I was a department manager for 13 years until Jan. 2017 when lowes eliminated that position. I took pride in the way my departments looked. I treated my folks fairly and with respect. I trained them, helped when needed and what I did best, was things done in a timely manner by the right person . Stocking was done, I could order what was needed, I cross trained so customer could be helped, basically I directed by work list. each person that worked with me knew what they were responsible to do the next day, they also knew what the person next to them had to get done. It worked. Now these poor service managers are running around dealing with customer issues, pulling sales associates out of departs to bail out deliveries or help in garden. Yeah we got employees on the floor, in fact there's a new guy in plumbing who does not have his red vest yet and scheduled to be the only person for coverage in plumbing. Let's see how long he last before he realizes that's all the training he is getting. Right now I seem to be apologizing to customers left and right for service issue. It could be for not being notified by someone that thier order was in, or the guy in electrical can't answer his order, or there is so much freight sitting on the floor the customer can't get to the product that's on the self. I would ask all district managers to pop in ( this means showing up unannounced) and look at your stores through the customers eyes. Talk to your people one on one. It's not just the temporary dept. managers that fear to say anything any more. It's not your ASMs (we have some good ones), it's not the service managers (they are learning and for most doing the best they can) that are allowing this to happen. It is the, STORE MANAGER that is allowing their stores to fall apart ( I am sure there are many great managers out there, I have worked for a few of them) but right now in the store I work in someone put up a sign over the managers picture " have you seen this man ? Reward offered" it was taken down, but are you kidding? There are a lot of good people I work with that care but if the manager does not care, or SEE the issues , or listen to his people ....then things can not change.
Repost from another thread.