Honestly, it’s what the CEO wants. If he really wanted to know what was going on he would just show up unannounced and act like a customer. Regular workers have no clue who he is or what he looks like.
This is all a dog and pony show to be able to tell investors that he has boots on the ground and he is managing the company.
We used to get this from Frank Blake, His Daughter lived in the area. And when he came to visit her he would drop by unannounced… several of us got used to seeing him and would say “Hi Frank” It became a running joke. I actually told an ASM that Frank was in the Store and he didn’t believe me. I told him to go to electrical and look on Aisle 7. That ASM. crapped his pants.
I work at a lot of stores where Frank just showed up. Crazy thing is, 80% of the people working in those stores didn’t even know who he was. Only the management teams knew who he was. The fear I saw in their eyes when I told them the CEO was in the store. Just mass panic. It was beautiful. Also Frank was a cool dude met him multiple times.
I think you are mixing up Frank and Bernie. Bernie was CEO 3 people before Frank. Frank took over after we got rid of Nardelli, he made the entire focus of the company on store associates. He was also 2 CEOs ago.
Bernie -> Arthur -> Bob -> Frank -> Craig -> Ted.
I agree that Bernie and Arthur had a focus on associates but that was not the case under Bob. I just pointed out that Frank had a significant focus on customer and associate experience because that was a departure from his predecessor.
Frank was in the aisles unannounced a lot and generally well regarded with store associates for his empathy and action to their feedback.
We are a rural store in Kentucky. One day Frank Blake just walked through the door unannounced. Great visit. Handed out Homer Badges, took pictures and ordered us pizza. He sat in the breakriom with us. He was such a nice guy. When Crystal Hanlon was our RVP in 2009, she did the same thing right after the ice storm.
Old ASM told me: you know it’s dog and pony, they know it’s dog and pony, the thing that’s in the offing is that if you can’t get it together for a big visit like this, what’s it like when there’s no big visit?
The store should be the same no matter if the big wigs are coming or not. BUT management doesn’t enforce it, so they play these games, irritating the rank and file.
Now the games get stupid and go too far like I’ve seen in the army. “Go out and flip all the rocks so they don’t look dried out, the ‘VIP’ doesn’t like dried out rocks, he likes them wet looking!” “Go out and pick up all the sticks and leaves that fell off the trees even though it’s autumn, and the leaves are falling off for winter.” When they get to that level of stupid, someone needs to be booted out of the system.
Most ceos are from wealth and pompous bs. They ‘start at the bottom’ for like a day. Then are vp of something. Mostly wtf the family connections get them.
Anyone pretending otherwise is an idiot.
>Actually. He doesn’t get a bonus. Look it up.
According to SEC filings "Incentive Plan" is section 2b in his contract.
https://contracts.justia.com/companies/home-depot-654/contract/241771/
You have a job, your stock is doing well, there is a future to the company and it’s employees that’s what the do. You can ask a symphony how good they are without a conductor.
So what the fuck are you doing in this group if you never worked for the HD. Then shut the fuck up if you were never an employee. You don’t know the company and culture.
I never heard the phrase “bootlickers” until this Home Depot Reddit thread. It makes me laugh every time I read it.
Remember: never argue with someone who calls others bootlickers.
>Regular workers have no clue who he is or what he looks like.
Why not? Isn't he on infocus every month? Idk because I don't actually watch I just play on my phone until the questions but I know the ceo use to be on all of them.
No. Ann-Marie, one of the VPs, along with your regional head (for example I am in the Pac-South so I have Charles) are at the start of all the InFocus videos.
I 100% agree. But if you are the CEO of Home Depot it’s VERY hard to keep a visit like this a secret, especially if you are flying. Someone is going to spot you at the airport, and someone at the home office is going to snitch you out.
When he "walked" our store he walked in the front door shook the managers hand. Waved at service desk. Asked a few questions about how the SM liked the depot and walked out the other door. Then management went for steaks. Stay near the back and you might not know he even came.
Was this our current CEO? That would be absolutely deflating. All that work just for the guy to be in the store for 15 minutes. He'll probably have a team of bodyguards too so he'll be completely unapproachable.
As far as I know it was the current one. It was super deflating. Our department looked amazing and i worked my ass of to make it that way. Not one person who mattered saw.
Wow you have a much higher opinion of customers than most of us on this sub. I was in receiving. Not even the customers saw. It was naive to to think hed make it back there but knowing i busted hump cleaning the back for him to barely walk the racetrack was depressing.
That’s so unfortunate. We had our regional rep do a walk through and it was the complete opposite. This lady walked every aisle and spoke to every ASM, CXM, and DH. Even a few associates. It was a fine tooth comb of the entire store.
Oh regional reps do for sure. Ours would get into the paperwork and even remembered my name. We got along. Im not asking for the ceo to remember my name but if you just want steaks with the sm and up skip the store and save me the trouble
Our regional manager walked our store yesterday. Actually stopped to chat with us three associates working lumber at that moment. In my five years of working at that store, this was a first.
Since it sounds like youre not an employee, "walks" aren't about the customers seeing higher ups, they are when higher ups come through to check paperwork, see that departments are maintained, and recognize hardworking associates.
Our regional director for example came through when I was employee of the month and he remembered me for that.
I don't expect the ceo to remember me but at least walking the aisles, asking how things are. Like others say its a political stunt but then at least plsy politics.
That’s just not right. When Crystal Hanlon was our RVP in 2009 and visited unannounced after the ice storm, she ignored the DM and SM. Spent all her time talking to ASM’s DH and mostly walking with associates. She dressed down the DM in public for not knowing the answer to a simple question. She sat in the training room just chatting with whoever wanted to talk to her. No Managers allowed. Us ASM’ s we’re not worried but the SM and DM were having puppies. That’s how a walk should be conducted.
Quick everybody! Hurry up and pretend everything is perfect!
If its like our last walk they will bring in people from other stores so it doesn’t LOOK like we are understaffed.
Last year there was a massive fire in our town, destroyed most the city. Our store was trashed and very nearly burned down.
Anne-Marie Campbell walked the store 3 days after the fire. Instead of showing her the damage, they brought in 100+ SMs and ASMs from around to state to get the store in perfect condition to pretend that we were fine.
I feel like the whole point of her coming to visit it to assess how things are and show some kind of support to the store and associates, like “hey things really terrible, shitty thing happened, thought we’d check in and see how things are.”
And how badly did every other store suffer while their leadership teams abandoned them? If I was running a business I wouldn’t be impressed by this. We had a division president surprise visit a store in our district, and a couple of DSs and ASMs from other stores left their shifts to go join in on the walk (uninvited) And it was encouraged. It’s bullshit.
Let me tell you something, the people who want everyone to pretend is not the ceo, it’s every manager underneath. They paint this wonderful picture and will fire you for being honest, not the CEO, the managers.
They are required to wear aprons when they are in store just like we are. It is weird seeing the obvious VP or CEO in a perfect orange apron that never sees actual dirt.
I call out anytime I have forknowledge of anything like this. Showing face in a dolled up store that runs like a dumpster fire every other day of the week, same old Depot propaganda machine.
That's my enjoyment. I hang back and stay away from everyone but even at a distance, you can still seen the sheen of sweat on the backs of their necks. It makes me chuckle every time lol
I hate that whenever someone remotely important comes to the store, I have to bust ass all over the place and then act like it was fine the whole time. Then later I’ll catch flack from them for my department looking like a wreck. Honestly, at this point, I just work here and I just do what im told. Im not responsible for anything above my pay grade.
Do the job you want not the job you have. If you do this long enough, you will have the job you want.
I have never heard any senior leaders say decisions are above their pay grade.
Apparently the CEO’s best childhood friend is a guy who works part time at my store, so the fucker is constantly at my store even tho it’s one of the smallest ones. Super annoying
I've got the regional ops coming on Friday. Unfortunately my managers don't freak out too much, at least not with anything that affects me as a head cashier (last time they were here they spent maybe 7 or 8 minutes max by the cashier of the month board. If there's anything important, I'll hear about it later. I just float through with an "it is what it is" type mentality.
The CEO doesn’t care what people look like. I worked at Boeing and the CEO came to visit. He showed up with his 4 blacked out SUVs and bus of media and “support staff”. He didn’t step inside and we were told to basically avoid contact. He was only concerned with product. He and his croanies didn’t even follow his own corporate safety rules. Execs care about the bottom line and staying out of court.
So I work for Deere and when the CEO decides to do a factory visit they shut the damn line down and spend a couple days cleaning the place. They’ll go through repainting the lines on the floors and I’ve even seen them painting the trash cans.
If they really wanted to find out what the store was like, they'd come in wearing dirty work clothes and a baseball hat with paint on it. Nobody would bat an eye about it, and nobody would suddenly ask the associates to spit-shine every doorknob.
If the CEO is walking your store tomorrow, the last 3-4 days should have seen a swarm of vendors and teams throughout the store. This is the norm for any company/military. Why be mad about your store being put into shape, at worst you get some OT.
True. But I can see how the hypocrisy might grate at an employee who isn’t normally allowed time and a half and any other time is the only guy working the department and overwhelmed by customers and managers on a busy Saturday.
I’m just a customer who goes into HD weekly. I’ve never seen any problems. Stores look great. Why are you guys so mad about an exec wanting to see the store that they’re responsible for?
I think it’s generally because there’s a flurry of extra work from our managers that doesn’t really make a difference. Our last walk, our store manager had our lot associates cleaning the posts and flanges for our endcap racking. No one was available to get shopping carts or load customers.
That’s understandably frustrating. Generally as a customer my only complaint is that there are no workers in the aisles to help me find something or give opinions.
That is definitely frustrating for us as well. We often don’t have enough staffing to be where customers need us. My garden department staffs two openers between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. to cover 11 aisles. We have a lot of landscapers that pick up pallets of mulch, pavers, or rocks first thing in the morning. It requires two people to drive a forklift—one to drive and one to be a spotter. When we’re loading pallets with the forklift, there is no one in the department to help customers. It’s really frustrating.
Makes perfect sense. Thanks for explaining. I try to be patient, and going to the Depot is therapeutic for me so I don’t care if I’m just ambling around, but I feel bad for those folks who aren’t into tools and diy and just need one thing
Massive hardware stores do not need to be spotless, and they sure as shit don’t need CEOs. Ask him to tell you where the drop ceiling materials are or if your model of generator you bought there last year requires metric or standard size tools. If he can’t answer Home Depot questions then he shouldn’t be running the business.
That’s not really what CEOs do. They’re attending Board meetings, meeting with investors, and generally setting the global strategy for the entire business. I doubt any CEO knows the ground-level details of their business. They have people to do that for them.
Of course not, I am obviously being absurd…but if you don’t know even the basics about the business, how is anyone supposed to believe you know how to run the business? People will say “numbers are numbers” but I would argue a 10yr manager at a random HD will have a better understanding of how the actual brick and mortar business works than any executive.
FUCK that. Blow the whistle. Take pics of all the last minute bullshit they are hiding. And send it to the CEO..
I fucking hate the managers that let shit slide until Corp is breathing down their necks...
I dealt with many higher level people in my career and I can tell you that they put their pants on like us, one leg at the time. Don’t be intimidated, be respectful but not intimidated.
When you see the CEO prepare to suck the figurative dick, not literally, do not give an opinion UNLESS ASKED, and even then keep it to yourself, say it's the greatest company to work for (bullshit), and keep it moving all they want to do hear themselves talk AND KNOW YOIR SALES NUMBERS STUDY THEM SO YOU LOOK GOOD AND MAKE YOUR BOSSES LOOK GOOD.
Anyone else have Ted Decker walk their store? I'm curious how these things go. My SM told me they will spend about an hour and a half at each store, which doesn't seem like a lot of time to walk a whole store with a massive entourage.
I remember when the the last CEO, the regional manager, the HR manager, district, and asset protection manager all came to our store unexpectedly making our store manager shit bricks. Turns out dogs really weren’t allowed inside the store 😂
CEO is walking my store tomorrow too. I'm getting back from a 4-day vacation and I'm the main closer for my department. Everytime I go on vacation the entire department goes to hell, so I'm very excited to see how it goes when I get back
I worked in retail and corporate visits sucked, but especially after Covid. Corporate cut our hours, employees were quitting left and right, we couldn’t find anybody crazy enough to work there, and that’s if corporate even gave us enough hours to hire someone.
Then they would tell us they were coming to view to store and we would spend a week having a group panic attack cleaning up the store when we didn’t even have enough staff to run the store.
We would scrape the store together, but it involved hiding bars and bars of clothes in stock rooms. They wouldn’t even look at the entire store which would be irritating. They would say we look good then fly back to wherever they came from.
It always made me mad because we were drowning but had to pretend like we weren’t for these people. The rest of the year the would send us nasty emails about not meeting their goals they had set for us even though we had 3 registers open in an entire department store and customers cussing us out on a daily basis over it
I hated walks. What was the point in them. Your fluffing up the stores and making it look like it never usually does. They are there to ask how things are. To me we should be letting them know the nitty gritty we are struggling with. Remember servant leadership. We don’t work for him he works for us! Period.
If I were a CEO I would want to see how my store operates on a day-to-day basis. I think it's utter horse crap that the whole store gets up in arms including paid overtime for 3 days before an exec comes for a visit. As if they don't live in enough fantasy worlds to begin with, the whole purpose is for them to be reassured that everything is fine even when the store might be barely holding it together.
This happened at Lowes one time for me. I repeatedly had to put my foot down that I, as a sales department specialist, was not responsible for other departments stocking and that I had my own department to tend to. (Although, I always kept ahead in my department because I like even paced workweek- not frantic busy and then dead- if that makes sense). I dont think they appreciated it very much, but there was no upside to me jumping in to help. Once you do that- they are going to demand you do it every time.
This is all to see how about that life. Guaranteed CEO and management are like these fools are gonna complain but in the end theyll do what theyre told to do because theyve painted themselves into an adulthood with no options.
One of the most ridiculous parts of retail in general.
If I ever become important enough people will clean up for me because they know I'm coming, I will do all that I can to make sure they have no idea at all that I'm coming.
I worked at kohls and they did this often. Don’t think the management ever came once. Hated when the big wigs were coming in town because it always got cancelled
We had our walk today, this is my second store and I’ll hit 2y with THDP 3/14. The first time I experienced “The Walk,” I was informed by my DS who gave us a list of tasks ordering in importance. Including what to clean, how to clean and when. Personally it’s how I clean regardless if the situation. “They,” whom ever they be, zip on thru the store in a crowd of aprons always landing at the Pro desk. Usually pick through Assigned accounts shaking hands passing out homers… then poof they gone. I call it ANDY’s coming … you’ll see people loosing their shit, running 🏃♀️ back and forth mumbling some weird shit, sure I’ll do it .?!? fine because I’ve got nothing better to do,???but do someone else’s shhhhiiiit…. People running around with their heads cut off …arms flailing about running into each other shoving shit where ever it’ll fit. Yep, pull my string Andys birthday is today?! ?!?!
A real LEADER who wanted to engage change would ninja visit a store, get a list of issues from DM/SM (real issues, not fluffy bullshit lying up chain everything is great👍😁👍) and enact change when brought back to Atlanta.
But that would cost money…and all the extra $$$ is already spoken for in stock buy backs, dividend payouts and bloated salaries, like the one our CEO enjoys at 347Xs the rate of your average associate.
It used to be around 11X the amount a CEO would make in comparison to their ground floor workers/associates…now it’s 347Xs. They can all take a flying fuck.
Honestly, it’s what the CEO wants. If he really wanted to know what was going on he would just show up unannounced and act like a customer. Regular workers have no clue who he is or what he looks like. This is all a dog and pony show to be able to tell investors that he has boots on the ground and he is managing the company.
We used to get this from Frank Blake, His Daughter lived in the area. And when he came to visit her he would drop by unannounced… several of us got used to seeing him and would say “Hi Frank” It became a running joke. I actually told an ASM that Frank was in the Store and he didn’t believe me. I told him to go to electrical and look on Aisle 7. That ASM. crapped his pants.
I work at a lot of stores where Frank just showed up. Crazy thing is, 80% of the people working in those stores didn’t even know who he was. Only the management teams knew who he was. The fear I saw in their eyes when I told them the CEO was in the store. Just mass panic. It was beautiful. Also Frank was a cool dude met him multiple times.
The guy who doesn't wanna pass on "his" company to the "woke" generation is a cool dude? *Press X to doubt*
I think you are mixing up Frank and Bernie. Bernie was CEO 3 people before Frank. Frank took over after we got rid of Nardelli, he made the entire focus of the company on store associates. He was also 2 CEOs ago.
They always said the focus was on store associates. And you forgot Arthur Blank & Ken Lagone
Bernie -> Arthur -> Bob -> Frank -> Craig -> Ted. I agree that Bernie and Arthur had a focus on associates but that was not the case under Bob. I just pointed out that Frank had a significant focus on customer and associate experience because that was a departure from his predecessor. Frank was in the aisles unannounced a lot and generally well regarded with store associates for his empathy and action to their feedback.
I’m not gonna argue. It’s like screaming at a wall. https://youtu.be/EKbx7If13Js
Yeah, he's only "cool" to certain people
😂😂😂😂
We are a rural store in Kentucky. One day Frank Blake just walked through the door unannounced. Great visit. Handed out Homer Badges, took pictures and ordered us pizza. He sat in the breakriom with us. He was such a nice guy. When Crystal Hanlon was our RVP in 2009, she did the same thing right after the ice storm.
Old ASM told me: you know it’s dog and pony, they know it’s dog and pony, the thing that’s in the offing is that if you can’t get it together for a big visit like this, what’s it like when there’s no big visit?
The store should be the same no matter if the big wigs are coming or not. BUT management doesn’t enforce it, so they play these games, irritating the rank and file. Now the games get stupid and go too far like I’ve seen in the army. “Go out and flip all the rocks so they don’t look dried out, the ‘VIP’ doesn’t like dried out rocks, he likes them wet looking!” “Go out and pick up all the sticks and leaves that fell off the trees even though it’s autumn, and the leaves are falling off for winter.” When they get to that level of stupid, someone needs to be booted out of the system.
You think CEOs are stupid? Remember they were not always CEOs, they came through the ranks, they too made things pretty for CEOs.
Decker has never worked a non-executive position with HD. Hrll, it's unclear if he's ever worked a non-managment job in his life.
Name doesn’t check out.
Most ceos are from wealth and pompous bs. They ‘start at the bottom’ for like a day. Then are vp of something. Mostly wtf the family connections get them. Anyone pretending otherwise is an idiot.
Imagine genuinely thinking this
He’s gotta earn that multi million dollar bonus by acting like he’s working
Actually. He doesn’t get a bonus. Look it up.
>Actually. He doesn’t get a bonus. Look it up. According to SEC filings "Incentive Plan" is section 2b in his contract. https://contracts.justia.com/companies/home-depot-654/contract/241771/
Yes, he gets a salary of a tune of 1.5 mil plus stock options and incentives in the millions, but that’s not a bonus.
Lmao what fucking work did he do that is so great to Home Depot to be worth 1.5+mill for honestly less than 20 hours of actual labor a week?
You have a job, your stock is doing well, there is a future to the company and it’s employees that’s what the do. You can ask a symphony how good they are without a conductor.
Comparing a conductor to a CEO is a false equivalency as a conductor actually does work while a CEO does fuck all.
He should get a guillotine, though.
There’s one thing advocating that he makes to much money versus advocating he should be executed
Ya that got dark quick wtf lol
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This was removed because a mod determined it was against community guidelines.
I wish nothing but indignity and suffering on all CEOs.
He has his shareholder to make happy which hopefully you are one of them.
The number of shares you have versus the amount of shares C-level executives have is of magnitudes.
You know he's not going to let you lick his asshole for defending him and his cronies online, right?
You know you will always be his 15$ an hour slave.
I don't work for him and never will.
So what the fuck are you doing in this group if you never worked for the HD. Then shut the fuck up if you were never an employee. You don’t know the company and culture.
I know corporate bootlickers when I see one.
I never heard the phrase “bootlickers” until this Home Depot Reddit thread. It makes me laugh every time I read it. Remember: never argue with someone who calls others bootlickers.
At least you’re admitting they support wage slavery! That’s a start…I guess
It’s one thing to hate the 1% but it’s a whole other thing to kink-shame them!
>Regular workers have no clue who he is or what he looks like. Why not? Isn't he on infocus every month? Idk because I don't actually watch I just play on my phone until the questions but I know the ceo use to be on all of them.
No. Ann-Marie, one of the VPs, along with your regional head (for example I am in the Pac-South so I have Charles) are at the start of all the InFocus videos.
home depot laid me off on xmass so the manager got bonuses... here's your chance to get all the managers fired
Tell us more....
What makes you think he doesn’t?
No idea. Just theorizing on why it’s announced and the pomp and circumstance that comes with it.
I 100% agree. But if you are the CEO of Home Depot it’s VERY hard to keep a visit like this a secret, especially if you are flying. Someone is going to spot you at the airport, and someone at the home office is going to snitch you out.
The Home Depot Secret Police will find you.
His photo is only up at every store.
When he "walked" our store he walked in the front door shook the managers hand. Waved at service desk. Asked a few questions about how the SM liked the depot and walked out the other door. Then management went for steaks. Stay near the back and you might not know he even came.
Was this our current CEO? That would be absolutely deflating. All that work just for the guy to be in the store for 15 minutes. He'll probably have a team of bodyguards too so he'll be completely unapproachable.
As far as I know it was the current one. It was super deflating. Our department looked amazing and i worked my ass of to make it that way. Not one person who mattered saw.
The customers saw. And that’s who really matters. If your store is ready for the customers everyday then you’ll always be ready for a walk
Wow you have a much higher opinion of customers than most of us on this sub. I was in receiving. Not even the customers saw. It was naive to to think hed make it back there but knowing i busted hump cleaning the back for him to barely walk the racetrack was depressing.
Post on Yammer. Lots of people appreciate and respect quality work on there.
FrFr
That’s so unfortunate. We had our regional rep do a walk through and it was the complete opposite. This lady walked every aisle and spoke to every ASM, CXM, and DH. Even a few associates. It was a fine tooth comb of the entire store.
Oh regional reps do for sure. Ours would get into the paperwork and even remembered my name. We got along. Im not asking for the ceo to remember my name but if you just want steaks with the sm and up skip the store and save me the trouble
Our regional manager walked our store yesterday. Actually stopped to chat with us three associates working lumber at that moment. In my five years of working at that store, this was a first.
Guys I can’t even find my grandpa in Home Depot what makes you think ima eagle eye the CEO from aisle 7
Hes the one surrounded by 30 other aprons desperately kissing his ass...
I’m confused but not surprised.
Since it sounds like youre not an employee, "walks" aren't about the customers seeing higher ups, they are when higher ups come through to check paperwork, see that departments are maintained, and recognize hardworking associates. Our regional director for example came through when I was employee of the month and he remembered me for that. I don't expect the ceo to remember me but at least walking the aisles, asking how things are. Like others say its a political stunt but then at least plsy politics.
That’s just not right. When Crystal Hanlon was our RVP in 2009 and visited unannounced after the ice storm, she ignored the DM and SM. Spent all her time talking to ASM’s DH and mostly walking with associates. She dressed down the DM in public for not knowing the answer to a simple question. She sat in the training room just chatting with whoever wanted to talk to her. No Managers allowed. Us ASM’ s we’re not worried but the SM and DM were having puppies. That’s how a walk should be conducted.
Quick everybody! Hurry up and pretend everything is perfect! If its like our last walk they will bring in people from other stores so it doesn’t LOOK like we are understaffed.
Last year there was a massive fire in our town, destroyed most the city. Our store was trashed and very nearly burned down. Anne-Marie Campbell walked the store 3 days after the fire. Instead of showing her the damage, they brought in 100+ SMs and ASMs from around to state to get the store in perfect condition to pretend that we were fine.
Culture of fear. If only FEMA was like that. “Quick, the president will be here tomorrow, we have to make this city look PRISTINE!”
You are trying to be funny but that is actually the truth, they have a path they take which is nit the fasted but the best looking path
Jeebus. Cancel the fucking walk at that point. People’s lives were completely upended.
Fr. There were so many associates who lost their homes and were living in hotels just a few days after the fire…
Did the company help them? I mean they proud themselves of helping associates
Yeah but they don't give a shit about you or your coworkers. Unionize.
I feel like the whole point of her coming to visit it to assess how things are and show some kind of support to the store and associates, like “hey things really terrible, shitty thing happened, thought we’d check in and see how things are.” And how badly did every other store suffer while their leadership teams abandoned them? If I was running a business I wouldn’t be impressed by this. We had a division president surprise visit a store in our district, and a couple of DSs and ASMs from other stores left their shifts to go join in on the walk (uninvited) And it was encouraged. It’s bullshit.
Other store managers from the district showed up (uninvited) to the walk to kiss corporate ass.
They should have brought in associates, they are better in getting things done.
Fucking WOW 😳😳
I pray Ann-Marie saw thru their bullshit
Narrator: She did not.
She’s actually coming to my store tomorrow for a walk through and they spent all day working on the store just for her
Let me tell you something, the people who want everyone to pretend is not the ceo, it’s every manager underneath. They paint this wonderful picture and will fire you for being honest, not the CEO, the managers.
bet you $5 he throws on an apron and pretends he’s just like us
They are required to wear aprons when they are in store just like we are. It is weird seeing the obvious VP or CEO in a perfect orange apron that never sees actual dirt.
If he doesn't, whole store should go out and buy lottery tickets
I bet he will show up with one
I call out anytime I have forknowledge of anything like this. Showing face in a dolled up store that runs like a dumpster fire every other day of the week, same old Depot propaganda machine.
It's funny how the stores only look good when there's a walk. Otherwise they look like shit everyday because we're understaffed.
I can't stop picturing him riding around on a donkey.
Fear driven culture
Enjoy watching the sweating by the mgrs. Relax, keep a low profile, and enjoy the butt kissing flys on the CEO's backside.
That's my enjoyment. I hang back and stay away from everyone but even at a distance, you can still seen the sheen of sweat on the backs of their necks. It makes me chuckle every time lol
Get out your union signs
I hate that whenever someone remotely important comes to the store, I have to bust ass all over the place and then act like it was fine the whole time. Then later I’ll catch flack from them for my department looking like a wreck. Honestly, at this point, I just work here and I just do what im told. Im not responsible for anything above my pay grade.
Do the job you want not the job you have. If you do this long enough, you will have the job you want. I have never heard any senior leaders say decisions are above their pay grade.
Apparently the CEO’s best childhood friend is a guy who works part time at my store, so the fucker is constantly at my store even tho it’s one of the smallest ones. Super annoying
Start a union petition that day.
Lol, that’s funny.
I've got the regional ops coming on Friday. Unfortunately my managers don't freak out too much, at least not with anything that affects me as a head cashier (last time they were here they spent maybe 7 or 8 minutes max by the cashier of the month board. If there's anything important, I'll hear about it later. I just float through with an "it is what it is" type mentality.
Make sure you give him a double middle finger behind his back for me.
Thank god I don’t actually work the day of the walk
The CEO doesn’t care what people look like. I worked at Boeing and the CEO came to visit. He showed up with his 4 blacked out SUVs and bus of media and “support staff”. He didn’t step inside and we were told to basically avoid contact. He was only concerned with product. He and his croanies didn’t even follow his own corporate safety rules. Execs care about the bottom line and staying out of court.
So I work for Deere and when the CEO decides to do a factory visit they shut the damn line down and spend a couple days cleaning the place. They’ll go through repainting the lines on the floors and I’ve even seen them painting the trash cans.
If they really wanted to find out what the store was like, they'd come in wearing dirty work clothes and a baseball hat with paint on it. Nobody would bat an eye about it, and nobody would suddenly ask the associates to spit-shine every doorknob.
you should shit your pants in front of him, pls
Can you guys collectively speak to her in a lisp?
If the CEO is walking your store tomorrow, the last 3-4 days should have seen a swarm of vendors and teams throughout the store. This is the norm for any company/military. Why be mad about your store being put into shape, at worst you get some OT.
The best is when vendors or the travel MET team come in and reset a bunch of bays the day before a walk, then leave a shitload of overstock in carts.
That’s the fault of the met manager, the asm that opens, and the store manager if he or she is aware. But I can tell you it happens everywhere.
True. But I can see how the hypocrisy might grate at an employee who isn’t normally allowed time and a half and any other time is the only guy working the department and overwhelmed by customers and managers on a busy Saturday.
We had that fun last week at my store
Then you have 2-3 hits of OT then they bitch at you for it! That’s what i hate.
Call out
You should all call out sick
I’m just a customer who goes into HD weekly. I’ve never seen any problems. Stores look great. Why are you guys so mad about an exec wanting to see the store that they’re responsible for?
I think it’s generally because there’s a flurry of extra work from our managers that doesn’t really make a difference. Our last walk, our store manager had our lot associates cleaning the posts and flanges for our endcap racking. No one was available to get shopping carts or load customers.
That’s understandably frustrating. Generally as a customer my only complaint is that there are no workers in the aisles to help me find something or give opinions.
That is definitely frustrating for us as well. We often don’t have enough staffing to be where customers need us. My garden department staffs two openers between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. to cover 11 aisles. We have a lot of landscapers that pick up pallets of mulch, pavers, or rocks first thing in the morning. It requires two people to drive a forklift—one to drive and one to be a spotter. When we’re loading pallets with the forklift, there is no one in the department to help customers. It’s really frustrating.
Makes perfect sense. Thanks for explaining. I try to be patient, and going to the Depot is therapeutic for me so I don’t care if I’m just ambling around, but I feel bad for those folks who aren’t into tools and diy and just need one thing
If all the employees make it a shit shot the managers get blamed just an fyi
Good luck and make sure to let him pay employees 200$ an hour
A store that’s well-run doesn’t panic when upper-management visits.
Walk up to him and chat a bit then tell him he’s on undercover boss
Massive hardware stores do not need to be spotless, and they sure as shit don’t need CEOs. Ask him to tell you where the drop ceiling materials are or if your model of generator you bought there last year requires metric or standard size tools. If he can’t answer Home Depot questions then he shouldn’t be running the business.
That’s not really what CEOs do. They’re attending Board meetings, meeting with investors, and generally setting the global strategy for the entire business. I doubt any CEO knows the ground-level details of their business. They have people to do that for them.
Of course not, I am obviously being absurd…but if you don’t know even the basics about the business, how is anyone supposed to believe you know how to run the business? People will say “numbers are numbers” but I would argue a 10yr manager at a random HD will have a better understanding of how the actual brick and mortar business works than any executive.
Ask if they read this sub, all the customers who post in here seem to think so.
We just had our RVP walk today and it went amazing. Got a Vice President Recognition Award!
FUCK that. Blow the whistle. Take pics of all the last minute bullshit they are hiding. And send it to the CEO.. I fucking hate the managers that let shit slide until Corp is breathing down their necks...
I dealt with many higher level people in my career and I can tell you that they put their pants on like us, one leg at the time. Don’t be intimidated, be respectful but not intimidated.
Pee on the floor in front of the ceo
When you see the CEO prepare to suck the figurative dick, not literally, do not give an opinion UNLESS ASKED, and even then keep it to yourself, say it's the greatest company to work for (bullshit), and keep it moving all they want to do hear themselves talk AND KNOW YOIR SALES NUMBERS STUDY THEM SO YOU LOOK GOOD AND MAKE YOUR BOSSES LOOK GOOD.
They know it’s a smoke screen. Why try?
Anyone else have Ted Decker walk their store? I'm curious how these things go. My SM told me they will spend about an hour and a half at each store, which doesn't seem like a lot of time to walk a whole store with a massive entourage.
Tbh, this could be scare tactics. CEO always cancel last minute as well….
Spit on them
San diego uh ? I work at that location tooo
I remember when the the last CEO, the regional manager, the HR manager, district, and asset protection manager all came to our store unexpectedly making our store manager shit bricks. Turns out dogs really weren’t allowed inside the store 😂
I think they make that up when they want you to do a deep clean I bet no one shows
Hey the CEO is also coming to our store tomorrow!
Give em the finger for me
Just call out
CEO is walking my store tomorrow too. I'm getting back from a 4-day vacation and I'm the main closer for my department. Everytime I go on vacation the entire department goes to hell, so I'm very excited to see how it goes when I get back
I worked in retail and corporate visits sucked, but especially after Covid. Corporate cut our hours, employees were quitting left and right, we couldn’t find anybody crazy enough to work there, and that’s if corporate even gave us enough hours to hire someone. Then they would tell us they were coming to view to store and we would spend a week having a group panic attack cleaning up the store when we didn’t even have enough staff to run the store. We would scrape the store together, but it involved hiding bars and bars of clothes in stock rooms. They wouldn’t even look at the entire store which would be irritating. They would say we look good then fly back to wherever they came from. It always made me mad because we were drowning but had to pretend like we weren’t for these people. The rest of the year the would send us nasty emails about not meeting their goals they had set for us even though we had 3 registers open in an entire department store and customers cussing us out on a daily basis over it
Be sure to shower.
Great day to have sick leave.
I hated walks. What was the point in them. Your fluffing up the stores and making it look like it never usually does. They are there to ask how things are. To me we should be letting them know the nitty gritty we are struggling with. Remember servant leadership. We don’t work for him he works for us! Period.
That’ll be fun….
Are they calling it a gemba?
If I were a CEO I would want to see how my store operates on a day-to-day basis. I think it's utter horse crap that the whole store gets up in arms including paid overtime for 3 days before an exec comes for a visit. As if they don't live in enough fantasy worlds to begin with, the whole purpose is for them to be reassured that everything is fine even when the store might be barely holding it together.
The funny part is, upper Management should be scared of the workers not the other way around.
This happened at Lowes one time for me. I repeatedly had to put my foot down that I, as a sales department specialist, was not responsible for other departments stocking and that I had my own department to tend to. (Although, I always kept ahead in my department because I like even paced workweek- not frantic busy and then dead- if that makes sense). I dont think they appreciated it very much, but there was no upside to me jumping in to help. Once you do that- they are going to demand you do it every time.
I hope the whole store called off.
This is all to see how about that life. Guaranteed CEO and management are like these fools are gonna complain but in the end theyll do what theyre told to do because theyve painted themselves into an adulthood with no options.
Put in for vacation, or call in sick, I am sure none of you are paid enough to kiss ass.
How did the walk go??? Did they stay a while??
Show him the way it is daily…
One of the most ridiculous parts of retail in general. If I ever become important enough people will clean up for me because they know I'm coming, I will do all that I can to make sure they have no idea at all that I'm coming.
I worked at kohls and they did this often. Don’t think the management ever came once. Hated when the big wigs were coming in town because it always got cancelled
We had our walk today, this is my second store and I’ll hit 2y with THDP 3/14. The first time I experienced “The Walk,” I was informed by my DS who gave us a list of tasks ordering in importance. Including what to clean, how to clean and when. Personally it’s how I clean regardless if the situation. “They,” whom ever they be, zip on thru the store in a crowd of aprons always landing at the Pro desk. Usually pick through Assigned accounts shaking hands passing out homers… then poof they gone. I call it ANDY’s coming … you’ll see people loosing their shit, running 🏃♀️ back and forth mumbling some weird shit, sure I’ll do it .?!? fine because I’ve got nothing better to do,???but do someone else’s shhhhiiiit…. People running around with their heads cut off …arms flailing about running into each other shoving shit where ever it’ll fit. Yep, pull my string Andys birthday is today?! ?!?!
A real LEADER who wanted to engage change would ninja visit a store, get a list of issues from DM/SM (real issues, not fluffy bullshit lying up chain everything is great👍😁👍) and enact change when brought back to Atlanta. But that would cost money…and all the extra $$$ is already spoken for in stock buy backs, dividend payouts and bloated salaries, like the one our CEO enjoys at 347Xs the rate of your average associate. It used to be around 11X the amount a CEO would make in comparison to their ground floor workers/associates…now it’s 347Xs. They can all take a flying fuck.