crying shame

Joined: 07 Mar 2005 Posts: 24 Location: missouri

i'm sad that the place i used to be proud to work for is becomming more and more a place i hate to be. there is never enough help people are being cut loose for no apparent reason
and the new ones comming in aren't taught that customer service and team work are the number one jobs. we have a new girl up front that always sounds pissed off when she calls people for the phone or for returns. the customers can here her attitude reflected in her voice. there are only 5 original people in the store left. everyone else got fed up and quit or they got let go. i'm always worried i'll be next because , even though i am a great sales person our installs have been flat.
any comments or suggestions on how to bring fun back to my job?

Joined: 08 Jul 2003 Posts: 214

Same at my store, I've quit trying to learn the employees names,most of them are gone before I can. I don't think you'll ever see fun in the workplace again, the human part is gone, greed took it's place. Their excuse is that retail is changing and we have to change with it, in other words if we don't like it they say theres a hundread people waiting to take our place. I to see customers walk out everyday because of no coverage, but all they care about is payroll, not the sales they're losing. Of course in our meeting they ask how to increase sales, we tell them, and it goes in one ear and out the other. The Managers these days have very little say in the operation of their stores, the stores are managed from the phone & e-mail, they get the message and just pass it on.

Joined: 05 Mar 2005 Posts: 110 Location: illinois

It seems like the only ones who use team work are the long timers. The new people are not trained properly and have a hard enough time just doing downstocking, now throw in customers, the phone, and being nice. I hear customers say it would be fun to work here, that's the way it use to be. You don't dare walk through certain departments, becuase they are no man's land==no coverage(plumbing, electrical). I never learn someone's name until they have been there 6 months. I think the problem is new people have no idea how hard it is to work at Lowes. IT IS HARD HARD WORK. You can not imagine your legs and feet will hurt as much. You thought you could handle the job, guess what, customers will ask you the dumbest questions, and then yell at you because you don't know. I can pretty much answer most questions, or direct people where something is, but as a pricing coordinator, there is no time to stop and help the customers when you have 300-400 price changes to do. I have started caring a phone so I can call an associate to the aisle I am in.

New people are starting to come in, but they really can't begin helping people for a few weeks because they don't know where anything is. So hopefully it will get better soon. Hopefully they will stay and not get so overwhelmed that they quit or just go postal.

Joined: 13 Mar 2005 Posts: 41

Hi-classylady-I must agree with you.It is hard work!!
HARD HARD WORK.I used to work for a retail chain,That went out of bussines(home center up in ny)
(3) dept's Flooring,Lumber,furn.Lets say it was the hardest
work.For the weakest pay.But must agree it was HARD!

Joined: 08 Mar 2005 Posts: 17

Hi Ya All,
Even though I work for the HD it is begining to sound like we all work for the same employer. The conditions are the same over here.

Joined: 05 Mar 2005 Posts: 110 Location: illinois

The one hour manditory training Lowes policy says you must have each week is this. LEARN BY THE SEAT OF YOUR PANTS, AND FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT. The only training I had were the teleconferences, and I only made it to a few of those. I learned by reading manuals in the department. I use to be a specialist in Home Decor. I was good at it too. Sold over 10,000 dollars a month consistantly. I new my stuff, but I was the only person in HD. I put the freight up, downstocked, kept the wallpaper wrapped up(customer just think they can open up anything a take a piece, I told a customer once, do you sample grapes at the grocery store) I prevented shrink in the department. I did the yellow dots(which were few because I was always downstocking). I also had to do the paint department and flooring(use to be flooring/HD, then paint/hd). When the young ones could not role out of bed in the morning I had to cover two sometimes 3 departments. I did this for 2 years, it sucked, my body hurt and finally it came down to I could not lift anything, my arms were in so much pain. After 7 shots of cortizone, I said enough is enough. The older crew in paint are running from a sinking ship. They now have a young manager who the zone at the time, no longer at our store, though was cute. Cute yes, brains to be a manager, NO. She gets the best hours, the older crew get nights 4-5 every week. Flooring consists of 2 specialists, one associate(the associate is tired of doing all downstocking, and is leaving). Who is going to do the freight now. When is Lowes going to find out you can't run a business without the staff.

Joined: 08 Mar 2005 Posts: 17

Classylady, do you find at Lowes that appearence is everything? If it looks good then all is good. That is the attitude at HD. Shelves are getting bare with no one to stock them. "Aw, just move product around so the shelves look full!" is the responce we get from mgm. The bad part that is hurting the employees here is that the numbers are still high. As long as the numbers are good we will not get anyone new in to help us.

Joined: 05 Mar 2005 Posts: 110 Location: illinois

We had about 6 new ones start this week with 10 more next week. It is hilarious. The poor new guy in millwork has no idea where anything is and is walking customers to departments and not finding anyone. He always finds me. I am the pricing coordinator(temporarily), he must think I work in all these departments, because he is bringing customers to me all the time. I don't have time to stop and wait on customers. The last guy he brought me in the paint department, I asked him if I could use his phone. He did not want to give it up, I told him I would give it back. I tried to page but the system was down. I told them I would be right back, I went and reset the paging system and paged for someone to go to the paint counter. He then asked me "are you just the sticker lady" I said yeah that's me.

Now who is the bright person to leave this poor guy in a department by himself, he has been there 2 days, and with the phone. Got to love Lowes training. They all have the deer in the headlight look when a customer says, "could you tell me where....."

Joined: 06 Jul 2003 Posts: 32

Classy, I have to say I admire the job you are doing. I don't think in anyway your job is EZ, alot of people do, but if I had to know where everything in the store was, I could not do it, I think the only way I could is be the pricing coordinator, my hats off to you.

As for training, I think thats how Lowes gets the people that will be willing to work in any circumstance, thats how they find their true workerbees. Cos if you notice, most of the youngsters that they want to try out either go to lumber or building materials, or outside seasonal. Makes me think if they are serious about working their way up, or just needing spending money thats the best place to put them.

Training, we don't need no stupid training...lol On the seat of your pants is where you get your training. And I have one more thing to say about Lowes, in my opinion, as you know they are just like A**holes everybody has one! I think they pass up way to many people for higher positions, I can't say that this happens in our store, but from I hear its mostly a age thing. But in our store its a click thing.

Joined: 17 May 2005 Posts: 5

Lowes is not hard work.. Working construction for 60+ hours a week with no days off in the sun with barly enough money to pay bills is hard work. I will take working indoors in the AC for 48 hours and getting paid 4times more money over that anytime!

I think it is just stress. You feel like you are getting pulled in so many directions that at the end of the day you have more left undone than when you started and you feel like you have not accomplished anything.

I think THAT is the root of it all. We as human beings need to have a sence of acomplishment, that we have done something substantial today. And with so many tasks in the store being so routine and unchanging you feel like you are running around in circles all day.

Try setting personal goals for yourself when you are at work. make things interesting and challanging for one week and see if your attitude shifts a bit. The key is find a way to have fun while doing boring work. And you dont have to make these goals coinside with the stores goals. It could be anything from learning about one new product a day, to finally fixing that display that has been broken for the past three months.. as opposed to trying to make install sales budget. Just do things that are quick and easy and will offer an immediate reward, your gratification.

Joined: 15 May 2005 Posts: 6

I just think it's funny how we all can find similarities in all our stores when not one of us works in the same store. It's almost like we all work at the same Lowe's.

Then they hire when things start to pick up, and we're all stuck trying to train new people, while at the same time, trying to help as many customers as we can.

Personally, I too am growing fed up with the nonchalant attitude managers have about people not pulling their weight around here. I have a couple associates in my department who do nothing. One stands around the desk all day, and no he is not a Specialist. The other disappears and no one knows where he is most of his shift. And me and another associate in the department have explained this to the DM and SM and nothing has been done. The SM continues to blame me, the team leader, and the other associate, the only specialist in the department, that it's our fault if freight isn't done and the department looks like ass. But it's hard for us to get stuff done if the other two don't do anything. FYI- The DM is on inventory and was on overnights the past few weeks.

I used to like Lowe's too, but my opinion has changed drastically over the past few months. I just hate getting up in the morning knowing I have to go there to work. Now it just seems like it's more important to have bodies in the store than actual workers. I am growing very tired of having to pick up the slack of the other associates.

Joined: 23 Aug 2003 Posts: 19 Location: Central Florida

As I am sitting here reading these post, I am thinking yes it does seem that we all work in the same store. What ya say if all the employees get together and get with GO and tell them that all of management should go back a take a weeks worth of orientation. This way they will learn all over again that it is customer first. focus, focus, focus. Then they should write down the definition of focus 100 times, maybe they will learn what that word means., like we do. Us that go to work and do your job plus. We have a building material dept that is not worth a dam. When the team leader has the phone and you call to ask him to assist a customer over in such a such aisle, he says so. or its in the hole or it will be at least 45 minutes.
We have a young man that night stocks our lumber. Needless to say not much for building mtls to do. So why can't they rotate the aisles and help the customers. No they disappear. Today we had 4 people, could not find one to assist customer in sheetrock aisle. Oh well I am glad I got that off my chest. Have a nice day.

Joined: 19 May 2005 Posts: 25

worked for lowes for 2 yrs,i have 4 more days until my exit, my store is 2 yrs old and i have been there since it opened,i have seen changes in the last 6 months or so and they are not good, as a manager we have more paperwork than ever, higher employee turnover, poor morale,almost every dept mgr is about to quit or talking about it. i resigned 3 weeks ago and i am extremely relieved. no more weekends or late nights, or aching feet or 14 stiches in my finger. lowe s is a great company and the job is what you make of it.if you can not find a job or if you like retail then try working at lowe s and if you don t like it than leave or you will be miserable. good luck to all

Joined: 19 May 2005 Posts: 25

[quote="ivyclassic"]worked for lowes for 2 yrs,i have 4 more days until my exit, my store is 2 yrs old and i have been there since it opened,i have seen changes in the last 6 months or so and they are not good, as a manager we have more paperwork than ever, higher employee turnover, poor morale,almost every dept mgr is about to quit or talking about it. i resigned 3 weeks ago and i am extremely relieved. no more weekends or late nights, or aching feet or 14 stiches in my finger. lowe s is a great company and the job is what you make of it.if you can not find a job or if you like retail then try working at lowe s and if you don t like it than leave or you will be miserable. good luck to all

Joined: 22 Apr 2005 Posts: 22

Joined: 30 Apr 2005 Posts: 10

there hired 9 people at my store, this week. I know of 2 loaders, 3 cashiers. Dont know where the rest are being placed. We hired 4... 2 weeks ago and 2 of them are already on compensation. Its sad no one wants to work, I saw one of the 4 almost get sent out the door yesterday for not cleaning up a mess his zone told him about hours before to do. All he wanted to do was answer calls from his girlfriend. I have already had a run - in with the guy, I had to beg him to stay in the aisle when i was doing his work by getting down concrete in the Masonary aisle. Im a Millwork Associate, but where that guy couldnt run a extended lift star wars. I told him I would help him. I had to beg him not to walk off when he was spotting me.

Joined: 16 Jul 2005 Posts: 18 Location: cincinnati

of course there is alot of stress involved with lowes but what do you really expect?? i mean its a fortune 50 company and normally very busy.. and yes worker attitudes do tend to flare up but its part of life and some times it does suck..

Joined: 19 May 2005 Posts: 25

i worked for lowes for 2 yrs, left about 6 weeks ago. i now work for a paint manufacturer as a sales rep. i am much happier now, no more late nights. my family is also much happier because i get to put my children to bed every night which is priceless. no more working saturdays and sundays, no more working 10 days in a row my family life is so much better and Iam makingmoremoneyLOWESis a great company, If you like retail,you can make a lot of money working at LOWES.Work hard, learn all you can, get promoted, take advantage of the stock and 401 k plan. If you work at LOWES and DON'T LIKE RETAIL it will eat you up and spit you out
good luck to all,remember we all have choices

Joined: 21 Jun 2005 Posts: 7 Location: Lowe's

it really is funny that we all get pissed off about the same stuff. about six months ago i was told that i was being transferred to paint, but i was left on the flooring schedule. then, three months later, they added me to the home decor schedule. however, the paint dm leaves me pages of worklists for paint. our dm is over both paint and home decor and doesnt know anything about/give a shit about home decor. he doesnt even know how to cut mini blinds but he has been the dm for four years. if a customer comes in while we are gone, he will tell them to come back in an hour when we return from lunch. im like, would it be cool if i told people who wanted paint to come back in an hour or come back tomorrow when you return? and to top it all off, he's a 57 year old man who is ILLITERATE. as someone who will be graduating college with a masters degree in mass communication next semester, it drives me crazy when he leaves us notes that say "get the frayt up" or "feel the drop bens" or "donstok and make shur to tak trash back" he is a joke. he has no idea how to use the computer system and i do ALL his paperwork, everything but the schedules. anytime he needs something icb'ed i have to get on and do it for him because he doesnt know how. we are VERY understaffed. our store is borderline budget for receiving a night stocking crew, but we wont ever get one. between paint and home decor we have 5 associates and all specialists believe that they are above cleaning, stocking, paperwork, or whatever. kinda hard to sell stuff if its not there. we have specialists that call in like three or four times a month, but i called in once in two years because my grandma passed away that day, and the asm said, "well.. can you come in tonight? we need you to close." and it was a TUESDAY. needless to say i went in to close the night that she passed away because they threatened me and told me i couldnt call in. we also just found out that our new store mgr (been there about five months) who moved from another state and his family is still not moved here yet, has been having an affair with another mgr in the store. they have been seen out and about several times together in town. lowe's is just messed up. anyway.. i just have to remind myself that this only my JOB to get me through school, not my career. although i still always hope that things will get better. and can i just ask if everyone else's stores are like a frickin soap opera? the people in our store feed off of drama, and it doesnt make any difference if you go talk to the HR because she is prejudice anyway. anyhow-- HOPE YALL HAVE A GREAT DAY!! Smile

hahahaha seeya..

Joined: 19 May 2005 Posts: 25

just to let you know you get 3 days bereavement if a family members passes away, did any one tell you this or possibly they did not want you to know, good luck when you start your new career. I could not go to graduate school when I worked at lowes because I was working 60hrs or more a week.

Joined: 21 Jun 2005 Posts: 7 Location: Lowe's

i did know that. however, they are more concerned about not having to take care of other people's responsibilities when he/she is absent. i have worked for lowe's for 4 years now and have called in three times in 4 years. and every time i got crap for it. i even called in two days ahead of time once, and they approved it, then called that day and told me that someone ELSE called in so i would need to be there. lol, anyway... i like the people i work with at lowe's i just think that the heirarchal separation and hiring procedures are a joke. thanks for the good luck too, i really appreciate it. take care!