“”Outsourcing” means that they will fire US citizens and hire illegal contractors who will work for half the price.”
Probably not for a company of that size and profile. For a number of years, the (large) company that I worked for would hire perfectly American contractors for cleaning/trash, etc., but their workers didn’t speak English. The lawyers stepped in and told the suits that they’re risking jail time with that approach, so they were gone. Now their replacements are still Hispanic, but their English is fine...so most likely legal.
My guess is that they require the work to be done in spurts and then they don’t have much for those guys to do. So why not, instead, hire temps for a month or two and then dump them will their work is done.
I’ll add - working as a contractor I found to be an advantage, I didn’t have to attend any of the required employee ‘training’ programs like cultural sensitivity training, “wellness” walks (I rode bike and jogged on my own time) and the like ...
I go to Home Depo.. Lowes is Leftist.
Had a interesting talk with a M.O.D. (Manager On Duty) on a recent product recall I had. She said, if I recall correctly they ask their associates to stress customers fill in customer survey & mention all are read by the store manager & posted for associates to read and with added comments. These are the voice of consumer & are rated (% wise) with other stores. Access to the survey is at the bottom of very receipt with a chance to win $5 grand. One thing I do recall if Lowe’s could figure out (quote) “service, service, service then they would be more serious competition” I left with a Hmmmm...
My last company fired the janitorial staff and contracted it out. Suddenly all the computer equipment started going missing. And any food or money you kept in your drawers.
I wonder if there was a connection?
Lowes could use a workforce adjustment...
If I go to a Lowes looking for something and can’t find it, I’ll stand there for a bit scanning the shelves. After a few minutes, a worker will wander by.
“Can I help you with something?” he asks.
“Sure,” I reply. “Can you find me one of these?” I hand him the piece.
“I can help you with that,” he says, then proceeds to stand beside me, scanning the shelves.
A bit later, another worker appears. “How’s it going?” he asks.
The first worker replies, “He needs one of these.”
“Oh,” says the second worker. “I think we have those.” He then proceeds to stand next to the first worker — and me — scanning the shelves.
Now we have three people scanning the shelves.
I look sidelong at the two workers thinking: “I was just doing that.”
Before a third worker appears to scan the shelves, I say “Thank you. I think I have one of these at home.”
And leave.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon bought Lowe’s.
They are itching to get into the home improvement sector. They’ve already entered into the home sales biz. This would be their natural next step.
I used to work at Lowes on weekends, and to be fair there were a lot of good, hard working, knowledgeable employees.
Then Corporate made the brilliant business decision to fire all of the department managers and Product Specialists, and replace them with part-time workers, paying them under 10 dollars an hour with no benefits.
A lot were OK, but as they had no one with experience to train them properly, they were unable to offer competent customer service and would usually quit out of frustration.
The ones that stayed were usually those who didn’t give a rip, and were just there to collect a paycheck.
Lowes ain’t long for this world.
People who assemble grills that are bought by customers are not going to live in other countries.
Those jobs will go to other companies, probably in small businesses, in the community.
The “help” at Lowe’s and Home Depot in our area is sporadic. Sometimes the people know what they’re talking about and are happy to assist. Sometimes they avoid looking customers in the eye and do their best to avoid you.
Oh the subcontractors will be legal companies but the workers-I bet not so much.
If the third party companies are the morons who put together a Roadmaster bike I bought from Wal-Mart in 2004, I wouldn’t trust them to put together a bolt and screw. The front forks was backwards. I had to fix it.