A Klutzy Sort

As a company that prides itself about our vast online Community of members, it's not surprising that eBay employees also play active roles in real-life communities in and around San Jose, CA. During the holidays, many eBay teams contribute their time to support various volunteering efforts in the Bay Area. When Jeff and I signed up for one of the volunteering opportunities last week, little did we know that it would also be right up our alley as the klutziest duo at eBay.

Last Friday, we volunteered to spend a few hours helping RAFT, an organization that provides teachers and community groups with creative tools and materials to promote hands-on learning in science, math, technology, and art. Benefactors are usually local businesses, such as some Silicon valley giants like Cisco Systems and HP, who donate thousands of everyday items, such as computers and office supplies, to RAFT, which then transforms them into educational materials that teachers can use in and outside the classroom. You'd be surprised at the educational value of "stuff" that companies just throw away - for example, I was oddly enthralled by a toy balloon attached to a discarded CD, that could be used to demonstrate the principles of a hovercraft. RAFT uses donated materials to make such science toys, learning aids, or activity boosters. Teachers can buy these from RAFT at substantially reduced prices. (I was moved and humbled to learn from a RAFT employee that teachers, on average, end up spending $6000 a year each, from their own pocket, to buy learning aids! What a magnificent body of people teachers are. And unsung heroes and heroines, for the most part).

Anyway, when about 40 eBay employees showed up at RAFT last Friday morning, we were offered a choice of two assignments - either assemble learning kits (comprised of various toys of the hovercraft variety I mentioned before), or unload and sort  enormous pallets filled with a jumble of books, toys, and activity boosters donated by a company called Klutz. The word "klutz" made Jeff and I look at each other with a wild surmise, like the men of stout Cortez. (Thanks to a wonderful English teacher, I actually remember some Keats.) Wordlessly agreeing that klutzy tasks were well within our limited capabilities, we shuffled off towards the pallet sorting area.

I have to say that sorting giant pallets of "stuff" is oddly satisfying (note my expression if you don't believe me). You dive into an enormous pile of books, knitting kits, toys and the like, and emerge triumphantly with an armful of spoils. Trailing bits of knitting wool which have somehow attached themselves to your person, you find the right box or bin to place your goodies. Having placed them there you return to the pile and dive in again, repeating aforesaid steps, feeling like a primeval hunter stocking up his cave for the next Ice Age. For the next couple of hours, Jeff and I, along with 15 or 20 other eBay team members, threw ourselves into this task with gusto.

We started off somewhat chaotically, with everyone digging into the pallets and racing around trying to find the right box for the right learning aid, but pretty soon, the eBay culture of defining a process for everything asserted itself. Soon we had organized ourselves into "sorters" (people unraveled the jumble in each pallet and formed little piles of the same toys), "runners" (who ferried the sorted material to the correct bins), and the "support crew" who took on the essential tasks of mending broken toys, retrieving the components of a burst box of learning aids, and preparing fresh boxes as the old ones filled. "The division of labor and collaborative behavior in early human societies probably arose in the same way," I mused professorially to Jeff, whose only response was, "That's all very well, klutz, but can you help me stack these coloring game books?"

Meanwhile, in a different part of the warehouse, other eBayers with nimbler fingers -- and more advanced minds, probably -- had efficiently formed themselves into small teams to create assembly lines that produced neatly packed science kits. I recognized my fellow bloggers Katie Sween (she's in the topmost picture with a kit assembly group) and Aashish Tripathi (he's seated on the right here, a picture of concentration). Also in the same picture is our Chief Technology Officer, Matt Carey (on the left), doing something clever with a string of lights.

In the space of two hours or so, these two eBay teams made short work of our assignments. The non-Klutzes had put together enough educational material for 463 students, while the Klutzes had unloaded and sorted five giant pallets, containing over 5000 books. (Go Klutzes!) As Jeff and I lumbered back to the office in our beetle-browed way, I know that all of us who volunteered felt very happy at giving something back to our Community.