Impact Resources Group We're Ready To Assemble "Work for free is right!!" Irving, Texas

So I started working for this company because a family member had for about a year and they thought it was a good company to work for. I guess this family member is just lucky because I've heard nothing but complaints about this company from literally every single other person I worked with! As well as anything and everything I found online about the company!

First I was hired with little explanation of what I would be doing. "Working sometimes days, sometimes nights. Reading planograms. Doing various different resets." Yes.. this explains a lot, right? Ha! But I was promised $14.00 an hour! Sounds pretty good to me. Good enough to go with this vague job description they like to pass out.

However they tell you do a job in 8 hours and if you don't you basically work the extra hours you spend on it for free. Or, as they like to explain it, your pay per hour drops so they never have to pay you more than the equivalent of 8 hours work--even if you work 10, 11, 12, 13 hours on that particular job. So sometimes you literally end up making less than minimum wage per hour! Especially when they underbid how long the job will take.. which them almost constantly do.

My first job they put me on is where the company is hired to help build the inside of a Krogers grocery store that has not been opened before. My company has no clue what they're doing!

We had to redo the same work over and over 2-4 times, day after day. We were given dirty looks if we asked to take a legally allowed 15 minute break or told to take shorter than 15 minute breaks. Literally I quote my DISTRICT MANAGER ON THIS: "5 minutes then get back to work."

Bear in mind: We would work any where from 9 to 13 hours a day. Yes, most days were closer to 13 hour end.

We were made to re-level gondolas (also known as the entire aisle of shelving) multiple times in one day because there was a different company also in there doing other projects and no one in charge in our company took pictures to PROVE we leveled it properly so then the heads of Kroger would come in and tell us to redo it.

We were made to repeatedly stack extra gondola pieces and shelving on pallets and wrap them with plastic wrap.. The limp kind that wasn't adhesive to itself so the pallets of shelves repeatedly kept falling.. including on us.

These are just some highlights of the Kroger job. After this we were put on resets: The work my company has been doing for some time now.. yet the situation didn't get any better.

We were working overnight at Lowe's companies resetting their lightning department (the flush mounts, vanities, and chandeliers). They SEVERELY under bid these jobs meaning we get too few hours to complete these jobs in since most of the Lowe's stores did not have things in the proper order before we got there.

We were also a team of all new people-- a month or less old to the company--aside from our team lead. Yet we were constantly being told we were the worst team in the district. 1 week, 2 weeks, and 3 weeks into our work. I'm sorry.. how perfect are we supposed to be when 2 of the 4 new people on our team got only ONE DAY of training on how to do these lightning resets?!

Yes, 1 measly day of training. (Our training was cut short so we could get shipped back to the Kroger store.)

Then after we got better we did not ever get a single solitary "Congratulations!". 3 weeks or more of being told we are horrible at our jobs and once we get our hours down and stop having to go back and fix minor problems at the stores we did we just start hearing silence. Way to appreciate your new guys and motivate them!

During all this time our team lead's work ethic began decreasing. As soon as he saw we were getting better and faster at the work he started working less and less. We'd literally watch him show up thirty minutes to one hour early and get nothing done except getting one computer password and finding the pallets. (Not pulling them down or sorting them.. no, just finding them with his eyeballs.) So he's sucking at our group's total amount of pay to.. wander the Lowe's stores for fun I guess!

He'd also spend quite a bit more time talking to the Lowe's employees. The ones that are supposed to be there to spend all night helping us with our work. Yeah, they spent all night helping him be entertained and have an excuse not to work.

And let's not forget all the hypocritical yelling and finger pointing from our wonderful team lead about how our work was never quite good enough or fast enough. How the only time 15 minute breaks weren't looked down upon were if he had disappeared for one of his 3-4 hour long label printing adventures. I've seen 3-4 people (myself included) get the label making done in 2 hours (sometimes less!!) with just as few to NO screw ups on the labels as our team lead manages!

He's also not a smoker and admitted to disliking smoking quite a lot. (He's a very opinionated individual.) And became increasingly more obviously against the smoking by the smokers on the crew.

Here's how the reset works: The lighting reset is over night. We show up at 9pm and the doors are locked with us inside unable to get out for the ENTIRE NIGHT starting at 10pm, 11pm, or 12am depending on the store.

So the 2 smokers on our later crew.. (Yes, the crew did change. One girl was found to not be a good worker so instead of firing her they just stopped putting her on the schedule!! Then 3 weeks later called her to tell her she'd suddenly have work again, only after me and 1 other person quit, yet they still haven't actually put her on the schedule again..) ..Anyway so the 2 smokers on our later crew take 1-2 smoke breaks (10-15 minutes long only) within the first 3 hours of being there because they DO NOT take any 15 minute or lunch breaks for the remaining 7-9 solid hours of being there when they are locked in and therefore can NOT smoke.

Seemed fair to all of us (except the team lead) because we weren't taking our hour long lunch or 30 minutes worth of breaks. (I am NOT one of these smokers, nor do I like smoking so this is NOT me defending myself here just because I'm a smoker.)

And side note: Even though we didn't take our 30 minute to one hour long lunches our team lead told us to put that we did in our clocking in/out info! Completely ILLEGAL!!

But our team lead who sat down for his 3-4 hour long label printing sessions and 30 minute to hour long disappearances at a time and 30 minute to hour long chat sessions with the Lowe's employees didn't find this smoke breaking system fair. No, no, no. He began FOLLOWING them outside and yelling at them, sometimes still during business hours in front of Lowe's customers, to get back inside.

But it didn't end there. Then he'd lay into them with a little rant just because he felt he could. It didn't matter if they quietly came back inside or tried to argue with him about legal breaks and lunches. It didn't matter if they had been busting their butts since they got there or not. As long as they were smoking the team lead was angry and yelling about it.

Then came the time I complained to the district manager in general about our team lead's yelling about -everything- and he, to deal with the problem, quoted me word for word to the team lead and pointed out exactly who was complaining. I'm sorry, in a business world, are you not supposed to address all employee issues without pointing out specific individuals who complained? Or is that privacy policy just a myth businesses love to wave in the employees face? Real professional guys!

So then, of course, the team lead confronts me on what I said. Why am I being told by the district manager to privately complain to him about my issues if the team lead is being told what I said and confronting me on it?

But it still doesn't end I'm sorry to say to all you people having to read this. Though the end is near! Then we do a job where the team lead doesn't even show up and neither does a crew member! 3 one-month old newbies being told to do a 4 man job and with no leader. It goes badly, of course. But do we get thanked for trying instead of going home? Do we even get complained at, but thanked for the parts we did right? No! We just get complained and complained at about why didn't we do this and why didn't we do that? Well.. maybe because were NEW! and there was no team lead to GUIDE US!

Soooo then a display bay--a big, open bay with metal grating, collapses while one of our guys is in it. He has to JUMP into the next bay to avoid falling through. Then a different bay collapses on a different employee! He twists his ankle badly and when I call to tell the district manager about the unsafe conditions of the bays at this particular store he doesn't even give a simple "That sucks about that guy's ankle." "How bad is it?" "Okay, I care more about my employees safety then this store. Don't get in the bay again." No, he says "Finish the job."

And for the grand finale! The night finally comes that an employee and I decide we have had enough when the team lead refuses to let the other employee have a single smoke break and while the store has an hour or more til it closes proceeds to yell at him on the sales floor in front of customers (including children) about how he is replaceable and HE, not the Impact company, pays that employees salary.

The employee tells him to stop yelling and that he'll get to work, but the team lead keeps yelling about how basically worthless this employee is. I stand there watching the entire thing. No, not pretending to work so my attention is divided. I put full attention on this horrible display of leadership and respect for the employees.. not to mention how bad it makes the company look since the team lead is wearing a vest with the company's name on it!!

So we walk out and drive the 300 miles home. (Yes, this was an out of town job!) After less than 3 hours of sleep at 6-freakin-am the district manager calls me to ask what's going on. He immediately sounds as though he's already heard the team lead's side of the story and made up his mind without hearing our side at all.

He's so busy focusing on the fact we walked out without finishing the job that he literally keeps pointing it out instead of listening to my numerous complaints as to this team lead's behavior.

Then he says, and I quote, "So are you quitting or what?" and I say "If we have to continue to work any further with **(insert team lead's name here)** then yes, we quit."

So he then tells me if we do not drive the 300 miles back (on our own personal money for gas and with 2 hours sleep!) to finish the job with that team lead then we'll be fired. I tell him he cannot mark us as fired in our files because I've already informed him that we quit if he says we have to work further with this team lead.

He then spends a moment telling me if we CHOOSE to walk out on our job that is us, by definition, being FIRED! I'm sorry.. isn't voluntarily walking out of your place of employment quitting and being fired is where the management TELLS you to walk out!!

And kicker of all kickers he then informs me we will probably be docked pay for the motel room instead of addressing the fact I STRONGLY suggested he try to speak to other people who have worked with this team lead because I have heard others complaining.

Oh and Mr. Team Lead.. The sex jokes you constantly told because you think sex in the workplace to married women and dating women is funny? They sucked. And yes, telling someone you want to pull their panties off with your teeth IS BY LAW considered sexual harassment in the work place!