Where do I start? The training seems long and repetitive, you have to do an online portion and it takes hours each day. With mine they "accidentally" gave me training for both a loader and a retail employee. Lowe's opens at 6 (except Sundays) and that's a burden, people were always standing outside the door waiting. Not long after I got there they made a new rule that you had to be 15 minutes early, why? To just stand there. Some person was 15 minutes late because they had to "get ready" in the back room and couldn't open up the garden section because of it (yeah only one person works out there at a time for this store) so they made this rule for everyone because of one person. Luckily the next part was before I got there but they originally wouldn't let you have anything but water (when they sell Gatorade, Pepsi and such RIGHT THERE) and it had to be in a clear bottle. You stand all day and takes some getting used to, I had to go and buy new shoes that didn't hurt my feet.
They didn't think that I was offering enough promotions so they gave me a script...a script...just replace me with a robot why don't ya? I worked on the front end and if I worked nights, I was alone and I hated that. They encourage you to call (on the register phone) for help if it gets busy but half the time nobody answers, the head cashier is usually at customer service or just standing there watching you. Like I said half the time nobody answers but for anything, whether you need a loader, a part nu
Lowe's destroyed my ability to believe anything a Corporation tells workers
I have worked for Lowe's for 10 years. In that time I have been through so much tumult that led to so little improvement that I can't understate it.
They removed commisions and Spiffs from employees in 2011 to 'make paychecks more reliable' and in their place they gave employees an "allowance" that we were all told would be there until we either moved to a salaried position or we exited the company. This year the new CEO has withdrawn that and said that they are just taking that away after January 31st. No problem that he is taking money from front line associates. I am rather sure his bonus and options are unchanged...
We lost Department Managers when they chose to restructure in 2015. This forced the actual leaders of the store, the ones who were the backbones of every department to scramble from 14ish positions down to 5. Then they utilized the people who had been Dept Managers as back up managers anyway, even though they left their positions (and more importantly pay behind). And some of our best Department Managers left the company. Lowe's said they had to to 'add more red vests to the sales floor'. Funny thing is we never got more employees. In fact we have basically the same number TODAY as we had then. If not possibly less because in this strong labor market we get few applicants and many departments just run short everyday. Just like the Spiffs and Commisions it was a cash grab. Fewer people doing massively more to pad bonuses for executives and hide the incom
3.0
Customer Service Representative | Westland, MI | Jan 26, 2016
The people are wonderful, Management not so much.
A typical day at work would be to help any customer in need that approaches you or comes into the store, give them a kind, valued approach and find out all of there needs while they are with us in the store. Second comes to beginning and completing your tasks throughout your day, whether it be down-stocking product from our steel racking, to doing tasks around the store your manager assigned to you, to helping out other departments with there tasks, usually your days consist of a work list of some sort.
I have learned many things with being with Lowe's. I managed to learn how to operate powered equipment, more product knowledge in home improvement that I anticipated. I have learned that I love working around people, and helping customers in need, and I as well have learned Shipping & Receiving which I was the Lead Receiver for 2 years.
Management is not something I could give highly reviews on, feeling scared to be around a manager is something I wish to not be a part of again. I always heard if you keep busy, do what you're suppose to be doing, as well as try to improve yourself and make things better and more efficient for the good of the company most managers will stay off of you and stick behind you. I wish for a manager to talk to me like a human being and treated like one. Not somebody of slave labor or a person who is small or below them based upon there hourly wage or there position in the company. Most companies I feel stress to there managers to not be this wa
2.0
Customer Service Associate / Cashier | Nottingham, MD | Jun 17, 2019
Great pay, bad work place, horrible schedules
Management honestly sucks at the Front end of the store, and the back end. The store i work at has a total of ten Managers, only three of them are decent enough to work with. The others are honestly bad when it comes to treating associates like people. Out of the 5 head cashiers, three of them are great.
No matter where you work, everyone has a favorite or favorites. If you're actual manager material, you wouldn't make it so blatantly obvious and make the others feel like trash. For example: every time 'X' works with 'Y' and 'X' doesn't feel well, 'Y' lets them go home early. If i work with 'Y' and i'm vomiting for half an hour in the bathroom and request to go home, it's a problem. One of my favorite moments with the new front end manager was when i had a family emergency, i went up to 'E' and told her i had to leave due to a family emergency and she stated that my 'attendance hasn't been that great and they'd prefer it if i stayed there.' Yet, this is a company that is all about family and helping people love where they live.
A typical day at my job really depends on who you work with. Some people make it easier, others make you feel like you're a slave or the red headed step child and put you as fr away from them as possible and pretend you don't exist your entire shift.
I'm a full-timer, so i work five days that are 9 hour days with one short shift (8 hours.) Our policy is to have a break every two hours essentially. Say i have work 1-10: 15 minute break at 3, h
ProsGood pay, good benefits, good learning experience
ConsAlmost no breaks, inconsistent schedules, poor management
Is just a job and a steady paycheck. You must be part cheerleader and like guidance-counselors too, if you want to thrive there.
Current Trends:
Lowering pay, increasing hours, 80% overall negative engagement by IT employees, hypocrisy rampant from management, serious effort by management to outsource core IT development and have employee SME's "manage" the out-sourced teams.
Typical Day:
Well, for employees in IT, your typical day will consist of about 3-4 hours of meetings-- if not more. Yet you will still be expected to get your actual work done. Talking is very important at Lowe's... you must "collaborate" and socialize with others often. Your job DOES depend on it! Consultants actually do all the work I guess, since they are paid a premium. It does pay well to be a consultant there, literally.
There is normally some kind of weekly (if not daily) "Lowe's Cheer" where everyone is supposed to cram into the cafe and do the cheer like you are in high school. It's a big deal for them. That's normally around 8, and expect to stay until 5:30 or 6!
Seriously, when I think of a typical day... I can't think of anything other than all the dang meetings... so yes, you meet and meet and meet and discuss, ad nauseam.
What I learned:
I did learn some impressive standards for coding, but that was only the style of the Project Manager at the time. It is not a standard of Lowe's in particular. Speaking of which, expect a TON of shuffling around. They re-organize about every 6 months it seems...
Management:
Middle management is COMPLETELY incompetent and only interested in their numbers. They micro-manage. They
Prosthe 10% discount at lowe's stores.
Conshypocrisy rules at lowe's. and the 10% discount at lowe's stores isn't really a discount.
1.0
Customer Service Representative | Indianapolis, IN | Feb 12, 2016
A big letdown
I worked for Lowe's Home Improvement for almost eight years. I worked at two different stores. I worked at a Lowe's near South Bend, Indiana for three years. Then I worked at a Lowe's in Indianapolis for 4 and a half years. At first working for Lowe's was pretty good. I managed to move up within a year of starting to department manager. I did this for about a year until I decided to go back to school and finish my degree. My first store was pretty good about me continuing my education. I stepped down to focus on school and everything was pretty good.
After three years I moved to the Indianapolis area and transferred to another store there. I transferred in with the promise from management that they would allow me to work full-time and they would work with my school schedule. Well unfortunately the Assistant Store Manager that worked on my transfer left the company by the time I got there. And the replacement manager also left the company shortly after. I should have known something was up when it seemed this store had trouble keeping management around.
My first year at my new start was a little hectic. They decided not to work with my school schedule while being full-time. After trying to get a balance I decided to step down to part-time so they would work with my school schedule. This seemed to work for a little while due to my current department manager being the only one able to work with me and my schedule.
At the start of the 2015 year the store had a big mana
I’m not here to slander the name of Lowe’s. Truly, it’s a good company to work for. Lowe’s pays well and usually is a fun place to work if you enjoy home improvement stores.
But that doesn’t mean the business doesn’t have some issues that need improvement.
I worked for Lowe’s for a total of 2 years and I enjoyed most of my time there. I worked at two locations and one was much better than the other. I was a part time associate at my first location and I had a blast. It was fun and I learned so many great customer service skills even if the job was stressful due to understaffing. Later on, we got more people hired on and it was truly a fun workplace environment. Management was flexible with my school schedule and my coworkers were some of the best people I’ve worked with. They were always helpful and truly a great team to be with.
I left due to a major cut in hours during the winter time and I was also moving to a different town. When I was hired a few years later at a new location, my old manager even reached out to me to wish me the best of luck which truly made me happy to be back.
At the new location, I was a full time specialist and I got to say it was really fun...at first. I enjoyed helping customers and the standard retail side of things. You can expect learning how to sell your products and do it well if you have coworkers who are willing to teach you. Also, the pay was wonderful! I made enough to move in with my boyfriend and have some extra cash to put aside for
ProsGood pay, full time hours, a few good coworkers
ConsHR isn’t helpful, abuse is not taken seriously, workplace drama, under staffed 90% of the time
I was a part time associate and my work hours used to be scheduled by a person but a computer system came in which scheduled automatically. It sucked.
Often I found I was scheduled to close, finishing at 10pm, and open the next day at 7am. These shifts required you to work hardest. It took me more than one hour to drive between the store and my home, so I was often left with less than six hours sleep between shifts. Even tho I asked about rescheduling nothing happened. I was late a couple times but never got wrote up.
In the dept I worked there were six people total. Of which half were full time and half were part time.
Other associates I worked with were mostly great but there were some slackers who took every chance they could to avoid working as hard. Even the Pro Associate in one dept was a slacker and took his time doing anything. One hour for lunch and he often took 90 mins, he had 15 min breaks which he took 30 mins. As soon as another associate came in to work the dept, he hands over the two phones (wireless as well as an iphone). Nobody ever wrote him up or discipline him even though from what I heard most every body knew about it, they just let him do what he wanted.
In my dept six people gradually went to three because two left and were not replaced, and another was moved to another department. That meant me (part time) and two full time associates. Even though we were busy with customers and had to stock shelves and tidy our zones, some things coul
Prosfaily good rate of pay, above min wage
Consoften work without breaks, poor staffing, poor merchandising, poor scheduling, managers out of touch, head office out of touch.
Management is reactive vs. proactive. This company makes so many changes so often without training and clarification. A computer module is your training. Take notes! Employees do not like to help each other because everyone has a million things to do on top of taking care of customers. It's less than bare bone scheduling most of the time. Be sure to negotiate your salary because you are expected to work every department and cover many peoples lunches at the same time. They will always offer you the least they can, so make sure to ask for more because they can offer more. They just don't want to. Good luck getting management to help you in a timely manner. You'll also want to make sure you ask for a higher wage for dealing with all the narcissistic customers. Customers know how to work the system and management plays right into their manipulation because management fears customers calling into corporate CCIC. The company also holds those customer complaints against your quarterly bonus. Every quarter the numbers go up and most stores numbers are impossible to make. If the store you work at isn't in the top two or three in the region, in sales, you likely will only bonus one quarter a year. The last store I worked at was a Store of the Year. Our gift was the chance to pay $5 for a store of the year T-Shirt. No money. The managers bonus nicely though. Every time the store does well or wins a contest the store manager receives $100 plus all their other large bonuses.
Lowe's has a growing number of Corporate Offices or "Customer Support Centers". As of 2015 Lowe's has 5.
Unfortunately, Lowe's typically has a 65/35 contractor/employee ratio. Almost all "entry level" positions are contract positions. These are open contracts which set no expectations. I worked for their IT Service Desk supporting both Store and Corporate users. My hourly pay rate was $16 (the contract agency makes $23.50) the latter is on par with what the employees (formerly known solely as Support Technicians) make to do the same exact job.
Lowe's IT Service Desk is undergoing some restructuring, the "Open Contracts" are being replaced by 6 Months Contract to Hire. If a recently implemented Associate Technician position is available, that contractor will be converted. The hourly pay rate for an Associate Support Technician is about $18. If you've read the above paragraph, Lowe's is actually saving money having less contractors but clearly it is more beneficial to Lowe's. However, HR and upper-management has not approved the creation of 100+positions in 12 months. (The contractor positions have not be re-purposed or eliminated). As of January 2015, about 5 months in. Lowe's has converted only 11 contractors to employees and hired about 3 times the contractors in that same period. In addition to hiring about 30 more contractors, as of this month Lowe's is hiring 40 more before the season ends. By that time, we would have about 120 contractors. Oh yeah, only 25 positio
Questions And Answers about Lowe's
If you were in charge, what would you do to make Lowe's Home Improvement a better place to work?
Asked May 13, 2017
• Communicate a structured plan on how workers can move up in Lowe's and make it clear where they can find information in the computer system.
• Have an "ASM for a Day" or "Supervisor for a Day" program to provide motivated Associates an opportunity for mentoring and to learn first-hand what management does on a daily basis (great to improve succession planning).
• Have days scheduled quarterly where a small group of workers goes from department to department to learn/crosstrain.
• Consider adding regular weekly schedules for workers so they can plan for childcare or other regular activities. It would improve Employee work/life balance and morale, and be less disruptive to the business, i.e. having call-outs, keep store fully staffed, etc.
• Better in-store communication promoting Lowe's events, in-store, nearby, Lowe's community projects, etc., so more Employees can choose to participate.
• Provide Lowe's branded promotional T-shirts to all Associates
• Better communication of policies to Customers and Associates, and top-down support from Management for Associates who are upholding policies, especially for Returns. It's demotivating when management randomly overrides it to "...make a customer happy".
Answered Aug 22, 2021
Fire ALL the management and restart from the ground up
Answered Aug 5, 2021
Why did you leave your job at Lowe's?
Asked Mar 14, 2017
It was just time. I was going to leave sooner but the pandemic halted my plan's a little bit. Looking at how the company handled the whole situation, made me even more motivated to leave especially when it was "over" .
Answered Jul 31, 2021
I’m just going to be real with you these companies need more GOD in them. The advisory is very easy to spot in these companies
Answered Apr 1, 2021
What tips or advice would you give to someone interviewing at Lowe's Home Improvement?
Asked Jan 11, 2017
Leave your personal business at the door. Stay in your department, Do your job and don't worry about anything but your job for the time you're being paid. Some that have never had a job call it being a (robot) but actually you have a job description of what is required. Nothing less nothing more. Take the same enthusiasm on the floor that you had when you interviewed and let everybody else complain... You Do You!!
Answered Jul 3, 2021
Don't, run away as fast as you can....THE WORST PLACE TO WORK FOR! Corporate GREED is #1 goal, this company does NOT care about you as a person/employee.
Answered Jul 21, 2020
How are the working hours at Lowe's Home Improvement?
Asked Feb 25, 2016
Disgusting... any average week took me almost 55-60 to complete. I would still get complaints.
Answered May 31, 2021
10 hour shifts that felt like 10 day shifts.
Answered Apr 5, 2021
What is the work environment and culture like at Lowe's Home Improvement?
Asked Feb 25, 2016
Place was like being in an abusive relationship. Training was non existent. Unrealistic expectations were given and you would get written up for not meeting these expectations and eventually get shown the door which was really a stress-relief. Even if you are desperate, don’t work at Lowe’s.
