Don’t want to put anybody down, I’m sure there are good hard working people among the part-timers, but the ones that we got at our store are the laziest, most irresponsible and uninterested bunch I have ever seen. Some of our colleagues were cut recently and we were in a desperate need for workers, but with the ones that came, it was better if they haven't hired anyone at all.
13 replies (most recent on top)
Our newest is on parole.....d--g charges, weapons charges, breaking and entering, larceny. How the heck did this person even get the job. He's lazy, rude with customers, and constantly hiding but no one feels comfortable saying anything since odds are good he's going to have us on the news one day.
Yes, but I was an annoying pt who gave a darn and learned a ton from the other people I worked with. So pick out the good ones and help. An easy way to spot one is if they ask for help with a customer and stick around to see what you do.
Evening commarades,
It seems Lowes has made the decision some time ago to manage and employ like Wal Mart. I figure they've done the math and figured they can make more money with inexperienced low wages workers and come out about even at the bottom line. Its obvious the apparatus of the corporation is to insulate itself from raising wages due to the $15 an hour movement. Truth is the leadership is based on intimidation and fear not growth or embetterment. It would take significant action as a group to try to even the battlefield. Unfortunately up and leave is what I'm gathering from Corp spy accounts. I think we should take the fight to Carolina.
-3Eyes
At my store we are all treated as indentured servants. Management feels that they are royalty. We can be pulled from our department and sent anywhere in the store for any reason. Yet we are still expected to have our department "Grand Opening Ready" by the end of the night. We're told "There are no walls at Lowe's" (excepting, of course the ones on managers offices).
Managers listen to us "complain" and then do nothing about the lazy employees that leave carts of freight around, wander the store to talk to their friends, take long lunches, sneak out early, or go on multiple extended breaks. We're told these issues are known about but can't be discussed with us because they involve other employees. Yet year after year after year after year these same employees are behaving the same way.
I guess it all depends on the management in the store. In my store in Florida, the part timers are treated like precious gifts and the full timers are indentured servants. However, if you are a pet of the store management then you can be a slacker and get away with everything. So there are slacker full timers that spend all day talking to the store management but there are also part timers who spend all day talking to the store management and flirting, etc. It is these favored part timers that get promoted from part time CSA to service manager or sales floor manager at my store. No management experience, only a few months at Lowe's, early 20's and bumped up to management. Full timers here aren't the ones promoted or appreciated. There are few part timers who work hard but as a whole they know nothing is expected of them so it doesn't take long before the slackers get the hard workers to slow down. People are people so there will always be some who are slackers and some who are not regardless of full time or part time. In our store, however, the full timers are treated poorly so sometimes the resultant resentment makes otherwise hard workers decide to slow down also. The management sets the tone and in our store it is the part timers who are promoted and appreciated.
In my store(Florida), it’s the 90% of the full-timers who are lazy. The pattern seems to be... 70% of the part-timers leave within the 2-3 months. The remain 30% are the hardest working Associates in the store. They get the dirtiest jobs and c-appiest hours. They are motivated on the future promise that they will be given a full time position.
About 1 out of 5 that do stick around after 2-3 months, get a full time position within 8-12 months. Usually when one pops up that nobody wants and they can’t find anybody to fill the position. Those jobs are given to the ones who properly chat up managers and not the most competent and hard working. Once they get full-time, they start to slack off.
Those who don’t get full time after a year are stuck, hopeless and delusional. They apply for every job that pops up, sit through countless interviews, threaten to quit if they don’t get picked. And when they don’t get picked, they work even harder. That’s when management knows they have a permanent buggy getter to work the parking lot in the 96 degree Florida summer heat. Someone who can take up the slack for the full-timers who ingnore the customers, don’t down stock and spend half the day in the break room watching TV.
At my store at least it feels as if part-timers were hired just be bodies. The ineptitude of the managers doesn't help either because they don't do anything to whip these newbies into shape, or motivate them to actually work. The training has changed since I started, but I'm betting it also doesn't help that they'll stick a fresh part-timer on the floor to cover plumbing by themselves. They've done that here and some folks don't last a week.
As for the ones that have been there longer who don't do anything, I seriously think they keep them around as bodies sometimes.
Hard to find any that want to work at Lowe's so you get left with the caliber you are talking about. People think Lowe's is going out of business. These employees are the future of Lowe's. Lowe's new strategy: Fire full time workers for showing up to work on time and working hard, hire part time slackers who will call out all the time (thus not get paid so cost savings to Lowes in their mind), Lowes will promote you fast to management as long as you are young and have no management experience (you will never get promoted if you have management experience or if you question anything) ....s---ing up to favored management helps also.
Nasty, nasty, nasty.
You can tell the full time employees (if you can find one), because they will act like they are doing you a favor by showing up. You can tell the full time employees because they are usually in a group talking smack.
It must be a corporate person talking about how great part timers are. Customers don't know if we are part time or full time. All they want are answers. The part timers in my store are always calling out , taking breaks and they do not care to learn about Lowe's or products. They can tell a customer where the doors and bathrooms are but that is about it. I have customers asking why this one guy keeps walking back and forth pushing carts with nothing in it. He is just a part timer trying to look busy and store management doesn't care. Corporate wants part timers solely for financial reasons but some of the part timers being hired in now are making more money than some of the long term and full time employees. You don't exactly give us great benefits because it costs several hundred dollars for a paycheck to get insurance and that hurts when our paychecks are small in the first place. Sure, there may be a few good part timers and there may be some slacker full timers but as a whole, the full timers in my store are hard workers and try to jump through hoops for customers despite being treated like p--p by management. Also, every time our part timer is supposed to be watching the department while I am at lunch, all I hear is the buzzer going off. He puts the phone down and wanders off when not being supervised constantly. It is not just in my department either. And who sets up camp in the back hiding and looking at their phones for hours--it is not the full time employees
As a customer my experience has been just the opposite. The part timers seem eager to help and often are the only ones to answer a page or that can be found. I have given up trying to find any of the full time employees, who come off as entitled and not caring.
Yes they wander the store, talk to friends and get angry when paged back to the department.
We have new part timers telling customers to come back when the more seasoned employees are there. The other day I had 3 customers waiting for me when I returned from lunch.