Working at Home depot — Reviews by Employees

As jobs go, it's one of the best ones available in retail.

For the previous three years, it's been a great job. Good pay, great management team that cares about the employees (for the most part), and decent potential for growth until they stopped opening new stores. I recently stepped down to part time to go back to school and then today I found out they're cutting all part-timers to zero hours until further notice. Honestly, they should at least have the backbone to cut the crappy people out of the work force before cutting everyone's hours but no, instead we all suffer. I don't know if they realize that most part timers are either single parents or students and we need the jobs just as badly as most of the full timers. At the very least they should lay people off so at least they can get unemployment. I'm not going to sit around and wait for them to get their hours to line up with the plan because the way the company is run now it could take years. I'm actually just waiting for the whole company to go under. Overall, on a store to store basis, I think the company is great. It's the idiots up the ladder running things that are destroying what used to be a good company.

if give home depot the highest review because i read all these negative comments and these comments are by people that have never worked in retail. Home depot has moved me up in 3 years to Assistant Store Manager and i make good money for what i do. Thier Benefits are Average, the pay is good is your hungry i make more right now then my best friend does as an engineer he make 48k a year. You can move up really fast if your a hard worker and are good with the customers. Ive worked for carter lumber and lowes both were higher stress with sales and both had worse structure carter had no technology and once you got to be store manager you were on the chopping block and lowes was commission based all they talk about was sales everyday and you never heard they say customer service, they get rid of people way faster and its hard to move up in the company. My bother works for walmart and they are just as bad they pay decent but he works 65 hours a week and the only way he can become an asm is by moving all over he cant stay put. Also job security with home depot is unmatched by anyone else they have 2200 stores so you know they arnt going out of business any time soon and they are so scared of being sued for unlawful termination they have all these proformance improvement plans you really have to do nothing and not show up alot to get fired unless you do something unsafe. So as a whole home depot moves people up fast, pays good, i only work average of 45-50 hours a week so work/life balance is good. People that give them negative comments for changing the way we do things so we can make sure customer get taken care of and shelves are stocked are stupid. When i started with them i would see associate literally walk away from customer rather then asking if they can help them, we had to do something. I would say if you can handle retail a enviroment where you stand all day, stock, and deal with all different sorts of morons home depot is a good choice for retail.

Times, they are a-gettin' tough. Good thing I've got this college degree! Too bad I'm having to work a second job at THD to pay the bills now that the student loan payments are coming due. I've heard management mention that, "You can do your best to help the customers or you can go back to being one" a number of times. Having only been on the job for about a month, now, I'm satisfied with things.

A couple things that have rubbed me the wrong way so far, though...

I interviewed for and was offered a position based on my aim of picking up about 20 hours a week. Now the department has been short-handed for some time, I guess, but you can imagine my surprise when I saw the schedule for my first week on the floor (outside of computer training in the back) was more than 30 hours! If this was my only job, I'd be super happy about this, but I work another 40+ at job #1. That's pretty rough.

When I mentioned this to the lady who handles the schedules, she said she would take care of it. She also said she would take care of my 4-day weekend for my wedding anniversary trip. A week goes by and no changes on the schedule. I talk to one of the assistant managers on the floor one night and he says to talk to her or the main manager. I check with the main manager (the guy who interviewed and offered me the position) and he says he'll take care of it. Days pass and no dice. After two weeks, I finally end up having to call the department head, who I've never been introduced to or otherwise seen in more than two weeks on the job in his department, and we finally get things worked out.

This being a retail establishment, there's going to be weekends worked. They're going to suck. It's a fact of retail life, but if you're like me, considering a second job, be prepared to be working - one place or the other - every single day of the month. That's a hard pill to swallow.

The days are spent on your feet, walking around, trying to help customers. It's actually not that bad, imo. They have a simple philosophy right now. Take care of the customer, keep the store neat/clean, and make sure everything is in stock. I can't control what they get in on the trucks or when they get it, but I can easily walk around and make sure there's no crap on the floor or hanging out of a shelf somewhere while I take customers to find what they need. As an added bonus, I'm regularly hearing about different home improvement projects and how they're getting done. So many ideas! It's just too bad that I have no free time (or energy when I do have a couple hours free time) to try my hand at any of it.

All in all, I'm not disappointed with THD. It's your usual, you-are-replaceable retail environment where everything is done around the customers who, as anyone in retail will tell you, can tend to be slovenly, knuckle-dragging morons. People can't be bothered to put anything back where they found it, they find ways to steal stupid things like light bulbs, and it's easy to see your faith in your fellow man dwindle even further into the abyss.

The biggest benefit of working somewhere as a second job is that you know you can get by without it. Keep your days on the floor simple and try not to stress about anything. Focus on taking care of the customers and let the night crew worry about filling holes on the shelves. If things get ugly, you can just walk. Know they need you more than you need them.

Good luck out there.

Very good management staff.

Pay at HD was good and so was the raises until the hands changed now its 2cents and 7 cents raise thats a joke with today's economy
Respect...employees fight, curse and yell at each other because they get away with it some get fired most get away with it its the work load .
Benefits are better than most places especially if part time the state won't help you.
Job security...They sit at a table and make up a list of people they don't like and try to find a reason to fire them this is true since all asm and dsod have big mouths thats just too wrong.
Management takes what they want and mark it down as whatever but its in there home or a friends so they can enjoy it.
Worklife balance... is really not too bad it depends on who does the schedule and who is the store manager
Career... You take a chance in being fired very quick because most areas are touchy and with the new regs you have to follow and you work your tail off.
Location...its close to other businesses you have the blue route to use and plenty of places to eat and if you live close by the better.
Co-worker competence...most don't want to work they only want a paycheck and they pass the work off to others
Work environment...it can be good and really good or bad depending on the management that is present at the time a mean rotten store manager means unhappy ASM's and unhappy Dsod's and a lot of employees leaving
and we usually have a good share of incompetent managers that ruin the stores work potential.

I've been with the company for eight years and the pay is pretty good as long as you stand up for yourself at the reveiw cycles. Many times they tried to nickle and dime me, but pointing out everything I did, going above and beyond my job description, eventually got me the money I deserved.
The management staff has respect for you as long as you pull your weeight, which is how it should be. The other hourly employees keep their respect for you as long as you remember where you came from.
Benefits are good, but expensive. As a father of 2 children, I can't afford the insurance on my kids. The sick time and vacation time are great and I was one of the last one's to get "grand-fathered in" on the longevity bonuses.
Career growth is ok inside the store ( I was promoted to Dept. Head in 4 months),but if you don't "brown-nose" the District Manager, you'll go no further. ( I know this because I've had 3 DM's and taken the test and interviews for Assistant Manager, but all 3 DM's said not to promote me.)
Location is ok, I'm 15 miles from the store I work at. And after working in 4 different stores, I find that the co-worker competence isn't what it ussed to be. New hires are often thrown on the floor with little or no training.
The store I'm at also has Department Heads that have been in posistion for over a year and still don't know how to do their jobs, and our district is notorius for promoting people simply because the were in the military... even though they don't have a clue about any merchandise or company policies.

Pay - was ok, I started out as a cashier. I was a college graduate and had a hard time time finding work. The pay was good for a cashiering job.
Respect - ran into some heavy problems with an ASM after I tried to change their operations at night to be more safety-oreintated. Overall, the higher ups were respectful with the exception of that one ASM.
Benefits - really good for retail. They are one of the few companies that has sick pay and vacation pay for part-timers.
Work-Life balance - Of course we had the open/close shifts, but when I had to take some time off for a family crisis, they were very understanding and caring. I was also able to transfer to another state.
Career/Growth Potential - I made head cashier in a bit over a year, but getting a job as a department head was difficult.
Location - Great. I lived about 20 minutes drive away.
Co-worker competence - overall it was good. I worked with a couple people that were horrible and disrespectful, but there were a lot of great co-workers there as well. A lot of people knew their stuff.
Work Environment - It was ok. I got a bacterial infection in my eyes from something (I think it was the concrete dust), and it didn't really go away until I left there. I worked at two HD stores, and in both stores the night crew favored speed over safety. They tried to get them to work with barricades at night, but that slowed down production and didn't fly well. Corporate has a great haz-mat plan in place, but some employees and managers would rather work dump stuff down the drain or down the compactor then make a 15-20 minute call to get it done properly as far as corporate policy goes. Now, the two store managers I had were both concerned about safety, but not all the ASM's were, and when the cats away, the mice play. The biggest issue as far as safety is concerned, is the night crew. If there isn't a good ASM in charge of that, then there's probably a lot more accidents going on. Any smart District Manager would review accident rates and times and find out what's going on. But since most stores lost their night crew, I guess that problem has gone away.

I think the most important thing about these reviews, is that the managers seem to be the causes of a lot of problems. Managers can make or break a place.

I love Home Depot i have been their for 5 years it is the best job i have ever worked at. clint weaver (weavesbanjoman) Butler PA.

I have worked for Home Depot for several years. Some of the things other people have commented about on this web site are true, such as the posting from 12-18 that stated working hard doesn't get you promoted. I have seen that over and over when some of the worst employees do become department heads and in some cases Asm's. However, I dont feel negative toward the company because wherever you go you are always going to have mangers that are bad and some that are good. The trick at Home Depot is to wait that manager out. He will probably be transfered to another store or another department within just a few months and you will get a better more congenial manager in their place. That's the beauty of working for such a large company all the managers are rotated often. The one thing I have never understood about Home Depot is inability to eliminate problem associates. They often keep very bad employees around. The company has an unwritten policy for example that they don't really make employees operate equipment like reach trucks,fork lifts etc. if they feel uncomfortable operating the equipment. This is all well and good until the equipment needs to be used to assist a customer or to reach or place freight in the overheads. Then you look around for an employee licensed for operation of equipment and there are none to be found. Then the customer cannot be assisted and work in the warehouse especially on the night shift cannot be adequately accomplished. I would say roughly that only 60 percent of the employees can operate or are willing to operate some type of machinery to assist in the warehousing of products on the warehousing floor. That leaves the other 40 percent who although being certified on the computer are not willing to or just flat refuse to operate equipment which really is the most laboring and taxing part of floor operations. So you are left with 40 percent of the non cashier floor staff when they are done with paking down freight from the overhead that they can get down by hand left twiddling there thumbs. While the other employees certified on equipmet are despretely trying to reach or order pick mechandise up and down from the overheads depending on what shift you work. I see this as gross injustice to other employees willing to go out and operate machinery that makes the warehouse function properly. If Home Depot fixed that problem alone it would save them millions a year in labor cost and reduce employee resentment towards fellow employees. Home Depot often is its own worst enemy. But, these things have to be fixed at the coperate level not the store level as the store level mangament really has little control over enformcment wheather employees want to believe that or not. I also find that the company at the store level loses merchandise often when recieving freight due to markdowns form unseen damage or recievers who sign in guarented loads that are often short or were given to another store. This causes mass confusion for people like the I.M.As who cannot find merchandise that was supposedly recieved. The company says it probably was taken or something but the truth is recieving at store level often misses shorts on the shipment becasue they are in a hurry and are expected to get the job done quickly and thousands of dollers are lost at store level often weekly because of receiving mistakes. This could save the corporation money by simply allowing more time to examine shipmets guarenteed accurate or not, but once again, this is a corperate issue that has to be dealt with in order for the store level procedures to change. All in all change corperate policies towards employees and managemt and change at Home Depot store level will happen that is a fact. This would result in better employee satisfaction and customer approval. Which will lead to a better working environmen and a better shopping experience for all of Home Depot customers.