- $8.50 hr to start
- No experience necessary
- Paid training
- Medical benefits after 90 days
- Flexible scheduling
- Must be 18 years +
- Reliable transportation
- Part-time inventory counter positions available
- Call now for an appt.
Just the sight of that ad brought a shudder of horror and disgust to my heart. Also mixed in was a certain amount of amusement as I went over the ad. "8.50 an hour to start"? Hmm, interesting, that's down from a high of $9.00 not too long ago. "Paid training"? Of course what they don't mention until said training has already begun is that the training pay is at least $1.00 less per hour than the starting wage.
"Medical benefits after 90 days": Well, when did RGIS finally do something halfway decent and give the auditors back their benes that they took away so abruptly when I was working for them? How are the benes? Any good?
"Flexible scheduling": Ah, a creative way of saying, "Well, one week you'll work 30 hours, the next week 5 hours, the next week 0, and the week after that 1 1/2." That's very flexible!
"Must be 18 years +": "However, if you're 50 years + we will immediately classify you in our minds as a 'feeb' or 'goober' and you'll rarely be scheduled for any stores. Probably the only time you'll see work is when we have a big store like Kmart or Target to inventory and we need every available warm body, even the ancient ones."
"Reliable Transportation": "We wish. Actually, since we're so hard up for people to work for us we'll send someone to your house to pick you up on the way to the inventory, especially if you're a hot chick that one of our managers hopes to someday score with."
Very amusing. But it left me curious. Have you guys seen any RGIS help wanted ads in your local papers recently? Do they sound a lot like or identical to the one that I saw? I'd be interested in hearing what RGIS ads are like around the country. Or world rather, as RGIS is global now. So if you see any help wanted ads from RGIS lately please post them here. Thanks!
P.S. Well well well. Looky what I just found on craigslist.org!
$8.50/HR COUNTING stuff at LOCAL RETAILERS (santa rosa) [sic]
"This is a fantastic job to fill in any gaps that you might have in your normal routine. Make us a secondary source of income or your primary source of income...RGIS is the world leader in Inventory Retail Services...We have...40,000 employees...
Desired qualities:
- Team Player
- Competitive Spirit
- Dependable Employee
- Prompt Arrivals
Learn more about us at (the RGIS website url) and see why 40,000 employees love what they do!"
Okay, two things about this craigslist ad makes me laugh. One is the 'Desired Qualities' section. RGIS 'desires' employees who are team players, have competitive spirit, are dependable, and who can manage prompt arrivals? Then why don't they treat their employees decently and pay them a living wage? Why don't they treat their employees decently and not subject them to ridiculous pay decreases based on their EAPHs when said employees are unable to meet unreachable or unknown EAPHs? Why don't they treat their employees decently and not give one small group of a district's pets more favorable treatment (raises, more stores) than the rest of the district? If RGIS could do the unthinkable and treat their employees decently then maybe they might hire and retain more employees who have those qualities that they so desire.
The second thing in that ad that's a laugher is that last line. "Learn more about us...and see why 40,000 employees love what they do!" Oh, that's priceless. "Love what they do." Hey, RGIS employees, does that sound like you?
P.P.S. : I just checked the San Francisco Chronicle (June 20, 2007) and RGIS has a "help wanted" ad there. Their starting pay is $9.25 an hour. Okay, I know S.F. is larger than Santa Rosa but .75 larger? Doesn't sound fair, but then little about RGIS is fair, IMO.
209 comments:
1 – 200 of 209 Newer› Newest»That ad you saw is a pretty much standard RGIS employment ad. It`s the same in our district, except the starting pay is $10 hour ( we still have massive turnover).I don`t know how anyone in your old district can work for $8.50 an hour with the high rents and cost of living in the Bay Area. They must have a lot of illegal aliens working for RGIS there.
Misfit, you asked about the new RGIS health plan. It`s pretty much a sham; most people would pay more into it than they would ever get out of it. And I`m sure that they would dump you in a flash if you made too many claims.When it first was offered last fall, I checked out the company --some outfit in Texas or somewhere that I`d never heard of before-- and they continually referred to us potential users as "prevailing wage employees". Not very respectful of potential customers. I discovered that this insurance really is just a big tax write off that will save RGIS or Blackstone or the next owner millions of dollars.
OTL: I know, the $8.50 an hour thing is ridiculous. I guess that's what they meant in the ad by a 'secondary' source of income. And sorry to hear that the benefits plan is bogus. I guess I shouldn't be surprised because after all, this is RGIS we're talking about here! (Hmm. I wonder if it's the same for the AMs and DMs and Ops, you think?)
RGIS seriously needs to get more creative in their employment ads. That is the same ad we have here (the one from your area). Love the "counting stuff" from Santa Rosa-so professional. I think our starting pay is $9.50/hour and I started at $8/hour four years ago.
If they were being honest, the ad would say-
*Can you pass a basic math test (that we call an apptitude test, but everyone knows it's really a math test)?
*Do you have two semi-functioning arms, legs and eyes (I say semi-funtioning because really anything is acceptable)?
*Can you manage to show up to stores you are scheduled for at least once a week (even if you are scheduled for 5 stores that week, and you won't get fired if you miss most of them)?
*Do you like getting up at 4am for 2.5 hours of work? Do you like to unexpectedly work 10-12 hour days? (Refer to the last question to figure out why this is a problem. If we had reliable people and knew in advance how many people were actually going to be there we might have a better time estimate for you.)
*Do you enjoy working for an undetermined amount of hours, going home for an hour or two and then going back to work and doing it all again the next day? (This, of course, is generally only a huge problem during the busy season at the begining of the year. But work while you can, you never know what next week will bring!)
*Would you like to have the entire month of December pretty much off? (Who cares if you have no money for rent, insurance, groceries, electricity or Christmas presents? Not the people at the top that are making money, that's for sure!)
*Are you competitive? (Will you cherry pick and do anything, even unethical and "against company policy", to get a raise? We only want people that make us 3.5 times their worth/hour in this company.)
I think that about sums it up.
I used to work in district 125 and our starting pay was just 8 bucks an hour! It seemed like we had old people scheduled all the time.
Misfit, the ads are about the same here too. But, the starting pay is 9.00. Oh yeah, 40,000 employees who really love what they do. lol lol As far as the medical plan, it is quite expensive and basically worthless.
It will pay 1,000.00 per hospitalization. ??? I was in the hospital a couple of years ago for 8 days. The bill was 29,000.00. Thankfully, my husband has a good medical plan.
That 1,000.00 from the RGIS medical plan would have really been a major help. lol lol
Doesn't really matter what the starting pay is, those EAPH's are so unrealistic for starting wage that no one will get a raise once they start, or not for along time anyways. We have one supermarket with an eaph of 19,000.00 an hour for the 9.00 wage earner. Yeah, right!!!! And now they have introduced contests into the scheme of things where you get a chance at money drawings if your stores exceed certain APH's. Umm...maybe they should put that in their ads. "You can also earn a chance to enter a drawing for money prizes" What the hell has this company come too? lol lol
hey
good blog, found it through google.
Anyway im from UK and its funny to read your stories, it could be in my ex district.
we just started the no worksheets thing, ECPH! we do ASDA in UK (part of the Wallmart family)Managment want you there at 5:30am but pay you from 6:00am.and the directive came from Director of Operations in UK!!!
INCREDIBLE
Bizzy: I love your ad! It's perfect. "Semi-functioning arms and legs", that's great! And yeah, I thought the "counting stuff" in the craigslist ad was so typical for my old district.
TL: $1,000 for hospitalization? Wow, it's nice to know RGIS goes all out for their employees. How big of them!
Exmanager777 and Speedwagon: Welcome to my blog! I hope you'll continue to read, and to leave your comments as well. Thanks!
D7's starting pay is $8/hour. And there's a lot of turnover too. Of course, they always tend to hire back the people they fired just a few weeks before because they're desperate for people to work...
Yes, the benefits package is a joke. So is the travel pay policy.
And the EAPH nonsense is just that, nonsense. I mean, really, how do they expect someone who does fine jewelry in a department store, for example, and has to count one-on-one with a store person who wants to take a break every five minutes and go smoke or get a drink or go to the bathroom or whatever to make that stupid "expected APH" based on their pay?
I was recently looking on-line for part-time work and guess who came up? "Do you enjoy fast-paced variety and a team-oriented work-environment?" I do but RGIS is not the place to find it. "Great Part-Time Opportunity!" "Flexible part-time hours, including days, nights,weekends." They forget to say that the days, nights, and weekends will all be run together so that you can sleep in your car and brush your teeth at the 24-hour Walmart.
When I came to Tucson the starting pay was $7.50. Then they upped it to $8.00 to get some bodies, but the last hired people did not get a raise-they left them at $7.50 so the newbees got .50/hr more than the people who had been here longer. (what a great organization).
Also, they would hire people who had no car and then expect other auditors to pick up/take home these people. (They were always losers with lots of issues!) We traveled a lot and everytime we would pass hitchhikers I would say-STOP,pick up these people-they are breathing so they are qualified to be an RGIS auditor.
We had a guy in our district that only had one real functioning arm, that is why I threw that in there. In grocery stores he had to pick up the item, turn it around, set it down, scan it and then key the quantity. He was so horrible. And he smelled like...something rotten, mariniated in italian dressing and left in the sun for about a month.
Bizzy: Phew, marinated in Italian dressing. Fermented RGIS auditor. Yuck! :-)
az-exauditor, anon: Well, it's as I expected, I guess. It really is the same all over, in RGIS districts. Your districts sound exactly like mine was. Can RGIS auditors take comfort in this or does it scare the hell out of them?
Actual memo (revealing no company secrets):
June 1, 2007
TO: All hourly employees
RE: Wage increase
Effective Saturday, June 9, 2007 starting wage will be increased to $9.50 per hour. Anyone with an hourly wage less than $9.50 will be increased on the effective date. If you currently make $9.50 or more per hour your rate of pay will stay the same.
@if i only had a brain...
We just got that same memo here. Some of the "newer" people that haven't gotten a raise (because they don't meet their EAPH) are pissed and threatening to quit because noobs are making the same amount they are. Do you have any of that going on in your district?
Plenty of pissed people to go around. By Saturday, we should be down to one AM, no AAMs, and no Team Leaders (not that LEAD anything anymore). Remember having teammates?
EAPH? Meaningless if you already make too much money. I haven't been "reviewed" to my knowledge since the program began. Except for a note that I had so many jobs to go, and I was doing almost 200% my EAPH.
This district is set to implode - I'm jumping ship before it sinks.
Oh dear...
I happened to find you linked from Wiki while I was (for some awful reason or another) looking around at things based on my old employer. I think that overtime class action lawsuit caught my attention. I was debating calling to see if I qualify considering I got stiffed on the anytime differential. I was on a "morning team", but worked sometimes up to four stores in a day if they were short inventories... sometimes finishing one store to drive to another and help finish that one.
And I will never... ever... look at a Target or a Sears the same way again. Walking out of Sears almost 12 hours after I had gotten there was not my idea of a good morning. Yeah... I arrived at 6:30 pm... didn't leave until almost 6:30 AM the following morning... and I still had to go to my other job.
That's right. I made the stupid decision of keeping the RGIS job after I had found something else. I must be a glutton for punishment.
However, when my mom woke me up from crying in my sleep one night from the pain in my knees, I decided it was time to quit and see a physical therapist.
I love how prompt arrivals is seperate from dependable employee. Haha
And today we all found out Michelle from D365 stole half an hour's pay from those of us who attended her Walgreens inventory last Friday - we who worked a long day with NO LUNCH. "I'm really not a bitch" she said. Some beg to differ.
I'm reading your blog and realizing the inventory world is crap. I have been with an inventory service (will not mention the name) for about 4 years. They really suck your life dry.
I am a manager of a region and my boss has me working all night and all day and has stated "just take naps in between". When you are a wage worker they treat you horrible, when you are salary, they work you to death and don't don't care you only get paid for 40 hours a week.
The company isn't doing so well so they brought in a new manager above me, he is a slave driver and treats people like s**t!
I've also noticed if the person at the top is willing to work 90 hours a week for no money that everyone else should too. Glad to know I'm not the only one who is sick of this industry.
Summer heat is here. This is when working for RGIS really starts to get annoying. Store closes, air conditioning is switched off, and people are piled into a tiny backroom.
Hey anonymous:
Are you telling us that there are even worse slave drivers and bloodsuckers than the our homegrown RGIS variety? Truly hard to believe! I`m suprised RGIS HDQ hasn`t recruited those people yet.
Please tell us more stories about competitor " X " inventory company. Misery loves company!
The constantly running ad for the Cincinnati Home Depot team states "some travel required".....hmmmm. How about come live in crappy sub-standard Knights' Inns with a bunch of almost legally retarded people who smoke so much pot you get a contact high at work.
@if i only had a brain
That happens sometimes here too-whoever runs it forgets to add the half for the lunch not taken. Our DM just puts us all on 908's for a half hour during the next week.
Can somebody please tell me, is this company in trouble? My team was kicked out of a Giant Eagle grocery store because the AAM running the store showed up late and burnt-out! We traveled 60 miles to this store (way out of district)
EAPH's, Blackstone, loans,tricky contests and lawsuits!
Whats going on?
I was looking for a job part time (just for some summer money) and I applied at RGIS. I walked into the office for my interview today and it immediately reminded me of Vector Marketing , especially the way the office as set up. Basically they only want people who don't have a life and who wants to give their soul to RGIS , something I was not willing to do so I just walked out. And after reading this site I am glad that I did. I work in the inventory department at my job so I know what I am doing but I would never look at my job with disgust after reading these stories.
Longtime lurker, first-time poster...
Anyway, I too have to laugh at the "love what they do" comment. I work for one of the infamous Home Depot teams, so I'm around the same 20-30 people every inventory, and I can't think of a single person on that team that doesn't bitch about work in some fashion or another. LOL. In fact, I think that most of us would quit in a heartbeat if something else (not necessarily something better) came along.
404girl: Thanks for leaving your comment, I hope you'll continue to do so! It's always fun reading about other people's experiences with RGIS, both good and bad.
Some people don't even know how to complete a job application. They don't want to list former employers or information relating to them. I know that RGIS doesn't contact an applicant's former employers, but at least this information is useful in detemining which applicants are worth considering. Some applicants, both male and female, come in dressed inappropriately, then wonder why they're not taken seriously. Our district has stopped advertising in PennySaver because it attracts deadbeats, losers, and other scum of the earth. Now someone can apply on the RGIS website and the application is routed to the nearest district office.
Online applicants are asked the same type of questions that are on the regular application. There are also what are called "knock-out" questions, ones which a NO answer can disqualify the applicant. Such as being at least 18 years old or having reliable transportation. But it's not foolproof. One of the other questions asks if an applicant is physically capable of doing the job(with a description of physical activity related to it), and if the applicant can stand on a step stool with a weight limit of 225 lbs. Someone like Mondo could easily lie and answer YES. When this applicant is called in for an interview, it could be quite a shock for the interviewer. Mondo should never have been hired because he weighs double the limit.
End of November '06 for the "health plan". It provides so little coverage, my required insurance in college was better. The kind described as "if you lose a leg, we'll help you go look for it."
As for EAPH, shortly before I quite my SoCal district, two people got raises. Out of 100 people. One raise was for 1.65$, but that woman was amazing. Of course, she only worked night stores, and only in one city due to her day job.
To The Duchess: What, only 12 hours? Lack of dedication, second job be damned! I went from Victoria's Secret (7 hours) to Sears: started at 0600, left at 2200. I was one of the lucky ones, I had a day off. And was the only person who had to do that, even telling my DM who showed up to count that I was fading at 1600.
I'm sorry, I do feel your pain though.
The biggest requirement to work for RGIS is that you actually want to work for RGIS.
I think the thing I hated most about the job was going into stores where the employees just looked down on us. Stores where they talk to us like we are 5 or like we have no clue what we are doing.
I'm gone now and I just laugh at some of the stuff I put up with. RGIS has a mindset where 'Everyone else does it, so do it and stop complaining'
Sir Batchalot: Lol! Love that nickname! :-)
And don't you just love the new job verification hoops any new employer has to jump through? I think I didn't get a call back from my last interview (and thank goodness - they misrepresented themselves as a recruiting office whereas they truly are a temp agency) because they didn't want to pay and go through the hassle!
Hey you guys! Someone over at Wikipedia really wants to remove the page on RGIS. Now, I know my feelings toward my ex-employers is not all that favorable (no, really?) but I do think they are an important enough and large enough company that they need to retain their Wikipedia page. One of the complaints about the page is that it doesn't provide enough relevant information. Do any of you RGIS oldtimers want to try and spruce up that page with some more info on the company? You can see what the complainer about the RGIS Wiki page has to say about it on the discussion page attached to the RGIS article. Go check it out and see if you can help.
Aww no way. I found this link through wiki.
If people want to defend RGIS or their district, by all means go ahead.
Go ahead and create your own blog praising how well employees are treated and submit link to the wiki page.
We will see which blog has more comments in agreement. Haha.
Misfit, just one item you might be interested in - RGIS mostly pays the higher wage in SF because the minimum wage in SF is now $9.14, so $9.25 is just a nice round number a little bit higher than the minimum.
I can't believe they barely pay over minimum wage there (in SF)! It would be better to be flipping burgers for minimum than getting like 15 cents an hour more for doing this job. The minimum in NY is $7.15/hour and our starting is $9.50/hour. I figured all districts were the same way (a few dollars over the minimum wage).
The insidious hidden cost of working inventory for RGIS is all the unpaid travel time and cost of gas. In our district it`s not unusual for one to travel 40 to 50 miles or more roundtrip,without the benefit of a carpool.(Our district often is reluctant--too stingy-- to set them up.)A routine 5 hour inventory will involve, for some,a one and a half or two hour commute, costing at least 5 or 10 bucks for gas.A newhire may think he`s making $10 an hour here(the seemingly decent starting wage), but when you factor in the time and gas cost it`s close to $6.50 an hour!(5 hours X $10 minus at least $5 for gas is $45. If you divide that figure by the two hour commute, plus the 5 actual hours of work, one is receiving less than $6.50 per hour for time spent going to/at work! One just might be better off flipping burgers if the job is close to home and involves a minumum of travel!Newhires are used and abused here travelwise until they wise up and refuse jobs/demand carpools, or, just plain quit.
So true otl.
There were stores that would take me an hour to get to where I would only get a 2 hour shift.
No carpools or office meets. Everyone here drove themselves.
And on a sidenote, when I left the company they were starting people a dollar less than when I started. And I was there about 8 years.
I know what you mean about the gas cost. We car pool everywhere here (pretty much). Some of our stores are only 20 miles from our meetsite and we still car pool. I don't though, because I don't like driving/riding with other people. So my gas cost (when I worked at RGIS "full-time") was between $150 and $200 a week (but I drive a gas guzzling pick-up truck). At one point I was thinking about quitting and getting a job at the Family Dollar across the street from my house because I wouldn't have to drive to work at all and would probably, in the end, make more money.
I have recently left my position as an Auditor in RGIS U.K. Im pretty surprised to what the starting wages are in the U.S. compared to the U.K. My starting wage was £7 per hour which is roughly $14 per hour. On the other hand we get taxed a lot more than U.S. workers and general costs in the U.K. are horrendous. But I can see that there are the same kind of problems on either side of the Atlantic.
But i simply quit, cos I had enough of the regular mis-management, poor leadership and style of work. There were days when we were leaving our houses at 7am and not returning home till abt 11pm the same day and only actually gettin paid for 8 hours work!!!!!
Like I said this is just one example, I could give you many many more
Man, everytime I see that ad, I'm going to ignore it based on your experiences and other comments. In fact, some of the RGIS employees here in the districts are annoying as hell. I heard a rumor that one of them are so awful at the counting that he got suspended for 2 weeks. I don't know if that's common among RGIS districts since you guys seem to have penchant for batching.
It's amazing how much scarred that former RGIS employees are. I don't really blame them. You work for hell, you end up with scar on your back that will last forever.
404girl: Wait...you work in D404! I must have worked with you before! I'm in D408!
I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this blog/comments and I am glad to know that the problems I experienced as a manager and auditor were not isolted to my district! I worked as an AM in d64 and would like to pass on my condolences to those of you who were treated poorly by your managers. I took great pride in treating my team with respect and for that reason the respect was reciprocated. I have heard and seen how some managers treat auditors and that should not happen under any circumstance. It was difficult to motivate people for a job that I knew was not the most enjoyable, but I never outright lied to anyone.
The money was never that "great," not even with bonuses. It would have been a somewhat decent deal if I worked normal hours and had a life. But I'm preaching to the choir when I say that wasn't the case. I left because I got burned out. Who wouldn't working 80+ hour weeks on salary? This is no joke! Most of the time when I had a day off it was spent sleeping or driving across the state. For example, we might do a Target on a Tuesday night, I would get back to the office at 7am on Wednesday, which on the schedule was my day off. So of course I would spend it sleeping. The catch was that I had to work the next day 200 miles away, so I would either have to drive that night (which was supposed to be my day off) or super early the next morning...you get the picture.
I don't even want to begin counting the number of ways in which I felt I was deceived by the company. One of the happiest days of my life was my last day with RGIS. I cannot believe that the company actually cares about its employees. If it did, I would probably be a DM somewhere. But all that matters is the bigwigs at HQ making more and more money.
I am kind of surprised that there haven't been more lawsuits. But with the way the company manipulates things and puts regulations in fine print, they get away with almost all it. It's sad that this still happens today in this world.
By the way - I think that the Wikipedia site absolutely needs to stay. It would be nice if there was more information on it - like all the true horror stories. Maybe then stores will stop using RGIS and the company will go under...and we will finally see some justice in our lives knowing the company that made our lives miserable has failed miserably!
I guess this blog explains why I was picked up for training a few years ago, couldn't count correctly on their silly laminated cardboard cutouts (really, without depth to perceive, it's not in any way accurate of real performance), given BS that I had to come back to training a second time, and they never called back.
Who needs a life: Oh, I know, the temptation to rant and rave about your RGIS experiences is great. I mean, come on, who, as the author of this blog, would know that better than me? :-) But RGIS' Wikipedia page isn't really for that. It should just give some basic info about the company, maybe some photos, and provide some external links. But don't worry, AgentSkelly is on the job and he's taking care of it so I think RGIS' Wikipedia page will be safe. :-)
Did all of you get that email from Hdq about their email address so that you can contact them if you have problems, issues, or questions? Speakfrankly@rgis.com?
I saw the author post on another blog site about it because he wants people to contact them with issues rather than post their concerns on blogs. What a joke!!
I decided to try emailing it. I wrote with several questions about the eaph system. His reply: " We realize the eaph does have some glitches but we hope that you will continue to do a good job for us.
Please feel free to discuss the eaph system with your District. They should be able to answer all your questions" Uh, Mr. Speakfrankly (those of you who got this know who the author is) if my District were answering my concerns and questions, I wouldn't be writing to you. So, I just tried again. I just got my team eaph's for the week and there are many problems on them. Basically, bad entries by someone at Hdq. I pointed out that mistakes were being made in the entries and that my raises and my team's raises were being based on someone else's mistakes. Just got my reply: "The eaph system has many glitches in it. Please feel free to point these out to your District so they can take those into account at review time." What a joke!!!!!
Well, Mr. Speakfrankly, since you seem to know that there are glitches in the system, fix the damn thing or get rid of it. Think I'll stick to my blog sites.
Writing to him is just as useless as talking to the District. lol lol
TL Too: In theory the idea that RGIS employees have an email address to send their questions and concerns to sounds pretty good. But your experiences with Mr. Speakfrankly shows why in reality it's absurd. You obviously were sent a prefabricated response to each of your questions. I would be willing to bet that no human even read your email, and instead a computer program responded based on your buzzword of EAPH.
I also find it very interesting that you found that mention about people complaining on blogs instead of coming to RGIS with their concerns. Sounds like some company's worried about their employees speaking about them in a negative manner, yes? Well, don't worry, you guys can complain here all you want! But it would be interesting to see if other people who contacted Mr. Speakfrankly got the same automated response that you did.
This is the comment found on Silver Beetle's blog. I'm not sure the date it was written:
Good day to all. My name is Dan Sheffield and I am the President of North America Operations for RGIS. I have been with the company for 31 years and started like many of you with knees to the floor and was a fair duck walker in my time. I have held positions in the field as auditor, team leader, area manager, district manager, regional manager and operations manager. I grew up in what many have called the “old” company and I am part of the team transitioning the company from a family owned business to a professionally managed one. I penned the RGIS Way; believe in the importance of our core values and a strong commitment to our customers. All of which can not happen without our most precious asset, our people.
Our people are RGIS. RGIS is not the old owners, new owners, me, you or any individual but rather all of us. The success of RGIS and each of us rest in our ability to operate as a team, to believe in the same core values and base our decisions around them. Honesty, integrity and a commitment to excellence should be at our base while we pursue our goals of accuracy, customer satisfaction and efficiency. If we base our decisions with these thoughts in our mind, we will make decisions that support the direction and culture we seek to the benefit of all of us.
No matter what some have heard or experienced, RGIS truly desires a motivated workforce as it is critical for our company to reach its goals. We want to hear from those that have concerns and feel assistance is needed. As most issues involve individuals, a public forum is not an appropriate venue if we are to respect individual’s privacy rights. Therefore, we have established an email address ( speakfrankly@rgis.com) to receive communication from those that would like to provide input as we seek to continuously improve the working environment and, as a result, the services delivered to our customers. We will respond to earnest individuals and will treat each communication with the respect and confidentiality it warrants. Likewise we ask that any return communication be treated in the same manner. Publication of what should be held as private will only serve to discourage continuance of this effort. We truly want this to be successful and become a valuable source of feedback.
Thank you.
I wouldn`t contact Mr. Speakfrankly because you would lose your anonymity by leaving your e-mail address.HDQ could cross reference your e-mail, via some computer program ,with lists supplied by disricts in an attempt to root you out and get rid of you for asking all those pesky but pertinent questions.
The RGIS higher ups feel very threatened when we question how they run their operation, especially when they know we have valid points, and are right! I once overheard a lively conversation between my DM and OPS Manager about an anonymous letter that was sent in with a vaild complaint against the company.The OPS Manager was obsessed with finding out who was the audacious auditor that dared to question his authority and infallibility.He wanted him/her fired immediately. (The RGIS way of solving problems--fire the complaintant!) Never once was the validity of the letter discussed.I knew who the writer was and the contents of the letter. They never did discover who the letter writer was.
OTL: What, RGIS fire people? I thought that they when they wanted to get rid of auditors they just scheduled them for so few stores that the unwanted auditors got fed up and quit on their own, thus saving RGIS the annoyance of having to confront the auditor with their complaints about them, and also saving RGIS having to pay for their unemployment claims as well. :-)
Sir Batchalot, that is where I first saw about speakfrankly and it was several months ago. However, everyone in my District got an email from Dan Sheffield about this email address about 2 weeks ago. It was somewhat different than the one on the blog site. It was shorter and with less detail. I emailed him under an email address I created for the occasion. lol lol I knew they could trace it back since they have all our email addresses. We also received a questionnaire to fill out via our emails. Did any of you get these emails?
Misfit:
That is the usual universal RGIS method of disposing of auditors if they are non-supervisors, or of average or less counting ability.If you are a supervisor or good counter,RGIS defaults to plan of action "B" which is intimidation and harassment,both of which are often very subtle.Supervisors get crappy stores with below average crews (in an attempt to discredit them or make them look bad). Good auditors, when scheduled, will be put in more APH-killing areas than before.Of course,if confronted, the management will claim that it`s all random coincidence and that it all was not done intentionally.I have seen enough occurences to know otherwise!
Sir batchalot: That Sheffield letter on Silver Beetle is pretty recent--I believe it showed up sometime in May this year.
In regards to cross-referencing your e-mail address, you could always just get a new, generic one from yahoo and use that. There is no way I would use my real e-mail address to send some kind of complaint.
That letter from Silver Beetle's blog is a laugh. "Honesty, integrity and a commitment to excellence should be at our base while we pursue our goals of accuracy, customer satisfaction and efficiency." The only commitment most of our auditors have is getting the hell out of the store and getting home. If we had honesty and integrity we wouldn't be fudging recounts and searches. If our companies goals were customer satisfaction and accuracy then our raises wouldn't be based solely on our production (regardless of the way we reach our EAPH). If this company cared about customer satisfaction then our OPS manager wouldn't have demanded that noone making over $10/hour count the pharmacy in CVS about a year or so ago (when the pharmacy changed to a man hour charge and he felt we weren't making enough money).
The owners are not using honesty, integrity or a commitment to excellence when they decide on new policies (as the letter states they do), they are just looking at what makes them the most money. They don't care about us being a team or what happens at the district level so long as they are making the most they can off of us.
If anyone else has written to Mr. SpeakFrankly I would love to hear what the replies have been like. I'm sure myself and everyone else would get a big laugh out of it.
For those that read Dan's little speech I posted, also on Silver Beetle's blog theres an awesome reply to it by someone that got laid off at HQ. Go read it if you haven't.
Well since I no longer work for the company I think I'm going to write something. It's just there are so many things I can complain about I don't know where to start.
How about our manager that was fired because she needed some time off to care for her dying husband?
How about the auditors that admit their drug abuse in earshot of team leaders and managers and nothing is done?
How about working people and not giving the required breaks, yet they will be recorded as taken in the laptap?
How about the 1 store every 2 or 3 weeks to anyone making 10 dollars or more when entry level auditors are getting a full weeks work?
So much more crap.
Now I know people complain about their jobs. Any job, any position, people are going to bitch.
But looking back at all my jobs. RGIS started out as one of the best and ended as the definite worst with the big changeover.
And it's not just the auditors that complain. Ask the former secretaries and people at HQ what they think of RGIS now.
Sir Batchelot, that answer on Silver Beetle's blog from the woman at Hdg who lost her job is definitely worth reading. She says it all. If you write about not giving the required breaks and changing times in the portables, I would definitely love to see what he responds or if he will respond the standard "please address it with your District and I am sure they will be able to help you" answer that I have been getting. Duh? Does he think we haven't tried that? For a while, our district was requiring us to sign meal waivers. They have suddenly stopped that. In taking a look at my paystubs more carefully, I see I have a lot of lunch breaks that I never got. lol lol
Speakfrankly is such a joke. This past week our Division Vice President got the can. Our managment staff was going crazy on their phones about it. Apparently it was very unexpected! Our Area manager said the VP sent email out that morning like business as usual. They weren't talking about the why but HOW it went down. Ironic that your blog is all talking up about this Sheffield guy, because he is the President of the North American division right? You would think that if the hatchet was coming down it would be by the big man, last I heard the next highest position after a DIVISION vice president was the pres. Well, what they were only talking about was that some other guy, some training & development headquarter flunky was the one to come do the deed. Worst insult was the DVP hired this guy years ago. WoW. Now that is a commitment to honesty and intergrity. No need for a set of balls in that equation. That was the funniest thing about listening to the managers, they were less interested in the loss of the VP than how it was done. There is a lack of faith in the company at so many levels. The managers don't even care about being discrete, we were in a van load of people coming back from a job. The power of the blackberry!! Where is this silver beetle blog?
Sideliner, which region of the country are you from? I didn't hear about any VP getting canned out here in Cali, just wondering...
UK RGIS
Hi i just wanted to leave a comment as as far as i know i'm the first from the UK to leave a comment.
I've just started working for RGIS in England...
The wage here is £6.50 ph but everything else is pretty much the same.
I'm glad i came here cuz i was a bit worried anyway as i've only been given 1 shift a week so far and was promised full time work. Although it does help that i'm driving people to the stores though as we get around 34 pence a mile. this does boost my wage.. at least i think as i haven't been paid yet.
Anyway thanks for all your help! i've enjoyed reading. I'll post back once i know more about RGIS
Lol. I do believe I'm a serious glutton for punishment because it was your blog which I've read in it's entirety that I decided to work for RGIS. I have an interview at 11am this morning, I think.. I'm not quite sure as I was informed it will be held Tuesday July 12. At first I was a little worried as despite how confident I am for any interview I always manage to fuck an interview up. Then again I don't have much experience as I just recently graduated high school. No matter how I look at it, working RGIS can no way be worse than being both an office aid for my school's guidance counselor and a teacher's aid for the computer lab.
I had a very easy senior year thanks to many advance courses I took previously. My only two real classes that year were Pre-Cal and Physics. the first semester I was dual-enrolled with a local community college so I had no first or second period at school. Thanks to a bunch of mishaps between my school and the community college, I was unable to dual-enroll the second semester. So, in the fine words of my guidance counselor, I became his "personal slave". As for the teacher aid- I pretty much taught the class along with alphabetizing the student body countless times. By the end of the year, I knew everyone's first and last name along with their username and password for the computers. And thanks to grading absolutely everything they did for every class (1st to 7th), I knew who were the brilliant computer wiz kids and who were complete morons. So in the entire school only a single digit number of people actually knew what they were doing. Some computer program we had huh?
I know this has nothing to do with RGIS really, but I'm kind of excited for working for them right now. I'm usually a highly tolerant guy with patience of a saint (as I'm told). The way I see it, $8 an hour to count things isn't that bad for a first job, despite what BS might go on. I'd get more of a laugh at the crap going on than care really. Reading your blog (in its entirety including every last comment) made me fond of such a working environment sadly enough.
I'm kind of curious though.. "You will need to be in proper interview attire." Just was is proper interview attire for RGIS? And I have to take my own blue or black pen. Tempted to take a sharpie...
Anyhow, I should stop procrastinating. I don't feel like getting lost to this place and being late (the office is across the bridge, which where I live, that means a lot.. living in the largest land area city in the country SUCKS, not to mention map quest has no idea where it is either.
I loved your blog. Seems you've slowed down a bit but I hope more will come.
Hey anonymous:
Don`t worry about not getting that RGIS job you`re interviewing for.If you can breathe and are halfway presentable,( like have had a bath or combed your hair in the last few days ) you`re a cinch for the job.
Now, the math involved for RGIS is real advanced--maybe 3rd or 4th grade arithmetic.We have long time employees who have trouble doing piece counts( they run out of fingers),or adding up two digit shelf totals, or even figuring out simple percentages (like 12 pills in a 30 count bottle of pills in a pharmacy inventory is what percent full).
With your computer and teaching skills, you are probably already overqualified for RGIS management positions,based on my years of dealing many of the losers that end up in those jobs.
Proper interview attire? In our office, as long as you show up looking like you washed your clothes recently you're fine. I'm not exactly sure if that even matters. Shit, you could probably come in wearing pajamas and they'd hire you (so long as you passed the math test). I can't believe they take themselves that seriously wherever you are applying. When I interviewed I wore dress pants and a sweater because I thought they might actually care. But having done countless interviews as the AAM, I've seen ripped jeans, old t-shirts, people who look like they slept in their clothes and hadn't showered in a couple days, really anything goes. Never mattered, if they passed the test they were hired.
I can't believe they make you bring your own pen. Makes them sound really cheap.
OTL: Um, I might have to disagree with you on one point. I think RGIS would take anyone from an interview, even those who hadn't bathed in the past couple of days. Probably anyone who hadn't bathed in the past couple of weeks. :-) At least that's been my observation on the hiring practices in my district. :-)
Misfit:
Well, we`ve been upgrading hiring standards around here lately.We`re now up to semi-derelict is hirable in our screening process.Never mind the math test--if we`re desperate enough the tester will give the applicants hints, or even the answers!( We have such higher standards than California!)
OTL: "Semi-derelict": I love it!
Reminds me of an episode of "King of Queens". Carrie is supervising a project at work and gets stuck with a bunch of losers. She tells Doug how bad they are and says, "You know that guy that hangs out in front of the pizza place, the one who wears a tinfoil hat? I'd kill for that guy!"
Haha so true otl about the math.
For one job, when I was "trying" to guide some auditors that 30pills/100ct bottle is 3 on function 6 and a full 60ct bottle being 10 on function 6.
IMPOSSIBLE.
I got so used to that blank stare where I knew they had no clue wtf to do.
Try explaining to a customer why you are sending auditors home. You dont want to tell them the auditors are retarded and have no clue what a percentage is.
Yeah, way to instill faith in us with our customers. Haha.
The thing though, a lot of our customers realize what crappy workers RGIS gives them.
Best Buys here make sure every single auditor is paired with an employee the whole inventory. Smart move by them.
When I went to my "interview" I was in a room with 7 other people "interviewing".
The trainer bought us fried calamari. Don't laugh... Just nod your head at the oddness that is RGIS.
agentskelly: Yep, I'm one of those poor souls stuck on D404. LOL.
And here's something that only makes sense in RGIS land...I learned that next year, our crew is going to make our usual Alaska run for about a month before coming home...only to fly out to Hawaii a few days later. *rolls eyes* Makes no sense to me...
Sir Batchalot: "Blank stare". That's so RGIS! I remember trying to explain to one feeble newbie how to verify an area that she had just counted, and counted badly. I got the classic "blank stare" from the noob. After trying three times to explain it and still getting the RGIS look from this idiot I just said "Fuck it" and gave up. Let the TL who's running the inventory worry about it. Not my problem.
Best Buy used to do the same thing with us here too, the one-on-one thing. I think it may be store policy with them. Smart of them too, but my God how annoying to have a Best Buy employee follow you all around the store. At one point I thought the guy assigned to me was going to follow me right into the bathroom. And when I was scanning CDs he would stand so close behind me I thought that at the end of the night we were married or something. I remember having to tell my AM, "Can't you at least ask the store manager if he can get this guy to back off from me a little?" The AM spoke to the Best Buy manager and the mouth-breather behind me moved back one inch. Gee thanks!
Wow, fried calamari, a new plastic burgundy polo and a webbed belt, all in one day. Merry Christmas!
I tried to convince my DM to give people a "basic" math test with fractions before they get sent to a pharmacy. We have a pharmacy here that requires about 25 auditors to get it done in a timely manner. When a new person is added, you never know if they know how to covert basic fractions until they screw up an entire area. And we do this pharmacy every month so I completely understand about sending people home and never letting them come back. Of course, my DM won't let me make up a math test and that would solve the problem.
I think the Best Buy thing must be company wide because it's the same way here. Of course, I'm a young woman and I was assigned a young guy so we were flirting more than anything. He wasn't so bad. Armani is much worse. Those assholes not only watch you like your going to stick a suit in your pocket to steal it but also treat everyone like dirt.
Bizzy, I know the pharmacy you are talking about (and yes we have them here in Oregon too) and I do have to say, when you first told me the procedure on what to enter for the quantity, it would of been much easier to say "enter it in as a fraction in decimal form". Once I realized thats what you mean, I got it and never had a problem.
I use that for people who have issues on their first pharmacy and they get it right away. My guess is that auditors remember that same phrase from 5th grade math assignments :P
No Skelly. I have people that wouldn't understand that having 50 pills out of 100 is a half a bottle. People that don't understand that if you have 15 out of 25 vials is 6/10. 4 packages of birth control pills in a box that should have 5 being 8/10. I mean that they can't do basic math at all. Sometimes this isn't discovered for months in this pharmacy. Then the manager starts to doubt everyone when we finally uncover someone like this.
I make $8.50 an hour now in Detroit. I sent my resume in for a training position but I didn't get it - not like I was expecting to with my limited experience.
I'm surprised they don't try to lure you in with promises of luxurious travel, only to have people find out you'll be driving 50 miles round trip for 2-4 hours of work. (Well, that's how it is right now for me, they're keeping me mostly in department stores and it's summer).
Ooh, that reminds me... I did a Foot Locker once where the person with keys to the store arrived late, and I forgot to check my schedule to make sure we were paid from the start time and not when we actually got going.
Bizzy:
We had a quarterly small three person pharmacy where the grand total jumped from something like 70 or 80 thousand dollars to about 120 or 130 thousand dollars because of incompetent auditors that didn`t understand the decimal system, or didn`t care whether they screwed up. The odd thing was neither the RGIS supervisor or store manager (probably in a hurry to go home)caught the mistakes, which is somewhat unbelievable in itself. The totals were back to normal the next time with a different supervisor and experienced crew.I just wonder what the pharmacy`s corporate office thought of the inconsistancies in the inventory.We didn`t do a recount, so maybe they didn`t notice either!
Dustin:
We are ALWAYS supposed to be paid from the scheduled start time, whether or not the store people or RGIS supervisor arrive on time.There`s another big class action lawsuit against RGIS going on right now, and this is one of the main issues in the suit.( If anyone has been screwed by RGIS in this manner, they should join the lawsuit before it`s too late!)
So true Bizzy.
I know some of the math can be confusing to some people, or it needs to be explained right.
But here, there are people that I have no clue how they passed the math test.
I've seen people counting with their fingers. We have people that came in from the other district that came with multiplication table sheets. 1x2=2 4x3=12, etc. And these were sheets handed out to them by the RGIS managers. These are also the same people that would mess up on 5 pc areas.
Now this wasn't a huge percentage of our auditors. A lot of the auditors I worked with were very smart.
But these goofballs that came in would make the rest of us look bad. No one fires them and they get to mess up as much as they want.
Accuracy is our primary concern?
sir bachalot:
Multiplication sheets! And I thought my district was bad! This reminds me of a recent job when the AM sent a friend of hers to count expensive paint pallets 1 on 1 with the store.This RGIS person could not do third grade multiplication in her head. She was constantly asking the store person things like "What is 6 times 7 , or 24 times 4?", or calculating it out on a yellow tag.I was in the aisle right next to her, and was embarrassed and mad that such a idiot could be sent to do an important area.I`ve been in many otherwise good inventories where one such person
with what I call " obvious idiot disorder" would call attention to themselves by acting stupidly.This,in turn, would make us all look bad.Such as the time one person forgot his glasses and was announcing to all in earshot that he couldn`t see anything, so his counts might be off. These kind of imbeciles and their follies too often cause the store to put the "hammmer" down on all of us, resulting in excessive audits and recounts!
Really enjoyed reading your blog and comments. In my district the starting salary is $10.00 per hour, however, they fail to tell you that you will be in a company vehicle traveling all over the state going to inventories at the minimum wage of $6.85 while traveling. That alone negates the $10 per hour, but that isn't bad enough they have to CHEAT you out of the first hour of travel there and the first hour of travel home, calling it "normal commute" time. This often gets my wages down below the minimum wage. I've written to the Colorado Labor Board and they tell me RGIS is violating their "travel time" law. I'm planning on filing a REQUEST FOR MEDIATION" with the State requesting all the back hours they did not pay me for. Has anyone had any experience with trying to work with their state labor laws to not get cheated by this company??? Any input would be appreciated.
Coloradocounter: Welcome to my blog! I hope you'll continue to read, and to leave your comments too. I always love hearing about other people's RGIS experiences.
As far as RGIS and their violation of state labor laws goes, I know of several people who filed complaints with the state labor board in CA for RGIS' refusal to provide necessary (by law) rest and lunch breaks. They got a couple thousand each because they kept careful records of every time they worked 5 or more hours and never got a rest or lunch break. RGIS had to pay them I believe one hour of pay for each violation. There was no fighting it either, by RGIS; they coughed up the money immediately. So if you've been keeping records of each time RGIS failed to pay you what they were supposed to for travel then I think you're going to have no trouble filing a claim.
Have you heard about the RGIS overtime lawsuit? You may want to check on that to see if you're eligible to participate. There should be a link at the top of the page entitled "Help! Help Wanted!" Good luck!
As far as I know, the first hour of travel is "free" everywhere. I know it is here in NY and in the neighboring states. I don't know if they are violating labor laws by doing this though. You'd think with all the trouble they are having lately they would be doing everything by the books (but then again, we know how meal breaks are just added in illegally).
otl...
I hate the people with "obvious idiot disorder" (love the name-describes them perfectly). When I used to do hiring and training I used to tell the newbies not to call attention to themselves in any way that makes them look like they don't know what they are doing. So, basically, don't walk in and announce that you are brand new, never done a store like this before, or ask me really dumb questions while I am having a conversation with the store manager. Unless they wanted store people watching them like a hawk and scrutinizing every little thing they do.
The math aptitude test has changed over the years. Before it was mostly equations and word problems.
Now it consists entirely of circles, blocks, and drawings of other objects which the applicants have to count quickly-because it is timed-and accurately in order to pass.
Let's say you have 10 applicants for an interview session. Plan on at least 2 or 3 failing the test. Some fail because they do not answer enough of the problems on the test to meet the minimum passing requirement, while others answer enough, but have so many errors that they fall below the minimum. What's surprising is not that they get some answers wrong, but the ones they answer wrong.
The first 5 or 6 years I worked I never had a break and never had a lunch break.
It was an understanding among auditors then that we just didn't get any. Whenever I complained I would get talked down to.
They would tell us they weren't required by law to give any. BS.
I have a friend that failed the math aptitude test. I bring it up all the time to him and laugh about it. I think some people just rush through it and combined with their nervousness they mess up all over.
But yeah haha, whenever he mentions a number I'll ask him, "Are you suuuure?"
Sir Batchalot: Yes, I think it was the same way for a lot of us, regarding breaks and lunch breaks. The only time I can remember getting a lunch break was when the store provided us with a free lunch. I guess RGIS couldn't very well tell the store manager, "Uh, we don't give our employees a lunch break so you can keep the food for yourselves."
At first it was Kmart, Target and Sears that would either give us a coupon for a free burger, drink and fries for use at the mall's food court or provide the food themselves. Eventually Target and Sears claimed poverty and only Kmart remained to give us free lunches, which was usually pizza and sodas. And at breaks they gave us donuts, fresh fruit and coffee. Nice! Long's Drugs would give us donuts and coffee too, for our 1 break.
Target would give us soda and something to eat. It was nice.
The funny thing I remember was how Home Depot would put out food for it's employees that they brought in.
Some of our auditors would sneak into line and take some food. All the time even when we would say it wasn't for us. Well one day a Home Depot manager exploded in anger at our manager.
After that they said we weren't allowed to eat ANY food any store offers us. And if we were caught taking any stores food we would be terminated on the spot.
My favorite store to do, and man do I miss working in this store, was Penske auto. It was just the automotive department in one of the Kmarts. The manager there was the best manager EVER. He would prelist the entire inventory. Then he would buy us all pizza and soda. The inventory would take about 30 min. He made sure we signed out on the timesheet that we were there for 2 hours. He was always worried we would understaff him for the next inventory if we said we were only there for 30 min and wasnt always sure he could prelist everything.
Sir Batchalot: Wow, the Penske thing sounds great, especially the prelisting. And as for Target, I heard at one of the inventories (gossip talk) that Target found it was spending around $1 million a year feeding RGIS employees (do you buy that?) so they said it was too much and they stopped giving us those Subway sandwiches. :-)
The Home Depot food situation is funny. You wrote that some RGIS people said that when they were caught in line for food that the food wasn't for them. What, was the store manager supposed to think that they were standing in line for the HD employees? ;-)
This is a great site. I currently work as a TL for rgis for almost 8 years now lol. I too have the same complaints and stories as told before. The one thing that gets on my nerves is the way the EAPH is calculated. For example here in houston, tx a JC pennys or stages would call for a 515 APH for an auditor, where as a National Stores (Fallas Parades) calls for 905 APH for the same wage. Did I mention all of these stores are auto qty clothing stores.
Basically its like if RGIS gets a "low" rate for the inventory, then the auditors need to increase their APH's to compensate for it. That is how they figured to cut employee's wages, instead of basing it upon an average of auditors by wages in the same store (which would be fair and independent of store rate) they chose this system.
Another beef I have is with the training of new hires, of course this falls on the TLs. A lot of time I'm expected to count at all times since I'm one of the best counters in the district. I feel my time would be better spent training the new hires, however my AMs wouldn't be happy if I didn't maintain my APH. This company is going down if it doesn't make changes thats for sure.
Well, it was the bottom of the second "rummie" and I was checking out "RGIS" on Google and came across the press release announcing the Blackstone acquisition of a controlling interest in RGIS. At the end of the press release was an email address for a RGIS guy and a Blackstone guy. Guess what, just couldn't resist emailing the Blackstone guy and telling him how direly RGIS needs to put some value and money to the interest of having some long term experienced employees. Also perhaps they should stop "stealing" from them. Haven't heard anything back, and probably won't, but it felt good at the time.
To coloradocounter: Definitely sign up for the class action lawsuit. We just completed our declarations and attorney averaged I was shorted 2 hours travel for every travel store. (It is illegal to hold 1st and last hour of travel). Also asked for 50 minutes of auditor time for every travel store and 10 minutes auditor pay for every local store.
I don't know the time frame, but you may still be able to sign up. You need to opt-in this lawsuit - its the only way to maybe get the pay you were cheated out of for the last three years.
I got a text message from (TL)friend at my Tucson district saying there is a memo on the wall asking for volunteers to speak with RGIS reps. regarding a lawsuit from past and current employees. Too bad the dumbshits didn't listen to numerous auditors who told them it was illegal to not pay us for ALL time spent at their audits.
Stealing the employee food is always the highlight of my day. The Ekerd pharmacies around here always get pizza for their staff and I have to smell it being in the backroom. So I'd steal a piece and hide to eat it. (Maybe it's kinda gross to eat in the bathroom, but I don't have a lot of options.) A lot of the store managers would offer me food while the auditors were out there slaving away. I've got grocery store managers that buy me Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and pizza for lunch. They also provide me with soda.
There was one store that we got yelled at though. There was this table set up in the hba section of the grocery store. On the table were donuts and cookies for no apparent reason. So people kept walking by, snagging food. Well, apparently this store buses in senior citizens to shop every Wednesday and the food was for them. So I had to go around and tell everyone not to eat the old peoples food and the store manager put a sign on the table to deter us. Oh well.
Hi. Love this blog. Found it by accident. Here's my story....I was a hard working auditor, after 7 months became team leader. I was hired at $9 then got $10 for TL. After another few months of running kick -ass stores with great numbers and excellent PIQA's they asked me to be AAM. I was pretty much promised the world...they'd help pay my cell phone bill, 2 days off a week, guaranteed 40 hour weeks in december and other slow times doing office work, etc. I interviewd with the Ops mgr for the position and typed up a resumee. I got the position. Boy was I excited. I was told by the Ops mgr that I would be running larger jobs and I'd be training to be an AM and probably be a DM within a year or two. Ok..cool I guess. I could use a free company car and free gas all the time and health benefits. Seven months later here is the reality~~I am a high paid auditor with regular street clothes on. It started out fine. I ran a 60 person store all by myself but my AM and DM was there as back up and to help me figure out a flow and what not. Then I ran the same store in a few other towns. Piece of cake. I sit at the portable, I walk around, I talk on the walkie talkies to my TL's to clear ranges, I go home. This is great. No more sore knees, no more top stock on a ladder all night, no more counting freezer sections....and then....my Ops manager is fired, my DM turns into his true form..an asshole. Now my life consists of counting in a Kmart, a wal mart, various grocery stores, dollar stores, 3 person jewelery stores, etc. I run maybe 2 stores a month. Know why? BECAUSE MY DM IS A CHEAP A$$HOLE. He wants my AM to run all the stores so he doesn't have to pay me to do it. he uses me strictly to count and only if he needs me. I will never run a store with a varience of any sort because h'd have to pay me to sit there while the store checks it. I have done 3 PIV's and that was in my first month as AAM. Now the AM does them ALL because my cheap DM won't pay anyone to do them, even if they are running the store. Another thing he does is shaves time off people's 908's. I phot copy mine before I hand them in. he is shaving off at least 20 minutes off mine every week.
I met my new Ops manager a few weeks ago and he couldn't believe I wasn't truly training to be be an area manager. When I told him I haven;t done a PIV since january he turned a bit pale. I also told him I didn't even know how to get into Oracle to print out a schedule. I got the blank stare that noobs often give. Are you ready for this???....he ask's "Do you want to transfer to district #***, they need an Area manager right now, like yesterday". So I returned the blank stare. Is he freakin serious?
Angry aam:
I wouldn`t trust your OPS manager regarding that offer. The odds are that the district they are offering you is in shambles (maybe it`s my district; we`re down one or two AM`s ),and the job situation will be an even worse hellhole than your present one.The new DM might be an even worse asshole than your current one, too; maybe that`s why they`re cycling through AM`s. Check the district out first before accepting any offer. If you give us the District number, a few of us might be familiar with it, and can clue you in regarding what`s going on there.
In my many years with RGIS, I`ve seen a lot of favortism and mistreatment of AAM`s. I`ve seen people that were AAM`s for only a few weeks, then promoted to AM solely because they were related to the DM or good friends, or even bed partners.While AAM`s,they got the good assignments despite having questionable people/management skills. On the other hand, I`ve witnessed honest,capable, hard working people promoted to AAM, only to be worked to death on back to back to back jobs with the shitiest of crews.There never was any intent to promote these people to Area Manager; they were just used for about a year then unceremoniously dumped from the position.We had one such AAM who was treated this way when he realized that the DM had cheated him out of a AAM bonus that had been promised when he first accepted the position.When he inquired about the missing bonus,he got a big runaround by the DM and OPS Manager, and within weeks was suddenly dismissed--no performance review as required by RGIS policy, nothing. Totally shameful and classless act, but typical RGIS!
Yep, I was one of those disposable AAMs. Ya, I didn't get trained at all. I just got thrown into 50+ hours of work a week, and the crummiest stuff alive. They, of course, promised the world, but in the end, I was alienated from most the crew, except a small group I was training (pulled 3 team leaders and 1 AAM in like 5 months out of that group!)
I made good money but ya, I had no life. The 28k that year was so not worth what I had to do for it, and the kinda stores I worked.
So I transfered back to my old district after that. They lied and said that I resigned and made up a bunch of shit, so I had to start back with a demotion back to team leader and with a dollar pay cut.
So ya, now I work limited hours and the district I went back to which was once one of the better districts is really taking a crapper. The people that got hired are really horrible and they make the working experience even worse than before.
Ya, this EAPH thing is logically flawed. No need to discuss it. You can't have any other focus than production with it. It should be a team goal, and everything should apply in that team goal, not individual goals.
If I could get something else, anything else, I would. It sux I'm qualified to do nada, so here I am, with the Real Gay Inventory Service.
I've checked out the lawsuit and actually have paperwork to fill out. However, it seems very distant at this time and frankly, I don't think my district is guilty of a lot of the allegations. I'm just trying to get my two hours of travel time back from them. I can file a "Request for Mediation" with the State of Colorado and believe I might have a good shot of getting the money sooner than two to three years down the road. Also, this is too good - I informed my AM that the "travel time" policy is not in compliance with Colorado law. He called the DM who referred him to the Vice President. Can we really believe they don't know they are violating labor laws???? Coloradocounter
LOL, I forgot what name I used here, it's been so long. Oh well post #91 was me too. Agent K, how things going in 408 now? You need to take back this laser, it doesn't work! Gonna be partying at Target on Monday? I know I will be!
I'm telling ya, I went on our districts worst set of runs a couple days back, and man, just when you think we couldn't hire worse and more rude people, we totally outdue ourselves!
It really made nearly passing out on the floor randomly so not worth it this time.
Everyone think Dollar Tree is lame too? Who scans a fucking dollar score and expects top rate accuracy when you just throw shit on your shelves and crap. Autoscan 10,000+ piece of shit floral... great...
Otl's story reminds me of the time I wrote a letter to RGIS. I have to admit I was half crazy from working so many hours, and very angry because I kept getting stuck in 12 and 16 hour inventories week after week. It was really hard because I was also working a full time job and was walking out of stores hours after they should have ended. I was a team leader and was getting burned over and over again.
Now I need to explain that at the time the district was in utter turmoil because they had put a woman in charge of scheduling that had only been with the district for three weeks… yes that’s right I said three weeks. She was a nightmare, she would forget to schedule stores, only schedule new people in stores that needed experienced auditors, and she’d actually call people and leave their schedules on their answering machines, and then put them in stores without confirming that they had received the schedule. About 35 people were fired as a result of this. One lady, who had been with the company for 15 years, was fired for 7 no shows and it turns out she never got the messages because she had a new telephone number.
Anyway, the DM knew this was going on, I suspect those two were a little friendlier than they should have been (I hate to say that because she really was a nice person, but she was a HORRIBLE scheduler), but he wouldn’t do anything about it.
The final straw came one morning after I had been in a store for 12 hours (the store normally took 3) because instead of scheduling the 9 people the store required, they only sent me three ( a drunk, a woman who could only count sitting on a stool because she had bad knees, and a brand new person). I had been calling my DM all night asking for help, and he swore everyone he called was either not at home or had told him no. Well being the person I am, I asked several of the people he claimed to have called and not one of them knew what he was talking about. It turned out he had lied because he was trying to save money by not scheduling anyone make over $8 an hour.
I was livid, so I went to the RGIS website and left a long rant on the feedback forum. Well it turns out someone at headquarters sent a copy of the letter not only to our district, but to every district in our division.
The DM was so pissed that he called a team leaders meeting, which our Op’s manager attended, and addressed the letter point by point telling us why the person was wrong. I had written the letter so that it was look like a regular auditor had written it, so he thought some new person had written it, and he was out for blood.
The guy’s solution was to have us push the auditors harder, he reasoned that we were doing so poorly because they were talking and taking to many bathroom breaks (all a lie), and he wanted us to tell them the APH was a couple hundred points higher than it actually was. He also went on to blame our districts problems on us and the AM’s because we were getting our packets in late (huh?) and because we were spending too much time in the stores after the inventory (cleaning up mistakes). Needless to say the guy was a real tool.
The only satisfaction I got out of the whole ordeal was that the Op’s manager rode him like a stallion for about 6 months. The guy would come to our office and the DM hated it.
Former RGIS Groupie: That was so unfair, that those auditors who didn't know they were scheduled for stores got fired. Were they rehired, when the mess was "cleaned up" or did RGIS do their typical bullshit stuff and just ignored the mistakes that the district made?
Sad to say though that your experiences sound a lot like what went on in my district. And I bet a lot of auditors around the country could say the same!
The only way RGIS gets away with all of this is because they haven't been fined enough by the individual state's EDD. Not to put anyone down, but when the average RGIS hourly worker gets pissed off about the way they are treated and just quits instead of filing a complaint with the state, nothing is going to change.
It took me about 6 months to figure out the carrot on a stick routine they have. I only stick around now because I cherry pick the jobs I want in town. This is a second job for me. They hate to hear me talk about my 'real' job.
Haha ted. I also used the term 'my real job'. And yes everyone hated it.
A manager would ask me to stay late for recounts or to pull tags at pm stores. I would say, "No, I have to go to my real job in the morning"
The RGIS job was just for gas money near the end of my time with the company. Working to 4am wasn't something I cared about anymore.
Former RGIS groupie: That sounds so much like you are talking about my district. Although I bet it's probably not.
I remember complaining about not getting to work on nights to an auditor friend. He said, "What!? They didn't call you last night to come in?" Nope.
I kept a calendar day by day for the year for stores I worked. Once they stopped scheduling people that cost over $10 for small stores, and our districts combined, I was working less than 1/3 of my hours I normally got for a year.
That was the last year I worked. I still have a number of good friends still working for the company. They still call me and a conversation based on complaining about RGIS can go on forever with them.
I miss the counting, I really liked that part of the job. But all the bs I had to deal with at the end made me leave. There were 2 hour stores where I almost had to pay to work with the long drive and the gas prices where they were. Then there were the drug addicts and drunks. Managers knew about them, but God forbid they have to send an auditor home from an inventory... Or fire them? Haha sure yeah right.
I got my name Sir Batchalot from a game a friend and I would play in inventories. We would try to fit RGIS themed nameds into what we were counting at the time. Say I picked up the book "The Catcher in the Rye" as I was counting. I would turn and say to him something lame like, "Haha, The Counter in the Rye"
Etc etc as we tried to top each other. Lame, but you find stupid things amusing when you are stuck in inventories.
Hi Misfit,
out of the 35 (if I remember correctly) people fired, only the woman who had been with the company for 15 years was rehired, and that was because she called corporate.
The guy was so vindictive that he would have our shady AM tell her there was no work every time she called in for a schedule. Eventually she quit. He did that to a lot of our old timers,(these were the people who were the heart of the district, and had been with the company 10 years or more) and they either quit or transferred to other districts and he wondered why our district was always at the bottom. I think he did it to save money because a lot of them were making $20 an hour or more and he didn't want them in stores, but the district paid dearly for it, we've lost so much business, it isn't even funny .
Ex RGIS Groupie: Wow, that's a shame. I mean, when people have been with a company that long (and a company like RGIS, which has difficulty retaining people as it is) and they get treated so poorly. Your district sounds as bad as mine was! ;-)
But you know, no one ever really gets fired. This CT office just rehired someone who was let go (last year?) for getting into a fist fight with another auditor. Even the physically violent come back...
I have three things to add, as I am sort of responding to many different repeated thoughts:
1) I have written "speakfrankly", and it is Dan Sheffield (sp), one of the owners, and he does respond himself. But the problem is that he is so out of touch with how inept the DM's and AM's usually are (if not unable) at solving problems that he just thinks that his people will do their best.
His response to me was that they would check into it. But I think they go to the Ops guy, tell him, and then the Ops guy asks the DM about the problem, and the DM makes an excuse.... I told him, that I have earned every penny RGIS has ever paid me, and I want an AM (demoted from DM) to stop changing the time in/out of stores. (Waiting for action on it for a couple weeks now.)
2)I have worked for RGIS for many years, because I started with low self-esteem, and gave them my heart and soul, and my health. I have worked for 9 different DM's, and have never ran a store, because I know that I would end up having a heart attack if I had to work with some of the mean [expletive] that work there. I don't know how some of you AM/AAM types do/did it.
I have NEVER asked for a raise, but over the years, I somehow helped a DM or two make enough bonus (without cheating) to get me a dollar here and there. But my loyalty brings with it a lot of criticism about my APH, as I am getting torn-up and older (i.e. slowing down). So along with attempts to lower my wage, I have not had a raise in a couple years.
3)A story:
I had to help take care of my dying mother, when she was dianosed with Luekemia. The day she died, I called up my DM, and explained that I would not be in to work, and he responed, "Tonight?!", as though he might not be able to do allow it.... A few months later I was able to help run him off when he tried a scam to get the old-timers to lower our wages, and we went over his head to investigate the illegality. (Adios estupido!)
Conclusion:
I am a hardcore believer in free markets, and the same free market that says, "hey you don't have to work for RGIS", is the same free market that says, "if you don't treat your labor (capital) happy they will destroy you; especially in a labor intensive industry like RGIS.
So, what I am saying is... try to do good/respectful job no matter where you work, even for RGIS, but don't under-estimate your power.
If they are wrong, they are wrong, and it is against the law to retaliate if you "speakout", it is against the law to cheat you out of pay, they can't get the job done with a bunch of $9 and hour riff-raff,.... Sooner or later, as the company declines, and fails to reach it's goals, they will discover that RGIS is a bit of a "cash cow", and they will have to start treating people with respect.
Unfortunately, that probably won't happen till after I (and many others) have wasted their time trying to do the right thing at RGIS.
"No good deed goes unpunished."
When will the madness stop! My boss just showed us the new RM equipment as we are supposed to start using it next month and the keyboard design sucks! The piece count key, or old K-key is down where the equal button used to be and the key is like hitting a brick wall. I don't mind that I have to go down to hit it verses up, but the thing has no spring. They squared off the key instead of rounding and then it has no spring to in. Who tested this! Has anyone out there started using the new equipment? I like what they say it can do in supervisor mode but my productivity is going to take a dive because I'm a grocery counter. I need my machine to clip along like a porsche not a PINTO:)
I hear you all about experienced counters disappearing. The sad part is that there was just a new clip online about Blackstones record increase in Income. I went on AOL and it was right there in the business ticker. Sure they spent money on new equipment for us, but its going to hurt productivity, and knowing my tight ass boss this will be just what he needs to cut my wage. He has been dying to get at it ever since he took over.
fighter:
You are not alone. There are many, many, of us old RGIS oldtimers who like you have given their heart and soul to the company, only to be treated as a disposable, now that we are getting older and worn out by all our years of loyal service.No raises nor acknowledgment for past service, including all those management bonuses we helped earn.It`s becoming fairly obvious that Blackstone/RGIS is evolving to a minimum wage type of company.I suspect that once the new machines go into full operation, most of the people who make more than a dollar or two over the district minimum wage will be terminated( or massively underscheduled), with the exception, of course, being the usual bunch of cheaters and "slammers" that will do the DM`s dirty work with no questions asked.Eventually,RGIS will pay the price in lost business as clients experience the unpleasant reality of high turnover,unreliable, relatively unskilled, and occassionally dishonest RGIS crews. It will be like January all year!
Your story of your dying mother sounds hits home with me. I was running a store once when my mother unexpectedly, and suddenly died.It took four hours for my "compassionate" DM to relieve me!I`ve heard other stories also, such as RGIS not letting people go from a store to witness childbirth and other life events.
Hi fighter.
I can tell you are one of the types of auditors I loved working with. When I started there were a lot of these good auditors around and it was a job I really enjoyed.
I remember going into stores with a group of good people and having people that cared about the inventory. The thought of cheating to many of us then was "No way!"
Near the end of my employment, those auditors in my district gave way to the new breed. At the end for me there wasn't an inventory where there was no batching, no flubbing of recounts, and countless other violations of our rules of conduct in inventories.
Meh, it just wasn't the same company to me at the end. Managers, TLs, and auditors that I became friends with had long since left. I was kind of alone with 1 or 2 people that I still considered work friends there. We went through about 12 DM's my last year there and more AMs.
You get tired of brand new people coming in and bossing you around. And all the hard work you put in to build respect with the old managers just getting swept away.
The fact I was being refused stores since I made over 10 dollars an hour didn't help either.
Hi,
I just found your blog. It's great! I can relate to it. I worked in 425 from 2001 to about 2004. I'll see if I recognize any of the people in it.
RGIS only starts you out at a measly $7.00 an hour at district 471 in Winston, North Carolina. Oh and you get yelled at by this huge, rude redneck woman if you're caught sitting on the floor or step ladder scanning bottom shelf inventory. You also get called in to work on days you have off and promised it will only be until so-and-so time then end up working WAY over that so-and-so time. And if you finally get sick of their crap, let them know how sick you are of their crap, then quit, they steal your last paycheck then treat you as if they actually fired you instead of you quitting them. That place is a damn joke.
There was a time that I felt that I would do anything for RGIS. Work three jobs in a row? Sure. I was a newbie then and didn't know any better. Then, I learned that I liked sleep.
I've been with #228 since january 2003. I've seen a lot of the more twitchworthy things happen. Earlier this year I had gotten a concussion on the job when a ladder fell and hit the back of my head. Looking back now, I should've screamed bloody murder rather than calmly finishing my area (I was off by two pairs of jeans) and going to seek ice. Of course I told a team leader, then the AM that was running the store before one of the Kohl's employees saw me trying to compose myself in the bathroom and finally I had gotten ice. Later went to the ER of a local hospital and got a catscan which confirmed the concussion (besides the lump that I had on the back of my head) and the lovely headache and other fun symptoms...
In short, RGIS's workman's comp sucks, sucks as much as those four cards that say "this is not insurance". Sucks as much as being the one who would go to work despite migranes or my ankles hurting (10-12 times of spraining them in my life...the most recent time of spraining them I dared to go to work in a wheelchair, got thrown out....later went to another job with crutches, nearly thrown out).
I forgot my point in this, but I just needed to vent...after all, we get to have those charming letters that state that if the eaph isn't at the accepted level, they'll take the money away. Hell, I barely make more than the newbies and I've been with the company longer.
I just ran across the RGIS ad here in Cleveland OH. I was going to show it to a friend who is interested in some part time work. Then I saw your blog. Thanks so much. I will not be showing her the ad now.
Anon. on 09/13: Lol! You are a true friend. Thanks for reading my blog. :-)
After leaving RGIS I still got schedules in the mail for 2 months.
I had to call a couple times and email them to make them stop.
Sorry that I haven't checked in awhile, but my schedule has kept me busy.
Sir Batchalot: I had to laugh at your story about "stealing" Home Depot's food. Here on the 404, we have people who do that all the time. The only time anyone said anything about was when one of our managers got upset and told us that HD wasn't buying US lunch...even though the main HD guy in charge had said that it was all right.
Anyway, permit me to rant about our new DM, Roger (I wasn't going to use his name, but after thinking about, I've decided that people need warning in case he decides to transfer) for a moment.
Roger's all about saving the company money...unfortunately, it means us little peons...err...workers usually have to suffer for it.
The "highlight" of the work week this week was having to drive six hours, stopping only to gas up and "potty breaks", just to get to the motel in time to go to work...which, let me tell you, counting nuts and bolts is a lot of fun when you feel like you've just working a six-hour shift and have had nothing to eat all day. But it's okay though! Because we saved the company money.
Hell, it's even all right that the people (mostly Roger's new inner circle)who went up a day early to do a store in Seattle only worked half an hour, but, because of company policy, are getting paid for two hours and that two of the girls requested their own rooms for that night before moving into the rooms they had been assigned the next...all on the company credit card. *rolls eyes*
Speaking of hotels, the common joke now is that if we want to know what hotel we're staying at, we just need to look for the one farthest away, lowest quality (Super 8's are now considered luxury) and ones that have absolutely no food around them. We can't even order pizza as Roger usually has the phones shut off after an incident a few weeks ago where two guys ordered a pizza and the phone call cost the company a whole freaking dollar.
Of course, not all of our problems in the 404 can be blamed on Roger. In all my time at RGIS, I've never seen (or maybe just never noticed) cherry-picking to be such a problem. I was doing a bay Thursday and the bay next to me was open...the last bay that needed to get done before we could all get out of there...and I swear five people walked by, looked at it, and decided that they'd rather go close out than do it. Finally, one of our grey shirts did it...just shaking her head at the whole thing.
Where was Roger in all of this? Walking around...not really giving a damn.
404 girl:
Thanks for the warning about your Roger the DM, since we occasionally work with your district.I`ll be on the lookout for him.Of course, Roger sounds a lot like our DM-- I think they all come from the same RGIS managerial brainwashing school.
I've seen some newbies trying to use ipods while counting. I was going to say something to them but waited for the gray shirt to get on to them. hee hee.
otl: That's assuming Roger does any local stores himself...I think he's only done a couple of them. Hell, the only reason he helps us out at HD is if it looks like we're not going to get out of here by the time we're supposed to have an afternoon break.
...and I say supposed to because Roger seems to be allergic to breaks or something. He'll do everything in his power to make sure we don't get one.
Hi all, haven't written in a while.
So, how is the RM1 doing in other Districts? In our district, our dm held off using it till he was forced this week. First week with it, we had our CVS's go 7.5 hours instead of 4.5 and that was using only our very best counters. We did an experiment on another day using the old audits in one CVS and the RM's in an other on the same day. Result:
5.5 hr store with the old audits and 11 auditors. 6 hrs with the new machines and 16 auditors. There go their so important percentages. And, this will be great for everyone's eaph. I really love the little penalty box on the portable that tells you whenever someone stops counting for a while. Of course, it doesn't tell you if they are waiting for price checks, etc. And one of our AM's just loves to text message everyone on them. "Keep scanning" "transmit"
"take a break" Way too big brother for me. lol lol
I am tired of being held responsible, and covering ass, for inept management and supervisors.
The laziest managers are the ones who check my average while I'm on the floor. Meanwhile they are typically VERY late, paying a bunch of people to stand around while the audit machines download.... Lately they have been actually not bringing enough equipment for the store, and then blaming the other management for setting them up that way.... So they pay for people to stand around waiting for someone to bring machines.
By-the-way, we start EVERY single store late now. And, finally, this bad behavior caught up to one AAM, and we got kicked out before finishing. But the worst thing is that the store people inadvertantly made the counters look bad, by using counting mistakes as another variable to prove the RGIS was screwing up.
I can see it now, the unaccountable AAM telling the DMs and Ops Manager that we were screwing up the counts. Meanwhile, he will go on smelling like roses as he screws up more stores.
I totally expect this AAM to replace the Ops Manager in a couple years, when the Ops Manager is unable to fix the deep-seeded problem that RGIS has created.
I love how these people come in, pull a bunch of "no shows", come back after being fired, and suddenly they appear in plain clothes as an AAM with a raise and an attitude....
That reminds me....
Every time we get a new regime of DM/AMs and etc., we start a push to correct uniforms, EAPH and tagging. But the real problem is, THEM, and the management/owners above them, aren't willing to fix the real problem; disorganization.
I am determined to get it through someone's head that: renting vans, instead of using the available vans is not cost effective; training an endless flow of underpaid low-lifes and get rid of loyal high paid people is not cost effective; not knowing where your equipment is is not cost effective; not knowing who is in which store, and how many may not show, is not cost effective; not listening to your employees when they tell you that supervisors are cheating them out of time is not cost effective; not having the respect of your employees is not cost effective....
RGIS has a termite problem in their house, and they are using a shotgun to solve the problem. The incompetent idiots who think managing people means "bossing low wage employees" are taking over.
I hate when one of our management tries to tell me how valuable I am, because it is incongruent with their actions.
Fighter: You sound very frustrated, and believe me I know exactly how you feel. Much of what you wrote has gone on in my district as well, and I'm pretty sure in many others too, judging from the comments that people have left here. You're not alone. That's probably a small comfort, but at least it's something, yes? I know I feel a little better about my time with RGIS knowing now that the things I saw and experienced weren't just with me and me alone.
Fighter, well said!!!!! You sound like me in this letter. I have been working over 10 years and never have I seen a lower morale than now. I remember the times when going to this job could be fun. Where people worked together for the common goal of getting an inventory done and maintaining the integrity of it while still having some fun.
These new owners have ruined it completely. Everytime something new comes out, it is worst. First we had the infamous eaph system that is promoting batching, hacking, and cheating just to achieve a raise. Then, came these new Rm 1's that are inferior to what we had before in many ways. Number 1 being the stiff keypad that takes us back 10 years. Inventories are going much longer, therefore a loss of profit. And, they are decreasing everyone's eaph. Now, this new colored badge issue. This will be branding people by their counting ability for the whole world to see depending on which color you have.
I have some older people on my team who when in a store will give me 100 percent. They don't cherry pick, they don't wander around, they just keep counting. But, they are not extremely fast. So, they will now be made to wear a badge which announces they are slow. It will leave them open to ridicule from the new breed who run around stores cherry picking and smart mouthing. Yet, these are good hardworking, dependable people. And you are right, it is all meant to get rid of the higher paid, long time employees. How long will it take these owners to realize that they can't operate their company with this new breed.
They don't run stores, are undependable, etc. And, that is cost effective? If we lose accounts, how cost effective is that? There are other inventory companies out there. And, where in the past, they may have appeared inferior to RGIS, they might not now. Especially, since a lot of the long time higher paid people are being swallowed up by these companies. How long will they be inferior? But, I too beat my head against that wall daily in my District trying to point that out. We have had stores go so long this week, it is unbelievable.
Stores with 7-8 no shows out of 15.
The morale is in the toilet at this point and people just don't care anymore. It is like a cancer that keeps growing. How long can they operate in this manner?
TL Too: OMG, now I think I've heard of it all. RGIS is forcing auditors to wear colored badges to signify their counting ability? Why don't they just force certain auditors to have the word "LOSER" stamped on their foreheads as well? Oops, better not give them any ideas. ;-)
Misfit, I thought I had heard it all till this badge thing. I have a pile of papers before me right now explaining each classification.
I'm supposed to sit down at some point with my AM and put colors to these poor people on my team. I had a discussion with my DM about it yesterday. He said: I think this will be great for morale. Really, how so, idiot? You will be demeaning people. How does that build morale? He claims people will try to reach the next color. What an accomplishment!!! getting a new color badge. LoL about your Loser comment. I read about this colored thing on another blog a month ago and thought they were kidding. NOT!! They came up with some really interesting things that could be stamped on people.
CP cherry picker, S slow, AH..a.hole for those who run around counting all the high dollar, high quantity areas, hit their eaphs' then spend the rest of the store just wandering around.
When my AM called me about these badges and paperwork to do the first thought that came to my mind was Nazi Germany where jews were forced to wear gold stars, gays pink stars, etc. Pretty damn sad, don't you think, that a company has sunk this low?
TL Too: Your Nazi reference was dead on. It is sad, and totally demoralizing to the auditors. Why doesn't RGIS see it this way too? That "branding" people is bad for morale and won't accomplish anything good?
So RGIS will soon have their own caste system. Oh golly, will the "red" badges be allowed to associate with the "blue" badges, or will there be no intermingling between the groups? What pinhead came up with this idea about badges? And why did this genius think that auditors would care enough about their inventory job to want to "achieve" a higher-ranking badge? When RGIS treats so many of their auditors like shit already. "Oh please Mr. DM, I want to improve my lowly station in my RGIS life and count faster and faster and score that gold badge, so I can walk around the store like I'm somebody!" Sickening and so so stupid! How can RGIS continue to be so stupid? Why do I even bother asking, right? I was going to say too that I can't believe your DM actually said that about how the colored badges would be good for morale but then I remembered, "Oh yeah, this is RGIS, home of the idiot ideas." Hey, can the auditors refuse to wear the badges? You know, if everyone agrees that they're terrible then maybe they can organize some sort of protest and refuse to wear them. That would be interesting.
I understand too your frustration with how the "oldsters" are treated. I saw this same thing happening in my district, with various managers. Some managers understood (as you do) that while the oldsters don't count as fast as some they are extremely reliable: they show up, they show up on time, and they actually spend all their time on the job counting instead of talking, wandering around the store, and going outside for dozens of smoke breaks. But because they're slower counters than some of the hotshots, or because they don't take shortcuts and batch but actually count the way RGIS "says" they want auditors to, they are ridiculed (behind their backs of course) and not scheduled for many stores (usually they're scheduled for the big box stores only, like Kmart, Target, Sear's, etc., when RGIS needs all the available bodies it can dig up). You sound like a great TL, to recognize all of this that's going on; I wish we had TL's like you in my district.
This colored badge thing is a ccomplete suprise to me.We`re the last to hear of any news out here.I`m in total agreement with misfit and tl too-- this is the most assine and discriminatory act yet perpetrated by RGIS management.( Just what RGIS needs: more lawsuits and bad publicity!)I just don`t see any benefit from going to this system.First, most of the veterans in my district don`t wear badges, and won`t unless they are mandatory in order to operate the new RM-1 machines.Secondly, visualise some store in January which RGIS promises the store manager a good crew, but, as usual, sends virtually all new people. All these newbies are going to to be wearing a different colored badge then than the supervisor and what few good counters there are.Well, it only will take a question or two about the bad color difference by the store manager for him to realise that he got shafted with all newhires--and the word will be out in no time at all that the RGIS auditors with this color are the worst ones. The customers` confidence in RGIS is going to go down the toilet when that happens.
The thing that is most disturbing to me about colored badges,is that there is not equal opportunity for many auditors to show that they are proficient counters.Many good auditors are typecast and given crappy,low APH merchandise to count, while others--regarded by the DM as "top guns" and "experts"-- who actually are inferior counters, are continually given the high APH items to count, or are simply given the green light to roam the store and cherrypick at will.Who really is the better counter? The old veteran that leads by example and counts the crappy low APH stuff without complaining, or the hot dog "top guns" that refuse to climb ladders, count bins,or any other item that might hurt their APH? We saw an example of this the other night at a major sporting goods store.We had another district helping us-- I think it was a Home Depot Team. Lots of grayshirts, but mainly all cherry pickers.The multiple quantity areas had their own special area number sequence, so they were easy to spot.Well, it was like the Oklahoma Land Rush; this visiting team made a run for all the multiple areas, and ignored all the clothing, auto quantity,and high fixtures, leaving it to us poor slobs in our district.We were all supposed to work as one big unit, counting the entire store, but these people obviously were only selfishly concerned about their APH.All us old veterans were left scratching our heads in disbelief. The AM running the store was totally oblivious to what had occurred.
fighter:
It`s the same here, too. We`ve had Area Managers that were fired for laziness or incompetence, only to find out that HDQ brought them back as a DM (!) at another district, only of course, to be fired again.We also have had several failed AM`s come back as grayshirts, only to continue to do a poor job. As a matter of fact, we have one washout AM, whose been a total screwup as a grayshirt--habitually late, nothing downloaded, runs stores poorly. etc.,yet the DM has INCREASED his responsibilities given him a big account to run.That account is now slowly being riuned by the same incompetence.Yet the DM allows this to happen.I think the reason for all this is that there is a "good `ole boy" network in RGIS management, where the same incompetent managers are continually recycled. The OPS manager and DM like to have sycophants around that will cover their asses and do their bidding for them. This includes all the unethical cheating, such as batching and plugging totals, etc. The basic philosophy of many RGIS managers is: "If you help me get my bonus checks, you can keep your job and even get promoted, no matter how lazy you are or how much you screw up." Sometimes, this network extends down into the ranks of grayshirts, too. In my many, many years of RGIS service, I`ve seen on a couple of occasions a new DM bring an entourage of grayshirts with him to our district.Most of these people from the DM`s old district were cheaters with dubious work ethics, but were treated preferentially and held in high regard.I don`t know how long you have been with your district, but if you have been around long enough, like me, the pattern becomes glaringly obvious!
OTL, like I said in an earlier post, I read about these new badges over a month ago on myspace RGIS groups and I so wanted to believe this had to be some sort of joke. I didn't even question anyone in my District about it thinking they would think I had lost my mind. Then...this pile of paperwork, for my team and my husband's team, to select our teams classifications. I too believe this is the worst form of discrimination ever by these people. And, my poor hard working people will be wearing lowly badges while I am quite sure some of the 'favorites' will have badges they earned by cheating.
The new classifications are trainee, auditor, specialist, expert, top gun, sweeper, prowler.
And there will be different colors for each classification. My idiot DM said 'no one will know what each color stands for so it won't be demeaning'. Uh?? It'll take about 5 minutes after they come out for everyone to know what color stands for what.
Misfit, thanks for your nice words.
I do my best for the welfare of the people on my team. And my heart breaks to know some of them will be embarassed.
otl: I do believe that that was my team that helped you out at the sporting good store. I remember Roger, the DM, asking people to if they were free to do one...I didn't go because A) I already had a migraine and B) due to finding other employment, this was my last week with RGIS, so I wanted to work as little as possible.
Anyway, it doesn't surprise me that those who did go acted that way...there's a big, BIG emphasis on APH on the 404, so we do have a lot of cherry-pickers...and by that I mean about 90% of the team, including all but maybe one or two grey shirts. Hell, there's even a list on the table when we first go into a store ranking the previous store's APHs.
Not surprisingly, I have one of the lowest APHs...partly because I don't care and partly because I'm usually stuck with the crap bays because no one else wants to count them. In fact, there was one time that I thought an aisle was done because everyone had left to go do the next aisle (which was "more expensive") only to discover that the bay next to mine hadn't been done.
um...
HAHAHA BADGES!?
What the hell are they thinking? They are truly idiots.
I thought morale was low when I left earlier this year, but wow.
What we have here is a bunch of suits, who never worked as an auditor, dreaming up ways to increase their dropping productivity.
Seriously, what happened to team work. I really miss the old RGIS, I'd reapply in an instant if those days were back.
If I had one of the top gun badges I wouldn't want to wear it. I don't want to rub that in to counters slower than me when I know we all bust our ass in some inventories to get the job done. As a TEAM.
I'd like to hear more about these badges though. Someone explain more.
Lost in d118
i have worked for R.G.I.S for 3 months and i am so lost we are the Home Depot team for florida and nothing i do is right i seem to spend all of my time in a van with people who forget to shower and then i stay in a hotel that is fit for crack heads only to spend my night counting what the old timers refuse to count (due to cherry picking) then i get 3 hours of sleep to do it all agian in the morning without brekfast and real sleep only to be called names and told that i am worthless i am the only one on my team who is of a difrent sexual orientation (due to the fact that they have run off all others like me) I am female yet the men on my team seem to be in fear of me my aph is 2900 and that is what i was told was required of me yet they keep telling me its not good enough i need to go faster or i wont be schedule for extra stores hell i dont get any sleep with the amount of stores i do now i recently asked for time off and was told that i could not have it unless i gave 2 weeks notice well i did not have 2 weeks notice that i would be working a sunday when i started with this company i was told that i would have saterdays and sundays off with the occasional weekend store that was optional but because i did not want to do the store i am beging writen up i never see my partner or my family when i spoke to my department head he said that he hasnt seen his family in 6 months why should i have to suffer because he dosnt want to spend time with his family i need help in how to deal with this company due to the fact of where i live there are not that many jobs and i need to pay my rent but i also keep geting shorted on my paycheck for stores i have done but i seem to never get paid for them HELP WANTED 118
I've been reading this blog for awhile but haven't posted. I've been working for RGIS for a little while now. I happen to stumble upon one of the only good districts it seems. We happen to have a really good DM and two good AM's. I mean I've never been yelled at for anything (i.e. sitting on the floor, turning down inventories, not counting fast enough..etc)I've never seen anyone else get yelled at, and every single inventory I've ever been to I've been told to take a 10 minute break after 3 hours and either take a lunch or another break after 5 hours.
I haven't at all heard about these new badges..I can only imagine what that's going to do. I haven't the foggiest clue what they consider me here. I get asked to come in early and stay late a lot and I also usually am the one they call to cover for no shows. I noticed pretty early on (like after my first week of work) that they would put me with the people they considered the "top guns" but I've always thought my APH was kinda low. (they never tell you what it should be..so I have no idea if it's low or high). Anyways, I think thats a big bad idea to give people colored badges based on how fast they count. What a way to make you feel rather worthless especially if you aren't a slow counter but you just get stuck doing the crappy area or range checks and recounts.
As for the new RM-1's...just used those for the first time last weekend at an Office Max. It was a pain since we had to use the laser on the machine so I had to hold that darn thing in my hand for seven hours. I have small hands and holding an 8 pound machine for that long sucks big time! I couldn't at all imagine having to use that thing at a clothing store. Supposedly you are supposed to be able to hook up an external laser but they tried that and it won't work on the machines we have..a glitch I guess. Anyways, it has some features that I do like better than the old machines..but until people get used to it, everyone's APH will probably be down. Also my machine would freeze up everytime the person running the store would send me a message. Looks like they still have some kinks to work out.
lost in D118:
D118 sounds like a true outpost of hell! Get out now! If they abuse you that badly, it`s just not worth sticking around--there`s got to be another job in your area that treats you with at least some human respect.
KK, your District should be putting the eaph form near the TCA in every store. All you have to do is look up your hourly wage and it will tell you what you are supposed to average in that store for your rate of pay. It changes in every store depending on the rate to the store. My District has its problems, but the eaph form is in every package for stores I run. If they aren't in stores, ask your AM why not. You can't hit a target goal if they don't provide you with the goal. Not that they are easy to reach anyways. Most of them are really unrealistic.
It's not the badges that are color-coded to designate auditor status, but the clasps which clip them on. When I first heard of this idea, I thought it was the most retarded thing ever. And definitely not good for RGIS. One reason is that most auditors don't care enough about the job to begin with. Another reason is that the junior-high social structure at RGIS will get way out of control as those who have the TOP GUN clasps will talk trash on lesser-clasped auditors. The already annoying auditors will be justified in thinking they walk on water.
I understand the usefulness of the Auditor Classification System as it can help provide managers more balanced staffing, but the clasps will not improve morale in the real RGIS world. Do the big shots have so much free time on their hands that they could come up with crap like this? Maybe they should have test-marketed the clasps at District 414 before they forged ahead.
Raider, right on!! I too understand the classification system but that always existed. the classifications were new hire, rookie, average, above average and top gun. I would get updated team rosters with each person's classification. However, the people on my team were not aware of their classifications and not made to were it on their chests for everyone to see. That is the problem I am having with it. Classify them like they always did but do not embarass them. I can guarantee you that the 'walk on water' gang in my District will pick on the others. They already have way too much attitude as it is with the eaph system. I was in a CVS recently and one of these guys was sitting outside on the sidewalk. He said he was waiting for the front gondolas to be completed because he didn't like counting what was left there. with the RM 1, I am quite sure his name came up on the portable in the penalty box for 30 minutes. did anyone look for him? Nope. He came in when the back gondolas were started and ran around counting the high dollar aisles. This is the kind of crap this company should be looking at and not color coding the people who were counting the whole time they were in the store, not wasting one minute of this company's time. Yup, they might be slower but they are giving them work for what they get paid and not outside sitting on sidewalks.
d375 rocks and rolls with a start of 9.50/hr. i'm on the home depot team...which isn't bad, but damn, have i got stories. i may have to write my own blog.
RGIS SUCKS I worked there and i almost had to cut a bitch like a millon times!!!TO MUCH DRAMA FOR ME D179 D156 D184 CAN KISS IT
I have spent a couple of very entertaining hours reading all the comments and I have to admit that most of it sounds very similar. I work in the UK (I will remain nameless as it is not a big territory!!!) and the senior managers are complete tossers!
We have a woman in charge called Nicola Stevens and she is the Director in the UK and according to a friend who knows our DM well she is a real cow. Between her and the 2 flunkies she owns (ops managers Marcus & Joe) the pressure they put on the DM's and AM's is by all accounts unbelievable.
I have heard of at least 4 District Managers who have been removed this year (the group only has 10 districts)as they have either had enough with the stupid hours and quit or been forced out because they have not obtained the magical 64% target.
I agree with others in that this is an absurd amount of money to be making everyday and their greed really knows no limits. We recently moved from what was a great looking office to a dark shitty building that I wouldn’t make my dog sleep in never mind use on a daily basis for humans!
Another comment that is right on the mark in the one about Mr Marcus Wright, Ops Manager. The guy has to be seen to be believed, if you watch any program on football (soccer!) hooligans you will see hundreds of the exact same type of Neanderthal.
The guy is a cock, pure and simple.
He is rude, dismissive and above all unbelievable arrogant. Luckily I have had very few dealings with the man but the few I have had coupled with the horror stories I have heard reinforce my thoughts.
I was in a Sainsbury’s (smaller Wal Mart) one night and he came in and within 10 minutes he had manager to upset the DM, AM, Store supervisor, Store Manager, Deputy Manager and store staff. It got so bad that at one point a store colleague came up to me and said "when does this asshole leave because if it’s not in the next 10 minutes I will punch him!”
Unfortunately the store worker left before him as I'm sure a lot of people that night would have paid to see him flat out!!!
Despite the obvious I don’t mind the job so much, I stay well away from running things (everybody, and I mean everybody I spoke to has told me to stay away from responsibility as it’s simply not worth it) and since I am now an established top gun I get more than enough shifts and earn not a bad wage. I have read that starting wage in the states and it is terrible and I feel for you, I started at about $14 an hour and am now on $17 but as mentioned before our living costs are horrendous.
If you are reading this and considering working for RGIS then don’t!!!
I don’t mind because I am now used to it but guys coming in off the street will struggle badly to adjust to the job taking over. I stay purely because I coast through every shift and because I am a top gun I am given piss easy areas to count and my ECPH (EAPH) is always just above 105% so therefore I am sorted form my pay rises.
Ooh and a final point to add is that I heard yesterday that some of the DMs and Ops are going back to Orlando for their annual "meeting". I don’t know how reliable this is but I heard they all stayed at Universal last year and over 600 Senior Managers went for a week at a cost, now wait for it....
$1.5million!!!!!!!!!!!
I can’t imagine this year’s event will be any different but isn’t it heart warning to hear that they can find the money for this trip when so many of us are living on or below the bread line.
Mr Wright and Miss Stevens (and all the fellow freeloaders) enjoy your all expenses paid holiday safe in the knowledge that we will continue to count the stores back home and bump up you bonus in your absence.
Sorry one more thing, I really have to mention our new account of Pound land which is the biggest shit hole you will ever see, you really have to see it to believe it!!!
To give you a mental image this is worse than a dollar store and starts at 6AM every day. It goes to prove that the company is so desperate for money they really will chase it anywhere they can and to hell with the Auditors in the process!!
If you want to hear anymore let me know as I have some more great stories involving these charlatans!!
Britauditor2: Welcome! Thanks so much for reading my blog, and for leaving a comment as well. I hope you'll continue to do so. I enjoyed your comment very much; I love hearing from RGIS people everywhere. Mostly it's just been here in the U.S. and Canada so it's pretty cool hearing from someone in the UK. I'd love to hear more about your experiences with RGIS. Please feel free to comment as much as you'd like. :-)
Hey everyone! Nothing seems to amaze me with this company. I just heard from my friend over in WISI that RGIS just lost 2 Wal-mart teams! Damm, there goes millions of dollars in revenue. Guess who is going to be expected to make that up! Last year we lost the 2 new Wal-mart teams that were put in place, now 2 more. The powers that be are firing/demoting Wal-mart Team managers like a Saturday door buster at Kohl's! Its so bad that my boss found a job posting on Monster.com for his job. Gotta love that. Cheat126 your going to love the new pay cut that they are proposing for all Special teams, Wal-mart & Home Depot. All auditors to make $12.00. No more than that. Then there is some productivity bonus based on what you count. Can't you see that coming. My friend was telling me about an auditor who is boffing the DM and counts the backroom who is a major cruiser. How you account for that? It's so bad that alot of the more experienced auditors are using the off-season to find other jobs or switch to the local district. I don't understand how they can just cut peoples pay like that. What RGIS auditors need to do is figure out how to organize or we will continue to just get used and abused by this money hungry company. They can talk all they want about hiring people of the street but the customer notices.
Anybody hear of RGIS auditors unionizing?
cowboyfan:
I haven`t heard anything about unionizing. I`m sure Blackstone is one step ahead of us on that issue.It wouldn`t suprise me if they have already applied for special immigration permits to bring several thousand Indians or other foreign workers into the country, just in case of such an emergency. Or,they would mobilze all the other relatively low wage workers from all of the other companies they own, and entice them with incentives to temporarily work for RGIS for a while along with their regular job, until they could squelch the uprising.It sure would be interesting for all of us to call in sick for at least one or two days in January--it would cause a domino effect and throw off the whole monthly schedule, since we are always so fully booked. It would be really difficult to reschedule everything without working everyone to death. Oops!I guess maybe not,since they already do that in January! But it certainly would be interesting....
Interesting to hear about the pay cap on the Walmart/Home Depot teams. That doesn`t suprise me because I think they have one in this district too. Whenever someone here asks about the EAPH system, the DM goes into some obfuscating formula about what one must do to qualify for a raise.It`s all sounds like Catch-22. It`s getting to be a joke to all of us oldtimers, especially the fact that the management seriously believes in all this rubbish.
Britauditor2:
Have you ever heard of a Mr.Singh?I believe he`s one of your DM`s or OPS Managers, I think up around Manchester, the last I heard.He was notorious for stiffing us all out of breaks and lunches when he was our AM. He would always tell everyone that we wouldn`t be taking a break or lunch because the inventory was "almost done". Of course, the inventories always lasted 3,4,5 hours longer nearly every time.He was also famous for being able to calculate the profit margin at any given store for that day`s inventory before the final reports had even been run.( He also was an expert at pinching, as you say, stepstools from various retail establishments and adding them to the RGIS supply.)
Hi! I currently work for RGIS and April will make eight years for me. Even I don't know how I've managed to last this long. I'm in District #113 out of Florida and everything you described is true. Truer even in our district. Our DM fancies himself some kind of ladies' man (or lack thereof) and uses this job to score as much ass as he can. What's amazing is that it works. With the new salary caps in place, auditors are supposed to top out at $12.00/hr and Team Leaders $14.00/hr. The inequities in this company are mind-boggling. I think I hang around just to see how much further they'll go and how much they'll get away with. Every year, I've been amazed. I haven't had a raise since 2004. Well, it feels good to vent.
Ysis: Welcome to my blog! I hope you'll continue to read all the entries and comments too. I know how you feel: it does feel good to vent. That's why I originally started this blog. It feels good too to know that people have enjoyed reading my entries and leaving their own comments. I think a lot of RGISer's find it comforting to realize that they're not the only ones going through all the RGIS bullshit. :-)
ysis:
No raise here for many of us here since 2004 either.
You story of you DM reminds me of a AM we had several years ago.He used to have a district auditor roster which listed each auditors date of birth on it. This way he knew all the young womens` ages, and could try to hit on the ones that suited him. He had a particular crush on one person, who wasn`t all that interested in him.He was down in the dumps for weeks when she rebuffed him for good.It was sort of a running joke in our district at the time.However,he eventually was successful in his efforts. He was promoted to DM, transferred to another district, where he soon married, you guessed it, an auditor from that district.!
WOW!!! Are you sure we didn't have same DM??? LOL
First, let me say thank you to Misfit for the warm welcome. If you don't mind, I think I'll hang around for a while. I like it here with all the kindred spirits. :)
My mind was kind of reeling in that first post because I just couldn't believe other people were having the identical experiences I was. And so many at that. I was reading one of the other threads and I saw that dirty word "union" pop up. I thought about unionization way back when I first started considering there are soooo many people in this company. And then, I recalled Karen Silkwood and Jimmy Hoffa and how they mysteriously died. I'd be the first to sign up. There's more of us than there are of them.
RGIS is probably too cheap to even hire someone to break my knees.
Stay tuned. More to come. My next post will deal with Van Abuse.
Thanks again, everyone! I'm looking forward to the therapy we can provide for each other. LOL
Ysis: Yep, I think it's a pretty nice clubhouse that we have here.
And you're right, RGIS probably is too cheap to hire someone to go after your knees with a baseball bat but if you notice your AM or DM starting to pile up bags of cement in the office then don't wait around like Hoffa: scram!
I just heard the most disturbing comment. Apparently this happened during a conference call recently. A DM asked about the new pay scales and the operations manager stated that "people were just going to have to take if they really cared about the job". What the hell is that. Ask him to take a 25% pay cut and see how much he takes. That is the problem with this company's managment structure. Either they are so terrified of losing their jobs that they don't do their job or they are arrogant and forget that every successful team is about the right mix of experience and newer. This coming from an Operations manager who was responsible for the handling of the Wal-Mart account that just lost millions of dollars for the company. They can blame the auditors or district management but it's their job to be the watchdog. Where was this guy when those teams were heading south!! I meaning heading to WISI! So you lose millions of dollars for poor management decisions and your answer is to cut the pay of the worker?! Right bring in more minimum wage workers who are just looking to have a wild party on the road. I heard that a team in Texas just got a new boss that has already went out partying and making inapproriate comments to auditors, not to mention telling the auditors that they can make one van a smoking van. Problem is a non-smoker got stuck riding in the van. His people were all complaining about them on a recent assist they came to help us with. They said he took over mid-October and hasn't talked with anyone about what there jobs are to be. They don't even know when they are scheduled. This company is an HR nightmare.
Me again! Well, yesterday after fourteen hours in a convenience store, I returned home to find a nicely taped and folded letter from one of my managers saying that my average per hour has slipped 79% and that my wages would be cut $2.10 if it continued to decline. I wanted so much to pick up the phone and say, "If you try that shit, I'd like to refer you to my lawyer." Although, I think they absolutely can do it. My attitude is this: For seven years plus you have robbed me of unspoken sums of money and you expect me to go in a store and count my ass off to help YOU make more money?? Are they nucking futs??? Apparently.
Well, I said I'd talk about van abuse and here it is. My team leader who I think is a lovely person, (seriously, I do) is digging a hole for herself that no one may be able to pull her out of. I think she believes that her position as team leader gives her carte blanche access to the van. She has a vehicle of her own, but for some reason or another, simply doesn't drive it. That truck (an old Blazer) sits in the parking lot of our meet site for days and days and never moves. That van has suffered more than any vehicle should. There are all kinds of dents, dings, and even scratched paint marks in it. And the inside. Did I mention the inside? The carpet looks like the roaches (yes, roaches live in the van) built themselves a dirt bike race track. You wouldn't believe it. She rides her two kids in it and they leave all kinds of crap inside it. Candy, gum, drink cans and bottles, paper from whatever they ate, and sometimes even the food. Just recently there was a used diaper left in there. Neither of her kids are diaper age. She must think this is HER van. She fiddles with the mileage on the odometer constantly and she's out of control. But, I get threatened with a decrease in salary. Okay. Justice abounds.
Ysis, I happened to see a lawyer for personal business and got onto the topic of reducing our wages because of the eaph system just to get his take on it. This was his opinion: they would be hard pressed to legally do it if anyone challenges them. If people were hired under the eaph system, got raises with it and rate reductions because of it, then they would not have a legal challenge. If, however, you were hired before the system, got raises before the system was in place, then they suddenly can NOT take money away because of it because you did not earn those raises based on that criteria. If challenged legally, the would lose. He had no doubts about that.
THANKS TL!!!!! I kind of figured that was shady (of course), but this puts my mind and blood pressure at ease. Thanks so much! *hug*
Ysis: I feel your pain about people abusing the company vans for personal use. I can't tell you how many times I've climbed into the 404's van to find candy and food wrappers, clothing and various other items...not from my fellow associates (although they were a big part of the problem), but from whatever grey shirt had the van that week and their family. In fact, there was one time where, if I didn't know better, I'd swear that the supervisor and their kids had been living in the van! There was so much stuff (toys and whatnot) you couldn't even fit two people into a seat.
Then again, this is the same district where traveling from eastern Washington to western Washington involves a side trip into Idaho just to buy cigarettes. No joke.
Garbage in company vans has been a a common problem here too, although the latest bunch of AM`s and DM`s are relatively neat to some of the slobs we`ve had in the past.( No more solid layer of garbage/pop cans obscuring the carpet.)We had a series of heavy smokers in management who stunk up the vans with rancid tobacco odor. A nonsmoker couldn`t ride in them for very long without getting sick, because they reeked so bad. (I guess that was one way to save carpool money for RGIS by encouraging everyone--especially nonsmokers-- to meet at the store!)If there was any company regulation against smoking in a van,it certainly was ignored.But that`s not even the worst abuse of a van--we once had a AM once years ago quit; they found condoms in his van when he turned it in upon resignation! Eeeyuu!!!
CONDOMS??????? YUCK-A-ROO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It just so happens that the AM`s brother-in-law was the DM,so he could get away with anything. Especially when his brother-in law DM spent most of his time (in January!)drunk at the local casino.Ah,nothing compares to RGIS nepotism.....
Just curious about how the workload around the country was. The last 2 schedules I got were blank!
Night Crew in Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
It's just typically slow this time of year. My last two schedules had two and four stores on them and I am also on night crew. I'm pretty sure they probably scheduled all of the night crew on these stores too so we'll all probably get the two hour minimum. It'll be busy again basically the day after christmas on.
Well, here is news for everyone.
My DM just got back from the Florida conference and....the EAPH system is history. They have eliminated it. I'm thinking they were facing lawsuits because of all the issues with it and averages depending on what people were being assigned in stores. So, now on to the color coding system. I have just come from a meeting with my AM where we sat and filled out paperwork for color coding my team. I was not comfortable with it at all. He could not answer if that meant that some of their pays might reduce. I did not want to be responsible for bringing anyone's pay down. Apparently they will be starting some sort of bonus program based on classifications.
I am thinking that when the low colors come into a store they will be given crap, and not get their bonuses. My district will never stop playing games with people's averages. Bring back the days when you got merit raises and everyone worked together with the single goal of finishing an inventory and getting out of a store. And, they have lowered the starting age to 16. Well, in my state, it is against labor laws for anyone under 18 to be working in a store past 9:30 p.m. If we schedule these people in 6 p.m. starts and the store isn't done, they will have to leave. They can't do late starts. And, I would assume they will still be in high school, so they won't be available during the day. That leaves weekends for them. I have enough problems with no shows with the college kids on my team without dealing with high school kids. But, my district wants to limit it to family members. Uh?? more nepotism?? Hello new owners, this company did Ok doing things the old ways. All you are creating are more hard feelings with your color coding, etc. Wake up!!!
TL Too: Sixteen? Wow, talk about corrupting America's youth. ;-) I'm not sure about the labor laws in CA but I can imagine a worst-case scenario like the one you mentioned. At promptly such and such a time all the 16 year olds leave the inventory en masse and a few vets are left to shoulder the brunt of the counting. It goes from bad to worse with RGIS. Well, at least they got rid of that ridiculous EAPH system, although not those stupid color badges or clips or whatever they're using to humiliate their auditors.
Misfit, the plot will thicken with that color coding system. They are being much too vague about it.
The classifications will be trainee, auditor, specialist, expert, top gun, team leader C, team leader B, team leader A.
Supposedly, the goal will be to reach the next level with 1.00 raise at the next level. However, my AM would not answer if I feel someone is a specialist, but has been around for 10 years, and is making the hourly pay of an expert, if that will set that person's pay back. They had apparently had one of their manager meetings in which it was suggested to bring back everyone to starting level, and giving them the pay for which they are now classified. So, my question was: If that was being discussed, then pay cuts were probably being talked about. His response: uh, no ones pay will go down. Then, he told me to make everyone on my team a specialist. Uh?? they have different counting abilities.
So, this just spells more games to me being played with never being able to get a straight answer. And, at the end, they can point the finger at the team leader if questioned about pay cuts and say: they classified you!!!! He said he was classifying all his team leaders as team leader A. Again, some run supermarkets, some don't even count in them. All the same level?? Fair?? And the bonus thing is even more ridiculous. No matter what you count, if you are late due to weather, traffic etc., you can not get your bonus for a 2 week period. Idiots!!!! January is coming. Don't ya think they would be trying to make people happy and not pissing them off??
Misfit, as far as 16 year olds, we are in stores sometimes where their employees are 16 and 17. When we start the inventory, the store may have 6 or 7 of their people there. 9:30 rolls around and they all have to leave with the manager left alone to do SKU checks, answer questions, etc. So what do you do? Schedule extra people in case a store goes long, and to make up for the kids who will have to leave?? What happens to their oh so important profit when you put 10 in a store that requires 7 because 3 will have to leave? Also, as one of my team members pointed out, you can't have them on ladders, etc. because of the labor laws in the state. How useful are these people going to be? They must really be anticipating a lack of response to their ads.
This new hire-the-highschooler policy is the latest load of shit that RGIS has come up with. I worked for another inventory company(before RGIS)which made the mistake of hiring 16 year olds for one or two winters.It was a disaster,probably a quarter or more of them never showed up for any given job. Plus, like previously mentioned, there was always a time limit on how late they could stay. A lot of those kids are lazy goofballs and f*ck up the inventory more than they help.We are going to be so screwed in January!
I`m glad I work mainly the night stores, since it will be after most of the under-18 crowds` bedtime. Hopefully, there won`t be too many of them around to screw up my inventories.
I hope RGIS is not realy serious about this badge color system, and how it may correlate with one`s pay. In my district there are quite a few good auditors who are rated below their actual abilities and worth to the company.There also are a few rated "top gun" types who are really suspect in accuracy and reliability issues,too. A lot of good people, especially the older ones,will get shafted in this new system. And the favortism in auditor placement, cherrypicking,and cheating will get totally out of hand.It`s been very conspicuous this past year, but it will be much worse if RGIS all but officially sanctions it with a pay system tied to whatever the auditors` arbitrary "rating" is.
I am SO glad that I got out of RGIS before this colored badge system comes into play. Morale was HORRIBLE on the 404 when I left back in October...I know that a lot of people were just holding out for the Alaska run they got back from a few weeks ago. I can't see how this is going to help matters.
Well they haven't gone the way of color coding yet in my district. In fact I just got my first raise off the EAPH system..of course it was only 9 cents. Good god! That was literally a 1 percent raise. Anyways, I'm training to run stores right now and everyone I am training with makes at least a dollar more than me. They keep saying they are giving me a raise as soon as I complete training but I am not so sure. I'm sure they will find a way to screw me out of that raise too. Time will tell.
Misfit:
There`s a very interesting and informative company internal memorandum that was just published by a source at company Headquarters on the My Space RGIS Slaves site, under the topic of "rumors". It`s from a RGIS Training Director, and goes into good detail about the new auditor classification system.You might want to direct people to it--if that`s allright with you-- because it`s so pertinent to the recent discussions.
Just a shortened version of an email sent out by HQ and posted on another blog. Interesting that the hourly wage is tied in to the classification.
From: Martin, Virgil
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 10:28 AM
To: *Company US
Subject: Auditor Categorization - compensation
Ladies and Gentlemen:
One of the topics presented at the company meeting was Hourly Compensation being tied to Auditor categories.
Auditors
Top Gun “A” – 20%
Expert “B” – 30%
Specialist “C” – 35%
Auditor “D” – 15%
Prowlers – A Minimum of 5
Sweepers – A Minimum of 5
Team Leaders
A – 40%.
B – 40
C – 20%
2. The resulting comparison creates a Team Member Training Plan for the district that provides a roadmap to follow in
an effort to acquire the needed skill levels to meet the requirements of the Build-to-Infrastructure Model.
3. Ensure each Auditor, Specialist, Expert and Top Gun has the appropriate badge clip depicting his or her skill level.
Yellow – Auditor
Red – Specialist
Green – Expert
Black – Top Gun
Wow. And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse. Are these people really this stupid?
Damn. I feel stupid just asking that.
Color Coding....the plot thickens.
Had a long talk with my DM tonight.
It appears the long term goal is to have pay classifications which the letter posted on another blog and in part on this one basically states. So this is how he thinks it will work in our District because of our starting pay.
Auditor/new hire: 9.50 per hour
Specialist: 10.50
Expert: 11.50
Top Gun: 12.50
Anything above that will be team leader C, team leader B, team leader A. That part is still vague. Eventually they will work a per store bonus program into this. But, because we have a lot of people in our District that have been working for years, a lot of them have surpassed the pay scale for their new classifications. Result: pay decrease to their classifications.
Nice. So much for dependability, longevity, availability, accuracy, etc. This mind you is meant as a goal to better retain people. Better retain them? By lowering their pays?? My DM who thought the eaph was the best thing ever, now says the eaph didn't work and this system is great. We'll see how great it is when they have a mass exodus out the door. All this, I believe, is because of the new RM1. They spent millions on a machine that is lowering everyone's productivity. We are in stores longer, and we need to put more people in because of it.
Result is less profit for the big boys....so less for the workers.
But...we didn't introduce this monster machine with all its issues. So why are we going to pay for this mistake? This place gets better every day.
I've often wondered what was the motivation behind most of what RGIS was doing. The failure of the EAPH is just one of the many things that is wrong with upper management. Now I've read about people getting pay cuts, but my experience is that I was given a $1.50 raise! Now I should point out that I'm a TL (9 months) however I've been working for RGIS for 8 years now, so I'm one of the few top guns left in the district.
My raise is a good one but not as good as it would've been had I been a ATL. I found out that as an ATL my raise would've been over $2.00 but I would've been over the cap for ATLs. Also issue I have is with this new classification. From what I was told by my DM when the EAPH goes away, the computer will reclassify everyone and their salaries will reset to that. To me that is utter bull, you work to finally get a raise then they take it away.
Used the new machines today as a matter of fact, and I don't know about this. This is only my third time using it in a store and it sucks. BIG TIME! The keys stick. The buttons that should be bigger are smaller and vice versa and the lasers don't work with it. It's hell, I tell you.
This new pay system isn't going to work either. Next year this time, they'll come back from the meeting saying they're going to use trained seals to pre-count for us and if our assigned seal doesn't pre-count a certain percentage per hour, our pay will decrease due to the seal's lack of motivation.
I only had one experience with the new machines, and that was doing a clothing store that had taken us four hours about a year or so ago with the old machines.
I left around the five hour mark this latest time and the store was nowhere near being done. I later heard that they didn't get out until the 12 hour mark.
Of course, this was the same store that I was told by the DM "Thanks for nothing. Get the hell out of my store!" just because I was leaving early.
Someone mentioned a survey a while back: I responded.
I was really pissed off at the time, for some reason or other, and so I gave them answers. I said everything that I thought was wrong about morale, "motivation techniques", and travel pay. I was very long-winded and detailed and managed to also rail against the EAPH system. There was a section regarding my pay, if I thought it was decent, and this was the only section I held to less than 4 lines:
"Not even close."
My fiancé was pissed that I sent it in because it was one of those surveys that is specifically for the person it was sent to and identified as such, but I was past the point of caring.
Result? Actually, it was a $1.42 raise. No one else in the district received any sort of raise, demotion, or letters regarding their EAPH -- just me.
Of course, that was months ago. Now we've had our DM replaced due to promotion (now our OPs manager) with a real bitch who's firing people left and right a mere month from January. And they recently promoted an inept AAM because they needed another AM. Why is it always about simply having enough "bodies" with this company? It's always not set well with me the way management talks about needing "warm bodies" -- how utterly dehumanizing.
Regarding RM1: Very much a love-hate thing with me. Running the portable, I love these machines. Being able to void out tickets as I go, searching for them on the floor rather than walking back to print off a page or grab something to write with and hunt them down -- handy. The WiFi in general is handy (when it works).
Hate it though because I've had entire transmissions vanish, it sucks to count with, and they do seem to freeze a lot. Unfortunately, it's hard to differentiate the people who have genuine freezing machine difficulties from the people who simply don't want to work and keep having "problems".
All told, RGIS is still a net suckage situation.
Has anyone heard any details about the new mentoring plan? According to my DM, everyone will both be a mentor and in turn have someone mentoring them, if you can believe that.It will be tough enough as it is in January without having to nursemaid some rookie all the time.(So much for productivity.) Likewise, I don`t look forward to being patronized by some mentor who has a fraction of my RGIS service time, whether it be an AM or TL or whomever.
We finally used the new RM-1`s lately at a few stores.I noticed that the stores took about 20% longer to count, even though we had better crews than the previous times when we used the regular audit machines.The numeric keys were really clunky, and hard to key with.I`m sure that any supervisor that doesn`t have to count--management,of course-- will love the RM-1`s because they do make the job of running a store easier, assuming they and the wi-fi system don`t crash.( An auditor who`s a computer expert inspected the transmitter, and noticed that RGIS uses a standard, old wi-fi frequency. RGIS is too cheap,as usual, to have gotten a proprietary frequency.He surmised that someone in the neighborhood using the same wi-fi frequency, could indadvertantly wreak havoc with an inventory.This might explain the stories we`ve been hearing about lost transmissions, and system failures.) However, back to the RM-1`s,about everyone who has used them so far are in consensus that the machines are an ergonomic nightmare, being so hard on one`s body. You have to be constantly holding them, or swinging them up and down on a shoulder strap.And we haven`t used them yet on the really hard stuff to count, such as rolling racks and high up waterfall hangers in which you need two hands--one to scrunch the hangers, the other to yank out the barcode tag.It`s probably going to be more difficult to count those areas than the RGIS brass figured, because one of your hands will be tied up holding the new machine.I expext a lot of long, gruelling inventories.Now, we have also heard that they may yet get some external finger lasers(that work) but they will be allocated at the rate of one per five RM-1`s.This naturally raises the issue of favortism, just like when the old finger lasers came out.Some people may get them, others will be out of luck.
O t l, the mentoring program is tied to this new classification system. You are supposedly going to be mentoring the class below you. I, like you, have a problem with some of it. A lot of these classifications were done from the old eaph system and people's averages from that. And, we all know what a wonderful success that program was. But, if someone is classified a top gun because they cherry picked their way through the eaph system, then it will be an issue. As a TL, my mentors would probably be the AAM's who have far less years and far less experience than I do. Or if, for example, you are a tl and classified an expert, some of these cherry pickers will be in charge of mentoring you. ??? This will all be tied to the bonus program they are tossing around. Of course, did anyone think about the fact that if everyone is mentoring everyone, who the hell is counting the store??? lol lol lol And...if you are busy mentoring and not counting....you won't hit the average you need to get a bonus. And, with the RM1, it will be a case of the blind leading the blind as far as mentoring goes. We are all in the same class on that one. I don't know about you, but when I am running a store, and counting in my stores, I have little time left to be mentoring everyone there. And with the RM1, I am too busy trying to figure out why they keep booting up, or freezing, etc. For a company that is so into safety, this machine will cause more worker's comp. cases for carpel tunnel syndrome than they can handle.
First off the mentoring system.. When I was doing training to run stores, this mentoring system was mentioned to us to see if we thought it was a good idea. They basically want to try to get counters to be top guns. At my district, they were going to do a contest to see which mentor did the best job and then they would win a gift certificate. Well about a week later, I had one of the TL's come up to me and tell me she was supposed to help make me a top gun. Anyways, she hasn't really done anything as far as that is concerned although she has helped me tremendously with figuring out the computer system for running the stores since the higher ups conveniently decided not to tell me any of that information before having me run a store.
As for the RM1's..we are completely switched over here and they are the only machines we use now. We finally got finger lasers in and it has made all the difference in the world. The only bad part is that you can barely here it beep when you scan something. They are much better as far as running stores since you pretty much know immediately whether or not people are counting and how many areas are down. The key's are smaller but I am getting used to using them and I don't find them all that bad. I like that there is no more 6k and 6= key just a piece key and your totals are always on the screen which is nicer too. I guess it's a personal preference thing.
These RM-1s have been a nightmare indeed, and don't think those finger lasers will be your savior. They break very easily, and feel less comfortable compared to the old ones. The major problem is the connecting port to the RM often gets janked out, and the plastic just breaks off whenever an auditor has to stretch. And that's not the only problem, there are some RM's in my district which won't connect to a perfectly fine finger laser for whatever reason.
this is the rgis ad for my area, i worked there a few years back for like 5 months, it didnt work out.
HIRING FOR BUSY AFTER
CHRISTMAS SEASON!
RGIS is hiring inventory takers for Wheeling and surrounding areas.
$8.00/hour.
Group Medical benefits available.
Advancement opportunities
10-key experience helpful, however, no experience needed.
Apply online at: rgisinv.com or e-mail to: dist021@rgis.com
Attention: Michelle
RGIS, LLC
is an Equal Opportunity
Employer.
tl too:
You hit it right on the head; my situation is nearly identical to yours, and what you are talking about. The thing that is particularly disturbing to me is that my district recently ran an on-line ad in an attempt to hire supervisors(grayshirts)directly OFF THE STREET!They are offering $12 a hour, yet some grayshirts promoted from within the ranks are currently getting less!One of the job descriptions for these off-the-street supervisors, you guessed it, will be mentoring! So someone with no practical experience, other than a quickie RGIS crash course in running stores, will be expected to "mentor" people. LOL! I think it will be the other way around. Our district once tried to hire an AAM directly off the street about 5 years ago, and it ended in disaster.The candidates dropped like flies once they realized that it wasn`t a typical 9 to 5 job that they were getting into: no fixed stopping time, no days off, multiple jobs per day, no sleep, etc. No one ever ended up being hired; the program was abandoned.I`m hoping for the same results with this ATL/TL hiring scheme. I don`t need to be bailing out any shellshocked supervisors that are in way over their head; I`ve done that plenty of times before with the promoted-from-within group.It`s not a pleasant job, especially in January!
Most of the posts I've seen are from auditors or former auditors. Well, here's a post from the spouse of a current AM:
RGIS SUCKS!
And here is why: If you think it is bad as an auditor, consider the life of an AM:
Sure, you get a steady work load, but you actually make less money per hour than an auditor. Yes, that is true. My wife made more per hour as an auditor than she does as an AM.
Yes, she has decent medical benefits, but she does pay a good portion of it herself. Yes, she does have a company vehicle, but she also has to pay $300 per paycheck for that "benefit". And she also has a 401K, which she contributes heavily to.
On average, she works 50-70 hours a week. This does not include all the time she spends at home downloading and transmitting stores, preparing equipment, and answering rediculous phone calls 24/7, working on schedules, training preparation, etc. So, she never has a day off. Even when she is off, she's not really off.
She is never really not worrying about the next day's work. And after all that and paying Uncle Sam, my wife banks about $800 every two weeks for somewhere between 100-140 hours of "in office" work. That equates to somewhere between $5 to $8 after taxes--AND SHE NEVER HAS A DAY OFF!
This does not account for the wonderful intangibles like being threatened with violence from disgruntled employees who don't understand how they can be fired for not showing up to work for two weeks, or having your personal vehicle vandalized, your company vehicle trashed when loaned out, or blantant sexual harassment from customer's management, etc, etc...
Couple all that with having to write lenghty, discriptive "post mortems" any and every time any of the above mentioned wonderful intangibles occur in order to defend yourself, which no one looks at once you've gone to the trouble to explain the situation in detail.
And RGIS expects a motivated, team player out of her. Yeah, blow me!
Now, in our city, $8.50 an hour basically gets you low class, uneducated, inner-city, gold-toothed, tattooed-neck, wannabe-gangsta trash, or fresh-off-the-boat-I-speaky-no-English types. So, you basically get what you pay for.
Out of every 100 hires, 4 or 5 employees may be worth a damn, and maybe 1 or 2 of those 4 or 5 might be crazy enough to put up with the punishment, er, I mean privilage of working for the esteemed, self-proclaimed leader of the inventory auditing world--RGIS.
Now, I may be biased, but I know my wife's character and her ethics--they're first rate, and I know she runs circles around other AM's, and she gets paid far less than they do.
I've seen how the company will set her (and other managers) up for failure. She will have to meet these ridiculously strict, narrow, company objectives, for which she will make every effort to adhere to, but as soon as those objectives come into conflict with the customer's perception of service, which they always do, the rug gets pulled out from under her. This equates to her receiveing a bonus last year of only $700, and that's before taxes.
So, for those complaining about how bad it is as an auditor, I only say this is what you can look forward to if, God forbid, you ever actually get promoted.
-Jaded by RGIS
Are they any Wal-mart/home depot team members out there? Does anyone understand the new pay structure and bonus plan? If you do, help, please explain. Confusion abounds!
jaded:
Just one question. If the AM job is so terrible, why did your wife accept the position to begin with, and more importantly, why is she still doing it if she`s unhappy and treated so awfully? Most long time grayshirts, myself included,spurn the management positions because we all well know what a shitty job it is. Furthermore, we have seen previously nice people who have become managers transformed almost overnight into cold hearted, money grubbing assholes and bitches, and do not what to become what we abhor.It`s my opinion that people who acquiesce to an overbearing, corrupt system just help to perpetuate it.
Jaded: Like O t l, I have to respond to your post also. Let's be real. In my District, the managers use the vans like personal property. No one drives them but the managers. Great perk, vehicle, free gas, free insurance, etc. Those of us that are required to drive others in our own vehicles, take on the responsibility and liability. Yup, we get auto pay but we still assume the liability. The managers in my District drive no one. They drive themselves. Now, as to hours they work. In my District, the managers never work weekends unless some really big store is going on or in Jan. Feb. rush. We, the team leaders, run all the weekend stores while they enjoy it off. We get that 80 hour week stuff from our managers also.
Really?? doing what?? We were keeping a record of stores being run last year just for the hell of it. Most team leaders were running more stores than our managers in a week. They never run back to back stores. Keep something in mind here. When they are really working 80 hour weeks in the busy times, we are often working 60. The difference is when times are slow. Like December for instance. They have no stores to run, most never do their PIV's, but they are still getting their 40 hour pay while the lowly team leaders who never get raises, got screwed royally by the eaph, and work a lot of hours that give them their weekends off, get no pay at this time of year. Granted they have 80 hour weeks sometimes, but how often do they have weeks with far less hours and still get that same pay. It evens out. And now, let's talk about their latest perk. Company provided and paid for cell phones.
We the team leaders are expected to be always at their beck & call but no one picks up our cell phone bills. I think it is more than time this company starts sharing the wealth and perks with the team leaders who are often doing their own managers jobs. A manager is only as good as the workforce that is doing the job for them. You can have the best manager in the world running a store but if no auditor shows up to do the actual job, they are getting tossed from the store. I can tell you that my District is a high volume district and the managers in my office are getting good bonuses. Who is earning this for them?? Us, the workforce who get zero benefits. And, they are being reviewed and still getting their raises. So, I don't think you will get a lot of sympathy from any team leader in this company.
tl too:
I couldn`t agree with you more.The situation about the vans is especially true. They`re used almost exclusively as a manager`s personal taxi here, despite the fact that the latest inept RM is attemting to turn our district into a "travel" district with lots of unnecessary travelling.Teams and even out-of-area districts with lower average pay are being sent into our urban district( to save the RM money purportedly ), while our local people are under utilized.In turn, our people are increasingly being asked to foray far outside of our previous normal range. Of course, there rarely is any van available for carpools. It`s up to us to meet at the store, or arrange our own carpools--no help from the office.
There`s one other reason, not to feel too sorry for managers, that tl too didn`t mention. That is the issue of managers "stacking" their crews with the best (good,RELIABLE counters, few rookies) people, while the grayshirts get the leftovers. This is especially true in centrally (office scheduled) districts, such as mine. I have no say on who gets scheduled into my stores.My crews are determined by the whim of the DM.The program can be complex, the store manager demanding or fussy; my concerns are usually ignored. I get whoever the DM decides to send. And, if he or an AM is running another store at the same time, it`s almost a sure bet that I will be shorthanded at my store, quantity and quality wise!So here I`ll be at my store, shorthanded with an disproportional number of rookies or incompetents. I`ll be spending an excessive amount of time training people,or apologizing to the store people and fixing stupid mistakes, while incuring the wrath of the store manager because of the inventory`s inaccuracy or excessive length.My reward wll be to get my ass chewed out by the DM. Meanwhile, at the DM`s or Am`s store, it was a smooth three hour inventory that virtually ran itself because of the large and quality crew. Then, I`ll often hear later that the manager was complaining that he/she had to work that night, or the inventory went too long, or the APH wasn`t good enough, etc.The irony of it all! And one other thing that adds insult to injury:Until very recently,if we found ourselves in dire straits at a store, such as having no crew showing up (!),we were not allowed to take the initiative and quickly call reliable people in on our own. We had a Hitlerian system where we had to page an AM, then the DM, if no response. It was up to them to call in people.(I don`t know the reason for this; maybe they wanted to send in the lowest paid replacements, or their pets.) Needless to say, this process wasted a lot of precious time; by the time reinforcements arrived, it was usually too late to mitigate the disaster.After a few such disasters--and probable lost or jeopardized accounts, this system has been discontinued.
OTL: You've got to be kidding, RGIS wants to hire people as team leaders and start them at $12/hr? I ran stores for about 5 years before I reached the $12 rate. This has disaster written all over it because in order to do well as a TL, you really have to absorb the inventory process first. Someone came to my office for an interview stating that he wanted a supervisor position and I told him thanks but no thanks.
JADED: It's long been a theory of mine that many relationships, families,etc. have been torn apart by RGIS and your post confirms it. Hopefully soon your wife will realize that she's better off as an hourly employee and demote. Sure she won't have the company van, but in return she'll have less stress and you'll get the wife and life you know back. I'd need at least 6-figures to even consider becoming a manager a worthwhile opportunity. Also, I couldn't agree with you more about the GHETTO-thug wannabes that the ads seem to attract. If we drug tested, at least 70% of these losers would never even show up. Plus some female applicants will come to interviews and/or training with cleavage and breasts visible. Then they expect us to take them seriously. All I can say is stand by your wife, she'll need the shoulder to cry on.
raider hater:
It`s true, just google careerBuilder rgis supervisor! I just looked there again. Our district`s ad has been pulled ( although I heard that some stores still aren`t staffed with a supervisor yet). But I see that there are at least several other districts that are hiring grayshirts off the streets. Desperation must truly be creeping in! You`re right in you`re observation that it difficult to come off the street and get a feel for what it takes to run a successful inventory.My experience was that it took a year or two of being jerked around by management and left in the lurch to really get the feel of running stores. Plus some years RGIS really makes some desperate hiring--like the gangsters and weirdos and just plain idiots that you previously mentioned.You never know what to expect in that regard. We`ve had some semi-useful newhires the past two years, but with the new RM-1`s this could be another January where we hit rock bottom, hiring wise.
OTL: I've been doing several training sessions this month with the RM-1's and have found that the new hires are grasping the process much easier than with the audits. The main reason is that they are much more user-friendly because the new hires don't have to memorize the black function keys. Usually they would get the numeric and function keys mixed up, so that problem is eliminated. My biggest complaint with the RM-1's is that the screen goes dim after a few seconds and you have to tap it to bring the light back. As far as the trashy applicants, that will never change. We just have to be more vigilant and less desperate when encountering them.
raider hater:
Since you have been training, do you know if programs with shelf totals or UPC changes can be done with the rm-1`s, or are they history? I have some Brooks Brothers and Hot Topics coming up in January, and was wondering.The UPC changes and shelf total stores are the most confusing to new people.
OTL: The training downloads that I've used for the RM-1's do have a shelf count program. There is a visible running total for each shelf as well as the area itself. When ready to start a new shelf, press ESC until the New Filed Value Box appears, key the new shelf #, press ENT, then you will be asked to confirm the entry is for a shelf. One of the biggest things that new hires forget is to press ESC to scan the next area ticket, so they end up blending areas. As for the stores you will be doing, if these fields are part of the download, they should appear on the RM-1 screen.
Well, the shelf total program will be interesting, to say the least, for both the newbies and the oldtimers.We seem to be "winging it" with these RM-1`s--learn as we go, and hope there aren`t too many disasters along the way.
I recently started for RGIS, and without a month under my belt I am already looking for something else. My second check is wrong, missing 2 days pay, they never ordered my shoes, and My first two days noone even told me how to clock in (not the same days I didnt get paid for). It's like they don't want to pay me at all. Besides that the hours suck. I said anytime m-f days, and they gave me weekends and nights. Then when I commented on how I can only do days which hours are easier to get, they got upset and cut me drastically because I denied hours. M-f days for RGIS means I start at 5-6AM, and meet at the office at 4-5AM because I usually go out of state. I live in Mass and the pay is $9.50, which is almost decentfor the easy work but the shitty hours! Plus it just got raised to $9.50 ($7.75 minumum wage) and employees there for years are getting paid less than me!!!!!!!! In closing, avoid anything but very temporary employment for RGIS, and dont even do it if you live in mass. We are the fastest district, meaning you cant take a piss or pause to crack your aching neck without getting attitude. AND DONT FORGET MANAGEMENT POSITIONS ARE OPEN (without a raise)
ap:
You have learned quickly and well!There are many others who have been around much longer than you, but have not experienced the RGIS Epiphany, and continue to be manipulated and exploited.
I started with RGIS back in October out of desperation after I was laid off my job in a TV station (corporate downsizing)
No training, thrown out to learn at the customers expense. Very few "old timers" wanted to take the time to help me. Luckily I'm in a district where the auditors (some of them) are a cut above and took the time to show me the area concept, how to key, etc.
Having been in management for 20+ years I have the basic skills to manage people. I can motivate, set goals, praise, reprimand without stripping dignity, etc.
I have a brain and can count to 11 using both hands. (grin)
I've been promoted to TL, take the time to train my team members. Auditors beg to be on my team. Of 9 teams with mostly 6-9 people, I have 17. The AM tells me I run the A-Team.
I've been interviewed by the DM and have entered AM training.
*NOW* I find this blog. Of course I'm saying OH CRAP right about now :-)
The main thing I've personally noticed about RGIS is the people they place into management positions don't seem to be qualified to be there. It's known they are not qualified, but are left there anyway. The primary failure (in my district which I'm not going to disclose for obvious reasons) is the TL's, AAM, AM, simply do not know how to deal with people. Yelling at subordinates does not accomplish a managers goals. It causes job dis-satisfaction, a decrease in productivity, high turnover which results in increased training costs and lower accuracy for the audits, which all culminates for lower bonuses for AM's and DM's. That is the OPPOSITE from what they are after. Don't they understand that?
My AM is constantly calling me during the large inventories (prime example, Hobby Lobby yesterday) wanting to know why we are not out yet, etc. YELLING at me, calling me names, telling me how bad I suck. I will NOT treat my auditors with that lack of respect. She wants answers as to why we took so long. I tell her it was a scheduling issue (she did schedule) she says no. You tell me. 50 people scheduled. She cuts it to 35 (to preserve her labor %) then 5 of those don't show. Now we are down to about 55% of the # of auditors. 4 are A counters, 4 are B counters, 2 or 3 C's, and the majority of the remaining people are their FIRST maybe second inventory. Since I'm not allowed to count (and my AAM is running the desk while I run the flow she can't count either, there are two more A counters not being allowed to count)
You tell me what to do?
me:
If you think you are frustrated, think of all the oldtimers like me that have been running stores for ten or twenty years or more.RGIS just plain and simply does not embrace sound management philosophies as you described.I just don`t understand the company mentality, and how internationally pervasive it is.I presume the extreme pressure to maximize the current profit precludes any sensible long term management plan.The result is that there`s always an air of desperation and intimidation in the management ranks, which unfortunately, is directed downward onto the supervisors and rank and file.I have always felt that if you treated people well and led by example, RGIS would have a much better retention rate of quality auditors, like the "A" and "B" that you describe. Inventories would be smooth and efficient. And even the profit margin would be better, because of the auditors` good productivity( we would have fewer newhires and turnover) and supportive work enviroment. Sadly,Blackstone/RGIS, for whatever mysterious reasons,does not believe in any such progressive thinking. I feel that instead,there is an institutional petty jealousy at RGIS where they ostracize rational,free thinkers like you and me in attempt to keep them in line.I`ve long experienced what you are presently going through: deliberately set up as a scapegoat with weak/short crews in an attempt to destroy your credibility,in an attempt to make you come crawling subservantly to the DM or RM. Hang in there,or if you are like many others, good luck in your next job search!
o t l:
Thank you for your kind words. I find it surprising that someone of your caliber has been with RGIS for so long without blowing your stack and going postal on the imcomps. :)
We also have the 'old timers' who have been around for 10+ years. When our new AM arrived, ALL of the old timers were demoted from team leader status and made asst TL's or auditors. I have a top gun as my asst who has been with RGIS for 16 years. I started in October 07. What is wrong with this picture? The excuse given by the AM is "they will do it my way" ... she says that the way we have always done it is no longer a viable option. Never mind that the "now" way involves calling auditors 2 hours before an inventory to line up enough staff. Schedules were ready two weeks out under the "old way" but now schedule changes occur on a daily basis. It makes me (as a TL) look like a moron when I have already confirmed my people for audit A, then have to call them back and tell them their schedule has changed, again, the day before. And since I have you on the phone, Audit B has been added. Now understand this is not a rare occurrence, but a regular thing.
One thing I'd like to mention....our DM, who came to us from Washington Inventory (is that their name) has been with RGIS for a very short time....a couple of months. He called a meeting with our office and met all of us, and handed his cell number out inviting anyone to call him anytime. All well and good huh? A week later our AM called a staff meeting with everyone in the office and one of her points were that if ANYONE ever called the DM they would be fired, no questions asked.
How's that for open door policy?
Thanks for the wishes on the job search. As a matter of fact, it was started a while back. I would be willing to stay with RGIS _PART TIME_ (my last check was 122 hours for 2 weeks) as they are a great part time job, for an auditor. I'm very ready to give them their gray shirts back and go back to the burgundy ones. A lot (LOT) less stress. I enjoyed the days when I'd show up, count, pull the yellow tags, and leave....
Show a bit of ability and see what it gets ya? Lol
me:
I don`t know how RGIS can keep schedulers from going insane, with all the nonsense that goes on.Like using summer hours( usually one hour later) for a guidline when scheduling winter inventories in malls,and vice versa. How can anyone, whether it be HDQ, Division, the RM, or the DM be so incompetent and stupid not to be aware that store times actually vary during the course of a year?How can these kind of mistakes pass through so many people and not be noticed? One other thing is scheduling people for inventories that really are only tentative, and not confirmed, only to have a scheduler try and contact auditors at the last moment to inform them of the cancellation of such inventory. What of waste of time and effort!Even though our schedule comes directly from the office instead of through the team leaders, we still have a person in charge of confirmations and time changes.We`re on our fourth or fifth one in the past year, because of the unnecessary changes and exasperation involved.Many years ago, I had a taste of this BS when our district was still team scheduled and I got the "honor", as a ATL, to schedule my team one month.I remember calling everyone on a Friday night on a chance that maybe a few people would be home. To my suprise everyone was home, and I scheduled them all. The schedule included an awful 4AM store,in which I was fortunate to find enough gullible rookies and needy vets to staff.Well,we had a supervisor meeting the very next Monday. I was feeling smugly happy that I had completed my scheduling so quickly and efficiently.Then I found out that the awful 4AM store was cancelled, plus the usual slew of time changes. It wasn`t so easy contacting everyone the second time around to inform them of the changes and cancellations.I was furious, and swore off scheduling.Fortunately for me, our office went to central scheduling shortly thereafter--I would have rather stepped down than have anything to do with the schedule.I still pity anyone involved in scheduling--it`s a thankless, endless task.
Yeah, I need to regurgitate this RGIS stuff. The company has become increasingly dismal. Its dress code policy of black pants and black shoes has made it intolerable. What used to be somewhat tolerable is now intolerable. I used to be at least comfortable in my own brown pants and shoes. You can tell its just the owners yanking everyone's chains.
You mean there are actually RGIS districts out there that are picayunish to the point of actually enforcing a dress policy? I`ve heard of the black shoes edict, but not of a black pants requirement.The only time they do any dress code enforcement here is when the RM or OPS Manager is in the store.Then, on occasion, some poor slob is made the sacrificial lamb and sent home for a violation. 99% of the rest of time no one, including management, gives a rat`s ass on how anyone looks. Half the people have their shirts out, some people are wearing white shoes or Chuck Taylors, plus a few with jeans and body piercings, etc.
i work for rgis about 1 an half yrs im an army veteran and i live in puerto rico and work very hard i submit an EEOC accomodation based on my post traumatic syndrome i got and RGIS fired me right now i will sue them i work for d149 the dm and am are liars and they are arrogant and stupid
In doing some research on RGIS I found your blog. :) Great stuff. I answered a local ad (North Bay, Ontario, Canada) and went through the orientation. Some of the experiences and comments remind me of my time in various call centres.
Anyhoo, you asked for job postings for RGIS, and here is the one I answered.
8X--- cut here ---X8
Title: Inventory clerk (for Inventory Support Business) (NOC: 1474)
Terms of Employment: Temporary, Part Time, Day
Salary: $9.00 Hourly for 40 hours per week
Anticipated Start Date: 2008/04/21
Location: North Bay and Area, Ontario (30 vacancies )
Skill Requirements:
Education: Not applicable
Credentials (certificates, licences, memberships, courses, etc.): Not applicable
Experience: Will train
Languages: Speak English, Read English, Write English
Work Conditions and Physical Capabilities: Fast-paced environment, Standing for extended periods, Bending, crouching, kneeling
Work Location Information: Various locations, On-site customer service
Essential Skills: Numeracy
Other Information: This is NOT an office job. We are an International Inventory company and we perform PHYSICAL inventory counts for our customers ON SITE. Own transportation a definite asset. Must be minimum 16 years of age to apply. Students welcome.
Employer: RGIS Canada
8X--- cut here ---X8
Oh, and DO keep this blog going.
hey i'm about to go to a group interview tomorrow, and they're supposed to pay $11.00! ^_^
anonymous:
Your RGIS district must be very shorthanded (desperate)to be offering $11 an hour. Expect a lot of travelling or back to back to back stores or crazy hours--like 4 AM starts-- when you are hired. (I hope you have had your sleep for June, you won`t get much more--unless it`s in a carpool on a way to a store!)
The Wages what a joke! I've been working for 2 years at 8.25 an hour, and no raise in sight. I worked before for the company, and I had to start at the lowest wage. Been told that district has the highest APH'S, but only the Few that are like in school the teacher's pets. At one store, I was doing what an 12.00 employee would be making, and I can't get a raise. They pick and chose the stores that you can get raises from. The ones that you get really high counts from, don't count towards your raises, and for now, they have a new process comming for any raises, So My raise will never come.
broken wyng: Are you still with D228?
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