Lowes Reviews in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Mr. or Mrs. Lowe's,

You are some kind of Hippocrates. Being an ASM you are fully aware of the line that is drawn in Lowe's by the fundamental attitude of the upper management to our employees. If you refuse to admit it exists, then you are a perfect example of why there is a negative response by so many employees.

Years ago it was rare to have an employee complain about pay being unfair for their work requirements. This was because we would hire individuals based, truly on their ability to explain and the knowledge they could offer. Our Sale's team was, until 6 years ago, more respected and encouraged to perform than the department Manager or team lead. The reason is because we held a greater value on being a truly sales oriented culture.

We wanted and needed individuals who could work with multiple vendors, be responsible for everything with that area of the department while the other individuals were responsible for support and over all stock product. These individuals were called "specialist" for a reason and often made more than the lower manager positions as well as some upper (dependant on location and store) because we all relied on them. They would only be responsible to answer to the Sales Mg. Ops. Mg. or Store Mgr. Lowe's as a "family" culture was able to experience far more employee and vendor satisfaction then it currently rates. Once we adopted the "Dictator Mg Style" it has been unavoidably on a decline. We simply can't offer our customers the same type of service, without having a willingness to lean on and support and properly manage individuals whom are able to develop relationships with customers and have the motivation (spiffs and or bonus), freedom (no pressure from employees to keep them from customer tasks), and respect they all deserve.

Upper management will continue to sacrifice customer focus for their bonus because our system is no longer a "checks and balances" system in order to promote the best overall business satisfaction. This new direction seems terrific on paper, however, having so few individuals decide what is best for every store in every culture (Dictatorship not Leadership) is stripping us of our overall appreciation to the communities we service.

So, here's a suggestion, next time you are in you "upper" mangment meeting, try to convince yourselves that the store would end up fuctioning better if we actually filled every spot that is alocated by your matrix. STOP cutting out the man hours to help your bonus. One day there will be a return of a concept where we had to release 3/4s of all store managment because of the addiction that they had developed in sacrificing customer service for there "Fake earned" bonus. I would completely support that to occure again. as well as the reversal of this new failed focus to better our numbers at our slacking on our customers. We continue to digg *** that we may not be able to climb out of.