Are there any members of management out there that watched the “special broadcast” from Joe McFarland? We watched it in our store and he made a comment when discussing the PSI/LP “realignment” that over the weekend he has been listening and ready posts online? I wonder if he has seen this page and the comments on it? I hope he does. I hope it allows them to get some insight into what is really going on in the company. Of course there will always be angry people that want to rant but a lot of people are here to find information that they can’t get from the leaders in there store or their market, also a lot of people are here to give some voice to their frustrations a lot of people here have been with Lowe’s a long time and are concerned for their future. If Joe and Marvin happen to read this page I hope they take to heart what they see cause there is a lot of people that are becoming disengaged with what’s going on. You can spin it all you want about the new hiring and the new things coming but it’s not tangeable we don’t see new people or people even coming in for interviews, the common consensus in our store is only about 1 in 10 new hires actually ends up working out, we don’t have new phones yet, it’s taken longer to fix sterling that the wait to get sterling. All the employees in my store see is people like our HR, our LP, our PSI, people that together have more than 30 years with Lowe’s combined being shuffled out and what’s coming in are the young kids who show up for only a 1/4 of their shifts wearing pajamas. Our employees see the labor cuts, when the MOD is actually coverage in 2 departments and we have lumber and garden locked up as well as self checkout closed with one cashier and one head cashier with a constant line. The managers who are always running looking constantly stressed, the never ending pages and ringing phones cause there is no one to answer and just when we think we can’t have any fewer people we are told to cut another 300 hours out of the week we are in. It’s very hard for them to believe that we are hiring 20+ people into the store. I just hope that Joe and Marvin see all that’s here on this site and take to heart that this company and its employees have been through the ringer several times before they arrived and these changes are not making them feel better about our future. The joke I hear is we are the new sears, we are number 1 in appliances, we got craftsman but where it took sears almost 30 years to fall from the largest retailer on earth to bankruptcy, I bet Lowe’s will beat them by 15 years. It’s sad to hear employees just constantly envisioning the demise its almost a forgone conclusion it’s not a “if” but a “when” everyone feels they are 1 step from being let go. The higher you are the closer you feel to a pink slip. That’s no way for the morale of a company based on its employees interacting and helping people to be.
9 replies (most recent on top)
An update, in my store which is not in region 27, the news of the new schedules are really making their way around. It is just decimating the tiny bit of morale that was left in the store. I know it is a pilot program and so where the Service Managers for a while and we all know how that turned out. The talk of schedules in the "special broadcast" and now that no ASMs or our store manager are willing to discuss anything with anyone is really putting a wrench into everything. I have been with Lowe's over a decade and I have seen my store in good times and bad and I truly cannot see how this building can continue to function. The morale is SO LOW, the employees SO MISERABLE, the customers SO ANGRY, and our store manager walks around like everything is fine just pawning it off onto someone else. In my store the SSMs and like 1 ASM where the ones who really ran the show and tried to get stuff done, now with this news of the rotations everyone has completely gone overboard, no one cares at all. Today alone 7 call ins and 5 No Call No Shows and we won't even write them up cause some of them are in positions we cant afford to lose and the others just cause no one cares. A lumber truck has been sitting for 2 days not even started to be put away cause lumber doesn't show up and the SSM and ASM over that area both said they "don't f---ing care anymore" To be fair in my store the corporate rotation for the actual shift was never used for anyone, the times where always determined by the SSMs or ASMs or SM after making cuts but the rotation as far as days off was always observed. News that those are going away just ruined everything for us, even if it won't affect our store for a year or so the damage has been done. I had a fellow manager crying reading about it cause this person helps take care of their nieces and nephews and uses his rotation to plan times to do things, this person was devastated by just this bit of news cause it literally was the only thing they had some semblance of control over. I as well as many others are interviewing for new jobs elsewhere. I cannot take it anymore. The stress of it all is too much to bear. I see so many people as well as myself ready to crack. Employees from the bottom up in my store will tell you that after 2 days in a row off they feel somewhat normal to come back, 1 day off is not enough to undo the pressure and stress from this job. I know other retailers have similar policies and Depot is one of them and I know that they are moving us in that direction but I don't think Marvin anticipates the blow back. Like I said in my original post the employees of this company are different then other companies and have been through the wringer before Marvin and Joe showed up and they cannot handle much more. This will affect sales it already has in my store, the volume of complaints, the phone calls, the screaming people at the service area our sales keep falling and falling. I kid you not when I say I can see the day approaching where we will not be able to open for business because we literally don't have enough people with knowledge or concern to actually serve customers. 2 nights ago both closing MODs spent the last 2 hours on register as there where no cashiers, only one head cashier. after closing everyone was directed to leave to save payroll the two MOD's got carts while the head cashier emptied the registers. They locked up the money and left, the store was in complete disarray and it couldn't be fixed the next morning cause the one opening MOD and 4 employees decided to call in. Customers just walk out. This schedule business has done more damage than I think the Dept Manager restructure did, only because people are so weary and battle worn that for us it may be the grain of rice that tipped the scale. Good luck to other stores out there cause this ship is sinking fast, and no help is on the way.
No public announcement of the Lowes LP and PSI mass lay-off. They are sweeping you UNDER THE RUG. Nobody is aware. All the media knows is that Lowes is bringing in new IT employees and creating jobs but not a drop in the buck about the job creations being “created” from the brow of the LP and PSI budgets.
Have you contacted your local new agency yet or are you going to keep silent and take it up the A**? Love where you live?
Depending on where you live, the job market may really s--- so people are stuck in Lowe's jobs. If you are older, then you are even more screwed. Even Lowe's does not value older people in this area. They go out of their way to bring in kids from other states even to fill service manager positions when they have people here more qualified to do the job. They want kids who have been with Lowe's a year or so and who have little or no management experience to manage in the stores because they will be robots and do whatever the ASM or Store Manager tells them without question. Maybe it is time people with experience are valued and differing opinions should be valued. Often it takes someone with past experience in a real job outside of Lowe's to see how things could be changed for the better. Rather than belittle people who have opinions, why don't you listen and maybe you will learn something. There are never enough people working and even when they are supposedly hiring seasonal people, etc, the fact is very few are hired. A lot of people can't pass the d--g test and those who do get hired quit because they don't want to work. There are stores here expecting people to do so many unsafe things such as load heavy appliances or lawn equipment for a customer by themselves. Lowe's does not care about the well being of it's employees. Why are there so many injuries to employees? The higher up's don't know about them because they are not reported. Customers complain that there isn't anyone to help them and as a result employees don't get a bonus or get a whopping $50. No one gets raises based on performance but rather just a set percentage so the worthless are rewarded as much as the hard working. The biggest downfall in Lowe's is poor management in store and above. Following is not leading. Firing is not leading. Closing stores is not leading. Turning stores around to be profitable and coming up with leading edge advertising or marketing or sales channels would be more impressive.
This is the first time in all the years I’ve worked at Lowe’s that everyone in the store is fed up. And what has everyone angry is eliminating the schedule rotations!!! From ASM’s to the cashier that is F/T, people are openly sounding off their displeasure! Ellison has done something that I didn’t think could be done. He’s driven the morale lower than Niblock ever did...
I don’t think corporate, Marvin or any of the managers care or even think to realize that the people venting and posting on the message boards care about the company they’ve worked for. Many remember the good days with the Power of Pride stickers, kids clinics with 50 or more families, specialists training customers in the departments, meaningful bonuses that made associates and department managers want to move up, and schedules that were demanding but thought out to not burn the associates and managers out.
20 years later the company pays less, doesn’t care about the associates, rarely gives bonuses and the bonuses are given to the lazy when only a few still do the bulk of the work.
Niblock decimated the company. Marvin has followed and done the same.
The employees want a steady income. Reasonable job security and managers that aren’t scripted corporate puppets.
Word of mouth is killing the company. The associates and customers can see there isn’t improvement only smoke and mirrors.
Cut the regional teams and restructure those lazy overlords and replace them with people that will work side by side with the stores and you may be moving in the right direction.
I've been with Lowe's for 7 years, each year is worse than the year before. The comparison to Sears is an apt one. Number one in appliances (with razor thin margins, why do you think they want the "protection plans" pushed so hard) and Craftsman tools (you should see people bringing in boxes of old tools wanting new ones).
Were is the belt-tightening, cost cutting, and doing without at corporate?
Corporate will always quell the negative impact reactions to their strategies. I don;t believe that Lowe's cares about its business anymore. We never really worried about our stock versus Home Depot, we were the best customer service company in big box retail. The high wage earners bled the talent by opening too many stores right beiore R.E. bubble bust in 2008. Then they hired back all H.D managers
who were purged after Nardelli. This group already had lousy work performance and no ability to execute. Thats why Depot let them fly. Homegrown managers were put off by these re-treads and thus began the fall. Soon cronyism and bonus were the future, screw the aisle workers making customer service their job. Tasking became performance, sales an after thought.
So Niblock and his cronies soaked the stock,pushed crazy revenue dreams...Orchard...Rona...Masters....Mexico....The Mine to near collapse, pinched the associate's wallet, com sales and 401k fund manipulation... boom the golden parachutes opened and the Lowe's family is dysfunctonal and bitter.
When DE Shaw thought about Lowes they were well into a passive takeover. Lowes employees control a large amount of stock, so the old regime had no way to stop outsiders, short of giving up!
I think Marvin was a rising star in the Nardelli era and learned alot about dysfunction, Spy 2000 and all that GE nonsense. So whats left? Under capitalized, poor morale, mentally drained leaders, can Lowes pull off a rebound? The best start is to undo the mess, no more , no less. Lest the previous reply make us too positive, Lowes would be advised to tread cautiously going foward. The workers were never the problem, but the lack of talented leaders has always been!
I guarantee the majority of employees in every store is p-ss-d off at the way the company is being run into the ground. We've had 3 years of sh-- decisions and downsizing and now it's to the point it just utter f---ery.
Just can never understand. If people are so unhappy with where they work and seem to believe they have all the answers why not take that vast knowledge to the open market and score a kick a-- job?? Hmmmmmmm, or is people just love to complain and love to be small % online to just be miserable no matter what ? 310K employees at Lowe’s. . Most views of any post on here is like 800. Most comments like 10. Doesn’t seem like the majority are upset.