Amazon Workers Are Buying Pins Commemorating ‘Surviving’ Peak Season

Amazon’s “grueling” peak season is finally over, and as the new year rolls in, one worker has decided to commemorate surviving it by making a Rick-and-Morty-themed pin of Amazon’s blob-shaped warehouse mascot named Peccy. The pin’s caption reads, “I SURVIVED PEAK 2022.” And it’s getting noticed.

Multiple people have posted or commented on the Amazon fulfillment center subreddit that they either wanted to buy or had already bought the pin, which is available on eBay for $12.99. One person who bought a pin said it was “freaking massive!” at around two inches tall and two inches across. 

The pin is composed of two blob-like orange figures dressed like Rick and Morty, with the caption “I SURVIVED PEAK 2022.” The Rick figure has bloodshot eyes and five o’clock shadow, and both figures’ clothes are tattered. The pin’s creator, who said they were an Amazon worker and did not want to be named due to concerns that they might lose their job, told Motherboard that the characters were based on the beginning of Season 3 Episode 6 of the show, which opens with Rick and Morty getting into their car and starting to scream and cry. Morty says, “I can’t fucking do this anymore,” to which Rick responds, “That was seriously fucked up, we almost died…This was insane! That was pure luck! I was not in control of that situation at all.”

“We had an incredibly busy night, some machine issues, and it was the start of peak,” the Amazon worker who made the pin told Motherboard. “That morning, a friend and I had dragged ourselves back to my car and just kind of sat there staring into the distance. I looked at him and said, ‘I have just the thing to put tonight into perspective.’ We watched the beginning of that episode, and just started cracking up.”

The pin's eBay description reads: “Are you a Rick and Morty fan? Do you work at Amazon? Do you feel like the beginning of Season 2 Episode 6 every day you walk out the door? Then this is the pin to let everyone know you made it through peak!” The worker clarified that “Season 2” instead of 3 was a typo.

The choice to use a nondescript orange blob as the basis for the characters’ recreations might seem strange to non-Amazon workers, but people in the warehouses recognize it as Peccy, Amazon’s unassuming warehouse mascot. Peccy is the perfect shade of Amazon orange, and even has the company’s famous smirking arrow logo as a mouth. 

In fact, management at Amazon warehouse sites often give out Peccy pins as a form of workplace swag, like how corporate offices give out pens and coffee mugs. Pins are usually given out to commemorate some kind of holiday event or milestone for the warehouse, and Peccy is dressed up in some relevant fashion in each one. Some other Peccy pins are sold on eBay, and workers sometimes make a point of collecting them.

“Honestly, this is my first venture into the pins, but they have been well received. Everyone that sees them wants one,” the worker who made the Rick and Morty pin said. 

An Amazon spokesperson confirmed that the Rick and Morty pin is not official site merch, and that workers can wear Peccy pins around the warehouse as long as they abide by the dress code and don’t pose any safety risks.

The worker said they plan to launch a more official company for Amazon merch soon. “We plan on launching with clothing that might make your manager roll their eyes, but not bad enough to get you fired,” they said.

They joked that they had made the pin as a “badge of honor” for surviving the most recent peak season, which spans from mid-November through the end of December. Motherboard has previously reported on how physically and mentally taxing peak is for Amazon workers, who have to work long days and almost 60-hour weeks.

“Amazon can be a great place to work, or it could be less than appealing depending on a person's perspective,” the worker who made the pin said. “But at the end of the day, a job is just a job, and I'm a firm believer that if you can't have fun where you are you shouldn't be there.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that the inspiration for the pins was based on Rick and Morty season 2, episode 6. The source clarified that this was a typo, and they meant season 3, episode 6. This article was updated to reflect this.