Home Depot CEO Builds Huge Nest Egg
I own some Home Depot stock, so I'll be casting 30 of the 2.1 billion votes at the 2006 annual meeting Thursday. The proposals are usually dull, but there's a nice snarky one this year about excessive executive compensation that blasts company CEO Robert Nardelli:In our view, senior executive compensation at Home Depot has been excessive in recent years. In each of the last three years, CEO Robert Nardelli has been paid a base salary of more than $1,800,000, well in excess of the IRS cap for deductibility of non-performance-based compensation. His bonus in each of those years has been at least $4,000,000, and he was awarded restricted stock valued at over $8,000,000 in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Mr. Nardelli has also received a disturbingly large amount of compensation in form of "loan forgiveness" and tax gross-ups related to that forgiveness, which totaled over $3,000,000 in each of the past three years.
We believe that the current rules governing senior executive compensation do not give stockholders enough influence over pay practices. In the United Kingdom, public companies allow stockholders to cast an advisory vote on the "directors remuneration report." Such a vote isn't binding, but allows stockholders a clear voice which could help reduce excessive pay. U.S. stock exchange listing standards do require shareholder approval of equity-based compensation plans; those plans, however, set general parameters and accord the compensation committee substantial discretion in making awards and establishing performance thresholds for a particular year. Stockholders do not have any mechanism for providing ongoing input on the application of those general standards to individual pay packages. (See Lucian Bebchuk & Jesse Fried, Pay Without Performance 49 (2004))
During the six years Nardelli has led Home Depot, he's earned $154.3 million plus millions more in stock options. The company's stock price dropped 6 percent last year and is lower than when he arrived in 2000, while in the same period, Lowe's delivered 200 percent return for its shareholders. "The board at Home Depot has rewarded Nardelli for mediocre to poor performance," Paul Lapides, director of the corporate governance center at Kennesaw State University, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "The pay for Lowe's former chairman is a quarter of Nardelli's annual pay, and Lowe's has outperformed Home Depot in the last six years."
Home Depot stacks the deck against shareholder proposals by obscuring the identity of the proponent, and the board of directors recommends a vote for or against each one. (They're against more scrutiny of executive compensation.)
One of the company's largest shareholders, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, came out in favor of this proposal last week.
A second proposal's even more blunt about Nardelli, calling for the company to stop letting one person serve as CEO and chairman of the board:
The pay-for-failure, pay-for-success, pay-for-anything-at-all attitude displayed by our board calls into serious question its effectiveness. ...
It is well to remember that at Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and other legends of mis-management and/or corruption, the Chairman also served as CEO.
Comments
I haven't seen an analysis comparing the compensation of corporate executives with their companies' various stock performances, but my observation has been that as The CEOs' compensation (including especially stock options) goes up, the quality of the shopping experience at their companies' outlets goes down.
I remember when I couldn't walk down the aisles of Home Depot without being asked by an employee, "May I help you, sir?", and if I had a question, they were usually knowledgeable and informative. If they didn't know the answer, they would find someone who did.
Now, I'm seldom asked if I need assistance, and if I ask for it, I'm likely to be faced with a blank expression and an unapologetic "I don't know". I can usually help myself more efficiently.
I read an interview of Nardelli in USA Today a couple of years ago in which he acknowledged that the quality of service at Home Depot had declined. He promised to address the problem and fix it. My experience tells me he lied.
Vince Williams says: "Stand up for your rights!"
I was just listening to an interview with a business author who explains Lowes' strategy vs. Home Depot's strategy during the recession a few years ago. (Skip to 14:45 in the recording.)
The CEO of Lowes saw a recession coming, and figured that would mean interest rates would be lowered in the future, leading to lower mortgage rates and more loans for home improvement and home buying. So, faced with a recession, Lowes expanded instead of cutting back. They put stores into many markets where Home Depot already had stores.
The Home Depot CEO, a "classic bean counter," according to the interviewee, only focused on his supply chain and reducing costs.
Following this, Lowes' profitiblity shot up, as stated above, and they "just beat Home Depot like a drum."
Can someone please explain to me why everyone gets up in arms over bonuses and salaries to corporate CEO's, yet we don't give a shit about signing bonuses and contracts for professional football players?
Might it be because heads of corporations, for the most part, are rich white guys, and pro football players are, for the most part, African-American?
If you hate rich white guys, just admit it and move on. Don't try to disguise it as something it's not.
yet we don't give a shit about signing bonuses and contracts for professional football players?
I give a damn about both. But I can at least buy a share or 2 of a corporation so I can raise a stink VS most football clubs are closed stock operations where you have no vote.
Oh, that and football doesn't actually matter, whereas Corporations hold sway over the US of A.
Might it be because heads of corporations, for the most part, are rich white guys, and pro football players are, for the most part, African-American?
I care about the salaries of star athletes about as much as I care about the salaries of actors.
I don't know Robert Nardelli's race. I care about his compensation because I'm a stockholder in the company and I'd like to think the management is good at something other than personal enrichment.
I don't need, nor do I care about, some guy throwing a ball.
I do need plumbing and 2x4s.
I don't need to stand in "that line over there" because the price scanner got the price wrong, and "over there" is where I have to go to make it right.
BTW, recently I needed 10 feet of flexible copper tubing. The little ACE Hardware near my house wanted $1.98 a foot! So I drove 7 miles to Home Depot. $2.23!!!!!!!
I think i depends what stock you put in to.....if i were to put stock in to home depot then i would want to know what the hell home depot is doing or if i decied to put my money in to stocks for the dallas cowboys then i would want to know what is going on and what they are doing so for david k. dont try and blow things out of the water by bringing race in to this because i dont think being black or white has anything to do with this is issue
I've come to expect this sort of thing. How long til the US finally buckles under the weight of it's own greed and corruption? This is, unfortunately, the norm. It's not even talked about til it's too late - Tyco, Enron, Fannie Mae - shared a similar management style. Gee, so does our current government. Perhaps it's just the nature of capitalist democracy, and part of the price "of doing business" to deal with these types of problems. Hopefully they'll self-correct. Meanwhile, it might be a good idea to brush up on my Mandarin.
In the early days, regular Home Depot employees were given meaningful performance incentives. Nowadays, they get -- and I mean this quite literally -- discount coupons to Dairy Queen.
The customer Service at Home Depot is auwful.
Therefor, I now go to Lowes.
when i go to home despot, it is due to lack of choice in my neighborhood. local small stores no longer carry construction goods.
but as for finding an employee willing to help on ANYthing - it's like being a russian soldier, walking into a certain bunker, and asking "which one of you is der fuhrer?" i've seen rats scatter slower.
kinda hard to blame an employee who's just been yelled at for not shelving fast enough, when he also just found out how much the ceo made..............
But I can at least buy a share or 2 of a corporation so I can raise a stink VS most football clubs are closed stock operations where you have no vote.
It's teams, not clubs, you filthy, thieving foreigner. Take your steak and kidney pie back to the UK, guvnor. We don't cotton to royalty-sniffing britishers 'round heah.
MAN that felt good. I've got to join a hate group.
Well. I think financial crimes are among the only ones that should be punishable via the death penalty, but if Home Depot wants to load some fat guy down with cash I can only affect them if I divert to Lowe's, or carve my own 11" lag bolts out of old meteorites.
The difference between a football player and the CEO of a company: I don't have to spend money on a football game. (Well, as a taxpayer I probably do wind up paying for stadiums; but that's a gripe for another day...) I do have to spend money on water filters, paint, plumbing supplies, and wood pellets - and this year Home Depot was often the *only* source for pellets for my stove.
Have you considered hamsters? They make the loveliest pellets.
It really stinks that the boards of directors of so many U.S. corporations collude with piratical executives to loot and pillage public companies. Make 'em all walk the plank.
Here's a well-kept secret:
Japan is still a great place to invest your money, yields there far outperforming those in the sexy, over-hyped expanding economies of China and India. And, Japan's laws limit executive compensation to no more than 60 times the annual earnings of a company's lowest paid worker.
Banzai!
Several years ago Home Depot's chief executive said in a Business Week interview that there were things they had to do in order to be more competitive, one of which was clean up their stores and get all of the junk/merchandise out of the aisles and put away. Well, it's several years later and the stores still look like dumps... Home Depot is to Lowes as Wall Mart is To Target.
Beyond $10 million, what is the point? Can you really live so much differently?
It's just greed, plain and simple.
I genuinely preferred Home Depot over Lowes a few years back but now there is no doubt in my mind, Lowes wins hands down.
I guess I'll sell my HD stock and put it into a company that pays the shareholders rather than the CEO, one that caters to the customer and one that provides service and lower priced goods!
Years ago, when HD came to town and literally wiped out the poorly run Home Base, individual stores ran like well oiled machines. They catered to the local (socal) market.....everything was what was BEST for the area. HD had buyers in each local area, buyers who KNEW the area and chose products accordingly. That's why HD thrived.
When the founders retired, and Nardelli came to town, it was all corporate, all the time. No more local concern....all decisions made in Atlanta. What a terrible decision for customers that was! Have you ever noticed the return line is the longest in the store? Cheap shoddy merchandise. HD, the new K Mart.
Actually, the (real) new K mart actually is looking pretty good
SO much of this is true. As an empoyee I saw first hand how customrs are treated by other workers and I found myself appologizing more that a few times a shift.
There is NO focus on customer assistance, except for the fact that bodies have wallets and wallets have money. During the "morning Rallys" the drive is on how much money was made the day before and what the projected goal is for the week/month. If a section like lumber is lagging back, your are told to "Push the decks!" so instead of me helping you find the proper supplies, I'm just supposed to tell you that we are actually contractors that will do everthing for you, for a price.
I spent FOUR HOURS in training about how to sell the credit program to customers. NO training on customer service.
I lasted six weeks, then told them I'd rather bang my head against a wall then treat people like they were shopping for used cars.
What's worse than treating an employee like a slave, whip them with, less help, more work, faster work, weird hours allowing you ony 2 hours sleep, I can go on. Ultimatly getting an employee injured and nealy a quadraplegic, denying him work comp, filing an incident report with Sedgwick that says "no medical attention required" costing a great veteran employee over $12,000. in lost wages with no compensation and after his surgery and return to part time work, asking him to work harder. This brings to mind the Egyption pyramids.
I've worked for Home Depot now for over 10 years. I work on the floor and with customers. PLEASE UNDERSTAND, many of the associates care deeply about our customers and their needs, but we have been loaded down more and more and more with trival jobs that have nothing to do with customer service. We are buried in paperwork! We now do the jobs of 3 or 4 employees rather badly instead of doing the job of 1 outstandingly. Incentives for performance and longevity have gone from the associates paycheck into Nardelli's pockets to reward him for a performance that we would be fired for. Please hang in with the Depot because we pray Nardelli's time is limited......and Depot can get back to true customer service and as the true father of Home Depot, Bernie Marcus, always told us loving on our customers.
Home Depot has now installed three roofs on my house in 10 months and did over $1,000.00 in damages. My ceiling is still not repaired since 3-29-06. Home Depots project manager promises financial compensation since November 2005 for all of our troubles, now the Branch Manager offers us $352.87 You can visit my web site at www.freewebs.com
Thank you,
Don Wenzel
Oxford, Michigan
I do not understand how nardelli is paid so highly when employees wait a solid year for a 7 cent an hour increase in salary!!!
I know I still give good customer service, but since Bob took over he has basically cut all bonuses to the workers on the floor, so I think that affected the service. When I started 8 years ago we felt we were family, but now we just seem to be a number. Longevity bonuses were cut, customer service rewards, etc. so not really much incentive to stay, so the turn around is high, thus less knowledgable staff.
In California, Home Depot is a laugh. Crowded aisles, uninformed personnel, self check outs which are not operating, merchandise showing up on computer inventory but not in stock, check out personnel disinterested so you can go out with out some pretty good buys or non ring ups, if you choose
Nardelli could not run a Whore House in an Army Camp, let alone a shop to compete with Lowe's or Orchards!
I am a Manager at a Home Depot and I have to say that most everyone on this site has it right. Since Bob took over Incentives for employees has dropped dramaticaly, and the average pay wage is MUCH lower then it was before. Now when a new person is hired they are starting out at wages similar to what a hostess at a Steakhouse starts at. There are some good things that Bob brought to the stores such as the use of a night time frieght crew instead of daytime. The stores are now more navigable then before. But previous to Bob, Home Depot hired knowledgable ex-professionals to cater to the customers needs in thier area of expertise. Now we look for someone with Retail experience so that they will sell what we want them to sell instead of what the customer actually needs. So Please don't blame the store employees or store management if you have a expierence that is not to your liking because we are all doing what we can to keep our jobs. Oh and regarding the person that had issues with his roofing install, that is standard procedure for customer service when an install goes bad. We are supposed to do what ever it takes to save money and not a customer when things like that happen. My advice go to the highest reaches of management to get compensation because you will not get it at the store level. Good luck to all of you.....
I am just amazed at the info here. I've been a HD department head for 3 years. Every week in our staff meeting we are told (1)The wages are our biggest expenditure(I had no idea they meant it was the ceo). (2)If someone gets hurt in the store call Anthony (he's in Omaha) and he'll tell you what to say so we can minimize our responsibility and screw people over that way too. Did you know HD has Attorneys who coach management on how to cheat employees and customers out of medical treatment and damages. Anthony is supposed to be the safety manager. I had over 150 safety violations in my department when I took it over(the head of the safety commity worked in my department and did nothing to make it a safe store to work or shop)my upper managers would not let us fix the safety issues, they always had more important things for us to do. So if you get hurt at Home Depot, no matter how minor the injury, tell them you want them to call an ambulance and get checked out. Don't let them shame you into just leaving, because they are trying to screw you. Go to a Doctor or hospital of your choice.
Then there's Sedgewick(Home Depots claims deny company). They are scuondrels to the point of criminal fraud. If you are a customer or employee watchout for these crooks. They have a well rehearsed loop they work you into. For me, I got hurt at work(heat exposure, fainted, concussion with traumatic brain injury) and they have't paid me a dime for workers compensation. If you still shop at Home Depot BEWARE. It's part of thier creedo, DENY ANYTHING IS WRONG. EVENTUALLY THEY"LL GO AWAY. Well Home Depot we are going away, customers and skilled employees alike and it sounds like your stockholders are getting wise to Lowes program.
I worked 5 months in Home Depot Tool Rental: I was required to sign documentation that I would stress the nessacesity of the 'Optional Damage Insurance'. Also charge customers for 'related safety equipment' clipped to equipment, put gloves in bag and drop in shopping cart. Then explain when they returned with out gloves and complained, well you left with them I have to charge you until they are returned.. Most customers would get frustrated and pay for glove instead of trying to get back before store closed. So policies that seem deceptive to me are enforced all the way to the cashier level.
I came here following a Workers Comp link and got off subject.
After working in Tool Rental for 5 months. I rented a large Sod cutter, over 300 pounds using the loading ramps in an effort to get the customer to add them to the rental: just as I was taught get anything else on the rental. As I rolled the cutter to register my coworker decided it was time for his lunch. I loaded the equipment with Mr D.D. watching. Stored the ramps and returned inside, knowing I had hurt my neck or shoulder. While conversing with the next customer I realized the left side of my face was numb and I had difficulty speaking. I went to lunch area and wrote a note for the coworker was needed in tool rental. As I was having more trouble communicating the EMTs were called. As they straped me onto a strecher my human resources manager was cutting my orange apron off. I returned to work in two days and asked the Hr manager where the list of doctors was for work related injuries? His reply : What work injury? Exacly 30 days later the 'lost' list of board approved doctors was 'found!' So I tried to set up an appointment and was refused by HR and Sedwitch. As it took 30 days just to get the list I knew I would never see a approved doctor. So I made the rounds to all 4 approved doctors and receieved the same answer: No! So I returned to the closest doctor on my insurance, the office director knew what I was doing but as I had an ER refferal they had to see me.
After a breif exam I recieved a statement: neck strain, two days off and light duty. So almost a year now Home Depot has refused to allow a board doctor to see me. My only saving grace is on my application I informed THD they would get tax credits if they hired me as I have a handycap. Now as the ambulance record shows I was transported from the store, SSI and Mediacare want to be repaid for the WC doctors visits. For close to 70k now. If they had only allowed me to see the correct doctor 11 months ago? So they are true to form: they will never find the rental contract that Don Everett rented and loaded the sodcutter/edger. 11.04.05
I came here following the Workers Comp link and got off subject. After working in The Home Depot Tool Rental department for 5 months. A customer rented a large Sod cutter, weighing over 300 pounds, I used loading ramps in an effort to get the customer to add them to the rental: just as I was taught, get everything you can on the rental agreement. I loaded the equipment with the customer watching. Stored the ramps and returned inside, knowing I had hurt my neck or shoulder. While addressing the next customer I had difficulty speaking. As a precaution 911 was called. While they straped me onto a strecher my human resources manager was cutting my orange apron off. I returned to work in two days and asked the Human Resourses manager where the list of doctors was posted for work related injuries? His reply : What work injury? Exacly 30 days later the 'lost list' of board approved doctors was 'found!' Even then I was refused treatment as that is The Home Depot policy : do not acknowledge an injury even when you leave in an ambulance. As it was 30 days just to get the list of doctors, I knew I would never see a approved doctor www.badbusinessbureau.com. So I went to the closest doctor on 'my' insurance, as I had an ER refferal. So for 11 months now Home Depot has refused to allow me to see a approved doctor. Now, as the ambulance record shows I was transported from the store, my insurance wants to be repaid for the doctors visits. If they had only allowed me to see the correct doctor 11 months ago? So if true to form: they will never find the rental contract that I rented and loaded the sodcutter/edger, on 11.04.05
Well have hearing 11.20 will let you know.
I agree as well with the other store manager, I'm also a Assistant Manager and the facts are true. But we really do have area's that he has fixed and caused problems. Like the in-stock program there was none before his time, and the employees attendance there was so many attendance issues it's not funny. I'm currently at a store that has both worlds and in it and a world of hurt from prior bad management. It shows not only with the customers complaints but morale as well. I hope Bob's visit ends soon he needs to go.
I've worked for Home Depot for 12 years, as a part-timer. I have seen that company do a 180 degree turn around under Nardelli. He's nothing but a frigging bean counter who is interested only in lining his own pockets and keeping the stockholders happy. He doesn't give a rat's rear end about his people or his customers. Under Bernie and Arthur (the founders of Home Depot), it was a great company. They CARED. The vast majority of store associates were enthusiastic and took customer service seriously. People felt good about working and shopping at a Home Depot store. Those were the days when our customers could count on not only getting everything they needed to complete their projects, they could get sound advice from the experts Home Depot went out of their way to recruit. Now, they hire complacent no-load twits that don't know a brick from a nail, and want to get paid a dollar for a dime's worth of work. The values and standards that Home Depot was built on are ancient history, and it shows, big time. And Nardelli thinks that the answer to dwindling profits is to cut hours from employee's schedules so they shell out less in wages. That means fewer associates on the floor to assist customers. So, customers go somewhere else, like Lowe's. I guarantee you, Nardelli isn't taking any pay cuts. I would appeal to the stockholders to fire his dumb you-know-what and get somebody in there who knows what they're doing. We want the old Home Depot back.
Well home depot has exerted its finacial influence again. I was waiting for a 12.11.06 Dr.appointment. I received a confirmation call and changed date and time in the mail. The wild goose chase is on. The first turn off 85 is wrong direction. Call only number on page and get 'transportation'. Some kind soul tells me they gave wrong directions and directed me to address on directions.There'Information' you need to go further down on left. I am to see a Pain Control Clinician after more than a year it is now chronic Pain! Gives me touch nose test then leaves room with all my films to look at them. States I do not dispence pain killers? Then who sent me here? All I left with was a bill and someone had removed all the welcome information packet that I filled out and the screwy directions. Someone just wanted to see if I would show up and how upset I would be. Blood Pressure 200/110 Upset enought to request Medicare review my referal and not pay for bogus visit. so I feel Dr. is on take from Home Depot. this is second recorded incident. Board Dr. should not apply for Medicare when they have denied treatment. Confilct of intrest?
I had my hearing I was the only person in the Workers Compensation room that did not want me to take $7000 and run. And roll $68,000 of two weeks of bills on to Medicare, At the stroke of a pin the mediator could put it all back on the state, and stop me from ever getting treatment for being injured on the job. As I have filed and served a 13+ millon lawsuite, my attorney dropped me. And made sure I could not use my records as they are stamped large red COPY. At least they are not from a poison tree(depending on how you look at it) I figure if one day of care is $9000 the last 14 productive years should be 1 million a year to cover the Pain, suffering, mental anguish and medical cost not paid by Workers Compensation Claims. Only one loop hole in WC I am going to push it to the limit just as Home Depot has me. I hope no more documents get lost in records I have my first 2 paychecks. And I am sure the IRS has my tax credit on record.
PLEASE: DO NOT TAKE YOUR CHILDREN IN A HOME DEPOT IF YOU VALUE THEM!
Well I had my hearing and seems 'my' lawyer and the state mediator were on Home Depots side. I am sitting there with $9000/DAY $68,000 for 2 weeks in the hospitol bills. I was advised to take $7000 and run. I was advised I should look for another lawyer. They stamped COPY on all my documents so I get to pay for them again. J. F. Burns you could have told me what your expenses were, I can only guess what was behind it. Seems things also dissapear at WC. I requested a hearing but it was 'deleted' when 'my' lawyer set up the mediation.(record gone!)
Now the good news there is currently only one fix for my back and neck,
2 titanium rods screwed to my spine.(but the pain is worse after the surgury. So I just live on pain pills until Emory needs a geniue pig.
Afishz.com is on the way up, I may post some of the 'Alien' photos in my CAT & MRI.S See if you notice anything odd from side to side.
...and some how you've managed to bring race into this discussion. SAD....Racism and stereo typing are always best let to the idiots. Save your posts......some of you should spend your time addressing your real problems!
I'm one of the many fools HD convinced to come work there,told us fairy stories (that were perhaps true in the old days of HD), and then a short one month into it, i realized i was NOT going to get the training i was promised. I would have to do grunt manual (very hard) labor for which I( being not a very strong woman) was not prepared for. Also, if i didn't do this labor AND get a certain dollar amount in sales+credit card sales a day my job would be in jepordy.
It hurt even worse when i discovered i was being paid less then cashiers who were 16 years old.
I lasted three months then my self confidence finally gave in and i became more numb then all my years of retail put together have ever given me. (And i worked card shops during beanie baby fever)
Don't fall for the lies. You are not special, you are just a number at HD.
One story referred to Robt Nardelli and his "nest egg." HAH! What he got is more like a Saddam Hussein Palace - paid for by Home Depot shoppers and stockholders!
He represents the essence of corporate greed and arrogance. He has sent a message to every striving young corporate executive about what is the way to conduct yourself.
"Papa Joe" Stalin used to know how to deal with self-serving functionaries like Nardelli who always put their own interests over everything else.
Heres my problem. 2 years ago I got hurt on the job. As all of us on a daily basis do I dismissed it as a exaggerated daily ache and pain you get from working there in a wherehouse. I worked on the night crew, and I am not trying to be pompus by saying this, but I did every thing. I was your yes man, the guy that management went to to get something done, or to help out anywhere anyhow. After several years of lifting and wrestling, and pushing and pulling 100's to 1000's of pounds day after day you get used to the aches and pains and live on 2 tylonol before and after work. Well this one is one I under estimated and it turned to be more serious. After going through normal tests it was not until a couple months later that the cause of the pain was found by MRI. Still from that point on it took 1 year to get Sedgewick/workerscomp to reconize me as being a injured worker.
All the manwhile they are pumping me full of medication and making it worse. 2 years into it after 15 doctors, 5 surgeon recomendations they finally found what I figure to be the most financially benifical Doctor/Surgeon to them and approved the most evasive procedure possible. Now it has been a little over a month since the surgery and well now they are playing their game to try and get Physical Theropy scheduled through their system which of course we all know (no matter how much they deny it) are working and being paid off by the insurance company for improper treatment, and reviews that will favor the insurance company rather than the associate. See the reason I am so blunt in making this statement is because in my two years experence a very strange thing happened that proves my point that they do not do whats best for the associate/patient. I started out as I said with my original doctor, in the course of treatment since the W/C claim had not been accepted yet he had recommended me to other doctors for treatment, and then finally when I obtianed a lawyer he my doctor requested that my lawyer request that my ortho treatment to that of lets say DR. X. My lawyer tried and failed why because neither doctor was in thier system, so we had to start all over with new doctors, hence the outragous number of doctors. Now to prove my point that they do not care about us, all they see is numbers and do not care if it is ruining our lives. After 1 year and 10 months I was refered to a new ortho via the W/C adjuster. I went to him and he lokked at my records and what I have been through for almost 2 years and immediately requested a new MRI and soon after that put in a request for surgery. That surgery was approved within two weeks unlike 4 other requests. I was then told to do the routine and go in for a pre-op check-up, when low and behold I am scheduled to do that with the doctor I started with 2 years prior. This confused me, because they refused him because he was not in the system, so I checked the files and guess what the approved surgeon is DR.X. I basically could have had the procedure done 6 months into the injury, but these people at this company and Home Depot are money hungry penny pinching spawns of the devil. Now instead of not having any nerve damage and significant residual pain, I so far have been haunted by it even more, and becoming more depressed, and angry. They were in the system all along but all they seen was $$$$$$ signs and made me go through hell and loose 2 years of my life, and now I will have to live a completely different one now. These pople are vultures, they sit in their office and stamp a signature on a paper, while we break our bodies for them, it is ending now. I will take this to trial and if it takes 10 years so be it, but they are going to pay. And the more of us that stand up and quit letting them bully you around trust me they will provide us with the care that the associates deserve, because not all publicity is good publicity and they do not want to be known to the public as the company who intentionally waits for the lowest bidder to care for thier associates like were cattle, although the anxiety, and depression, and pain we all suffer from can be deemed as our branding by sedgewick, and The Home Depot.
I'd sure like to see some Home Depot stock holders speak up for the underpaid store employess, in light of the massive amount of money the Home Depot executives make.
My wife is am excellent bookkeeper. She went to work for out local new store as it opened 2 years ago.
Wantinig to get her foot in the door, she started part time at only $9 per hour. She received a $.50 per hour increase agter 3 months like all employees there.
Now she is the full time, now the longest time employed bookkeeper in the store.
Her 1st year review she received a crappy $.30 cents per hour increase to $9.80.
She just received her 2nd yearly evaluation and received yet anothe $.30 per hour.
She accurately counts upward of $50,000.00 per day, keeps up with oodles of reports but they won't give her a decent raise. Yet they are all about "We are family".
I told her to formally refuse the raise. I'm waiting to see what type of a storm that starts!
I work in the flooring department (and darned hard I might add) for a PacNW Home Depot. At my last yearly evaluation I received a Performer rating. The only higher rating is Outstanding, which no one gets unless they are friends of the store manager, and he doesn't have any.
Anyway, this translates to a 2% pay increase to my $10 an hour, and Mr. Reeves, your wife received a 30 cent yearly raise from 9.50? That's more than a 3% raise! And twice? Oh, that I should be considered such a valuable asset to THD. My gosh, what I could do with another 4 dollars a week!
But just think -- in only five short years your wife and I will be both making a shade over $11 an hour! Which, of course, by then will be worth about $7 an hour... come to think of it, $11 an hour is exactly what I made as an apprentice sheet metal worker in 1975. (sigh) I think I may just go for a ride in the compactor...
Home Depot's relationship with their employees and their customers is a JOKE. Customer service is a JOKE. Store managers and department managers are so concerned with overhead because they are so pressured that they are scared as hell for their job. Re the cust svc...on a slow day, the Manager on Duty comes through selecting employees to send home. A customer comes into the Appliance dept, and can't find anyone to help them because the only employee left there for the slow day is in the plumbing dept...because the only person in plumbing is in the garden shop, and the only emp left in the garden shop is in the lumber dept, the person in the lumber shop is in electrical...What a crock of shit! THEREFORE, no one knows a damn thing. Sure, we are supposed to be cross trained in other depts, but who the hell can be knowledgable in everything in the damn store?
When (and if) the customer finally finds what they need, they go stand in a long damn line to check out. Out of maybe a dozen cashiers, all but three have been sent home.
I lasted six months, when the MOD told me to go home I said hell no, I didn't come here for 25 or 30 hours at your meager $11 an hour, I want 40 or more. To hell with your overhead, talk to big Bob!
I was thinking about getting a job on the night crew. Should I not do it.
My family used to call me the Home Depot Queen. I loved the store and would go there every day if I could. When I got hurt while working there,I changed my mind. I injured my neck and back in 2006. I have had 2 surgeries including a 2 level fusion, but HD refused to take care of my neck. A year and 6 months later I convinced the dumb claims adjuster at Sedgewick that my neck is a part of my back. They finally decided to look at my neck. My neck has probably gotten worse from the delay in care. I need neck surgery now. I am totally disabled and receive SS. HD doesn't subscribe to workers comp in Texas and has a 2yr limit of medical care and 1yr wage cont.( but HD can be sued for negligence) Sedgewick had the nerve to tell me to get my doctor hurry up with treatment and put me on a fast track because I only have 6 months to get well. They just hope you will go away. I had been turned down by 4 differen lawyers. Attorneys are afraid of HD in Texas. That's why HD is a non-subscriber, it cheaper and if the employee doesn't get killed it's hard to prove negligence if you live through an injury. I finally found one to take my case. Pray I will get justice. I am so dissapointed in The Home Depot.
BORED AND IN PAIN IN TEXAS
In Roseville, CA, there's a Home Depot and a Lowe's in adjoining lots, so it's easy to compare the two. I'm not an employee of either, just a customer. I've always wondered why the Home Depot keeps its front doors open during the summer, which keeps the entire entrance area the whole length of the store warm, even though they run their air conditioning too, and try to compensate for the heat in the front of the store by running big ceiling-mounted fans trying to cool people off as they enter, which doesn't do as good a job as just keeping the doors closed--besides, it's a little odd, and only partially refreshing, to be hit with a blast of air as you enter. Lowes does it right: they just keep their front doors closed, so the air conditioning can keep the entire store cool--you feel it as soon as you enter. I could be wrong (I'll have to wait until winter to see), but I think HD also keeps its front doors open during the winter, but with ceiling-mounted heaters to try to keep the front of the store warm. It's a weird experience to see how Lowes gets it right, but Home Depot right next door keeps getting it wrong, when all they have to do is walk next door and see for themselves. It's as if they're deliberately trying to give customers, as they enter the store, and employees in the front of the store, a weird and somewhat unpleasant experience to discourage them from coming back.
As for comparing the customer service between the two--I don't buy at either one often enough to have a real basis for comparison, especially since I go there just to buy miscellanous small items, and I decided some time ago to go to Lowes just because the inside of the store is better-organized and better-lit, but the people working at Lowes are almost always eager to help, and well-informed most of the time, and I haven't had a problem with anyone at HD the few times I've needed help.
Anybody else get the feeling, reading the other posts here, that someone is trying to deliberately run Home Depot into the ground, and milk it for all it's worth on the way down? It fits the same pattern as many other companies we've seen follow this path.
Well, I visited the Home Depot in Roseville that I mentioned above, after not visiting it for about month, that used to keep the doors open during summer, and it seems they finally figured it out--the doors were closed and the air conditioning was on, and there were no big fans to blast you in the face as you enter. Maybe Nardelli's departure fixed that too.
That's why I love the local ACE Hardware. Same people every visit. They know their stuff. They recognize me and and WANT to assist. Worth a couple extra bucks.
rad
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