Joined: 26 Feb 2009
Posts: 5
| Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 12:25 pm Post subject: Questions about Lowes | |
I am in the process of being hired at a local Lowes store as an HR coordinator and I would like some opinions about how it is to work there. I have been in retail 35 years and the place I now work is closing down and the opportunity at Lowes seems like a good one. I have been in HR for years and this is where I hope to stay. Please give me your feelings about the company. From what I have seen and heard, I feel it is a good place to work. 
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Joined: 07 Feb 2008
Posts: 210
| Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 5:45 pm Post subject: Re: Questions about Lowes | |||
Really depends on the store. The stories I read on this board don't relate to my store at all. (see: got written up on easter, can't trust associates, and other threads) All stores have their ups and downs but overall it's better than a lot of places I've worked. |
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Joined: 18 Jul 2008
Posts: 143
Location: Region 1
| Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 7:22 pm Post subject: | |
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Absolutely depends on the store and the management at that store. Spend some time on this message board and the other really good one and check out the postings from east coast to west coast and in-between.
Obviously if you're going to be out of a job soon, that will influence your decision about accepting any job at this point in the economy. |
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Joined: 19 Oct 2003
Posts: 2801
| Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 10:19 pm Post subject: | |||
How true!, I wouldn't give you the sweat off my balls for the new "Manager" we have. Same way with the District manager. The guy looks like an alien or an over size premature baby. |
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Joined: 07 Jul 2003
Posts: 110
| Posted: Wed May 06, 2009 10:48 pm Post subject: | |
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Lowes is a great company That being said:
Your HR experience will have no bearing on your lowes career. really. we had a visit from our district manager and our area hr yesterday. Although we are making our numbers and the dm said the store looked great, their comments included: we had a carry in and only three people brought in anything. The dm and area hr, took shower curtains off the shelf for tablecloths and brought in a bunch of plants to decorate the breakroom, they also stopped at a store and bought some desserts. The dm told the dept mgr/senior mgr at their tues meeting that going forward they each need to bring something to the carry ins every time we have one. We had a project that was volunteer, to paint picnic tables at city park 14 people signed up, three showed up. DM and Area hr blamed out store's hr. If you make participation in carry in's and volunteer projects mandatory, is that really helping things? |
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Joined: 18 Jul 2008
Posts: 143
Location: Region 1
| Posted: Thu May 07, 2009 7:21 am Post subject: | |||
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Joined: 01 Feb 2008
Posts: 497
| Posted: Thu May 07, 2009 4:34 pm Post subject: | |
| I'm sure the reason the DM was concerned about no one bringing in dishes for the potluck is that it shows no sense of comraderie. The managers should already be engaged employees. They should be leading by example. If their names are on the sign-up sheet it is showing that at least someone other than that one lonely person willing to bring a salad gives a rat. | |
Joined: 01 Feb 2008
Posts: 497
| Posted: Thu May 07, 2009 4:38 pm Post subject: | |
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I don't usually sign up to bring anything for pot luck parties at work. The reason is that I've seen how many of my coworkers keep their work areas. Most of these people I'd be afraid to eat anything they cooked at home. I don't bring in anything but I do not take anything either. If I don't bring anything I don't think that it is right for me to take anything that someone else brought in for the store. Perhaps it is just how I was raised.
If you don't contribute you shouldn't partake. |
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Joined: 18 Jul 2008
Posts: 143
Location: Region 1
| Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 7:26 am Post subject: | |||
I'm with you skibunny. I don't bring in anything either, but I've never eaten anything at the pot luck lunches either. Last edited by boardwalkties on Sun May 10, 2009 7:12 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Joined: 18 Jul 2008
Posts: 143
Location: Region 1
| Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 7:28 am Post subject: | |||
This is micro-management at its worst. The DM should not be concerned about pot luck lunches - period. |
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Joined: 01 Feb 2008
Posts: 497
| Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 4:01 pm Post subject: | |||||
The DM is concerned about not having engaged employees working for them. The pot luck is not relevent. |
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Joined: 17 Feb 2009
Posts: 15
| Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 2:13 am Post subject: | |
| Your lucky to have potlucks. Our store hasn't had one in two years. When I first got hired on about 5 yrs ago, we were the number one store in our region. We worked as a team and so forth, but now, we are a bunch of people trying to please management as well as customers. We went from number 1 to the bottom within the last few years. Management wants to know why. We have mentioned to management about the lack of respect. All they care about is the bottom line. We are asked every few hours are budgets, top/bottom two, where we at, if we are going to make budget. We never hear them say: GREAT JOB, a pat on the back, or thank you. | |
Joined: 18 Jul 2008
Posts: 143
Location: Region 1
| Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 7:20 am Post subject: | |||||||
The DM should not relate engaged employees and pot luck, or mention them in the same breath. That's absolutely ridiculous. If he wants to talk about employees who are not engaged then he should talk about employees who walk right past customers without acknowledging them, or things similar. Those are two things which do relate to one another in the working environment and which are pertinent areas of concern throughout Lowe's. |
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Joined: 19 Oct 2003
Posts: 2801
| Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 11:25 pm Post subject: | |||
A rats ass too!  . If I stopped to ask every customer on the way to what I was trying to accomplish I wouldn't get SHIT done. Remember SOME of the associates passing through an area JUST may be pulling goods for a customer or heading to load an installer.....or going to go refund rebill another screw up by an associate.
Impact hours.....  Like hey HEAD A HOLE......Doesn't what EACH and every associate do "IMPACT" a customer? If no what the hell are the positions in the store for?
I think there are some districts out there trying the six sigma process...Might just as well take the lumber and start building coffins for Lowe's. |
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Joined: 01 Feb 2008
Posts: 497
| Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 2:32 am Post subject: | |
| The impact hours are a joke. What should be happening is more people working the aisles in the evening and on weekends. I can't believe that they think the impact is between 10-2. What a crock. In my store the only time we have people in the store is after 4:30pm-9 or 10pm. | |
Joined: 18 Jul 2008
Posts: 143
Location: Region 1
| Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 7:25 am Post subject: | |||||
That's not what I said. I said ACKNOWLEDGE the customer, not engage them in conversation. As you walk past them, it costs you nothing to ACKNOWLEDGE their presence by saying "good morning," giving them a friendly nod, or something to that effect. There has been so much negativism about the Sigma Six management philosophy that many large companies are abandoning many of the Sigma Six disciplines - Home Depot being one, under Frank Blake. Watered-down versions of it are the cultures of today's business models. But the original Sigma Six management disciplines in the corporate environment have for the most part come and gone. |
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Joined: 22 Jun 2008
Posts: 98
| Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 12:52 pm Post subject: | |
| At my store, we take customer service very serious. Nothing is more important. Of course our gold status and the extra money in my paycheck reflects that. | |
Joined: 22 Dec 2007
Posts: 445
| Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 4:30 pm Post subject: | |||
well I was taught it's safety first. Customers sure they are important but we can't risk safety to appease them. If a customer wants something done fast I'm sorry it's a warehouse not a wafflehouse! |
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Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 464
| Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 4:55 pm Post subject: | |||||||
Well with your 35 years of retail experience you're sure to know and understand the nature of retail work and how each location may be different from another, which has been so duly pointed out. I've been with Lowe's for 7 years now, previously worked for Wal-Mart for 4 years, retail is retail, you get the good, you get the bad, and you get the somewhere in-between... Overall Lowe's is a good company to work for, you're always going to have those who "hate" their jobs, those who "love" their jobs, and those who do their jobs to the best of their ability and of course those who just show up for their "job" just to get a paycheck. As far as HR goes, well I'm not in that position so I can't really give you any inside information about it other than what has already been said, it really depends on you location and your management team. In my 7 years we have had a few great HR's and some NOT SO great. Currently we have one that is pretty much useless and with the MyLowesLife web-site much of what an HR used to do is done via this way now. I wish you the best of luck...
Impact hours from 10AM - 2PM? Yep, gotta agree, not really 10-2 in my store either. Even before this program was implimented if we associates were busy downstocking, IRP's, resets, etc. and a customer needed help, most of us anyway, would stop what we were doing and help that customer. But now there are 4 hours of your day, half your shift, where you're not suppose to work on ANY task and only help customers. I don't have a problem with that but if you only have that occasional customer stroll through your department what else are you going to do in the mean time? Just stand there with your thumb up your.... 
Congratulations! Sounds like you're in a good store with good management and good associates. |
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