Pros

Nice place to work for the younger crowd to gain experience at an average pay scale..

Cons

With retail most managers are bad and wonder how they got their position and there are a few employees that play favorites and wonder why they haven't been fired yet..

Advice to Senior Management

Treat everyone as if they were in your family and keep your employees moral in check..

Pros

401 (k)
Health/Dental/Vision Insurance Benefits
Paid Vacations
Annual Raises

Cons

Incompetent Senior Management
Inconsistent Discipline Action against associates that should be fired long before

All in all if it weren't for the incompetent senior management it might be bearable to work here
the only pro as a department manager was that I could document people that didn't do their jobs but to get it finalized it needed one of the incompetent senior managers signature to be processed.

Advice to Senior Management

Follow through with all rules, if you expect something from one person, then you must expect the same thing from everyone else, regardless if that person is your friend.

Pros

Good compensation package, there are a lot of cash incentives for various things. Some stores give away cars for having exceptional customer service. Bonuses for having low loss at inventory time. Two weeks of vacation from the first year.

Cons

They can be somewhat inflexible to activities outside of work and scheduling around them. Management is very rarely on the same page, so the answer or directive will change depending on who you talk to, or even when you talk to them.

Advice to Senior Management

At the store level management needs to choose one direction and stick with it. Stop changing course midstream. If your decision was correct last week, why are you changing it today?

Pros

Lowes has been great with working with me and has transferred me from home to college and back. Nice people. The management has treated me very well and I like to try my best to make them successful.

Cons

A little mundane. Basic retail. If the store is not busy, it can be a boring job, The same music plays forever and about drives me insane.

Advice to Senior Management

Good job. Keep encouraging your employers and fire the lazy ones so that there will be a good team of driven employees that are self-motivated.

Pros

If you don't have morals and are able to step on all those around you to move up and not care than this is the company for you, it helps if you are willing to set up those around you for failure.

Cons

The same upper management has been there for years and they all have some type of "personal" relationship with each other, meaning they all know dirty little secrets so they keep each other in check and cover for each other whenever needed to save their own jobs. They are not above flat out lying on anyone to make themselves look better and get anyone fired that tries to make any changes for the better.

Advice to Senior Management

Develop some morals, stop being cock roaches and resign, make it better for the entire company.

Pros

There is room for advancement since they only promote from within but you must keep reminding yourself of that so you can make it through the day to day grind.

Cons

Unpredictable schedules and the repetitious work that must be done day to day.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't look down upon your employees. Many of them are more qualified than yourself.

Pros

Lowe's has successfully managed the business during the recession, by avoiding major corporate office layoffs. Additionally, store closures have been kept to an absolute minimum.

Cons

Outside talent is often chosen for management positions over the development of current employees. Even high performing individual contributors are passed over, and seem to be kept at their current level far longer than necessary. This is a tendency of the headquarters environment. Stores generally offer good advancement opportunity.

Advice to Senior Management

Please develop your high potential individual contributors, so they are allowed to become top candidates for open management positions. When growth is limited, in times like these, value them for the contributions they make by compensating them more competitively. Strong management is critical, but the contributions from experienced, highly motivated individual contributors can separate us further from our competition.

Pros

Decent pay compared to other retail jobs.
Pretty easy day to day tasks.
Laid back environment.
Not to pushy about sales

Cons

Kind of boring if you are not into construction or home improvement.
Dealing with rude old people.
Sometimes nothing to do.

Advice to Senior Management

Did not interact with employees enough.
Were not very nice about getting time off when needed.
Make work more enjoyable.

Pros

Indoor, most of the time you are out of the rain but watch out for code 44 (shopping cart run.) For the Abilene area, in pay, they are just above middle ground. It's actually not a bad place to work as there are a few Zone managers that really care and will listen to problems. I tell people that if they will have a couple of possible solutions ready whenever they talk to these managers, positive action is much more likely.

Cons

Justice is very one-sided at Lowe's. They control the camera's and ANYBODY, (Read, Employees, NEVER Zone managers.) can be accused of wasting time or doing something against the 'rules'. As far as safety? As long as it doesn't interfere with the manager and Zones getting a fat bonus for cutting hours to the Bone, Safety is number One.

Advice to Senior Management

Do as good a job at employee record keeping, (Time Clock Mis Punches, sick time postings on the clock just like we are told to do but HR dosn't catch it and we don't get payed.) As you do at store material management. Except just after the Truck stuff is being brought out to the floor and being stocked, the Store overall looks very good thanks to hard work. Pet Peve: Look at Safety closer. I see too many employees that should have gotten help lifting something and they are getting hurt. Most won't say anything for fear of reprisals. Also, I see delivery drivers being sent out with heavy loads ALONE! This is not safe and it is not good for customer relations. In the lumber department, I see too many customers bringing down large and long boards while red vest walk right on by. Lumber is always short handed so more help and better management oversight will help the image and thus, the bottom line. Also: No matter how good our store looks, when people are ready to check out, they are READY! We don't need more checkers but we need 'minute men checkers' that can come running when code 3 is called. Lunch hours are the worst times but for a lot of our shoppers, that's when they can shop. One thing that would help all the above is for management to loosen up on store hours. In other words; stop being afraid to call someone in when key people call in sick. Way Overworking the employees only get's them to quit. Lowe's thinks that they have everyone 'over the barrel' because of the economy, but here in West Texas, were not afraid to look for a better job, or at least one that's fairer with the hired help.
One last thing: Whenever management reprimands an employee, they should provide copies of all written paperwork. Also, an employee should ALWAYS have access to his/her files. If it has an employee's name on it, then it is NOT exclusive Lowe's property.

Pros

Good HR, Better pay then similar jobs in the area, Job can be fun, Stock options, Great job security, Good incentives for meeting sales and customer service goals

Cons

You have to ask for days off 30 days in advance
Management never helps other employees and lack any college education
No one seems to appreciate the work that you do
Terrible hours, some times you have to be there at 5am and the next day you aren't done until 11pm

Advice to Senior Management

Management need to help out employees and at least act like they care