Thread regarding Lowe's Cos. layoffs

Part timers are allowed to put in their availability so they have flexibility to have additional jobs. The full time CSA's get to choose their slots based on seniority. The specialists get absolutely no say and can be scheduled from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. and can have as few as 4 hours a day. We wonder if they are trying to get rid of the specialists or at least some of them. Based on first weeks schedules we wonder if they may be manipulating the tool to make schedules worse for specialists they want to force out. Only time will tell if it continues to be extreme where younger specialists who actually have less seniority and some have customer complaints but are getting much better hours than older specialists who have worked hard and loyally for Lowe's for a decade or so. Rumor has it that they want to force people out so they don't have to lay so many off at the end of whatever time frame they have slotted to get rid of specialists. We will see but it is suspicious. Lowe's...you can't trust them.

Our market director or whatever they call him now said in a meeting a few weeks ago, that the intention is to go forward with part time employees. He stated that for positions like load puller and head cashier it is going to be 2 part time positions doing the work of 1 full time person. He then volunteered that it was to save on benefits and increase flexibility. I asked him how flexible it would be working with people who would have two part time jobs. He said the new schedule tool would make that impossible.

So you see, they know! They know and they don’t care!

Paint CSA from Region 6 here.

After having one of our department's part-timers move to one of the new MSA positions and the other part-timer (whom had been with us for years) quit recently, we are left with only 3 full-timers in our paint department currently (honestly, we're not even sure why they hired a third full-timer for this department mid-Q4 of last year in the first place).

I noticed some scheduling irregularities (for example, somehow the system has decided to schedule me to work a 1:00 PM - 10:00 PM shift this upcoming Sunday but our store closes at 7:00 PM and there's no one in the building past 9:00 PM) and brought my concerns to my manager. Upon investigation he informed me that all three of us had apparently had our matrices changed automatically by the system and that he would look into fixing some of the mistakes that had cropped up in the meantime.

Meanwhile, its three days later now, none of the inconsistencies have been corrected yet, and I just sat down to look at my "new" matrix only to discover that it currently schedules me to work three days followed by two days off, then work three days with two days off again, then it schedules me to work SEVEN straight with one day off before repeating.

It's ridiculous, just ridiculous...

Expect to work a lot of closes also. Our automated scheduler thinks our peak hours are at night. However, my peak sales have been from 10 til 6 on average over several years. I am told that the scheduler looks at data from one year but is it one year per store or just one year across all stores generically? If they are looking at each stores sales, what kind of validity is there in determining peak hours from one year of data especially in Florida. You have peaks from hurricanes or tornadoes or bad storms that cause damages or people buying items to prepare for the storm (and then they return it all afterwards). Those storms and rush of sales will not repeat on the same days each year. The two sales specialists in my department are scheduled to work three to four closes a week while a part timer who never stays in the department is working our peak daytime hours. Not only is our schedule all over the place but having days where only a few hours are worked and the next day having to work extra long days is just really messed up. I expect sales are going to drop. Almost all the times I have closed several years, it is dead after six or seven in this store. We joke that the only ones who shop at night here are the shoplifters.

I am a sales specialist and I have some four hour shifts coming up when the new schedule starts. I am told that we can be scheduled for as little as four hours on any given day and I have no idea how many hours but I have some ten hour shifts but one hour is lunch so 9 hours on the work floor. This is total b---s---. As a full time employee you expect to work full time of 8 hours a day. And the part timers are getting the best shifts. What does that tell you about how Lowe's feels about you and all the money you have made for the store over the years? Such a kick in the teeth. I have never taken a break since I started working at Lowe's for 10 years but I will definitely start taking them now. Let the sales floor supervisors handle the buzzer during my breaks and work for a change. I have a strong work ethic and have worked hard plus sold a lot for years but I have suddenly lost all of my motivation and enthusiasm. We are being treated like the bottom of the barrel. We are treated like we have less value than part timers. Job market not great in my area but seriously time to start looking elsewhere. With this schedule we cannot plan anything with our families, we cannot plan medical appointments, we cannot plan anything in advance. They can work you partial days and six days in a row constantly. There wasn't a quality of life at Lowe's before but now it is like we are in prison and are only released a few hours a week to spend time with our families. We do have lives outside of this ungrateful company and it is time for us to think seriously about escaping from this torture chamber of Lowe's abuse.

You don't get paid full time pay if you are out on medical leave. A guy I worked with got half during recovery from surgery I think. I heard the system generated schedules are being tested in Florida but then I heard that they were going to roll them out everywhere so who knows with Lowe's. Anything to screw the employees . I never understood why Lowe's coddles part timers and treated full timers like c-ap but it has always been in hopes the full timers will quit. Sorry but part time workers just are there to earn a check, most call out, hard to find any in a job fair at our store because too many can't pass d--g tests, they live for breaks and staring at phones and don't care about the customers. Lowe's will see that they are just driving customers....and employees... away.

What area of the country is this type of scheduling going on??? I know it’s bad, & Ellison has made it worse.

But our schedule is 8 hour shifts. So far we haven’t experienced erratic scheduling as is being described. I’m in PA.

I’ve had 4 interviews in 3 weeks with companies I like to call “not Lowes”. I currently have one offer and one second interview scheduled. Lowes used to value their employees. This B U L L Sh-- is Marvin’s fault God D A M N you you F--- IN G materialistic loser. You are low character, greedy, and your time will come. I hope one you get fired soon!

This is what happens when a computer does schedules. I have yet to see an automated scheduling system that can make a decent schedule. Telling managers they cant make an edit to schedules is the dumbest thing ever.

I worked for Sears when they tried this no editing thing and it was terrible.