two separate days to fulfill the four hour a week requirement. 

In order to work 4 hours a week, you will need to sign up as a Flex/Anytime Part-Time (PT) Shift worker. 4 hours a week cannot be accomplished through any permanent positions, including permanent part-time, unless VTO is offered and taken. Also, keep in mind that not all Amazon facilities offer Flex/Anytime positions, so your first order of business is to make sure to check whether your local Amazon facility offers this option by going to hiring.amazon.com and looking for a role that says “Type: Flex Time”.  

Once you have verified that your local Amazon facility offers Flex/Anytime positions, complete the signup process to become a Flex PT worker.

Upon successful hire, you will download the company’s A-to-Z app, where you will find the list of available shifts you can apply for each week. These shifts drop on a specific day and time each week, at which point you select from the shifts available. You can expect to find various shifts, from morning to night and weekends, including Sundays. The shifts listed will show you what day the shift is for and what hours you are required to work. 

You will want to select the shift that only requires 4 hours of work. Keep in mind that not all shifts are for only 4 hours, so you will want to be flexible about what days/times such a shift will be available for. Amazon’s needs change week to week, so one week you may find a 4-hour shift for Monday 09:00 am-01:00 pm, for example, whereas the next week such a shift will be missing entirely for that timeframe.

How to work 10 hours a week

If you are looking to work 10 hours a week at Amazon, you will again need to seek a Flex/Anytime PT position. 10 hours a week is not available for any permanent positions, barring the possibility of VTO. To work 10 hours a week, the process is similar to 4 hours a week in that you must select from the available list of shifts dropped weekly on the A-to-Z app.

The only difference is that you may have to work more than 1 day a week to accomplish this goal. The reason for this is that Amazon may not have a full 10 hour shift available for you to work on a single day. Instead, they may have, for example, a 4-hour shift one day, and a 6-hour shift another day.  

In addition, it is possible that you may not be able to work exactly 10 hours each week - but you should be able to get something close. This is because Amazon may offer something like a 4-hour shift one day, and an 8-hour shift the next day, with no other hourly offerings in between. This would bring you to 12 hours a week, slightly over your 10-hour goal. 

How to work 20 hours a week

To work 20 hours a week at Amazon, you have two options.

As a Flex/Anytime PT worker

The first is to sign up as a Flex/Anytime PT worker and choose from the list of available weekly shift drops on the A-to-Z app to meet your goal.

While this is a flexible option, keep in mind that you will have to work more than 1 day a week to meet this goal, as the maximum hours you are allowed to work in 1 day is 12 hours.

This means you will need to work 2 days minimum to reach your 20-hour goal.  

As a permanent employee with a fixed schedule

The second option is to become a permanent employee. 20 hours a week is the minimum number of hours you can work in a week while still being classified as a permanent employee with a fixed schedule.

This option is ideal for those who are looking for certainty in their schedules without having to rely on the potential stresses of selecting available shifts week by week, which are not always guaranteed to be on the days/hours you want them for. Simply choose an available shift on the Hiring page that ranges from 20-29 hours a week, and you will be classified as a part-time Amazon employee with a fixed schedule upon hire.  

In working 20 hours a week minimum with a permanent position, you are also eligible for benefits including dental, vision, and life insurance. However, you are not eligible for medical insurance.

In addition, permanent part-time positions are also exempt from what is referred to as Mandatory Extra Time, which is extra time that is added to your regular schedule that must be worked during Amazon’s busiest times of the year, commonly referred to as Peak times. This is ideal if you do not want to be forced to work any hours beyond 29 hours max per week.

How to work 40+ hours

40 hours and above are considered full-time hours at Amazon, with a maximum allowable limit of 60 hours per week. There are three ways to accomplish this range of hours.

As a Flex/Anytime PT worker

Same as the prior sections, you can simply sign up for a Flex PT position and sign up for enough hours to hit your 40+ goal. Note that it may be hard to find enough shifts to fill your plate - especially during the times of day that you want to work.

As a Flex RT (reduced time) worker

Flex RT requires employees to work a minimum of 30 hours per week despite the flexibility of choosing your own shifts. In exchange for this minimum requirement,  Flex RT will offer you the benefits - like health insurance - offered to permanent full-time employees, whereas Flex PT does not offer benefits.

As a permanent employee with a fixed schedule

Same as in the last section: you can simply sign up for a fixed schedule position. In some cases, your fixed schedule alone will help you hit your 40+ hour goal; but if not, you can often pick up extra shifts to fill it up.

Permanent full-time and Flex RT employees are eligible for the complete range of benefits that Amazon offers, including health insurance.

One drawback of being a permanent full-time employee is that you may be forced to work Mandatory Extra Time when Amazon demand spikes, so keep this in mind if choosing a permanent full-time position.

Justin James, an L1 Delivery Associate, offers insight into how MET may be distributed, explaining, “For instance, at my site, MET was called for Peak Season 2022 and we were called to help out neighboring sites that were understaffed. However, in Peak Season 2023, there were more seasonal hires, so my site actually offered a lot of VTO during Peak.” 

Get Started

Can you see yourself as an Amazonian? Apply now to a position near you.