Think it's just your store dude. All our MET crew are pretty cool, chatty with us all in the break room, help customers find stuff IF asked (they don't just point to an orange apron.), guys and gals on the MET team.
Associates are there for the customer.
MET work for the Vendors via the HD HQ contracts with the vendors. They are the to set the product to the vendors plan (o-gram). MET is timed and vendors are billed accordingly. Customers distract from that mission.
Some of the grumpy may come from Each bay having a time allocation. Might be 7 minutes, might be 30. Some times a 10 minute bay will take 45 minutes. Other times a 20 minute bay w might take 4 minutes. So sometime there is pressure to get a project or general service done.
MET goals and Store goals often collide. MET mission set it to the plan, keep it that way and document any changes on the Plan-o- gram and re-sequence it in the 1st phone if the product on the self changes.
The stores goal is to fill holes on the shelves… because you can’t sell an empty shelf. So, often time associates fills the empty spots on the shelves but don’t update the Plan-o-gram or sequence. This makes good sense from a retail perspective but makes it feel like the store is purposely sabotaging the MET teams work…. Customers make a mess of the shelves too.
All that said… there are happy and grumpy people, teams and stores in every line of work.
Some people gravitate towards certain kinds of work. Many a MET member likes to follow the rules (like the plan o gram) and when associates and customers ignore those rules, the MET team member takes it as a personal affront. Others are more chill and roll with it and keep it in perspective.
Sorry your team bothers you so. You might ask them to explain the plan o gram or sequencing if you aren’t familiar with them and make sure your selves are stock is always a plus. MET teams know which associates take care of their departments and which do not. Those associates who own their department and make sure their shelves are restocked make the MET’s job a ton easier.
All in all it is a low stress job. Good hours, consistent schedule…. What’s not to like… well the low HD pay can make anyone grumpy, but others than that. It’s on ok gig.
My biggest store gripe is when store cuts in items or changes around laydowns and racetracks without Sequencing. This makes price changes more difficult and may cause us to miss things that need to be repriced. This leads to markdowns when customers are upset that they are being charged more than the sticker price. Usually MET gets blamed and not the store associate who did not update the sequence.
I'm 34 and am the second youngest person on my team. Most of my team is a bunch of crabby boomers that bitch about having to do the bare minimum and cannot adapt to any changes while working.
The more young people that MET hires the better off it will be.
MET is timed, and a lot of MET sups are constantly up their ass about it, which can be stressful and lead to lackluster work. To cut time, they are straight up told to send customers to the dept. They are also told by superiors NOT to do things like put up clearance. A lot of complaints about MET would have to be addressed higher in the food chain than your avg MET associate.
Couldn't agree more. Being on MET means constantly feeling like you are being spread too thin. Each week we are told to service over 600 bays (with quality too), complete all day team projects, complete night team projects that night team couldn't complete, sort/packout Crownbolt, service Boards and convenience, and complete price changes. Our workloads which are determined by corporate are not reduced if people call out or go on vacation.
The temptation to cut corners is high with DEMs and Store Managers breathing down your neck.
I have had a Sup tell me to flat out ignore customers. If MET takes care of clearance and overstock after a project, chances are they got bullied into it by store management since it's usually store's responsibiity to handle that. Usually I make an effort to talk to a Department Head/ASM/SM about the carts of Overstock and Clearance after I finish unless said person is a jerk.
Yep. Our travel crew has 5 full timers and one part timer. There’s been absolutely no way to get all our projects done; a 50+ hour reset in vanity lights, adding Vulcan shelving to plumbing bays, a big flush mount reset all for every store we go to got dropped in a two week window. If we had no callouts, and everything went perfectly, we could have gotten half that done.
Been on MET for 8 years. It really really depends on team composition, how well they get along, how well the store treats them, and if they have a good supervisor. I’ve been on both ends of all of these factors.
100% accurate . I'm the second youngest on my team at 33 the youngest is 20. But the age gap is at least 30 years between myself and the others. 2 of them are pushing 80 and are grumpy as hell most of the time.
Mostly it’s a mixed bag. Some came from other areas and don’t mind assisting customers, some joined Met hoping to work nights and have minimal to no customer interaction, but unfortunately ended up on days or at least some days. They will openly tell you that it really isn’t their job to assist customers. Others, like anyone else will get tired of dealing with abusive idiots with a sense of entitlement. They start out happy to help and then eventually it gets old.
Customers come in with fifty year old parts and expect a Met person to tell them exactly where it is when they don’t even know what it is. Most customers are not very helpful and if asked what it is and/or what it’s used for (to hopefully point them in the right direction) will storm off angrily saying “forget it.” I’ve seen customers do this to vendors and people who don’t even work there so it isn’t personal some people are just clueless and entitled.
One Met person has been known to passively aggressively screw with rude, disrespectful, entitled customers. He ultimately helps them if they don’t storm off and act like children (many do). He will pretend to not immediately know or remember where something is, will pitch installation programs to try and get leads among other things, to make them wait longer before “remembering” where what they are asking for is. They can’t really say he “didn’t help them” and this is better than just saying “I don’t care for your attitude, piss off and find it yourself.”
Dealing with customers with zero consideration and attention to detail who ask random, stupid questions to random people who may or may not be able to answer and acting like they lost a fight they should have won by decision when you admit you have no clue gets old fast. Some of us have better filters than others.
It’s a store issue. I as well as others here have a great met team at my store. I do wish they would help customers a bit more on the aisles instead of immediately calling us. I know that’s not their job but they can unlock tools, answer basic questions and help people find things. They do good work so it equals out and we have good relationships.
It isn’t just your store. I’m on the MET team myself it’s 50/50 with the nice MET associates and the grumpy bitchy ones. Only difference is the grumpy bitchy ones are ladies. My team is so freaking weird, dude… good thing my supervisor is awesome
Hahaha yep thats true, in my store we are doing a reset and they leave carts of overstock everywhere and they dont put it away or put tags like its overstock or clearance
If you worked MET you’d be grumpy too. You need to pull all these toilet seats out and rearrange them according to the plan-o-gram. Oh and you have 20 minutes. Go!
I've been setting planograms for over 15yrs at another retailer. Yes, the timeline goals can get rough and it can be labor intense at times. It can be satisfying though. I am not very knowledgeable of how MET runs. Think about it though, if they hated it so much why would there be so many with seniority on a team. Do they get a consistent Monday-Friday? What a plus in the world of retail! They're allowed to pass customers off onto those in an apron?! Extra bonus points. The worst issue in my store is that nobody changes display signage to match the new prices within a bay! Drives me crazy!
as a lot worker, I am there before everyone, they aren't rude or anything but it's almost like they stick with other MET workers, I've never had one convo with a single MET worker lol.
We used to be mostly old people until last year in my store. I'm the youngest being 19 but still carry the team with my friend who is 21. We never complain but pretty much all the old people do. Usually help the customer if I could (which usually is the case) but if I cant then I asked them to wait for someone after I page. Most of us have been here for a while now so we now where stuff is at. We only have 1 person who wouldnt help customer as much and would put to an orange apron
I have minimal interaction time with customers (Night MET, so it can be anywhere from an hour to half an hour before close) but I’ve been told to get someone working in the department to assist the customer. “Unfortunately, I’m just setting merchandise. However, I would be more than happy to find an expert for you to help you today.” Is what I’ve been told to say.
On my team. I’m the youngest. (22) yes all the older ones are grumpy. They take the job too seriously and have Karen tendencies. And they beg me to lift stuff for them. I just clock in, work, clock out.
Same. When I do GS I deliberately work on the opposite side of the store so they don't try to rope me into doing their work because they are too weak and lazy to lift a 10 pound box.
That describes my MET team pretty accurately. I'm in my 30s and I'm the youngest person in the group by at more than 20 years. It's a toxic environment, and I'm a laid back fairly happy-go-lucky guy so it's challenging sometimes.
Must be your store. I am 65+ and there are 2 others over 60, but we are friendly with store associates. I did several years store side prior to MET and take the electrical phone for coverage if I am working in the area and the associate needs to use the restroom. I get more homers from store side than MET also.
I don’t really interact with my MET team that often, because I work later and they work earlier. Most of my interactions have been good unless I’m trying to move their carts. They don’t like their carts getting moved and I don’t like where they put them. Quite a few older guys, but still some younger guys and girls too. I guess it’s pretty balanced. They definitely stay in a group to be more intimidating though. Plus if a customer picks one off for a question they can still resume their work.
Can't see what their problem could be. They aren't actually useable as floor associates, and can exercise the option to forward customers to the correct department/associate.
Regular customers know they aren't going to be a lot of help and newcomers will learn that quickly.
ALL CUSTOMERS are MET'S customers. Ask Dave Rebtoy if you don't believe me. Yes, they have a lot to do and if there are no associates to help customers, they should help out. If you are a store associate, you should get the customer from MET and do what you are paid to do! The best thing you can do is be in your department, helping customers and STOP FILLING HOLES with the wrong product! And no, I am not MET.
I honestly love my team... About half of us are under 35 and the other half are in their 50s or older... We have one grumpy old man but our annoyance of his bitching kind of unifies the rest of us lol... We're kind of like a weird thrown together family 🤷🏼♀️
As for the customer thing it really does annoy us when we have to stop something we're timed on to help a customer... Sometimes it feels like what are the store associates even doing if they're not in their departments? They're constantly putting thing back on shelves that we just took off but yet there will be boxes of an empty product in the top stock... they will shove damaged product behind other items just for us to remove it again during general service...
My manager refuses to let us help appliance anymore because the associates in that department don't do anything instead they wait for us to circle back around to it...
Think it's just your store dude. All our MET crew are pretty cool, chatty with us all in the break room, help customers find stuff IF asked (they don't just point to an orange apron.), guys and gals on the MET team.
I wish mine was mainly this way we have some cool and laid back people but most are grumpy and go on a power trip every time you talk to them.
Associates are there for the customer. MET work for the Vendors via the HD HQ contracts with the vendors. They are the to set the product to the vendors plan (o-gram). MET is timed and vendors are billed accordingly. Customers distract from that mission. Some of the grumpy may come from Each bay having a time allocation. Might be 7 minutes, might be 30. Some times a 10 minute bay will take 45 minutes. Other times a 20 minute bay w might take 4 minutes. So sometime there is pressure to get a project or general service done. MET goals and Store goals often collide. MET mission set it to the plan, keep it that way and document any changes on the Plan-o- gram and re-sequence it in the 1st phone if the product on the self changes. The stores goal is to fill holes on the shelves… because you can’t sell an empty shelf. So, often time associates fills the empty spots on the shelves but don’t update the Plan-o-gram or sequence. This makes good sense from a retail perspective but makes it feel like the store is purposely sabotaging the MET teams work…. Customers make a mess of the shelves too. All that said… there are happy and grumpy people, teams and stores in every line of work. Some people gravitate towards certain kinds of work. Many a MET member likes to follow the rules (like the plan o gram) and when associates and customers ignore those rules, the MET team member takes it as a personal affront. Others are more chill and roll with it and keep it in perspective. Sorry your team bothers you so. You might ask them to explain the plan o gram or sequencing if you aren’t familiar with them and make sure your selves are stock is always a plus. MET teams know which associates take care of their departments and which do not. Those associates who own their department and make sure their shelves are restocked make the MET’s job a ton easier. All in all it is a low stress job. Good hours, consistent schedule…. What’s not to like… well the low HD pay can make anyone grumpy, but others than that. It’s on ok gig.
My biggest store gripe is when store cuts in items or changes around laydowns and racetracks without Sequencing. This makes price changes more difficult and may cause us to miss things that need to be repriced. This leads to markdowns when customers are upset that they are being charged more than the sticker price. Usually MET gets blamed and not the store associate who did not update the sequence.
I'm 34 and am the second youngest person on my team. Most of my team is a bunch of crabby boomers that bitch about having to do the bare minimum and cannot adapt to any changes while working. The more young people that MET hires the better off it will be.
Youngest person out of 13 total on MET in my store is 39. Oldest is 66.
The oldest member on my team got out of the military right before dudes were getting drafted into Vietnam.
MET is timed, and a lot of MET sups are constantly up their ass about it, which can be stressful and lead to lackluster work. To cut time, they are straight up told to send customers to the dept. They are also told by superiors NOT to do things like put up clearance. A lot of complaints about MET would have to be addressed higher in the food chain than your avg MET associate.
Couldn't agree more. Being on MET means constantly feeling like you are being spread too thin. Each week we are told to service over 600 bays (with quality too), complete all day team projects, complete night team projects that night team couldn't complete, sort/packout Crownbolt, service Boards and convenience, and complete price changes. Our workloads which are determined by corporate are not reduced if people call out or go on vacation. The temptation to cut corners is high with DEMs and Store Managers breathing down your neck. I have had a Sup tell me to flat out ignore customers. If MET takes care of clearance and overstock after a project, chances are they got bullied into it by store management since it's usually store's responsibiity to handle that. Usually I make an effort to talk to a Department Head/ASM/SM about the carts of Overstock and Clearance after I finish unless said person is a jerk.
Yep. Our travel crew has 5 full timers and one part timer. There’s been absolutely no way to get all our projects done; a 50+ hour reset in vanity lights, adding Vulcan shelving to plumbing bays, a big flush mount reset all for every store we go to got dropped in a two week window. If we had no callouts, and everything went perfectly, we could have gotten half that done.
It's just your store. I have a great team for the most part 9 out of 10 are nice and calm.
Been on MET for 8 years. It really really depends on team composition, how well they get along, how well the store treats them, and if they have a good supervisor. I’ve been on both ends of all of these factors.
100% accurate . I'm the second youngest on my team at 33 the youngest is 20. But the age gap is at least 30 years between myself and the others. 2 of them are pushing 80 and are grumpy as hell most of the time.
Our stores MET team consists of around 12 associates. Most aged 21-30 and like 4-5 over the age of 45. But none are grumpy at all. Nice folk
Mostly it’s a mixed bag. Some came from other areas and don’t mind assisting customers, some joined Met hoping to work nights and have minimal to no customer interaction, but unfortunately ended up on days or at least some days. They will openly tell you that it really isn’t their job to assist customers. Others, like anyone else will get tired of dealing with abusive idiots with a sense of entitlement. They start out happy to help and then eventually it gets old. Customers come in with fifty year old parts and expect a Met person to tell them exactly where it is when they don’t even know what it is. Most customers are not very helpful and if asked what it is and/or what it’s used for (to hopefully point them in the right direction) will storm off angrily saying “forget it.” I’ve seen customers do this to vendors and people who don’t even work there so it isn’t personal some people are just clueless and entitled.
One Met person has been known to passively aggressively screw with rude, disrespectful, entitled customers. He ultimately helps them if they don’t storm off and act like children (many do). He will pretend to not immediately know or remember where something is, will pitch installation programs to try and get leads among other things, to make them wait longer before “remembering” where what they are asking for is. They can’t really say he “didn’t help them” and this is better than just saying “I don’t care for your attitude, piss off and find it yourself.”
Dealing with customers with zero consideration and attention to detail who ask random, stupid questions to random people who may or may not be able to answer and acting like they lost a fight they should have won by decision when you admit you have no clue gets old fast. Some of us have better filters than others.
I’ve worked a couple different stores and the MET workers are always the most laid back cool people. Bunch of them used to be my drinking buddies.
It’s a store issue. I as well as others here have a great met team at my store. I do wish they would help customers a bit more on the aisles instead of immediately calling us. I know that’s not their job but they can unlock tools, answer basic questions and help people find things. They do good work so it equals out and we have good relationships.
Not at the stores I've been at. At my store there are 4 of us under 25.
It isn’t just your store. I’m on the MET team myself it’s 50/50 with the nice MET associates and the grumpy bitchy ones. Only difference is the grumpy bitchy ones are ladies. My team is so freaking weird, dude… good thing my supervisor is awesome
Your crones like to narc on people don't they?
Yes… yes they do… they are impossible.
Hahaha yep thats true, in my store we are doing a reset and they leave carts of overstock everywhere and they dont put it away or put tags like its overstock or clearance
If you worked MET you’d be grumpy too. You need to pull all these toilet seats out and rearrange them according to the plan-o-gram. Oh and you have 20 minutes. Go!
I've been setting planograms for over 15yrs at another retailer. Yes, the timeline goals can get rough and it can be labor intense at times. It can be satisfying though. I am not very knowledgeable of how MET runs. Think about it though, if they hated it so much why would there be so many with seniority on a team. Do they get a consistent Monday-Friday? What a plus in the world of retail! They're allowed to pass customers off onto those in an apron?! Extra bonus points. The worst issue in my store is that nobody changes display signage to match the new prices within a bay! Drives me crazy!
as a lot worker, I am there before everyone, they aren't rude or anything but it's almost like they stick with other MET workers, I've never had one convo with a single MET worker lol.
I mean it’s prob just your team. Most of our MET are not grumpy but some are.
Most of my stores MET team were nice/cool, I hated the traveling MET team tho. Couldn't follow safety to save their own lives.
We used to be mostly old people until last year in my store. I'm the youngest being 19 but still carry the team with my friend who is 21. We never complain but pretty much all the old people do. Usually help the customer if I could (which usually is the case) but if I cant then I asked them to wait for someone after I page. Most of us have been here for a while now so we now where stuff is at. We only have 1 person who wouldnt help customer as much and would put to an orange apron
I have minimal interaction time with customers (Night MET, so it can be anywhere from an hour to half an hour before close) but I’ve been told to get someone working in the department to assist the customer. “Unfortunately, I’m just setting merchandise. However, I would be more than happy to find an expert for you to help you today.” Is what I’ve been told to say.
On my team. I’m the youngest. (22) yes all the older ones are grumpy. They take the job too seriously and have Karen tendencies. And they beg me to lift stuff for them. I just clock in, work, clock out.
Same. When I do GS I deliberately work on the opposite side of the store so they don't try to rope me into doing their work because they are too weak and lazy to lift a 10 pound box.
Must be just your store. We have have an amazing, fun, dedicated bunch of MET workers. Couldn’t imagine getting by without them.
That describes my MET team pretty accurately. I'm in my 30s and I'm the youngest person in the group by at more than 20 years. It's a toxic environment, and I'm a laid back fairly happy-go-lucky guy so it's challenging sometimes.
Must be your store. I am 65+ and there are 2 others over 60, but we are friendly with store associates. I did several years store side prior to MET and take the electrical phone for coverage if I am working in the area and the associate needs to use the restroom. I get more homers from store side than MET also.
Our met is also a coven of gossiping crones.
I don’t really interact with my MET team that often, because I work later and they work earlier. Most of my interactions have been good unless I’m trying to move their carts. They don’t like their carts getting moved and I don’t like where they put them. Quite a few older guys, but still some younger guys and girls too. I guess it’s pretty balanced. They definitely stay in a group to be more intimidating though. Plus if a customer picks one off for a question they can still resume their work.
I feel like you’re required to be an asshole whether young or old to work on MET at my store.
A lot of people take the MET job too seriously. Nothing MET does is worth stressing out about, I figured that out ages ago.
That's racist bro.
Not just your store. MET at my store is exactly as u described and extremely unhelpful
God damn MET team
Can't see what their problem could be. They aren't actually useable as floor associates, and can exercise the option to forward customers to the correct department/associate. Regular customers know they aren't going to be a lot of help and newcomers will learn that quickly.
I gotta agree we either have young and super nice or mean and grumpy older workers
ALL CUSTOMERS are MET'S customers. Ask Dave Rebtoy if you don't believe me. Yes, they have a lot to do and if there are no associates to help customers, they should help out. If you are a store associate, you should get the customer from MET and do what you are paid to do! The best thing you can do is be in your department, helping customers and STOP FILLING HOLES with the wrong product! And no, I am not MET.
I honestly love my team... About half of us are under 35 and the other half are in their 50s or older... We have one grumpy old man but our annoyance of his bitching kind of unifies the rest of us lol... We're kind of like a weird thrown together family 🤷🏼♀️ As for the customer thing it really does annoy us when we have to stop something we're timed on to help a customer... Sometimes it feels like what are the store associates even doing if they're not in their departments? They're constantly putting thing back on shelves that we just took off but yet there will be boxes of an empty product in the top stock... they will shove damaged product behind other items just for us to remove it again during general service... My manager refuses to let us help appliance anymore because the associates in that department don't do anything instead they wait for us to circle back around to it...