Thread regarding Lowe's Cos. layoffs

If you can work a retail job, and you think you can not tell a customer what you really think, you can make it.

In Pro Services. People came to you asking how to do something. And when you answer, they go "I know". If you know, why are you asking me? I've told a few people too.

So many know if you don't kiss their a $$, they go to a manager who gives them a discount and a gift card, right in front of you to rub it in.

Many shoppers are nice. My client base was great. But... in my store, close to the beaches, we got people from everywhere bringing their ignorance, arrogance, tired of sitting in beach traffic so take it out on a Lowe's guy, attitude.

People that want you to be their shopping butler. Next they call you with a huge order that takes a couple hours to pull, then you have to explain why you sales quota is low. Because you were in hardware pulling nuts and bolts and washers and got stuck answering questions about wall anchors. And where the little white facia nails are because online it says we got 20 boxes....

Tired of typing, anyone else want to run with this? Oh, don't forget having to listen to music you absolutely hate and the same songs play 3x a working day.

Next....

When someone blames Marvin for jc penny bankruptcy. They filed twice before Marvin even got there. He then brought their stock up double in his tenure. To blame an entire companies shut down on a person who was there less than 2 years just shows your intelligence.

Think long and hard before joining Lowe's now. One of the other respondents in this thread stated that it's a "horrible place" to work with Marvin Ellison at the helm. This is absolutely true. Marvin's relentless pursuit of shareholder value at the expense of the quality of life for anyone not part of his cabal is soul-deadening - and ultimately destructive. Witness the results of Marvin's tenure as CEO of JC Penney: they're in bankruptcy, and narrowly avoided liquidation. I'm not suggesting that BK is on the horizon for Lowe's (yet) but were it not for the dramatic upsurge in sales caused by the Covid closures of everything else, Marvin wouldn't be tooting his horn quite so loudly.

Marvin's outdated 2nd gen "Chicago School" outlook and numbers-based myopia has had a disturbing effect on staffing and morale. Stores are perpetually understaffed and poorly managed. Investment in much-needed IT upgrades is spotty, poorly planned, and incompetently executed (ask an associate about Sterling!). Ground-level employees are overworked, and managers - many of whom have been illegitimately promoted - too focused on their bonuses for the present unrest to yield good long-term results.

I often come across apologists who claim that the stressful, unrewarding work at Lowe's is "just retail" - but increasingly, it seems that that mantra is being used to justify and mask mediocrity. The rot has set in at the bottom (third-party assembly, third-party deliveries, unanswered phone calls, incompetent lower management), and customer dissatisfaction falls increasingly on the shoulders of the associates who have the most direct contact with irate customers: the sales floor associates. To my mind, it won't be long before Marvin and his pals at Pershing Square Capital do a "dump and run" - probably timed to coincide with the expiration of the limits on Marvin's stock holdings. When that happens, I hope your IRA holdings have been diversified away from an over-reliance on LOW.

So, let me "bottom line" this. Work at Lowes? Not unless you have asbestos underwear and a very thick skin. Marvin Ellison and Joe "Little Hands" McFarland have turned what used to be a pleasant place to work into some kind of Hieronymus Bosch painting of the agonies of hell.

As long as you're ok with part=time temporary, at a "competitive" wage, go ahead.

Don't do it.
It is a horrible place to work with marvin running the show.

Retail is Retail as others had stated. Most of the associates in my local Lowe's seem frustrated, thin in staffing. I've heard that Lowe's folks work six day week every 3 weeks? The two days off or something like that.

It's retail, I wouldn't say any worse or better then any of the others. It's all about what you make of it.

Some good advice give here already
Go to store walk around
My Dept tools is and has been
Understaff for 9 months

Be aware Corp makes all decisions

I have a wonderful female manager
In tools
Every day she text me a to do list

Every nite I text her back with what I did
And I send pics

I’m very happy

You didn’t say what Dept or your skills

Agree with poster about checking out the store you are looking at. Even as a customer you should be able to see if employees are miserable. My store was not bad til Covid, the customers got ridiculous and Store Management super stressed and the ASM I usually worked with was fired, so I no longer like working at Lowe’s. We pay $14 though and I think hire better employees than other retail shops.

Yes all 12 of the same people that have negative comments on these threads think the same. The pother 200,000+ employees wouldn't say it is the worst. However it is a retail job with a corporation so at the end of the day all they or any other retailer care about (because of the investors} is the stock price. Also some stores may be worse thank others.

You obviously have a good knowledge of the basics in retail, but home improvement retail is a different animal. It’s much more labor intensive and there is no such thing as self service in a Lowe’s store. You can earn a good living in the manager ranks but you will need to be high energy, an excellent multitasker, able to handle interaction with many types of people and personalities, able to deal professionally with customer complaints, and of course willing to work 50-70 hrs/ week and on call when you’re not at work.

It is as horrible as the posts make it seem.

Yes ! At least in Alabama it is..

To be honest, I would tell go to the Lowe’s in your area and speak directly with some of the associates in those stores, as a lot of it depends on the management from store to store. This forum has seemingly become the Lowe’s employee complaint center. I get it, It’s retail so there’s bs at Lowe’s like anywhere else but I can tell you that my personal experience isn’t nearly as horrible as reading these post will make it seem. Not trying to devalue what anyone else post here, that’s just my opinon.