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I know some people who have worked there. They report having their schedule continuously janked around and being moved departments often. Hardly conducive to be

I know some people who have worked there. They report having their schedule continuously janked around and being moved departments often. Hardly conducive to becoming knowledgeable about any one department. Apparently some of the older (seniority, not age) full-timers are allowed to stay in their departments permanently. I'm guessing which of the two you get will have a big effect on your experience as a customer.

tunap 8y ago
I have observed competency & morale of associates are tightly correlated w/ the individual store's management. Some stores' associates avoid eye contact, shy away from customers & do not interact well w/ other associates. While at other locations associates actively engage customers & co-workers, and even have fun doing their jobs. The early signs of management competency is if cart corrals are full/empty, how/if you are received on entering building and if inventory is littered in aisles on pallets/carts or if it is properly shelved. The bummer for management is, if they put together a working team & environment their reward often is to be transferred to a miserable store to "turn it around". Having worked on 500+/stores over the last decade, the stark differences are apparent as soon as I pull into the parking lot before they open for business.
jwassil 8y ago
I worked at Lowe's one summer 18 years ago when I was on summer break during college. From what I can tell, little has changed, so I have some insight here. The schedule for workers constantly changes; very often, people that worked there would call in sick or just not come in. The managers move you to where they need you. I was hired strictly as a cashier, but I would often be moved from Tool World to the outdoor section to the main cash registers - all during one shift. Each of these areas has a very different customer type. Being a young college kid who never owned my own place, I didn't know much about any particular area. I tried to be as helpful as possible though. Some customers understood this; others were just plain rude. Funny story: Management often put me on the cash register guarding the entrance/exit to Tool World because I was very thorough in checking customers as they exited; there was a big problem back then with customers stealing small high-value tools by putting them inside other, less-expensive products. So, it was my job to prevent that. Anyways, I didn't know much about tools, but there was a girl about my age who was very knowledgeable in that area. She was the Tool World expert who roamed around the section. One day, a contractor came up to me at the cash register and asked me some very specific tool-related questions. I had no idea; I said, "I'll call the expert in to help." He said okay and waited. When he saw this young girl with glasses walk up, he looked at me and said, "you've got to be kidding me?"...then he walked away and left! Funny thing is that she probably could have helped him!

tunap 8y ago

I have observed competency & morale of associates are tightly correlated w/ the individual store's management. Some stores' associates avoid eye contact, shy away from customers & do not interact well w/ other associates. While at other locations associates actively engage customers & co-workers, and even have fun doing their jobs. The early signs of management competency is if cart corrals are full/empty, how/if you are received on entering building and if inventory is littered in aisles on pallets/carts or if it is properly shelved. The bummer for management is, if they put together a working team & environment their reward often is to be transferred to a miserable store to "turn it around". Having worked on 500+/stores over the last decade, the stark differences are apparent as soon as I pull into the parking lot before they open for business.

jwassil 8y ago

I worked at Lowe's one summer 18 years ago when I was on summer break during college. From what I can tell, little has changed, so I have some insight here. The schedule for workers constantly changes; very often, people that worked there would call in sick or just not come in. The managers move you to where they need you. I was hired strictly as a cashier, but I would often be moved from Tool World to the outdoor section to the main cash registers - all during one shift. Each of these areas has a very different customer type. Being a young college kid who never owned my own place, I didn't know much about any particular area. I tried to be as helpful as possible though. Some customers understood this; others were just plain rude. Funny story: Management often put me on the cash register guarding the entrance/exit to Tool World because I was very thorough in checking customers as they exited; there was a big problem back then with customers stealing small high-value tools by putting them inside other, less-expensive products. So, it was my job to prevent that. Anyways, I didn't know much about tools, but there was a girl about my age who was very knowledgeable in that area. She was the Tool World expert who roamed around the section. One day, a contractor came up to me at the cash register and asked me some very specific tool-related questions. I had no idea; I said, "I'll call the expert in to help." He said okay and waited. When he saw this young girl with glasses walk up, he looked at me and said, "you've got to be kidding me?"...then he walked away and left! Funny thing is that she probably could have helped him!