Lowe's and Wal-mart employees.

Joined: 08 Jul 2003 Posts: 214

I work at Lowe's and my wife works at Wal-Mart, so we compare notes daily as to the policy changes for both Companies. The last few months something very strange has been happening, when there's a change at Wal-Mart within a few days the same thing happens at Lowe's. Confused

The latest is the Attendance policy and it's the same as we're hearing at Lowe's. If you miss 3 days in a 6 month period you get a verbal warning, sick with Doctors excuse, taking care of a sick child, it doesen't matter. If you miss 6 days you get a write up, more than that you can be fired. Of course it doesen't include Management, they can be sick as much as they want. This is from two Companies who tell us how important our families are. Naughty!

I guess what it amounts to even though you have sick pay and personal time(Wal-Mart) if we use it we'll be written up. All the time the people at the Home Offices keep getting richer & richer at our expense. What would happen to these Companies if all the employees sold all their stock and quit investing in the Companies, would they see us then as important to the Companies and as humans?

Joined: 07 Jul 2003 Posts: 95

go to the HR guide on wkln, see what the attendance policy actually says.

Joined: 08 Jul 2003 Posts: 214

I have read the HR guide, but keep in mind that the HR guide still has the old smoking policy also. I'm not saying that Lowe's is switching to the attendence policy that Wal-Mart did, I'm only saying that I've heard rumors. I believe that Depot & Sears have a policy like the new one at Wal-Mart also. I think it's called the ding system, too many dings and your gone.

Joined: 12 Jul 2003 Posts: 13 Location: Lowes Land

Yep, Last week they started writing people up for being one minute late. Naughty!

But yet the schedule for the week of 11/15 was posted 11/13. Did I miss something? Is there REALLY 10 days between the 13th and the 15th? Confused

Joined: 08 Jul 2003 Posts: 214

We had a new schedule come out today the 21st for the week of the 22nd, one day notice.

Joined: 22 Nov 2003 Posts: 2

Although our schedule does come out far enough in advanced,I have noticed a lot of people getting written up. It used to be verbal warnings were the norm in my store, and it was rare that any one actually got written up. But now, WOW. I was told by one ASM to " CYA(cover your ass) and do EVERYTHING by the book, other employees may not like it because we've practiced a lax atmosphere for so long, but it's them or you." (note: this ASM did not give me REASON to start sticking to the rules and dot my i's and cross my t's-but it was implied). So yes, I have been CMA, and no, other employees don[t like it, but hey, it's like a Nazi regeme at my store and I'm not going to Siberia! I've been acused of trying to 'kiss ass' to climb the corporate ladder, or trying to get someone elses position-when in reality, I'm just trying to keep my job. It's getting tough out there, man.

Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2003 7:26 pm Post subject:

Get an entire shift to call in sick all on one day. Make those inhumane bastards write up the whole crew.

This is all unreasonable and corporate control bullshit. Organize against it. Mad

Joined: 12 Jul 2003 Posts: 13 Location: Lowes Land

LadyInRed, I'm fairly sure you aren't in my store, but the point you brought up is interesting. Two weeks, after the weekly manager's meeting I asked my DM what had transpired that we need to know. He told me to watch what I do because they are watching EVERYONE with a magnifying glass, or in other words CYA. Interesting that the same is happening at your store Surprised

I haven't been kissing up but I have noticed that some people are jumpier while others actually seem more relaxed.

On another subject, I think its benificial to have new people start. They are so full of energy and greet all the customers the way we are all supposed, and they smile and actually seem happy. Their spirit seems to boost morale a bit. Now if we could only bottle that spirit and serve it the lunch room.

Joined: 06 Jul 2003 Posts: 41 Location: out west

siggy,
I like the way you think! We do need to let the arrogant bastards work their way thru a day without the manpower that pays their wage. There are a lot of good people in management, but very few with a backbone. When we got a lot of Lowes employees seriously talking union on the old site, it mysteriously became to much for the site to maintain and was shut down. Say what you want but somehow I feel Lowes corporate had something to do with the shut down. We do need to Unionize and soon or all will be lost. They are taking bits and pieces everyday and soon we will be paying them so we can work, and they will make it sound like we should be thankful to them. Retail giants like Wal-mart and Lowes and the rest, are the modern day equivalent of Hitler or Stalin or any of those good ol' boys!

Joined: 12 Jul 2003 Posts: 13 Location: Lowes Land

The good ole boys in the crystal palace are moving in the same direction as what set off the original labor movement. I used to live in the North East where the stories of the labor movement were legends, the coal mines, the steel mills, sweat shops. They need to reflect on the history of this country. The big three, Lowes, Home Depot and Walmart keep taking and taking. A perfect example is Lowes 401k plan, the new plan only benefits those making over $12.50 an hour, if you make less than that you got the shaft with no vasiline. Embarassed

I would be willing to bet that in less than 5 years Lowes will be open on Thanksgiving and a couple of years later Christmas. My manager once ask our HR manager why we were closed on Christmas but open on Easter, he was told its because Christmas is a religious holiday.
Evil or Very Mad

The sheer numbers of the employees of the big three have the potential to be a great force, if there was only a way to get everyone together and organized. It will happen, someday, probably not in my lifetime but it has to happen. History demands it.

Several weeks ago the goverment released a report of how many new jobs were created last year and how much they were worth. The numbers were fairly impressive, I forget the numbers but I do remember that they came out to the average being $9.50 an hour. After taxes that comes out to a little over $1000 a month take home. Is that a living wage today?

Lowes dosen't have us living in company houses and shopping at company stores, yet. I don't know if they have their own version of the Pinkertons but it wouldn't surprise me one bit.

Yes unions have their own problems, but there was a time when they were needed. There is a time they are needed again, that time is now! The bad thing is that there are enough applications in the system to replace all of us in under a week. Sure they would mostly be unexperienced people but as we all know these stores would survive as long as there was someone there to keep the shelves full. That is the sword that the big three hold over our heads, we can easily be replaced.

Personally I've discussed with my wife just quitting Lowes and searching for a better job fulltime. The only thing that kept us from doing this is the medical benefits. To get family medical where she works would cost us over $800 a month, that is one of her paychecks. So I'm stuck at Lowes until something better comes along.

Joined: 27 Aug 2003 Posts: 7

to ...Mr. Gibbs.........just what exactly do u mean on the 401k benefiting only those over 12.50 /hr..........have i missed some new change???
Please clarify for me and others

Joined: 12 Jul 2003 Posts: 13 Location: Lowes Land

Joined: 07 Aug 2003 Posts: 50

Mr. Gibbs: Good figuring. Most employees don't look closely enough at their pay.
Is it your opinion that this adjusted 401K contribution is deliberate? Could it be an indicator of where/how Lowes plans to save benefits' expenses - or is it a harbinger plans to have a greater number of employees earning the below $12.50 threshold?

One has to assume that not everything is an oversight by GO - especially Payroll. Most of the calculations and possibilities are thought out in advance to implementation - or should be.
(Then you see how Lowes implements new computer software into existing stores - as if they'd never done it before, or as if how the implementations may affect STORE staff doesn't even cross anyone's mind....).
No - you have to assume that payroll is deliberate: Pay for more management contributions with nickels and dimes taken from contributions that previously went to the mass of the employees.
What do you deduce from that?

Joined: 12 Jul 2003 Posts: 13 Location: Lowes Land

Yes its not by chance that it came out this way, it was well thought out. How do you think Uncle Bob saved the company so much money last year? Doh!

There are other things too such as the old ESOP plan. Its really hard to run the numbers for the difference between the two plans because the numbers are so variable from year to year. But under the old ESOP plan the company had to contribute a minimum of 4.5% of your pay to your ESOP account and you were eligible after 1000 hours or about 6 months full-time. The last contribution they made to my account was 11%. The time to become vested, meaning you would get the money if you quit was an increasing percentage from 2 years to 7 years when you would be fully vested and get 100% of the company contributions if you quit.

Under the new Performance bonus plan you are eligible for the bonus at the end of the fiscal year of your third anniversary. Now the majority of employees stay with Lowes less than 3 years, so there is a tremendous savings right there. But now you have to also participate in the savings plan at the maximum to get the maximum bonus. The performance bonus is based on how much you contributed into the savings plan in the last fiscal year. Then the performance bonus is from 0% to 300% of what you contributed to the savings plan. Being that I wasn’t eligible for the bonus last year I’m not sure what the percentage was but I heard it was 300%. Which wouldn’t be bad except I got screwed out of one full year of company contributions because of my hire date.

So you see how the variable numbers make it hard to figure out if we got the shaft or not. But the 3 years before you are eligible to receive the bonus is where they saved tremendous amounts of money.

All the data to calculate the maximum savings to the company is readily available to the good ole boys in the crystal palace. With the proper data crunched in the computer it would probably take less than a day to come up with these ways to save money by screwing the associates. The most interesting is the change to requiring 3 years of service to get the performance bonus. Their data must have reflected that most of the associates stay with the company less than 3 years. Just look around your store and see how many associates have been with the company more than 3 years. In my store its about 20% +/- . Surprised

My back is still wet!

Joined: 07 Aug 2003 Posts: 50

I agree - these deliberate changes are strong indicators of the priorities at GO: HR, through Payroll, is telling the huge Salesstaff that they are less and less important, that GO intends to invest less in the Salesstaff.
You are correct: turnover has accelerated. Lowes has determined it doesn't have to (is not willing to) invest in training, (even basic training has been drastically reduced), on long term benefits, on contributions to retirement plans, and
non-management employee pay rates are being squeezed - less raises. These clearly show that Lowes sees Salesstaff as EXPENSE items, not as the prime income producing ASSETS of the corporation.

So - what can one do? Just go along, put up with it....Bitching won't help. Not 1 executive in North Wilkesboro would listen to 1, or a even thousand employees complaints. So what do you do?
That sounds fatalistic, but Lowes, as an employer, has a "take it or leave it" approach to employees. Put up with whatever goes on, or get out.
There are some good things to working at Lowes - some good coworkers, good products at good prices, the company is in expansion phase, Lowes stock is solid as an investment instrument. But the costs to employees are high - to self esteem (all the crap employees have to endure, and the difficulties created by so many low quality individuals in store-level management positions, the schedules, the chaos...) and to a happy home life.
Its hardly even worth talking about anymore. Major stockholder voting power is the only way to create any changes in this employer. Most stockholders care only for return on investment. Working conditions mean little. Employee productivity is seen as a function of returns on payroll.
So, maybe the rational thing to do is just put up with it: put the head in the sand and ignore all the stupid stuff, including all the reducing returns that employees get from the investment of their life's time in Lowes.
Or find other, better investments than Lowes for one's time.

Joined: 12 Jul 2003 Posts: 13 Location: Lowes Land

I've come to the conclusion that I love what I do. The way we are treated sucks. I didn't start looking for another job until they jacked around with the savings plan and told me I made way too much to ever expect a raise without going into management. I'm way outside the payscale for the top hourly position. In fact when I do get a call from a prospective employer and and am told what the position pays it the same or less than I make now and these are field sales positions, what I'm good at. So yes, I just grit my teeth and bear what ever Lowes throws at me next while I continue searching.

Lowes knows that through the high turn over rate it won't take long before us old timers, 4 years is an old timer Sheesss, that remember how it used to be will be gone. The new people that are coming in are happy with what they are getting now. The line of applicants never stops. There are constantly people at the computers filling out applications.

Being that I brought up the moving into management issue, a while back I started to wonder why all the hourlys that became Department managers soon stepped back down or quit. Then I ran the numbers, it bacame very apparent.

The hourly makes $9.00 per hour, $360 for a 40 hour week. Now the hourly moves into the department manager position and gets the 10% raise that you are supposed to get for that type of move. Now this new DM is making $9.90 per hour but has to work 50 hours now. The first 40 are at $9.90 and the last 10 are at $4.45 (variable rate overtime). So now this new DM makes $396 for the first 40 hours and $44.50 for the last 10 hours. For a total of $440.50, quite a bit more money. But lets look closer at these numbers.

$440.50/50 hours = $8.81 average pay per hour. So you make more money but you end up working more hours for less per hour. Just another example of Lowes advanced math. Plus you are responsible for more and put up with alot more crap. Yeah, I want to be a department manager. Rolling Eyes