LOWE'S HOME IMPROVEMENT Lowe's employee gives resignation due to discrimination and unprofessionalism Federal Way Washington

I applied to Lowe's in Jan of 2008 on my application I stated that I had extensive experience in not only cashiering but also in Flooring, as I ran a flooring co for over 3 years just recently, I was called in for an interview and expressed my desire to work in the flooring dept as a specialist, I again expressed this desire with my final interview to the main manager, I was hired in as a cashier, a few weeks later a man was hired as csa in the flooring dept. who had no sales skills in any area, leaving me to wonder just exactly why was I not given the position when there was such desperate need for one at the time of my hire. this was my first issue.

I did approach HR manager and the Main manager about this and they brushed me off for a while until I pushed the issue and made a little bit of a stink about it, they proceeded to offer me a position in the flooring dept, first they held me off for a few weeks not giving me the go ahead to start in the flooring dept, when they did finally do it they did not tell me so I came in for my normal cashiering duties just to have them tell me "dont you know your suppose to be in flooring today" well no you lacked notification of this to me.

So here I am working my butt off in flooring having contracts thrust my way being told that I have to keep a margin, being pushed to finalize my contracts as it is my duty and my job description and I did this well kept a good margin made good sales made customers happy, eased the complaints of angry customers...all and all took my job seriously and did this all under the following conditions.

most of the time working 9 days straight to have only 1 day off and then back to work again,

and on more occasions than i can count had to close the store getting off at 11pm just to come back at 6am due to my schedule, leaving me with at most 4 to 5 hours of sleep.

having to work the flooring dept. alone from 230 pm until close while having to perform the duties of sales contracts, up stocking, down stocking, taking care of customers on the floor taking any inquiry calls by phone from customers, retrieving stock from receiving for customer service desk when needed, cleaning up the dept to include cleaning out a wet saw but not limited to dusting and washing down product and then covering the electrical dept and or mill works while they were or on lunch or had gone home already due to the lack of enough employees in that dept.

I dealt with all of this but started getting a bit upset when my status and pay was still cashier after a month, so as a good company employee I did what i know is the steps, I started to voice my concerns from the bottom up, starting with my area manager, saying the same thing to every manager, can i please get a new badge customers do not feel like i know anything due to my badge saying cashier, and could you please let me know am i a csa in this dept or am i a specialist I need to know as i am specialist certified but have not been given a new badge a new status in the system nor have i been given the pay increase yet i have been working in the capacity of a specialist since i got here,

Im going to give my area manager the credit he is due, he asked me to pass it up to the next manager due to his needing to be out as his grandfather was dying.so for you Travis I find no fault, so I passed up to the next manager the zone manager, he could only say well they say there is some confusion as to what you are i will get it taken care of. obviously he did not, so i took it to the sales manager, who told me you are a specialist and I want you to start attending the specialist meetings on Wednesdays which I did, so Finally i had a title "Flooring Specialist" every one seemed to know I was from other Specialists to the Install dept that was sending me my contracts to do...
so after another month of the sales mgr and zone mgr telling me dont worry ill take care of the status change and pay and badge, still nothing got done so I have had enough and went to the Main Mgr who I should tell you is new and has no lowes experience was not hired from within but got the job because he was friends with the previous main Mgr, this is what i said to him and yes i was a bit passionate about how i felt at this time understandabley

I said" I would like to talk to you about my status ive been in flooring about 2 months now and my status has not been changed, he told me well there has been some mix up as to what you are, i stated that at this point ive been working in the capacity of a specialist for 2 months now and csa is not acceptable to me any more..he brushed me off to the HR mgr.....seems to be a brush off policy here in this company.

So I went to the HR again still pretty upset but not yelling just very frustrated blunt and to the point, did my additude stink yea im sure it did but again understandbley. Now maybe we are getting some where, she tells me that i was always a CSA ok so why after 2 months of asking for this did no one tell me the only word was from the sales mgr and every one in the store thought i was a specialist including the main asst mgr.....hmmmmm maybe they didnt want to retro-activate that pay....so here we are Mrs HR telling me that they will go ahead and give me the interview for the specialist after all we would not want new people applying thinking im getting special treatment due to the fact i already work there...isnt that odd I thought the training book said they make every effert to promote from within....wow I must have read that wrong
In her own words, "we will do your interview friday-saturday at the latest I now get this one I PROMISE, wow i felt like things were finally going to get done, the zone mgr asked me on thursday if i could wait until monday due to a bbq the store was having and that the HR had to be out saturday, im a good person I said sure no problem, so monday came i started work at 8 am at 5 pm i was pretty pissed at this point i was off and no interview no call nothing, went to see this lying person HR she did not offer an apology only sweetly asked oh what time do you work tomorrow? well with out yelling but still very upset and heated i asked her what happened about my interview she got nasty and said cant you see ive been busy interviewing people all day OHHHH interviews you know like the one i was suppose to get......so I told her that Ive done as much as i can do and that i was giving up my position at lowe's and walked away.

oh dont stop reading this is not the end of the epic.
my area mgr Travis you know the one i put no blame on, was a bit upset and did not want to lose me, asked me to wait before ii left he wanted to talk to mgmt first, after this he asked me to give them one last chance they promised id get the interview tomorrow and I was guaranteed the specialist position I agreed only because Travis went to bat for me.

TUESDAY: the interview

Came into work clocked in went straight to HR asked if she had a set time or if she just wanted to call me up, oh ill call you up im in the middle of an interview wow i think ive heard that before.... so i waited was put off by her 3 times that day and finally at 130 was called in for the interview they put my correct name spelling on the specialist paper work and and and get this, chose this interview as a time to air there greivances about my being upset telling me that i was forcing them into this, big bad blustery bob as i call him tried to use is same action on me that he used on other people that work there telling me that he could let me go right now today basically wanting me to understand that he has the upperhand and i needed to know this...Ha ha ha I called his bluff, I at this point looked at him and said well i guess my decision on all this is , I am going to turn down this position and as for the unknown position i am holding now, i will finish out my day and we will call it that,, boy did i take the wind out of his sales, because although the tried to tag team me trying to say that i attacked both of them i then told him well then we were all three attacked because that is what they just did to me, they tried to tell me that how can i think that as they have both of them feeling attacked and that proves that i am the problem not them i am relentless as i told him again well then again i am turning down the position and ending my current one at the end of the day, man did he do a back peddle, now he decided to tell me that i could have a great future there im very qualified for the specialist position and that my installed sales are the highest in my dept. he does not want to lose me and asked me to give it 24 hours thought before i make a decision.

Ok so here i am, i have today through friday off to make a decision, here is my decision and please post comment if you think my decision is quick thought or on the wrong track.

Im giving my resignation due to these factors number one being the highest on my list.

1. I felt it to be very unprofessional to use my interview as a time to basically chew my a*s and try to intimidate me into place, this in my opinion if they had to address should have been at the close of my interview or at a later date.

2. I now am fully convinced that I was passed up for the flooring position upon my initial hire due to the fact that I was a women and the then Main Mgr had no faith in my ability as a women to do the job of a flooring specialist, so instead put me in a typical women position as cashier, and instead hired in the next man that had even a small amount of or fabricated his flooring knowledge on his application, i ran a flooring co with product the man hired was only an installer of carpet by his own admission and is now trained in other product thanks to my training

3. I am a customer service person and do feel the customer is the most important Lowe's unfortunatley is more concerned about employee theft that they leave the customer waiting sometimes up to 20 minutes for us to get an override just so they can make sure the employee is not ripping them off while they allow thieves to run out the door and dont bother with it because corporate is scared of a law suit.

4. the un professionalism of the mgt from the bottom to the top is hard for a true and faithfull company person like my self to handle "just a note my first employer I worked for was for 17 years".

5.When i did go into the flooring dept, I had to train myself on the sales system as they did not train and had no one to train me and the mgt does not know how to run the system.

6. i was cheated out of the pay grade for 2 months that i fully deserved, my cashier pay was 9.74 and the specialist pay depending on experience was 13 to 15 ph and they have no intention of retro activating my pay

So this is my story, my complaint, and my problem.
I am putting this on here even before I give my resignation as If even one person can be saved from all of the hollow empty promises of Lowe's, the horrible scheduling and poor treatment then it is all worth it, having worked there since Jan 08 until present I have to admit that Ive seen more people quit in that time then ive seen people quit a minimum wage job, they offer the wage but they do not offer a true caring working enviroment, and truly do not care about you other than you bringing in the bottom line for the mgr.

Please feel free to post comment about my story good or bad, and please excuse the spelling errors as im still heated up as you can tell.

marleene
edgewood, Washington
U.S.A.