Like I told my new store manager I thought this was a good place to work,,,,
14 replies (most recent on top)
My opinion is that Lowes' current CEO will do to Lowes what he did to Penny's. At one time, most Lowes employees looked forward to actually coming to work. today, I would suggest that the 'highly motivated' mindset we once shared has eroded considerably. It's all about individuality, politics, who you know, undercutting one another, putting on false faces and pretending to be customer focused – it's called playing 'the game'. You go to work wondering, from month to month, whether or not you will suddenly become a casualty of this company's CEO. As another poster mentioned, they preach family but that nonsense is all propaganda. Under previous leadership, the working atmosphere was highly enjoyable and productive, which translated into first rate customer service and great customer relationships. Today however, one is more motivated to avoid customers unless those customers give you no choice but to assist them. That once glowingly work atmosphere has, in my opinion, been decimated by Lowes' CEO. If one wants to talk about throwing costs to the wind, this company's CEO ought to look at the assinine decisions made every day by management personnel .. one could write a book on that, alone. Sensible practices are gone and many highly motivated, highly knowledgeable associates are gone – and for what? I've seen people become elevated to manager who couldn't hold a candle to the top-notch associates who were discarded over the years. This degree of assinine decision making will catch up with this company and its CEO. Protecting the 'big chiefs' and decimating the 'little indians' needs no clarification. But will customers care about this? Probably not, since management allows customers to use Lowes as a rent-a-center (where one can buy, use and return a product for a full exchange or refund, virtually at any time) – customers know that all too well and that's all they need. Lowes worries about customer complaints and will do anything to avoid negative reactions. The farming out of the FSA and assembler duties to third parties (three in my situation), is just the latest in a long string of id–tic decisions. Were it within my purview to trim the fat, I would eliminate one or more of the dozens of third party contracts that Lowes uses, first of all. Secondly, I would eliminate at least two 'management type positions', where in our store, there would be no noteworthy impact. Retaining at least one FSA and assembler, even in part time roles, would have been practical and sensible. Discarding employees without warning and in a manner that seeks to avoid paying them the bonus they just earned stinks to high heaven. Don't be surprised if Ellison doesn't attempt to outsource other positions as well to other outside third parties who are competing for contracts. Why not farm out cashiers too? I don't see Lowes recovering from the direction it has taken. It would not surprise me in the least if some store closings weren't too far off down the road. The sad reality is that corporate heads are possess a significant level of wealth that these matters are of no consequence to them, one way or the other.
I was a former FSA for almost 4 years, I want to thank my fellow co-workers who gave me a lead to a possible job. I must have done some things right in their eyes. To my fellow FSA's and Assemblers Nation wide, I hope you find jobs that you will be Happy with. I can't predict what will happen with Lowe's. It sure does not look to good at this point. I am grateful to the ones who help me get a start in the retail field. Best of Luck to all Lowe's employees FSA 1887
On June 26th I watched a pod cast form Marvin Ellis he said all grills, mowers, patio furniture and all big boxed goods would no longer be in the store so I knew that assembly was going away I posted this on connections and here we are . After being called when I was out of town By the store manager they told me I was let go , the next day I came in to gather my personal belongings all management team members wouldn’t even look at me or engage with me . All the things I did for this company including replacing racking in the warehouse going on delivery so many times with no respect for the person that saved their butts so many times . Lowe’s preaches family all the time but when it really matters you are nonthing to them just a cog in the machine . I hope Marvin goes down with the ship! It’s sinking fast. The funny thing is that we were about to receive a bonus of $300 for full timers but if you remove 3,600 people that’s over a million dollars saved they did this just in time to screw us all over, at least Marvin will get another huge multi million bonus !
On June 26th I watched a pod cast form Marvin Ellis he said all grills, mowers, patio furniture and all big boxed goods would no longer be in the store so I knew that assembly was going away I posted this on connections and here we are . After being called when I was out of town By the store manager they told me I was let go , the next day I came in to gather my personal belongings all management team members wouldn’t even look at me or engage with me . All the things I did for this company including replacing racking in the warehouse going on delivery so many times with no respect for the person that saved their butts so many times . Lowe’s preaches family all the time but when it really matters you are nonthing to them just a cog in the machine . I hope Marvin goes down with the ship! It’s sinking fast.
Unfortunately, it is what it is.. I too wasn't given any advance notice and was shown the door upon returning from my days off, just like that. My criticisms here aren't with my fellow associates or management, which in my store, I consider to be first-rate– so much so, that I consider them as 'family' in so many ways.. My criticisms here however, are more toward corporate heads who simply have their own agenda and perspectives in mind, where they are simply inflexible. As a full time assembler for a great many years, I had become extremely proficient in assembly, developing my own assembly techniques and appreciating every particular quirk associated in assemblying virtually every product we carried (be they riding lawnmowers, table saws, cabinets, grills, wheel barrows, picnic tables and every grill we've ever carried). Sheer repetition and complete familiarity with each and every product, down to each nut and bold (including order of assembly), made me one heck of an asset when it came to assembly productivity. Lowes absolutely got their money's worth from my efforts, which I went above and beyond on. Sadly, I have my doubts that corporate figures even bothered to take these considerations into account, where I never compromised on assembly quality, appearance or flat out 'doing it right'. I provided customers first rate assembly and even shrink wrapped my final products, particularly those that were set for delivery. Giving customers the perception that we cared about their purchase was paramount, in my view. I saved cardboard corners from grills to protect the edges of products that were going out and shrink wrapping them, always attempting to ensure the customer's product got to them as pristine as possible. If it's not too bold to toot my own horn, I was so proficient that I would often do two products concurrently (depending of course, what the products were). Unless a particular product happened to be new (where I had to learn it the first time around), I didn't need to consult assembly instructions on any given product that we carried .. it just got done, period. The standard I set for myself was maintaining high daily productivity .. one or two projects didn't cut it whereas I demanded of myself that I complete as many projects in a day as possible. I observed one of the third party teams visit on two occasions and had to correct them, while casually taking a peek at their progress. Since I most certainly consider myself an expert on Lowe's assembly, it's rather difficult to be put out the door in the manner I was. Sad, because my store consists of a great collection of associates, in my opinion. While change is not always welcomed and sometimes necessary (popular or not), I simply question the decision for a mass layoff. My thinking is that exceptions could have been built into this decision where store managers could justify an exception, through performance and productivity .. unfortunately, corporate decisions didn't include this aspect. While I realize that there's a big picture to be considered (dollars), I happen to believe that outsourcing will prove to be a mistake.
15 years gone just like that. All benefits gone right then but still taking money out for them. Think they will give the money back??? Cant get pay stubs without calling them and then they will e-mail them to you. Far as benefits they tell you that u can pay out the esss for cobra. As a wise person once said what goes around comes around. For someone saying they grew up in a poor family (marivn) he seems not to care about the people and their family's. As he clams on all those pod casts , posts and e-mails. I dont get me wrong. I do understand things change and company's have stock holders but to let people go and not say you have 30 days to figure out your insurance. All I can say is geee thanks
I was also a FSA that was laid off yesterday and the way they did it with no notice laid off on a date they picked... no notice no warning. That is sorry as hell. I was a hard working associate I worked for lowes 8 years now I have no job no insurance and I’m p-ss-d....
I feel sorry for the customers they are the one hurting no staff to help them in the first place and they said they laid us off so the sales associates can stay on the floor helping customers that bull....
I helped customer everyday in my passing in the aisle when I could and I could help them I found someone that could help them...
I don’t think this this third party gonna help them out.. The maintenance part was giving to them a few months ago and they can’t get work orders done in a timely manner and stuff is still broke down..
well not my problem anymore
My problem now is finding a new job ( not a Lowe’s) find insurance and keep up my child support for my kids.. at lease I won’t get charge a dollar anymore for them to cut out my check...
I hope all well and good luck to my fellow ex Lowe’s FSA and Assembly workers in finding something new
I was a part time assembler for my store and worked there over 16 years. Did much more than just assembly work during the down season. My store will save a bit of money, but require more employees to operate power equipment since no one else would do it.
Typical corporate penny pinching that looks good on paper, but really isn't so great.
Good luck with lowes using an outside assembly team. Yes they get paid on how many items they put together but have you gone back and checked those items. Missing parts, screws/nuts/ bolts not secured and sometimes items not even put together correctly are just some issues that I had found over the years. Plus all the other things assemblers are asked to do. Things will go downhill fast. Wait and see..
While I feel bad for all of the hard-working assemblers that no doubt were out there and were affected by this, this new arrangement should benefit the stores and other employees going forward. Think about it—The new third party assemblers will be compensated by how much they put together, not by the hour. They will have much more incentive to get more product assembled rather than take all day to get one or two items put together, as was often the case in many stores. And they will work when they are needed. I know that many had a set Mon-Fri schedule and you could never count on them getting anything done on fridays because they would be out of hours and headed out the door by 10:00am.
I think that number is kind of low, the store I worked at had 2 part time assemblers and one full time and two part time FSA's, we were a smaller store, but were very high in our metrics. I'm thinking there were more like 7000 people laid off. Lowes has around 1800 stores with an average of 5 each of the people laid off. I was offered to stay on at different job. I just though WHY? Ellison didn't work out at Home Depot or Penney's, what make Lowes different? I've seen Lowes pull through some pretty hard times, Ellison is just another HARD TIME, time will be the judge....
So much for a simple heads up of oh, you guys are going to be losing your jobs. It was your job has been eliminated here’s the door.
Going to be interesting. Corporate never considered it was the FSA and Assembly people that did all the display, Christmas village, any other odd job that came up. When the customer needs their patio furniture that afternoon who’s going to do it.
The employees that got cut were treated badly but the Lowes customers got screwed.
Was laid-off as FSA yesterday. Each store lost at least two positions with people trained to operate most of the store's power equipment. Most FSAs and Assemblers were hard-working and conscientious enough to pitch in and do Code 50s, cart round-ups, and even Code 3s. I, myself, became a back-up delivery driver as I hold a CDL-A. Gave up long-haul trucking after getting married 16 years ago, now divorced and might hit the road again. But my point is that those 3rd-party vendors probably won't be doing carts or any type of customer engagement what-so-ever. All that labor flexible enough to help unload the DC truck one minute and fix a broken toilet the next. I just don't get it.