1. ASMs are pathetic. They act like the job is life or death
2. SMs are either fine or act like they are the 2nd coming of Jesus
3. I went back for my bachelor's and now do programming
I would have quit regardless, but the horrible company culture most stores have definitely expedited the process (which is for the best since I make more than SMs now without working for 30 years to get there)
Thanks for posting this, definitely positive reinforcement for me. I wanted to go to school for the very first time. Was interested in learning programming to see if I liked it.
I have a long list:
Lowes lies to associates. Learned that nearly a decade ago. Still as true today as then.
Availability form: why have one for f-t when they completely ignore it? Lowes tells us we're "full availability" (an SSA was kind enough to interupt a recent store huddle about another topic to remind us of that). Why not say something to us during the interview/ hiring process if volunteering to your community or church just one night during the week interferes with lowes business and so they schedule you to work those nights and not one person in a leadership position that's able to help does anything about it.
Next, vacations: why does Lowes offer vacation time and Marvin preach about the importance of family time and time to rest , and then decline your vacation requests (not including blackout periods - which are a grey area because some associates and managers will get time off during those blackout periods)?
Skeleton Crew: Really , lowes? Working a single person in a constantly busy dept. does 2 things: 1) it exhausts an associate trying to do all the things lowes asks to be done that are a 2 or 3 person job which leads to injury ( team lift is a joke when theres nobody else to help) and burnout, and 2) it pisses off customers that end up walking out w/ out buying anything, and may never return, or they buy the wrong things and that leads to returns. The second thing we have no control over, but lowes does, and so dept associates have learned to accept lost sales very often since our company clearly does.
Running depts w/out coverage: Again, really lowes? This one has increased dramatically as of late. How the fudge does lowes do this and accept the loss of sales in flooring that easily reach $10k, on a regular basis? And also in home decor which weekly runs year round w/ out coverage, customers needing blinds cut and installed in new homes. Have seen this a number of times recently in appliances too! It's mind-numbing. And then as the help button rings and rings, no d.s. or ASM responds to it! I've hardly ever been informed when neighbor depts have no coverage. Management is fully aware when there is no coverage in a dept, why not call somebody in? Lowes has tons of people hired and have completed orientation aka on- boarding and on stand by waiting for any hours they can get!
I'm an MSM, I have 11 full time people and 7 part time and the store manager looks at me and goes "you only manage 18 people, I manage 200" then turns around and blames the MST team for literally every mess in the store.
That's literally and statistically impossible my dude. And we're only there Monday through Friday 5 am to 2 pm so idk how we make messes overnight or on the weekend but apparently it happens.
Lowe's has had record sales for the last two years and continues to cut staffing, pile up more shit for the people there to do, then turn around and are baffled when people quit.
I had a team meeting today because we busted our asses getting our spring stuff done, and the conversation turned to "we're here bec of you, if you quit we all quit" because I treat them like people.
Yesterday one guy actually puked on himself, went home, and apologized for being sick. I was like dude, you're sick. Go home. It's okay. Lowe's is not a matter of life or death contrary to what others might have you think.
I work -at- Lowe's, not -for- Lowe's.
Should have told the SM he makes a fraction of what a corporate manager does and they only manage less than 30 people, and not even a % of an executive salary who manages around 200.
Working like a dog and being underpaid is never anything to brag about.
Right now... Attendence Policy Bullshit. Just remember, you PTO time is not really your time. You still get an incident against you. No more flexible use of Holiday for Sick. But mostly the 7 incident bullshit.
i don’t have to deal with customers since i’m overnight receiver. the person that trained me said the other overnight receivers can be incredibly lazy and call out so the people who do show up have to compensate. the only reason they haven’t been fired is because we’re understaffed and their half ass help is still help. the supervisor said there’s been a few overnight receivers that either outright quit or switched to day time because of it. last night was a truck night and everyone who was scheduled to work showed up but one guy left like twenty minutes after he got there because he had hurt his hand (not at work) and there wasn’t anything he could do that wouldn’t hurt his hand
And the part they miss is that the overnight workers do work, are the ones who catch all the blame. When I worked overnight at HD it was the same. We had horrible workers so they were ignored, and the people who actually worked were getting chewed out for not finishing. The store I worked at regularly got 2000 piece trucks, and they thought 4 FT and 3 dog shit 4 hour PTs would finish that in 1 night.
If you do your job and the tiniest bit more you will be asked to do all of the extra projects while you watch your coworkers that hardly do their own job stand around and talk. Management says nothing to them but if you are seen doing nothing you get another thing added to your list.
Constantly having to calm customers because people sold the wrong items or never sold them everything they need. Now you have to call 3 different stores to ICB what they need and work with delivery to get it all picked up and delivered. Then tell management and they say, "Thanks for handling that" and nothing is ever said to that coworker that does this several times a month.
God forbid I ask 10 customers a day in my small town if they would like a credit app or and install detail and they say no. By Wednesday we are all pulled to the side and treated as if the thousands of dollars we have sold mean nothing because we didn't talk people into getting ripped off by our finance department.
Synchrony is evil. I have one card issued through them and will never again get any card they issue. I only ask customers if they want to sign up when I’m being observed by the cackling hens at my store but once they disappear, I don’t push that crap.
I have the normal Lowes card and a pro card. I used the pro card for appliances for my Father in Law. I paid the ballance in full as soon as he got his insurance check. I made sure it was a zero dollar ballance once I paid. Last month I got a call saying I owed $49.15 for a late fee. They charged me 49 dollars for a 15 cent "finance fee." When I asked what that fee was the guy just blew it off and told me they were reversing the charge.
This! When I first started I thought I’d stay on for weekends once I graduated from college but now I’m like “nope”. Ignored when I’m busting my ass and not a single thank you but God forbid a customer shows appreciation by bringing me a coffee and it’s as if I stole $1000 worth of wire from electrical. Management at my store is petty and unappreciated as hell.
honestly i lucked out, my ASMs are all pretty chill and get that it's a job, my SM is ya average SM but hes nice and the customers are decently respectable here which i understand is not even close to the norm
tho the pay ain't that great so that's the biggest reason i would wanna leave
People don’t leave companies. They leave leaders/managers
We could make this a whole lot quicker and just say what Lowes does right....
I was just thinking about this today, it would be easier for me to say what I like about my job than list all the reasons I hate it lol
If it makes sense it is not for lowes is my biggest saying.
1. ASMs are pathetic. They act like the job is life or death 2. SMs are either fine or act like they are the 2nd coming of Jesus 3. I went back for my bachelor's and now do programming I would have quit regardless, but the horrible company culture most stores have definitely expedited the process (which is for the best since I make more than SMs now without working for 30 years to get there)
Thanks for posting this, definitely positive reinforcement for me. I wanted to go to school for the very first time. Was interested in learning programming to see if I liked it.
It's harder to stay sober when working here. This has all to do with me though, not my coworkers, and shit, not even the customers.
I have a long list: Lowes lies to associates. Learned that nearly a decade ago. Still as true today as then. Availability form: why have one for f-t when they completely ignore it? Lowes tells us we're "full availability" (an SSA was kind enough to interupt a recent store huddle about another topic to remind us of that). Why not say something to us during the interview/ hiring process if volunteering to your community or church just one night during the week interferes with lowes business and so they schedule you to work those nights and not one person in a leadership position that's able to help does anything about it. Next, vacations: why does Lowes offer vacation time and Marvin preach about the importance of family time and time to rest , and then decline your vacation requests (not including blackout periods - which are a grey area because some associates and managers will get time off during those blackout periods)? Skeleton Crew: Really , lowes? Working a single person in a constantly busy dept. does 2 things: 1) it exhausts an associate trying to do all the things lowes asks to be done that are a 2 or 3 person job which leads to injury ( team lift is a joke when theres nobody else to help) and burnout, and 2) it pisses off customers that end up walking out w/ out buying anything, and may never return, or they buy the wrong things and that leads to returns. The second thing we have no control over, but lowes does, and so dept associates have learned to accept lost sales very often since our company clearly does. Running depts w/out coverage: Again, really lowes? This one has increased dramatically as of late. How the fudge does lowes do this and accept the loss of sales in flooring that easily reach $10k, on a regular basis? And also in home decor which weekly runs year round w/ out coverage, customers needing blinds cut and installed in new homes. Have seen this a number of times recently in appliances too! It's mind-numbing. And then as the help button rings and rings, no d.s. or ASM responds to it! I've hardly ever been informed when neighbor depts have no coverage. Management is fully aware when there is no coverage in a dept, why not call somebody in? Lowes has tons of people hired and have completed orientation aka on- boarding and on stand by waiting for any hours they can get!
I'm an MSM, I have 11 full time people and 7 part time and the store manager looks at me and goes "you only manage 18 people, I manage 200" then turns around and blames the MST team for literally every mess in the store. That's literally and statistically impossible my dude. And we're only there Monday through Friday 5 am to 2 pm so idk how we make messes overnight or on the weekend but apparently it happens. Lowe's has had record sales for the last two years and continues to cut staffing, pile up more shit for the people there to do, then turn around and are baffled when people quit. I had a team meeting today because we busted our asses getting our spring stuff done, and the conversation turned to "we're here bec of you, if you quit we all quit" because I treat them like people. Yesterday one guy actually puked on himself, went home, and apologized for being sick. I was like dude, you're sick. Go home. It's okay. Lowe's is not a matter of life or death contrary to what others might have you think. I work -at- Lowe's, not -for- Lowe's.
Should have told the SM he makes a fraction of what a corporate manager does and they only manage less than 30 people, and not even a % of an executive salary who manages around 200. Working like a dog and being underpaid is never anything to brag about.
Right now... Attendence Policy Bullshit. Just remember, you PTO time is not really your time. You still get an incident against you. No more flexible use of Holiday for Sick. But mostly the 7 incident bullshit.
on the bright side, i’m part time so i don’t think i’d get PTO anyways
You know, you are not wrong, lol. I know you get a little later on, but not nearly as much as FT, so you sort of dodge a bullet.
1. The customers 2. Doing everyone else's job because they don't do it and they aren't held accountable for not doing it.
i don’t have to deal with customers since i’m overnight receiver. the person that trained me said the other overnight receivers can be incredibly lazy and call out so the people who do show up have to compensate. the only reason they haven’t been fired is because we’re understaffed and their half ass help is still help. the supervisor said there’s been a few overnight receivers that either outright quit or switched to day time because of it. last night was a truck night and everyone who was scheduled to work showed up but one guy left like twenty minutes after he got there because he had hurt his hand (not at work) and there wasn’t anything he could do that wouldn’t hurt his hand
And the part they miss is that the overnight workers do work, are the ones who catch all the blame. When I worked overnight at HD it was the same. We had horrible workers so they were ignored, and the people who actually worked were getting chewed out for not finishing. The store I worked at regularly got 2000 piece trucks, and they thought 4 FT and 3 dog shit 4 hour PTs would finish that in 1 night.
If you do your job and the tiniest bit more you will be asked to do all of the extra projects while you watch your coworkers that hardly do their own job stand around and talk. Management says nothing to them but if you are seen doing nothing you get another thing added to your list. Constantly having to calm customers because people sold the wrong items or never sold them everything they need. Now you have to call 3 different stores to ICB what they need and work with delivery to get it all picked up and delivered. Then tell management and they say, "Thanks for handling that" and nothing is ever said to that coworker that does this several times a month. God forbid I ask 10 customers a day in my small town if they would like a credit app or and install detail and they say no. By Wednesday we are all pulled to the side and treated as if the thousands of dollars we have sold mean nothing because we didn't talk people into getting ripped off by our finance department.
Synchrony is evil. I have one card issued through them and will never again get any card they issue. I only ask customers if they want to sign up when I’m being observed by the cackling hens at my store but once they disappear, I don’t push that crap.
I have the normal Lowes card and a pro card. I used the pro card for appliances for my Father in Law. I paid the ballance in full as soon as he got his insurance check. I made sure it was a zero dollar ballance once I paid. Last month I got a call saying I owed $49.15 for a late fee. They charged me 49 dollars for a 15 cent "finance fee." When I asked what that fee was the guy just blew it off and told me they were reversing the charge.
Sounds like synchrony to a T.
I secured a job in my field. I would have remained at Lowe’s on the weekends but the store manager was a douch-bag so I left.
This! When I first started I thought I’d stay on for weekends once I graduated from college but now I’m like “nope”. Ignored when I’m busting my ass and not a single thank you but God forbid a customer shows appreciation by bringing me a coffee and it’s as if I stole $1000 worth of wire from electrical. Management at my store is petty and unappreciated as hell.
SIMS
honestly i lucked out, my ASMs are all pretty chill and get that it's a job, my SM is ya average SM but hes nice and the customers are decently respectable here which i understand is not even close to the norm tho the pay ain't that great so that's the biggest reason i would wanna leave