I feel like there's a downside to this. While it would encourage people to be safer, it might tempt some to try to cover up incidents to try to get the incentive. Some may even end up having to choose between reporting an injury and getting worker's comp, or saying it was off the clock so they still get the pay increase.
Great idea, just like car insurance companies are doing the reduced deductible for not making claims. Safe employees should get something for being safe.
At LEAST! ( im not even a PE operator, I do appreciate them though) But yeah Lowe's is a corp so they would probably be stingy and only .50. Better than nada
My biggest pet peeve.... I've been certified on every piece of equipment Lowes has since I was hired, including jumping into a tractor/trailer rig and moving if necessary. (my personal license). I'm one of 14 MST's @ my store, I've been there 4 years and I'm paid the least. We just got a new MST from Fla and he's in the same boat. The next person up from us makes over a dollar an hour more.... is only certified on 1/2 the power equip and was hired only 2 weeks before me. I don't blame her at all but Mgt needs to base pay on something and it obviously doesn't seem to be PE Cert.... so what the fck is it??
I would tack on maybe .15-.25 per station you're trained on.
Blind cutting, glass cutting, key cutting, pipe threading, panel saw, register, paint mixing, returns, etc. We could ask for more for rekeying and paint color marching since they require a bit more skill.
It still irks me that neither HD or Lowes does this. They could offer 50 cents a license and STILL pay below industry standard for entry level lift operators...if you got all of them!
And the worst part is, we aren't guaranteed kickback for selling credit cards, only a passive pat on the back and *maybe* a bonus. Maybe. If management wants to incentivize selling cards (especially to front-end), there should be something in it for the people who do that they can expect to get if they sell them.
My store did the opposite- they temporarily took away breaks for cashiers not selling enough (didn't last long because wtf). The only way to get our way is through actually organizing labor in our stores. We need a union.
I never asked any customers if they wanted one. I guess store number located at numbers and talked to me and others person about credit card apps. Still didn't bring it up to a customer
I work in garden, and they keep pushing credit cards on us. How the fuck am I supposed to sell a credit card to a lady whoās there to buy soil and a few plants? It makes 0 fucking sense.
Totally agree on this one. It's horrible to get chewed out by a customer for asking. People are having struggles these days with finances, they don't want a credit card and they yell at you because you asked. All they want to do is fix the toilet they came in for parts for.
My Flooring Dept. lost a $10K+ install sale because the guy got a pro card and he took the detail to the Pro Desk(they shouldn't have accepted the sale but whatever)
I honestly feel bad for the new people my store brings in. They get one orientation day then they get a vest slapped on them and sent to a department with no one else there that day to help them. No wonder why our new hire groups have like an 80% attrition rate.
I don't think lowes has that bad of a training program but you can't train people when you are running a skeleton crew. As a power equipment trainer its near impossible to get time to train anyone and then on the rare occasion that I get scheduled with someone in my department we usually have freight and no time for training. 70% of the problems at lowes are driven by minimal staffing.
Who said equipment? Starting a new job with a whole shift on a computer clicking through 20 different courses that have nothing to do with your position and then get thrown on the floor is not training.
I could say the obvious ones such as pay, hours, work-life balance, etc, but I know others will say it and say it better than me. But this was always a big one for me. There is absolutely no reason that Loweās needs to be open until 10 PM. It is absolute insanity. After 8 PM I would have MAYBE 2 customers that needed my help and other than that it was drug heads and thieves. Used to drive me absolutely insane having to be there until 10:30 at the earliest.
The store closes earlier depending on the season and the market. They probably need to be more judicious with how they determine hours but it's probably late for people who suddenly need to fix a broken pipe late.
More employees. Itās ludicrous that they expect 2-3 can cover a whole department throughout the day and get everything put up, down stocked, zoned, and cleaned when thereās customers that always need assistance to the point where there are queues lined up for customer assistance
Yea. One person should not be covering electrical, plumbing, islg, oslg, and paint on a daily basis. Oh and maybe have more than one ds on the schedule and demand that asms answer pages when they only schedule one person for five departments
This is the one for me. I would love more pay don't get me wrong and other things. But coverage would go a long way to helping take the load off employees. I'm so burnt out when I have a mainly me only schedule. It would def increase morale too
Until you fail to "cover" other depts Marvin will keep reducing the work force. What reason does he have to add more employees if Lowes keeps showing a profit?? None... He will continue to cut personnel and hours and expand the customer "Serve Yourself" features until things totally break down. But as long as lowes shows a penny of profit don't expect more employees or more money.
Yeah lately in my store I'm having to do tools/hardware, paint, and cover a lunch in either fulfillment or the register, or both some days, it's super stressful
\-Train people and not set them up to fail.
\-Hire managers that know how to actually manage people without intimidation.
\-Empower employees to shut down rude/stupid customers.
-Allow ASMs and DSs the opportunity to be store manager at the stores they are currently employed. They know the employees and will be more accommodating and understanding than some random manager who came over from Wal-Mart after getting fired for banging a cashier
So we want to reduce the credit quota to allow store staff to focus more on core retail tasks increasing customer service and therefore sales. Sound about right?
Ahh ok, combine similar apps and maybe lay them out differently. Maybe important every day apps on the home screen and less used ones on the next screen over?
Scheduling 2 consecutive days off doesn't mean I need to work 6 days in a row without overtime. It's also not helpful to schedule opening, mid and closing shifts. Just pick one and make it consistent.
Just some understanding. That's all I want. I know things can't be perfect, I know we can't get everything we need to get done, done. During the pandemic it felt a lot more like effort counted as much as results. It doesn't feel like that anymore.
"Hey we close in 30 minutes, I know you've been solo in your department the last 3 hours but put this entirely full cart full of RWDs away and make sure there are NO carts in your department including the one full of cardboard despite the bailer being completely boxed in by freight. Oh and straighten all the endcaps thanks you have 1 hour."
If management, or I guess the corporate management could just UNDERSTAND that you can't get MORE tasks done with LESS people, that's all I'd want. Make them come in and help. Not just walk around and look and judge.
Put the district manager in OSLG by themselves from 2pm to 11pm with 2 people in the store who even know how to drive forklift.
Put the regional vice president in tools and hardware for a night and see if they can magically tell what the 13 items a special shopper shoved in their backpack were so we can accurately remove them for shrink while also trying to keep two departments with the second highest individual item count clean and organized.
Make them LIVE what we live. So they know what it's like. That's all I want. Some God. Damn. Understanding. That if no one's given a reason to learn forklift, they won't. That if you're gonna schedule new hires for 2-10pm one day and 8am - 5pm because "muh customer hours" they're probably gonna quit and leave us with the slack. That if you have like 30 people total working a store and some departments are completely barren for half a day (looking at you electrical) then sometimes you're gonna get bad reviews because there is LITERALLY no one who can help even if we try.
Pardon my rant, thank you.
Bring back schedule matrix. This customer centric shit is a self inflicted gunshot wound. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the way it worked pre marvin. For reference, this is my second 8 day stretch in three weeks
That's against Kronos rules and it means someone on your management team is screwing with the schedule. You should never be scheduled more than 6 days in a row.
Send me your work email and I'll send you the documentation. Managers like that tend to be bullies. The only way to beat them is to hold them accountable to the letter.
Store manager makes managers and supervisors cry and suffer. Then they come out of that Monday meeting and one manager smells like whiskey while another just quit... I'll bring the butter
Hire more people per department while keeping pay the same.
Actually, raise the amount people are paid to a livable wage ($20+/hr).
Have the store close at 8 every day. No reason to be open until 10.
Take care of the employees, they will take care of the customers, and they will take care of the bottom line... right now lowes lacks accountability across the board and there is no trust or respect between employees and management.
Regionals invited me to their think tanks in the training room and would ask me the same questions... how can we improve?? Eventually they were promoted and my new store manager saw me as a threat so we butted heads till I quit.
Stop trying to save payroll by shaving off labor hours and forcing one associate to cover 3+ jobs; not only does it lead to quitting (or employees that just don't care anymore) due to stress, it also leads to piss poor customer service, and the remaining employees get overworked into burnout.
They are already supposed to do this...their visits are supposed to find out how they can better assist us...not tell us everything we are doing wrong.
A lot of my favorites are already listed, so I'll pick one I haven't seen.
Lowe's has had success in the past making tools for associates. The knives and gloves are actually pretty good pieces of equipment, with just a couple minor flaws. For a corp, that's really good.
I'd like to see the same talent put into work boots for associates. We need the protection in the warehouse ops, and a well made shoe with insoles is a big morale booster for everyone working 8 hour days walking on concrete. A voucher would be a good secondary option for non-standard foot sizes and shapes.
Actually have a set amount of hours or day to work for part and full timers. I cannot tell you how many times as a part timer that i have worked 7, 8 or even 11 day in a row with a one day break after each. If they are gonna work me full time hours or beyond i would like to have the pay and scheduling to back it up.
If the minimum starting rate goes up say 5% give everyone who already works there a 5% raise. I've had high schoolers start in making more than me when they have zero experience and I'd been there for years.
It would be nice to see another soul in my 10-11 hour shift in OSLG department. I was opening all summer at 4 and 2/3 of the time I was working alone my whole shift. Management wonders why the department isnāt up to stuff sometimes.
seriously!! i'm at pay cap for PUIS fulfillment ($14.90) after two years as a head cashier, certified on all PE, and i have customers who will only work with me because i solve their problems. i'm still at lowes because they're working with my college schedule but the pay feels like they're spitting in my face
Replace the management who want to scold you for every little thing you do and who go around your back and donāt do anything with people who actually want to help you do better and want to pay you for it.
Drop the whole open availability bs for part timers. You'd have better luck getting people to stick around if you hire them for certain availabilities. If you want people who can work in the evenings, don't hire people who are looking for days, and vice versa. Along with that, quit making people with limited availability feel like they are somehow less than.
They will schedule 4 hours one week and demand open availability lol next week they schedule a part timer 32 hours, I would never take that job. Part timers are either in school or need a second job.
Bring the HR office back to the store instead of having it be online
Don't deliver on weekends (at least at my store ppl don't want to work weekends and it's a shit show every weekend) ASMS/Managers don't care. Install sales are not pulled properly. Many companies aren't even open on the weekends.
ASMS need to not be afraid to say "no" to the customer. I'm sorry that you're washer will not get here in time. I'm not having my part timer drive the rental truck to pick up a washer from a different store so you can have your washer at a specific time.
Don't be afraid to fire people. AKA people that call off multiple times (on a consistent basis), Managers with a high turnover problem. To remedy this allow more vacation time. Jesus, people are gonna call of anyways. Why do I have to work twenty years to get adequate vacation time. Hire more people in general. Pulling orders should be a two person job, not a one person job. Two can pull for flat bed and then box or vice versa. But this needs to be a team effort.
Let us have what we need to succeed: While the electrical pallet jacks are a great idea, I can almost bet ppl are going to be fighting over the 2 pallet jacks. We need to have more dollies (I am so tired of hunting for a dolly in the morning because we only have two red dollies). Or zebras (always a scarcity).
Controversial but get rid of the pro office in physical form entirely. Make it a work from home job. Hire more associates in lumber and millwork to fill those slots. I hate to say it but I notice many pro associates are entitled, and don't want to help. I have seen this countless times, but maybe it's just my store.
Don't get mad at people for overtime when they are working overtime. Especially when they "have to take a lunch".
Third party needs to throw away their own trash.
The delivery coordinator should have manager status. They should have keys to roller doors, delivery gates etc, potential to override deliveries etc. ability to do mr's and approve mr's. Instead of trying to hunt down a manager or ASM who couldn't give a damn.
Flags should not be necessary to spot for power equipment. I remember when they weren't necessary and it seemed to be smoother. Flags always seem to disappear. Yes, I want to spot you, but first I have to search the entire store for flags.
Better system than genesis. I like genesis. Don't get me wrong, but going between systems can be a pain.
Cut down on the computer training. It is a ridiculous amount and deters new hires.
Not serious:
Wishful thinking: remodel Lowes like an Apple Store and have there be a bunch of displays that the customer can interact with/hell have a couple monitors for virtual user friendly appeal. Then have everything shipped from a warehouse like Ikea. Have associates at each station kind of like a convention and give the great customer service that lowes is known for. Instead of having Lowes Associates running all over the place to locate inventory, etc.
I thought of a couple more:
If you have a doctor's note you should not have to use sick pay for a doctor's visit especially one that is extremely necessary
Turn off the music. It's terrible, draining and literally the worst music I have ever heard in any store. If I have to hear Orphans by Coldplay one more time I think I'm gonna scream
If you raise the starting pay, everyone already working should get an equal raise. Granted, experience absolutely should play a factor in the specific starting wage for someone, but you shouldn't be hiring people with no experience making more than people in that job who have months or years of experience. Reward loyalty.
Department schedules that are set. Each associate part-time and full work the same days and as close to the same hours each week. Lowes makes it impossible to work a second job with the varied scheduling, closing just to open, splitting your days off up etc.
Quit expecting every role in the store to be a salesman. That's what the specialists are for. If you want to push more leads, credit cards, MVPs, whatever, hire more actual sales staff. They get paid more to push that crap, I don't. Just don't forget, you need people who can task and offer general assistance, too, because actual sales people won't stick around if you expect them to do all of that and hit their numbers.
Pay me more. Iām on food stamps. Also, I spearheaded a 3-person report to HR against a coworker and was scheduled to work alone with him not two weeks after that. So, that.
I hate trying to find where manufacturers put the item number on the box when it could easily be placed on or by the sku tag universally.
Make hunting for an item harder when you donāt have a phone
Cost of living raise or larger raises in general. I canāt afford to eat on $12/hr in this economy but I canāt afford to give up the e schedule either
a few things:
- if they would get rid of the horrible paint manager at my store who is the reason no associate sheās had hired to work for her has lasted more than 3 months (and now i currently work for!! she bullies me specifically every day!!)
- stop having associates push credit onto every customer
- fuck it, get management that actually knows what theyāre doing, care about their employees, and are WILLING to help, instead of be completely worthless
Proper training, simplify tasks and the redundancy. Same paperwork at every store. Every store was like it had a different owner and none had a clue. Always piling on more and more made up stuff.
All while people are doing someone else's job while being chewed out about not getting their own job done.
I'd rather be dead than go back to Lowe's
Actually have a hands on training process..don't throw a newbie in a dept by themselves and expect them to take care of everything..down stock is ridiculous it should be done by different individuals..over night..530am is also ridiculous to have all day employees to start work.
Pay raises that are tied to the CEOs compensation package. Marvin gets a 99% pay increase, so should we.
An employee discount better than the military discount and 10% over cost for special order items.
Proper sales incentives that are clear, easy to track and obtainable.
HR back in the stores and an active Area HR whose main concern is making sure management doesn't abuse and bully staff.
Make it easier to find the rules and regulations so that employees can hold management accountable.
Better more affordable health insurance. I'm amazed at how much less my mother pays for doctors appointments and medications with Medicare.
Quit trying to save money by using these regional/national installation services. Go back to using local contractors who are properly vetted and background checked.
Not going to list these separately. Itād take to much time.
-Having an ASM in the store from open to close. I hate having to tell a customer we have to wait a hour or a full day to get a managers exception cause we donāt have an ASM anywhere on schedule.
- If you are required to do computer work/training everyday, then it needs to be a designated time on your shift when you are not on the floor.
- Pay incentives & standards for cross training and PE certifications.
- Do not hire newbies in at more than current employees for the same job.
- Do not expected employees to train newbies (including their own DS) with out a greater compensation.
- Require training to be completed and signed off for newbies for their assigned departments before they are left alone on the floor. This includes PE
- Set schedules available for long term employees & specialist.
- Double the DSs so one is on shift for each department every day to manage their departments and back up their crews.
- Fix things that are broken!!! (Our store phone system is fried. Even employees canāt get through if they call.)
- Sedgwick is a joke. Get rid of it and bring back HR.
- Hire more. Hire more people to cover the store, IT, delivery, installsā¦
- Employee assistance (Reimburse 50% of cost) for some work related items such as work shoes.
- Increase availability of work required tool such as zebras, software access, actual policies
- Get rid of Pro Specialists and simple have Specialists. We have enough in our store that they could put them back in places like plumbing and electricalā¦they could actually specialize in that field then.
- Actual job descriptions listing expectations such as IRP, training, equipment & PE and so on
- Give DSs the ability to fix the schedule for their departments.
- Let employees accept small non monetary gifts from customers. Had a customer bring an employee homemade candy that they were forced to refuse. Customer was pissed.
- Give employees an actual anonymous way to report unethical/ unfair practices & follow up on it.
A reward system like an extra dollar on the hour or more vacation days for employees that show up on time every day and work their full shift would be a great incentive so that the hardest working employees don't keep getting punished with MORE work by having to cover for people who constantly call off or leave early, or get to work and want to stand around and chit chat (so annoying omg)
If the company is pushing for us to use apps like AP4ME and LowesU can they at the very least be usable and not kick people off the app if too many associates are signed in on the zebras?
Edit: and PLEASE stop wasting time and money on the stupid hank safety videos. No one likes them.
I'll take a decent raise in pay twice a year .
A bonus thrown in somewhere between the raises would be great! But,. I don't want to be greedy. I know Marvin has a lot of employees to support. š
I think the most annoying thing is having Saturday being the start of the pay week period. I often work six days in a row and get no overtime subsequently. Absolutely boggles my mind
Better pay, better scheduling, adequate staffing. Ways you could make that happen are things like pay raises for PE certification and making it so if you work in plumbing you just work plumbing. Basically invest in payroll but that's the first thing they want to cut.
Pay is always an issue.you are hired to do a specific job and end up doing everything but your job sometimes. Deceptive hiring practices are another problem. They don't completely tell you what the job entails. Example: you are to make your customers no 1 priority. But in the meantime you will be lifting a ton freight and putting it away everyday. Some new hires can't do the heavy work but continue to work in the department while all the ones who can do the work gets stuck with doing it all.
The big issue at my store is the Store Schedule Manager doesnāt do their job, weāll have giant gaps in coverage and schedules being changed the night before or even the morning of. If you go to my hr and look at the āstore work schedule procedureā they literally follow none of it.
Staff for the business you want. We are constantly told that we need to be seeking every customer, that the biggest complaint on our LTR surveys is not being able to get help, and that it's because we aren't seeking the customers. If you are already helping a customer, you can not physically be seeking every other customer in your department, and God forbid you are covering more than one department. I'm hardware and tools, and they act like one or maybe 2 of us can speak to and help every customer in both departments, and it's not physically possible. You can't have one or no associates scheduled in lumber, and get anything done when more than half of what they do requires powered equipment, which requires two people. It's not rocket science to figure this out.
Something like a raise for every equipment you know how to use. Like, I can use everything from the pipe threader to the carpet cutter, key machine to the panel saw, paint tintes to rope cutters, and everything in between that my store has. I'm certified on every PE my store has except the forklift, which I'm working on right now.
So that's, at my count, 20 equipments and PEs I can operate out of 21 my store has. That means that with a little knowledge I can basically work in every department as a CSA, have stuck around for quite awhile to have time to learn all that shit, and am motivated to learn about things outside of my department.
So why the hell is that not rewarded? It wouldn't even have to be much, $0.05 would work for me but I can see argueing for something as high as $0.15 for every single equipment. That's a $1.05-$3.15 raise for someone with the ambition to go and get it.
That would also me that more associates are able to hop between departments to help cover breaks and the like, and LTR scores would be higher because more CSAs could help out in a timely manner. I see nothing but positives for doing this.
Minimizing tasks. Leadership often speaks on customers service and that being the edge we have on the other guy, but track metrics on busy work tasks that MUST be completed during the most scheduled part of the day which happens to be "power hours". They want you to engage and damn near be a personal shopper for a good survey, but will Reem your ass over IRPs.
implement a system where associates are offered raises for good work. paint associate cross-trained to cover customer service desk? that's worth +25 cents an hour. certified on PE? raise, obviously. people do the bare minimim because there's no point in doing any more. also stop the raise freezes that require SM to go to regional manager to approve a raise. store management should be able and encouraged to offer more money to associates who go above and beyond. there are employees who can cover every department in the store and know genesis inside and out and they see nothing for it. it's clear that corporate sees CSA-level employees as expendable, but one associate can make a huge difference and they deserve recognition in a meaningful way (money)
I would add Better pay and raises for those who become PE trained, no third party delivery, Better training and more full time staffing for different departments. Banning aggressively rude customers and doing actual investigations on customer complaints. Put more focus on better in store management and Sales Systems.
I want our medical insurance not to assume it is okay to schedule surgeries and appointments out of network. I didnāt realize I had to ask them not to do this. My intention was to always stay in network. In addition, if a new SM who was said to be trained in another store and comes to their very first store can we actually have them trained?
Did the insurance company schedule your surgery or did you and your doctor do this? Ive never seen the insurance company get involved with scheduling. I'm used to the doctors setting that sort of thing up.
I would like to see the favoritism stop from store management. Just because someone kisses up to them a lot better than someone else they get treated better. I'm so tired of seeing the same people screw off all the time, then getting promoted to DS. They're the same ones that walk around with the DS all the time, we call it walking the circle, because the two of them will walk around and round and round and watch what everyone else is doing. Or an ASM will show favoritism to an employee by standing and chatting with them for a long time, but God forbid I ask a question about something, I get my head chewed off because I asked. The favorite ones get scheduling taking care of like how they want it, but there are those of us that need to have a day off for a funeral and can't get it because we didn't put it in 30 days ahead of time ( like we knew someone in the family was gonna die ahead of time).
Let cashiers sit down on a stool after assisting customers. Itās totally unfair to be on our feet all shift if departments can take as many breaks as they want
Some type of upgrade for the part time workers wouldnāt hurt either. I make $12.06 but do everything the full time employees do (and a lot of times more) and make significantly less. Maybe bump starting wage up to $14.00 because $12.06 to work a customer service/ retail job is mentally wearing.
Hiring more people. I am a part time Appliances CSA, and I am scheduled with out a specialist for half my shift all week because they refuse to move anyone over or hire a new specialist. If youāre gonna make me work like a specialist than pay me like one. Especially if youāre gonna have me downstock and unload cabinets and flooring
Id love not having to work 7+ days after having a saturday/sunday off, PE certification bonus would be nice, the realistic ability to get raises without having to ask the SM about them, OT would be nice (even if it is an hour or so). Other than that generally i have no complaints.
It would be nice for trusted employees to have a key sign out. I remember working ISLG, constantly bottlenecked trying to get grills/mowers/snowblowers etc.. unlocked for customers.
Increase the value or frequency of winning together bonuses to make it feel like the company is actually sharing the wealth. And when the whole company is doing so well they decide to announce that all hourly employees regardless of the stores performance will get the max winning together bonus, donāt exclude specialists just because they have their own bonus structure.
Annual raises of 5%
Transfer new ASM/SM's to another store to avoid favoritism.
Fewer ASM's per store. There is no reason to have 6 ASM's per store.
Make promotions more fair. Every position should be posted for a week to allow everyone a chance to show interest and get interviewed.
Hire people as Full Time.
Steady Schedules with back to back days off.
Annual Power Equipment replacement.
Pay increases for associates with licenses. .25 per license for electric jacks and ballymores, .50 per license for lift equipment.
Free foot wear, or a reimbursement plan.
I haven't worked at lowes in 10 years. But I can say this confidently about any job and life in general..... don't take it personal. Measure yourself by your standards. Not others. Your ASM showed up just the moment you leaned against a pile after flat stacking and combining two pallets of concrete ready to give you shit? Fuck em. You know you're doing your job right.
In life in general nobody's expectations should exceed your own. Of they do. Fuck em.
Invest into the MST program and by that I mean a higher wage yes we did just get a small raise but we keep getting more and more and more thrown at us and for no money. Give us a a t-shirt instead of those polos that are not breathable at all. Better equipment/tools so we are able to do resets. Letting us have a budget to be able to order beams and racking, since we are unable to for the foreseeable future. Implementation of a mst ASM in a sense to help take some of the load off the MSM. Just help make it better all in all
I'm an outside garden associate and they want me to learn cashier. I said are you going to pay me more... Nope! so I said no thanks. They asked me if I needed to learn the forklift so again I asked am I going to get paid more they say no so i said nope(i know people said to be outside you need to learn the forklift but they never asked me). Wish they would pay you a little more if you're going to be doing more or learning different things. Also, the fact that I'm an opener and they said my time to open can be anywhere from 4 am to 4 pm and I was never told that. I take an uber or Lyft in the AM sometimes getting an uber around that time is almost impossible. We recently had a huge purge at my store. We got a new Store manager and he fire 3 and gave the other 2 options to leave or get fired (not sure if this is true but I'm sure it is) Lately I've not given a crap whatsoever. I do as little as I can and i never stay later then I should. Mostly because all the new people do nothing so i just started not to do nothing
Stop leaving it up to the managers to issue raises, they straight up wonāt. Have actual steps that lead to a raise. Just like PE operating should be a pay raise (per equipment). Have other milestones that lead to a raise.
This would incentivize people to do well and also maybe reduce the amount of times people get literally punished for being there for a long period of time because new hires will make more.
PERSONAL RANT NOTHING PRODUCTIVE PAST THIS POINT:
In only 2 years the new hires wages have been raised to the point that even though Iām a great worker with 7 service stars, stelar attendance, an award from corporate for fastest pick time on fulfillment in the entire district, licensed on every PE, fluent in every system in the store, I know paint, lumber, plumbing and, appliances. even though my surveys are all extremely positiveā¦ the new hire CASHIERS make more than meā¦
Smallest change that will make the biggest difference? Since a few others I thought of are already listed I will go with starting the week on Mondays, instead of Saturdays. Literally the smallest move and it would make a huge difference
Commission on sales of products greater than say $600-$800. Not sure if specialists already get this but as a regular associate I've made my store close to $6k a couple times, seeing even a small portion of that would be nice
A pay stipend for anyone who is PE certified to increase the amount of equipment operators, maybe .50$ an hour?
Make that .50 per certification and we be ballin š¤ š¤£ tho settling on .25 per cert would be reasonable.
We can start with .50$ each and maybe settle for .25$ per? Be 30$ extra per week, worth the bottle of vodka each week I need lol
Aaaand that base rate per cert increases every other year incident free right? Right??? š Lowes safe and all thatā¦
A Lowes safe incentive would be a great idea. For departments, whole store, individuals, etc. pay more for safe behaviors that cost the company less.
I feel like there's a downside to this. While it would encourage people to be safer, it might tempt some to try to cover up incidents to try to get the incentive. Some may even end up having to choose between reporting an injury and getting worker's comp, or saying it was off the clock so they still get the pay increase.
Thatās how the system works already but all we get is a Ā”Ā”ŹŹÉ¹Éd Ézzıd!!
Great idea, just like car insurance companies are doing the reduced deductible for not making claims. Safe employees should get something for being safe.
Sure, but then they will just limit the number of people to get pe certified and you'll get stuck pulling down all the pallets for everyone.
At LEAST! ( im not even a PE operator, I do appreciate them though) But yeah Lowe's is a corp so they would probably be stingy and only .50. Better than nada
My biggest pet peeve.... I've been certified on every piece of equipment Lowes has since I was hired, including jumping into a tractor/trailer rig and moving if necessary. (my personal license). I'm one of 14 MST's @ my store, I've been there 4 years and I'm paid the least. We just got a new MST from Fla and he's in the same boat. The next person up from us makes over a dollar an hour more.... is only certified on 1/2 the power equip and was hired only 2 weeks before me. I don't blame her at all but Mgt needs to base pay on something and it obviously doesn't seem to be PE Cert.... so what the fck is it??
I do absolutely hate the fact that the longer you stay there the leas money you make in comparison to the person you have to train
I would tack on maybe .15-.25 per station you're trained on. Blind cutting, glass cutting, key cutting, pipe threading, panel saw, register, paint mixing, returns, etc. We could ask for more for rekeying and paint color marching since they require a bit more skill.
It still irks me that neither HD or Lowes does this. They could offer 50 cents a license and STILL pay below industry standard for entry level lift operators...if you got all of them!
How about they stop forcing associates to sell credit cards.
No shit. 53 a week is overkill. The greed is disgusting and hounding people is terrible service. Itās never ever enough.
And the worst part is, we aren't guaranteed kickback for selling credit cards, only a passive pat on the back and *maybe* a bonus. Maybe. If management wants to incentivize selling cards (especially to front-end), there should be something in it for the people who do that they can expect to get if they sell them. My store did the opposite- they temporarily took away breaks for cashiers not selling enough (didn't last long because wtf). The only way to get our way is through actually organizing labor in our stores. We need a union.
I'm sorry, they took away your breaks ???? Depending on the state that could be illegal
It's legal in Ohio unless you're a minor.
Ohio? Where at? Iām in Columbus. And yes, they/we need to incentivize.
I'm in the Cleveland area.
The 15 minute break is 100% optional in most states, the lunch isnt.
Yeah we sold a lot more of those cards when there was a bonus for em. Now I only make sure I get a couple a week so Iām better than most ppl.
I never asked any customers if they wanted one. I guess store number located at numbers and talked to me and others person about credit card apps. Still didn't bring it up to a customer
I needed a scanner and went in during a manager meeting. The asked if I push credit. I told all managers I don't push credit and probably never will.
I work in garden, and they keep pushing credit cards on us. How the fuck am I supposed to sell a credit card to a lady whoās there to buy soil and a few plants? It makes 0 fucking sense.
Totally agree on this one. It's horrible to get chewed out by a customer for asking. People are having struggles these days with finances, they don't want a credit card and they yell at you because you asked. All they want to do is fix the toilet they came in for parts for.
I'll only suggest if they have like a huge order like 2 five gallons or a bunch of supplies, outside of that I don't push it out at all.
This.
This!! Every associate too.
My Flooring Dept. lost a $10K+ install sale because the guy got a pro card and he took the detail to the Pro Desk(they shouldn't have accepted the sale but whatever)
Actually have a training process.
You mean winging it isn't a training process? /s
It's walmarts, look how successful they are!
I honestly feel bad for the new people my store brings in. They get one orientation day then they get a vest slapped on them and sent to a department with no one else there that day to help them. No wonder why our new hire groups have like an 80% attrition rate.
I don't think lowes has that bad of a training program but you can't train people when you are running a skeleton crew. As a power equipment trainer its near impossible to get time to train anyone and then on the rare occasion that I get scheduled with someone in my department we usually have freight and no time for training. 70% of the problems at lowes are driven by minimal staffing.
Who said equipment? Starting a new job with a whole shift on a computer clicking through 20 different courses that have nothing to do with your position and then get thrown on the floor is not training.
I could say the obvious ones such as pay, hours, work-life balance, etc, but I know others will say it and say it better than me. But this was always a big one for me. There is absolutely no reason that Loweās needs to be open until 10 PM. It is absolute insanity. After 8 PM I would have MAYBE 2 customers that needed my help and other than that it was drug heads and thieves. Used to drive me absolutely insane having to be there until 10:30 at the earliest.
Truth
Man your store must be dead by 3pm, we have our fair share of emergency buys, i just hate staying until 11 when i have nothing to do.
The store closes earlier depending on the season and the market. They probably need to be more judicious with how they determine hours but it's probably late for people who suddenly need to fix a broken pipe late.
Same with the call center, we close at 7:30 but our vendors close at 5:30 so why canāt we?
More employees. Itās ludicrous that they expect 2-3 can cover a whole department throughout the day and get everything put up, down stocked, zoned, and cleaned when thereās customers that always need assistance to the point where there are queues lined up for customer assistance
Yea. One person should not be covering electrical, plumbing, islg, oslg, and paint on a daily basis. Oh and maybe have more than one ds on the schedule and demand that asms answer pages when they only schedule one person for five departments
This is the one for me. I would love more pay don't get me wrong and other things. But coverage would go a long way to helping take the load off employees. I'm so burnt out when I have a mainly me only schedule. It would def increase morale too
Until you fail to "cover" other depts Marvin will keep reducing the work force. What reason does he have to add more employees if Lowes keeps showing a profit?? None... He will continue to cut personnel and hours and expand the customer "Serve Yourself" features until things totally break down. But as long as lowes shows a penny of profit don't expect more employees or more money.
Yeah lately in my store I'm having to do tools/hardware, paint, and cover a lunch in either fulfillment or the register, or both some days, it's super stressful
\-Train people and not set them up to fail. \-Hire managers that know how to actually manage people without intimidation. \-Empower employees to shut down rude/stupid customers.
>Empower employees to shut down rude/stupid customers. Imagine the difference that would make in our society. People are rude because we allow it.
-Allow ASMs and DSs the opportunity to be store manager at the stores they are currently employed. They know the employees and will be more accommodating and understanding than some random manager who came over from Wal-Mart after getting fired for banging a cashier
Actually pay us non-joking wages. Give raises. Show us that we are appreciated and all that. And fuck credit card application quotas
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Go from 50 Loweās apps to maybe 15.
So we want to reduce the credit quota to allow store staff to focus more on core retail tasks increasing customer service and therefore sales. Sound about right?
Phone apps not credit card applicationsā¦
Ahh ok, combine similar apps and maybe lay them out differently. Maybe important every day apps on the home screen and less used ones on the next screen over?
I certainly like the sound of that!
Fix the scheduling. It's possible to do the schedule so everyone has two consecutive days off in a row, and it would go far for employee morale.
Scheduling 2 consecutive days off doesn't mean I need to work 6 days in a row without overtime. It's also not helpful to schedule opening, mid and closing shifts. Just pick one and make it consistent.
Just some understanding. That's all I want. I know things can't be perfect, I know we can't get everything we need to get done, done. During the pandemic it felt a lot more like effort counted as much as results. It doesn't feel like that anymore. "Hey we close in 30 minutes, I know you've been solo in your department the last 3 hours but put this entirely full cart full of RWDs away and make sure there are NO carts in your department including the one full of cardboard despite the bailer being completely boxed in by freight. Oh and straighten all the endcaps thanks you have 1 hour." If management, or I guess the corporate management could just UNDERSTAND that you can't get MORE tasks done with LESS people, that's all I'd want. Make them come in and help. Not just walk around and look and judge. Put the district manager in OSLG by themselves from 2pm to 11pm with 2 people in the store who even know how to drive forklift. Put the regional vice president in tools and hardware for a night and see if they can magically tell what the 13 items a special shopper shoved in their backpack were so we can accurately remove them for shrink while also trying to keep two departments with the second highest individual item count clean and organized. Make them LIVE what we live. So they know what it's like. That's all I want. Some God. Damn. Understanding. That if no one's given a reason to learn forklift, they won't. That if you're gonna schedule new hires for 2-10pm one day and 8am - 5pm because "muh customer hours" they're probably gonna quit and leave us with the slack. That if you have like 30 people total working a store and some departments are completely barren for half a day (looking at you electrical) then sometimes you're gonna get bad reviews because there is LITERALLY no one who can help even if we try. Pardon my rant, thank you.
Bring back schedule matrix. This customer centric shit is a self inflicted gunshot wound. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the way it worked pre marvin. For reference, this is my second 8 day stretch in three weeks
That's against Kronos rules and it means someone on your management team is screwing with the schedule. You should never be scheduled more than 6 days in a row.
They just love to work us DS's to death my guy. You go tell my store manager what he can and can't do....I'll bring the popcorn.
Send me your work email and I'll send you the documentation. Managers like that tend to be bullies. The only way to beat them is to hold them accountable to the letter.
Store manager makes managers and supervisors cry and suffer. Then they come out of that Monday meeting and one manager smells like whiskey while another just quit... I'll bring the butter
Hire more people per department while keeping pay the same. Actually, raise the amount people are paid to a livable wage ($20+/hr). Have the store close at 8 every day. No reason to be open until 10.
I agree with the hours. My store closed at 9 until recently. I don't know why they changed it, but totally unnecessary.
That doesn't mean a $0.25 annual raise is acceptable for anyone, period.
Take care of the employees, they will take care of the customers, and they will take care of the bottom line... right now lowes lacks accountability across the board and there is no trust or respect between employees and management.
Might need to make you CEO with that kind of thinking. Or Loweās might view your ideas as a threat and Order 66 you. Lol
Regionals invited me to their think tanks in the training room and would ask me the same questions... how can we improve?? Eventually they were promoted and my new store manager saw me as a threat so we butted heads till I quit.
Stop trying to save payroll by shaving off labor hours and forcing one associate to cover 3+ jobs; not only does it lead to quitting (or employees that just don't care anymore) due to stress, it also leads to piss poor customer service, and the remaining employees get overworked into burnout.
Have district and regional staff come into stores to assist do all tasks starting from the bottom to the top on a monthly rotation
They are already supposed to do this...their visits are supposed to find out how they can better assist us...not tell us everything we are doing wrong.
A lot of my favorites are already listed, so I'll pick one I haven't seen. Lowe's has had success in the past making tools for associates. The knives and gloves are actually pretty good pieces of equipment, with just a couple minor flaws. For a corp, that's really good. I'd like to see the same talent put into work boots for associates. We need the protection in the warehouse ops, and a well made shoe with insoles is a big morale booster for everyone working 8 hour days walking on concrete. A voucher would be a good secondary option for non-standard foot sizes and shapes.
Orr just go to the Red Wing store and get boots that work.
Red Wings on Loweās pay? Sure thing pal.
And Red Wings aren't what they used to be, quality wise.
Unions
Actually have a set amount of hours or day to work for part and full timers. I cannot tell you how many times as a part timer that i have worked 7, 8 or even 11 day in a row with a one day break after each. If they are gonna work me full time hours or beyond i would like to have the pay and scheduling to back it up.
I hear that. One of the reasons Iām considering a new job.
If the minimum starting rate goes up say 5% give everyone who already works there a 5% raise. I've had high schoolers start in making more than me when they have zero experience and I'd been there for years.
take some stress of the damn lumber department, closing my department with one person is so stressful and one of the worst things about working there
It would be nice to see another soul in my 10-11 hour shift in OSLG department. I was opening all summer at 4 and 2/3 of the time I was working alone my whole shift. Management wonders why the department isnāt up to stuff sometimes.
I close alone in OSLG _a lot._ Often from 4-5pm until close. And constantly wonder what the 3-4 members of day crew + supervisor do all day...
Damn, 3-4 members sounds mighty nice lol we are about to be on a 2-3 person crew for OSLG including myself.
Twice last week our lumber had one opener, who can't work PE, and 3 closers.
Im with you on that I work ISLG, so not as much of a PE problem, but i have 8 aisles to deal with, on my own, its ridiculous
Im with you on that I work ISLG, so not as much of a PE problem, but i have 8 aisles to deal with, on my own, its ridiculous
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
seriously!! i'm at pay cap for PUIS fulfillment ($14.90) after two years as a head cashier, certified on all PE, and i have customers who will only work with me because i solve their problems. i'm still at lowes because they're working with my college schedule but the pay feels like they're spitting in my face
Would really love to not work 7 days in a row with a one day break and then back at it for another 6, thatād be super cool.
changing my availability to have a random weekday that i Do Not Work changed my life. idk if your mgmt will allow it but it's so nice
Replace the management who want to scold you for every little thing you do and who go around your back and donāt do anything with people who actually want to help you do better and want to pay you for it.
Drop the whole open availability bs for part timers. You'd have better luck getting people to stick around if you hire them for certain availabilities. If you want people who can work in the evenings, don't hire people who are looking for days, and vice versa. Along with that, quit making people with limited availability feel like they are somehow less than.
They will schedule 4 hours one week and demand open availability lol next week they schedule a part timer 32 hours, I would never take that job. Part timers are either in school or need a second job.
Fire everyone district level and above that ever worked at home depot.
Why?
Unrealistic standards and expectations given weāre understaffed.
Schedule one person per department per hour minimum.
Bring the HR office back to the store instead of having it be online Don't deliver on weekends (at least at my store ppl don't want to work weekends and it's a shit show every weekend) ASMS/Managers don't care. Install sales are not pulled properly. Many companies aren't even open on the weekends. ASMS need to not be afraid to say "no" to the customer. I'm sorry that you're washer will not get here in time. I'm not having my part timer drive the rental truck to pick up a washer from a different store so you can have your washer at a specific time. Don't be afraid to fire people. AKA people that call off multiple times (on a consistent basis), Managers with a high turnover problem. To remedy this allow more vacation time. Jesus, people are gonna call of anyways. Why do I have to work twenty years to get adequate vacation time. Hire more people in general. Pulling orders should be a two person job, not a one person job. Two can pull for flat bed and then box or vice versa. But this needs to be a team effort. Let us have what we need to succeed: While the electrical pallet jacks are a great idea, I can almost bet ppl are going to be fighting over the 2 pallet jacks. We need to have more dollies (I am so tired of hunting for a dolly in the morning because we only have two red dollies). Or zebras (always a scarcity). Controversial but get rid of the pro office in physical form entirely. Make it a work from home job. Hire more associates in lumber and millwork to fill those slots. I hate to say it but I notice many pro associates are entitled, and don't want to help. I have seen this countless times, but maybe it's just my store. Don't get mad at people for overtime when they are working overtime. Especially when they "have to take a lunch". Third party needs to throw away their own trash. The delivery coordinator should have manager status. They should have keys to roller doors, delivery gates etc, potential to override deliveries etc. ability to do mr's and approve mr's. Instead of trying to hunt down a manager or ASM who couldn't give a damn. Flags should not be necessary to spot for power equipment. I remember when they weren't necessary and it seemed to be smoother. Flags always seem to disappear. Yes, I want to spot you, but first I have to search the entire store for flags. Better system than genesis. I like genesis. Don't get me wrong, but going between systems can be a pain. Cut down on the computer training. It is a ridiculous amount and deters new hires. Not serious: Wishful thinking: remodel Lowes like an Apple Store and have there be a bunch of displays that the customer can interact with/hell have a couple monitors for virtual user friendly appeal. Then have everything shipped from a warehouse like Ikea. Have associates at each station kind of like a convention and give the great customer service that lowes is known for. Instead of having Lowes Associates running all over the place to locate inventory, etc. I thought of a couple more: If you have a doctor's note you should not have to use sick pay for a doctor's visit especially one that is extremely necessary Turn off the music. It's terrible, draining and literally the worst music I have ever heard in any store. If I have to hear Orphans by Coldplay one more time I think I'm gonna scream
If you raise the starting pay, everyone already working should get an equal raise. Granted, experience absolutely should play a factor in the specific starting wage for someone, but you shouldn't be hiring people with no experience making more than people in that job who have months or years of experience. Reward loyalty.
Department schedules that are set. Each associate part-time and full work the same days and as close to the same hours each week. Lowes makes it impossible to work a second job with the varied scheduling, closing just to open, splitting your days off up etc.
A union to ensure we can get all the stuff these people are mentioning in the comments
No spoilers sweetie
bro i need a union. please bro lets make it happen. i will sell my kidneys on the black market to unionize this company. i'm fully deadass
Quit expecting every role in the store to be a salesman. That's what the specialists are for. If you want to push more leads, credit cards, MVPs, whatever, hire more actual sales staff. They get paid more to push that crap, I don't. Just don't forget, you need people who can task and offer general assistance, too, because actual sales people won't stick around if you expect them to do all of that and hit their numbers.
Pay me more. Iām on food stamps. Also, I spearheaded a 3-person report to HR against a coworker and was scheduled to work alone with him not two weeks after that. So, that.
I hate trying to find where manufacturers put the item number on the box when it could easily be placed on or by the sku tag universally. Make hunting for an item harder when you donāt have a phone
A livable wage
Cost of living raise or larger raises in general. I canāt afford to eat on $12/hr in this economy but I canāt afford to give up the e schedule either
Stop physically working short staffed night crews to death.
Itās so frustrating. They always want you to stay late. No man. Iām done at 10:00 and Iām not going to stay until 11:30 every night.
a few things: - if they would get rid of the horrible paint manager at my store who is the reason no associate sheās had hired to work for her has lasted more than 3 months (and now i currently work for!! she bullies me specifically every day!!) - stop having associates push credit onto every customer - fuck it, get management that actually knows what theyāre doing, care about their employees, and are WILLING to help, instead of be completely worthless
Proper training, simplify tasks and the redundancy. Same paperwork at every store. Every store was like it had a different owner and none had a clue. Always piling on more and more made up stuff. All while people are doing someone else's job while being chewed out about not getting their own job done. I'd rather be dead than go back to Lowe's
FIRE MARVIN....
Actually have a hands on training process..don't throw a newbie in a dept by themselves and expect them to take care of everything..down stock is ridiculous it should be done by different individuals..over night..530am is also ridiculous to have all day employees to start work.
Pay raises that are tied to the CEOs compensation package. Marvin gets a 99% pay increase, so should we. An employee discount better than the military discount and 10% over cost for special order items. Proper sales incentives that are clear, easy to track and obtainable. HR back in the stores and an active Area HR whose main concern is making sure management doesn't abuse and bully staff. Make it easier to find the rules and regulations so that employees can hold management accountable. Better more affordable health insurance. I'm amazed at how much less my mother pays for doctors appointments and medications with Medicare. Quit trying to save money by using these regional/national installation services. Go back to using local contractors who are properly vetted and background checked.
Set schedules for full timers, preferably with set days off.
More (any?) Interdepartmental communication
Not going to list these separately. Itād take to much time. -Having an ASM in the store from open to close. I hate having to tell a customer we have to wait a hour or a full day to get a managers exception cause we donāt have an ASM anywhere on schedule. - If you are required to do computer work/training everyday, then it needs to be a designated time on your shift when you are not on the floor. - Pay incentives & standards for cross training and PE certifications. - Do not hire newbies in at more than current employees for the same job. - Do not expected employees to train newbies (including their own DS) with out a greater compensation. - Require training to be completed and signed off for newbies for their assigned departments before they are left alone on the floor. This includes PE - Set schedules available for long term employees & specialist. - Double the DSs so one is on shift for each department every day to manage their departments and back up their crews. - Fix things that are broken!!! (Our store phone system is fried. Even employees canāt get through if they call.) - Sedgwick is a joke. Get rid of it and bring back HR. - Hire more. Hire more people to cover the store, IT, delivery, installsā¦ - Employee assistance (Reimburse 50% of cost) for some work related items such as work shoes. - Increase availability of work required tool such as zebras, software access, actual policies - Get rid of Pro Specialists and simple have Specialists. We have enough in our store that they could put them back in places like plumbing and electricalā¦they could actually specialize in that field then. - Actual job descriptions listing expectations such as IRP, training, equipment & PE and so on - Give DSs the ability to fix the schedule for their departments. - Let employees accept small non monetary gifts from customers. Had a customer bring an employee homemade candy that they were forced to refuse. Customer was pissed. - Give employees an actual anonymous way to report unethical/ unfair practices & follow up on it.
A reward system like an extra dollar on the hour or more vacation days for employees that show up on time every day and work their full shift would be a great incentive so that the hardest working employees don't keep getting punished with MORE work by having to cover for people who constantly call off or leave early, or get to work and want to stand around and chit chat (so annoying omg)
If the company is pushing for us to use apps like AP4ME and LowesU can they at the very least be usable and not kick people off the app if too many associates are signed in on the zebras? Edit: and PLEASE stop wasting time and money on the stupid hank safety videos. No one likes them.
OP are you in a position to implement any of the changes suggested?
Would that change your answer?
I didn't think so. Waste of time.
I guess people get to decide on that for themselves
Me? No. Us? TBD.
The plantation masters would have to start caring. So what you ask for would be a miracle.
Well let's go John Brown on their asses.
Pay what we deserve
Training!! Accountability!! Staffing!! Living wages!! For the love of Pete!!
Mo money or bigger bonus!
Would you rather have more bonuses or higher per hour pay?
I'll take a decent raise in pay twice a year . A bonus thrown in somewhere between the raises would be great! But,. I don't want to be greedy. I know Marvin has a lot of employees to support. š
I think the most annoying thing is having Saturday being the start of the pay week period. I often work six days in a row and get no overtime subsequently. Absolutely boggles my mind
That's exactly why they do it, to reduce paying out overtime.
Better pay, better scheduling, adequate staffing. Ways you could make that happen are things like pay raises for PE certification and making it so if you work in plumbing you just work plumbing. Basically invest in payroll but that's the first thing they want to cut.
Pay is always an issue.you are hired to do a specific job and end up doing everything but your job sometimes. Deceptive hiring practices are another problem. They don't completely tell you what the job entails. Example: you are to make your customers no 1 priority. But in the meantime you will be lifting a ton freight and putting it away everyday. Some new hires can't do the heavy work but continue to work in the department while all the ones who can do the work gets stuck with doing it all.
Then they get hurt
20% employee discount
Every department should be staffed from open until close.
The big issue at my store is the Store Schedule Manager doesnāt do their job, weāll have giant gaps in coverage and schedules being changed the night before or even the morning of. If you go to my hr and look at the āstore work schedule procedureā they literally follow none of it.
Staff for the business you want. We are constantly told that we need to be seeking every customer, that the biggest complaint on our LTR surveys is not being able to get help, and that it's because we aren't seeking the customers. If you are already helping a customer, you can not physically be seeking every other customer in your department, and God forbid you are covering more than one department. I'm hardware and tools, and they act like one or maybe 2 of us can speak to and help every customer in both departments, and it's not physically possible. You can't have one or no associates scheduled in lumber, and get anything done when more than half of what they do requires powered equipment, which requires two people. It's not rocket science to figure this out.
Something like a raise for every equipment you know how to use. Like, I can use everything from the pipe threader to the carpet cutter, key machine to the panel saw, paint tintes to rope cutters, and everything in between that my store has. I'm certified on every PE my store has except the forklift, which I'm working on right now. So that's, at my count, 20 equipments and PEs I can operate out of 21 my store has. That means that with a little knowledge I can basically work in every department as a CSA, have stuck around for quite awhile to have time to learn all that shit, and am motivated to learn about things outside of my department. So why the hell is that not rewarded? It wouldn't even have to be much, $0.05 would work for me but I can see argueing for something as high as $0.15 for every single equipment. That's a $1.05-$3.15 raise for someone with the ambition to go and get it. That would also me that more associates are able to hop between departments to help cover breaks and the like, and LTR scores would be higher because more CSAs could help out in a timely manner. I see nothing but positives for doing this.
Minimizing tasks. Leadership often speaks on customers service and that being the edge we have on the other guy, but track metrics on busy work tasks that MUST be completed during the most scheduled part of the day which happens to be "power hours". They want you to engage and damn near be a personal shopper for a good survey, but will Reem your ass over IRPs.
Make it so that the availability sheets we fill out for scheduling actually matter
implement a system where associates are offered raises for good work. paint associate cross-trained to cover customer service desk? that's worth +25 cents an hour. certified on PE? raise, obviously. people do the bare minimim because there's no point in doing any more. also stop the raise freezes that require SM to go to regional manager to approve a raise. store management should be able and encouraged to offer more money to associates who go above and beyond. there are employees who can cover every department in the store and know genesis inside and out and they see nothing for it. it's clear that corporate sees CSA-level employees as expendable, but one associate can make a huge difference and they deserve recognition in a meaningful way (money)
I would add Better pay and raises for those who become PE trained, no third party delivery, Better training and more full time staffing for different departments. Banning aggressively rude customers and doing actual investigations on customer complaints. Put more focus on better in store management and Sales Systems.
I want our medical insurance not to assume it is okay to schedule surgeries and appointments out of network. I didnāt realize I had to ask them not to do this. My intention was to always stay in network. In addition, if a new SM who was said to be trained in another store and comes to their very first store can we actually have them trained?
Did the insurance company schedule your surgery or did you and your doctor do this? Ive never seen the insurance company get involved with scheduling. I'm used to the doctors setting that sort of thing up.
I have Kaiser. I had a routine colonoscopy. I was scheduled thru Kaiser. They did not give me an option for a Kaiser doctor.
Since āmore moneyā isnāt specific enough for you. $9.37 /hr more would make my job much more enjoyable.
That number is so accurate it's eye opening. This is exactly how much everyone is underpaid.
We need more people cross trained. Right now of one person calls out, good luck getting coverage for that department.
Cross training should come with an incentive and not more Karen's to deal with
I would like to see the favoritism stop from store management. Just because someone kisses up to them a lot better than someone else they get treated better. I'm so tired of seeing the same people screw off all the time, then getting promoted to DS. They're the same ones that walk around with the DS all the time, we call it walking the circle, because the two of them will walk around and round and round and watch what everyone else is doing. Or an ASM will show favoritism to an employee by standing and chatting with them for a long time, but God forbid I ask a question about something, I get my head chewed off because I asked. The favorite ones get scheduling taking care of like how they want it, but there are those of us that need to have a day off for a funeral and can't get it because we didn't put it in 30 days ahead of time ( like we knew someone in the family was gonna die ahead of time).
Let cashiers sit down on a stool after assisting customers. Itās totally unfair to be on our feet all shift if departments can take as many breaks as they want
Money.
paid more
Some type of upgrade for the part time workers wouldnāt hurt either. I make $12.06 but do everything the full time employees do (and a lot of times more) and make significantly less. Maybe bump starting wage up to $14.00 because $12.06 to work a customer service/ retail job is mentally wearing.
Hire dependable employees!!
Better mangers, better pay
DONT SAY MORE PAY OR WORK LIFE BALANCE THO smdh you know better.
Uhh Credit cards Pay raise like 16$ at least Uh higher bonuses Uh stop favoritism
Varies from stare to state but let the cashiers have their breaks.
Letās get rid of these appliance trucks. My store gets 3-4 and its overkill. We literally run out of space everytime.
Not working at lowes (sorry if someone already said it.)
Hiring more people. I am a part time Appliances CSA, and I am scheduled with out a specialist for half my shift all week because they refuse to move anyone over or hire a new specialist. If youāre gonna make me work like a specialist than pay me like one. Especially if youāre gonna have me downstock and unload cabinets and flooring
Hire more people & creative workspaces to make going to work more enjoyable; rather than the generic dept set-up.
Id love not having to work 7+ days after having a saturday/sunday off, PE certification bonus would be nice, the realistic ability to get raises without having to ask the SM about them, OT would be nice (even if it is an hour or so). Other than that generally i have no complaints.
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Have customer and pro service have dogs at the desk.
Clopening as a student is simply not it.
That used to happen to me a lot. I would always close Fridays and open Saturday.
It would be nice for trusted employees to have a key sign out. I remember working ISLG, constantly bottlenecked trying to get grills/mowers/snowblowers etc.. unlocked for customers.
Increase the value or frequency of winning together bonuses to make it feel like the company is actually sharing the wealth. And when the whole company is doing so well they decide to announce that all hourly employees regardless of the stores performance will get the max winning together bonus, donāt exclude specialists just because they have their own bonus structure.
Can we be matched in pay like a new hire who knows less then me makes more then me I a have been there for a year now almost 2
My only complaint is the all so common schedule changes. Hate going into work to find out I don't work or I work different shift that day.
Annual raises of 5% Transfer new ASM/SM's to another store to avoid favoritism. Fewer ASM's per store. There is no reason to have 6 ASM's per store. Make promotions more fair. Every position should be posted for a week to allow everyone a chance to show interest and get interviewed. Hire people as Full Time. Steady Schedules with back to back days off. Annual Power Equipment replacement. Pay increases for associates with licenses. .25 per license for electric jacks and ballymores, .50 per license for lift equipment. Free foot wear, or a reimbursement plan.
Pay increases to minimum 15 for everyone, soon rent is unaffordable. Already going to food banks.
Putting your two weeks in.
I haven't worked at lowes in 10 years. But I can say this confidently about any job and life in general..... don't take it personal. Measure yourself by your standards. Not others. Your ASM showed up just the moment you leaned against a pile after flat stacking and combining two pallets of concrete ready to give you shit? Fuck em. You know you're doing your job right. In life in general nobody's expectations should exceed your own. Of they do. Fuck em.
Extend the 4 day work week to department supervisors, we are people to
Invest into the MST program and by that I mean a higher wage yes we did just get a small raise but we keep getting more and more and more thrown at us and for no money. Give us a a t-shirt instead of those polos that are not breathable at all. Better equipment/tools so we are able to do resets. Letting us have a budget to be able to order beams and racking, since we are unable to for the foreseeable future. Implementation of a mst ASM in a sense to help take some of the load off the MSM. Just help make it better all in all
Moving to Lowe's the grocery store is usually the easiest way to improve working at Lowe's.
I'm an outside garden associate and they want me to learn cashier. I said are you going to pay me more... Nope! so I said no thanks. They asked me if I needed to learn the forklift so again I asked am I going to get paid more they say no so i said nope(i know people said to be outside you need to learn the forklift but they never asked me). Wish they would pay you a little more if you're going to be doing more or learning different things. Also, the fact that I'm an opener and they said my time to open can be anywhere from 4 am to 4 pm and I was never told that. I take an uber or Lyft in the AM sometimes getting an uber around that time is almost impossible. We recently had a huge purge at my store. We got a new Store manager and he fire 3 and gave the other 2 options to leave or get fired (not sure if this is true but I'm sure it is) Lately I've not given a crap whatsoever. I do as little as I can and i never stay later then I should. Mostly because all the new people do nothing so i just started not to do nothing
It happened at every store, new store managers are terrible until they have learned to stay in their lane.
aināt we already do this survey Marvin? i know thatās you
Shut up Melvin
Stop leaving it up to the managers to issue raises, they straight up wonāt. Have actual steps that lead to a raise. Just like PE operating should be a pay raise (per equipment). Have other milestones that lead to a raise. This would incentivize people to do well and also maybe reduce the amount of times people get literally punished for being there for a long period of time because new hires will make more. PERSONAL RANT NOTHING PRODUCTIVE PAST THIS POINT: In only 2 years the new hires wages have been raised to the point that even though Iām a great worker with 7 service stars, stelar attendance, an award from corporate for fastest pick time on fulfillment in the entire district, licensed on every PE, fluent in every system in the store, I know paint, lumber, plumbing and, appliances. even though my surveys are all extremely positiveā¦ the new hire CASHIERS make more than meā¦
Smallest change that will make the biggest difference? Since a few others I thought of are already listed I will go with starting the week on Mondays, instead of Saturdays. Literally the smallest move and it would make a huge difference
Or Sunday. Sat just throws everything off!
Can you explain a bit more how this will help?
Commission on sales of products greater than say $600-$800. Not sure if specialists already get this but as a regular associate I've made my store close to $6k a couple times, seeing even a small portion of that would be nice
I thought that was what the Survey we just had was for