...and this blog shows up in the fifth spot! At least it did today when I Googled it. Anyway, nothing really new to report, I just noticed that the comments on the last post had really piled up and I know some people prefer to read comments when they haven't gone too far over one hundred so here we are.
I'm guessing things are pretty quiet right now for RGIS auditors, what with it being the holidays and all. I hope things will pick up for everyone come January and that the new year is better and brighter for everyone. I know it's hard to think that it will given that you may still be employed by RGIS but hey...it's a job, right? Maybe not one that pays a living wage or that gives you good benefits or treats you as though you were a human being or...ahh, never mind. Screw RGIS!
173 comments:
Fuck, going for an interview for rgis tommorow. reading this shit... im fucked, need the money, got no fucking choice. why the hell did i ever think "oh inventory auditor, sounds butt-fuckin interesting"?
Anon, I'm sure you'll get hired on the spot. But don't expect any hours this month.
like the first guy, I too have an interview tomorrow. after reading this blog is giving me second thoughts. they will most likely hire you on the spot?
Ed, if you're upright and breathing RGIS will hire you.
They've changed the hiring process slightly in the last year, though.
Everything to start is online now. You fill out the application and the counting/math test, then wait for them to call you.
After they call you, you actually meet at a store at a certain time.
You watch a little video on the laptop. Then, you put on a machine and actually go count in a section of the store. No store personnel around, so no real sku checks.
Trainers are also not allowed to teach the 'K' key to new hires. Only auto scan. You get taught the 'K' key after you move up to specialist.
Trainers can also not teach the new hires how to search their machine to delete something. They are supposed to get the flow leader or a grey shirt to do that.
lol ok thanks. guess i'll get the job then tomorrow.
Let me put it this way. I went in to the office for my interview just under 4 years ago, and as soon as I finished filling out the application I was handed the pre-employment paperwork and the availability form. Within an hour I had seen the introductory video, taken the test, scanned the posters, and had my first week's schedule of stores.
For those who are yet unitiated, the posters are pictures of store shelves. You scan the barcodes on the shelves and key in the quantity of each product. On the test you have to accurately count groups of objects. You may have to take that online now.
Don't know about other districts, but our office has set up an area to train pharmacy counters. There's a set of shelves with assorted pill bottles, with various quantities of candy representing pills.
Oh, and Misfit? There is even a little wiggle room on the breathing requirement. When I've been sent to support Houston, I almost always see one auditor pulling an oxygen tank around with her.
yea this is the first anon. yup, got the job on the spot. two people walked out, fat woman for her inability to travel outside of town and some kid for well idk why he did. they started playing the intro video with the black guy and he said fuck this shit. and yeah no hours till after christmas, boo hoo
Hmm, that process that they're doing now, what Anon. described as having new hires meet in a store and start counting that same day actually doesn't sound half bad. It's like what people in my dist. were suggesting years ago, to have a store to "practice" in for new hires. Well, it's not half bad for RGIS. I'm not sure how the store personnel would feel, if they were around to know about it.
Texas Auditor: OMG, you're not kidding about the oxygen tank, are you? Wow.
World Ends: LOL at the kid saying, "Fuck this shit" and walking out. If only I'd been smart enough to do the same...
Oh the store managers hate it when people come in to train.
Usually it's a Kmart. Apparently RGIS corporate made some sort of a deal with Kmart corporate to do it. Kmart managers have said they don't like it, but there's nothing they can do because their corporate says its ok.
RE: pictures of products on store shelves.
About 6-7 years ago, those were used for the 90-day test. Remember that? Two part test. .25 raise if you pass the written test, .25 raise if you count the pictures correctly in a certain amount of time.
I think RGIS took the word raise out of their vocabulary now, though.
I have been reading this blog off and on for some time now and thought that I would add my 2 cents worth. I worked for RGIS for about 3-4 years. I worked on two different Wal Mart teams and two different districts. I have seen many of the things that everyone else has seen. I have good and bad stories. I just wanted to add some humor. During my time at RGIS I heard several different versions of what RGIS stood for and here they are:
Reasonable Guessing Is Sufficient
Rational Guessing Is Sufficient
Really Gross Insults and Sex
Really Gross Insults about Sex
Hopefuuly, I made someone laugh or smile.
it's been so long, but I'm pretty sure when I started they actually had a class at the office where you practiced using the "audit" so at least you didn't get tossed right into the fray.
And once you were in a store, you had the team buddy to help you if you needed it.And I remember getting a raise when I got to be team buddy!
Sad to see that the job sucks more now than it did way back when.
There's NOTHING fun (or interesting!) about counting cans of soup at 3 am, but we had a good time anyway. None of this bonus crap--if you were decent, you got hours. And at least an attempt was made to be accurate...although I do remember doing some batching!
No K key at training? Auto-scan newbies? They "don't want any auditors, everyone must move up" but yet new hires are going to be stuck never making aph because they'll be stuck auto-scanning for life? Dumb. And yeah, great, make the newbs go to a grey shirt and have them fix whatever the newb screwed up...awesome, now the grey shirt won't make aph which means the whole store won't, which means no bonus. Even though it's a sham system anyway.
Hey, Blackstone, please sell this company to owners that actually want to be in the inventory business. It's obvious you just want to bleed the company dry and sell it, and you don't care if we keep accounts, which we won't be if we continue these shady aph practices.
rgis will hire anyone off the street. takes no special skills. "so easy a monkey could do it" that's all we are....monkeys. i work there because there is no work. i'll be leaving in jan or feb....after two years of bullshit....just in time for their annual hiring of the morons...they hire like 50 people and two weeks later there's maybe two left.
there are no more "team buddies" just team assholes(team leaders lol) and they don't help because they can't be bothered by someone trying to hamper their aph. i was hired immediately on the spot two years ago as long as i passed the counting test( who can't) and was immediately put into a store with no training...fun! and btw they will hire anyone. currently we even have a sex offender working in our district and several others in other districts. we used to have a lot of them.
Did RGIS ever try going after you legally? I ask because I am planning a similar blog about working for a different company, but want to make sure my ass is covered as far as lawsuits go.
Anon: As far as I know, no.
Anon, yup I'm one of those team assholes (team leader) as you called us. Let me educate you as to why we balk at helping. First of all, I for one took a 4.75 an hour cut in pay. The office schedules people in my stores. I have no say in who they put in there. Then, while running a store, I get 50 calls from my AM wanting to know what we are averaging now. Nothing to do with bonuses. Most accounts are not on the bonus program. It is all about their top 600 stores and whatever glory they get if we hit the average in a store. Gives us absolutely nothing but a major headache. And, if I am running a store, I'll be more than happy to answer a newbies questions. My average doesn't count in my stores.
But, in a manager run store where I am fighting the 'favoritism' factor as to what I am being given to count, then nope, don't stop me from counting. You see, anon, if I don't hit my average in a manager run store, then my pay rate might go down again when they refigure the pays every 7 weeks. And, to answer a few questions, my pay rate could suffer for 7 weeks and frankly, I've taken enough of a cut already. They hassle us about our store averages, travel, auto, 908 time, etc. etc. etc. Don't you get it? They have turned this into an 'each man for himself' company. No more team work or team players. Everyone is out for themselves. And, when I am running stores and I have too many topguns, I seriously cringe.
They refuse to count where you ask them, they give you attitude, etc. because they are all trying to protect their Aset ratings. At one time, team leaders got extra money. They took all that away.
We make a few extra bucks when we run a store, but we also get all the hassle from the managers and auditors. And...most times those few extra bucks are not even giving us what we made before these cuts. Just call us all very jaded assholes who took a major hit from this company. As far as newbies, they are only hiring for the Jan. Feb. rush. They have no intention of scheduling these people past then unless they are some family member of someone already working. They will be given the worst areas to count with little chance of moving up an ASET level and past Feb. they won't schedule anyone with an auditor rating. Team buddies are a thing of the past and frankly, I don't even know why they still maintain teams since they schedule by favoritism and ASET levels.
Here is what I would do if I ran RGIS. I would give out areas to count on a random basis (by lot?) so that everyone has an equal chance to count the good and awful areas. Perhaps topguns should be exempt, because they can presumably count quantity areas faster. But everyone else--auditors, specialists and experts should share the good and bad areas. That would be fair in my opinion. Everyone would be given a chance to advance or fall in ASET rank. Is this unrealistic? Also, at every big inventory, there should be one experienced auditor who should go around and help the poor and clueless newbies without sacrificing his or her aset rank. They would count when they got a chance, but it wouldn't hurt their rank.
to TL too, not saying i don't understand why the team leaders do it. not like it's your fault. i just don't like. i don't like most of what rgis people do. I don't help the newbs nor do i go to the team leaders for help(though now i rarely need help). i bug the person running the store and tell the newbs to do the same. and if the store sup has a problem with that i gladly offer to put my machine down and walk out the store. a couple times i have walked out. i already knew everything you said in your comment. remember i've been working here for two years. i refuse to become a team leader for those reasons. this company is so poorly run but it will never change because the job gets done. how is beyond me but it does no matter how shitty they treat us. and if we all quit it won't matter because they'll hire 50 to 100 more monkeys off the street
If the economy ever gets cooking again and jobs get created (Hi Obama), the company could be in trouble then.
That's when the quality people may leave. It's got so bad that I think a lot of loyalists may leave if quality jobs get created (again, Hi Obama).
And if (when) people start leaving, the customers would notice the quality/length of the counts.
They'll realize there are alternatives for their inventories (WIS, PICS). PICS is already gaining stores that RGIS used to do (Shoe Carnivals, Vitamin Shoppes, among others).
It's a lot of ifs, but not out of the realm of possibilities if you think about it.
rgis ever really drug test you?
there are no drug tests are background checks unless you are going into merchandising, the walmart team or the home depot team
what does merchandising invovle and whats the difference between a regular inventory count and walmart team?
Anon 8:56:
Walmart and Home Depot have dedicated RGIS crews in which they almost exclusively count just that store.
During blackout periods, the dedicated crews may help a local district.
In a regular district, you would go to probably 5-6 different stores per week.
Merchandising is a non-inventory type thing. It's more resetting a store's planogram, mapping a store according to planogram, putting a certain product in a store. There's probably a few other things as well.
I don't know if this would fall into the 'merchandising' category or not but sometimes I used to do the mystery shopper thing for RGIS. And one time I had to go to a Verizon store and photograph certain parts of the store.
Go Here
www.rgisovertime.com
All hiring is down over the Web now. Our office allows applicants one day a week to come in to use the Training PC to fill out the application and take the online evaluation test.
And yes you go to a store now to do training, this store is not under inventory just an agreement to go there and scan. Problem now in December is no one wants us there even at 7am because they are busy selling for Xmas.
Forget APH for the account, you now have to meet and beat your Calculated APH. The computer takes everyone that is punched into the TCA at the store and their current average and comes up with the "calculated" APH and that is now the number you have to beat.
If you are lucky and only have Auditors in a store that the P2 calls for a mix your Calculated APH may be lower then the account APH.
Every Team Leader is now rated on various things from protecting the 5, sales number, how better you did on your calculated APH, PIQA and more (don't have the printout with me).
Every TL is ranked across the company.
I just can't figure out the added roles. I'll do a store with 300,000 units and 30 people and it gets a Small Supervisor and then a store with 100,000 and 12 people and it has a Medium Supervisor adder role.
Thank goodness my APH is protected by the adder role.
oh new blog...
new higher standards yeah (with new and improved (calc standard)...i guess there are some people in the country still making a bonus. RGIS has to stop that at all cost. i am thinking next year will be my last year with this shit hole company. i will cause so much grief for rgis. i will work so slow they will have to drop my asset ranking. i will still work so slow they will stop scheduling me and i will collect unemployment. this is all because with some of these stupid standards they are basicly asking us to cheat (commit fraud).
misfit you can't be sued by rgis because you are telling the truth.
i only blame blackstone for this shit and the higher ups. i think managers and DM's can start getting raises agian. they are getting a bonus too...
i am going to get what i can from this shithole company, then abandon ship. then i will go to thier custumers and inform them of how we count, and help rgis ship sink a little faster.
rgis will never totally die any time soon because of poor counting. There are stores like wal-mart/target ect that need a large auditing service like WISC or RGIS...PICS has little interest in doing these large stores and does not have national coverage.
The economy has gotten so bad that many of the people that used to stick their noses up at a job at rgis are taking those jobs now. RGIS here the NE will have their pick of underemployed and unemployed people, and they know it. The bad treatment will only get worst from here. Miss one store, you're gone...Late for one store you're gone. if you don't kiss their ass the right way, guess what , no more stores for you! In my area they are already talking about how they are not gonna take crap from anybody!
Let this be a warning to everyone!
Come December 26th be ready to strap on your helmet, cause it's gonna be a tough year!
RGIS won't pay unemployment, they fight every case. They just have to say they offered you a job on Sunday night at 2am and you refused so YOU are the one that quit.
I remember that some people in my dist. would file for unemployment when the work would slow down dramatically, like around the holidays. I think they always received unemployment.
I've collected unemployment every year for about eight years.
And almost everyone I know in the district has collected.
Could depend on different rules in different states.
>>I think they always received unemployment.
Under the Nicolsons' without a doubt, they even told you to file for unemployment in December.
With Blackstone, they are fighting every claim in my office.
Just for laughs
Did a D.C. last sporting oods.
ou know how THEY say paybacks are a bitch? Well, for all the guys who have counted millions upon millions of panties and bras, you have gotten paid back! There were 15 to 18 of us counting straps and cups every single one of us. I did not know cups came in shapes, styles, colors let alone sizes (that makes sense). The inventory lasted approx. 5& 1/2 hrs. Don't know final quantity, but averaging @ only say 500aph that comes out to a minimum of 41,250 pcs.
Enjoy the chuckle.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
Ok, so i found this site as i was going to rgis.com to get rehired. I know, call me crazy, but apparently my district is great compared to some of the other stories i've read. Here is my story!
I am from virginia, and i love doing inventory. I got hired back in 2007 and i worked my way up to aam (associate area manager)in a years time. when i first started i was extremely pissed off about the break thing with rgis. no break until 4 or 5 hours and a meal at 8. though we were always asked to sign a waiver "because the store was almost finished." i also use to see our am sitting all day and going out side for smoke breaks. so i thought to myself, i love doing this job, so i want to be that person. so i finally got my big promotion and had to rely on one of my team leaders to train me for my job because i live over an hour from the office.
just for the record, i do not agree with rgis travel pay or break schedule. i think that it is bull shit and in humane. however, that being said, after becoming aam i understand why so much better. most stores that we inventory are contracted to be finished in a certain time period. if you are doing a three hour mall store then why do you need a break? it's not logical for everyone to go have a 10 minute break, which is going to turn into a 20 or 30, (it always does). you just added that time to your leaving time. as an am i always veiwed the store said to my self it's gonna take this long to complete and when i gave my pre instructions and i knew i wasn't going to be giving a break for that store, i would tell my team if they needed one, please take a quick one individually and get back to work. i rarely had a problem with people taking advantage of that.
so after some time away and working for a friends inventory company, i fell that i understand rgis a lot better. i do not agree with the new eaph pay scale because i was never taught to auto scan. i was always a faster keyer so i was always put in hardlines. so, now when we go to an auto scan store such as pennys, my aph is dragged way down because, i will admit, suck at auto scanning.
this career isn't for everyone. if you can stick through the rgis drama that every district has, you may find a job that you love. i wish everyone that has had an interview or going for one the best of luck.
just remember your dms and ams have a very stressfull job. they are trying to make inventories run smooth so that you still have a job as well as dealing wth the auditors.
On a side note dist 481 is great to work for. as i said there is drama but the dm is pretty understanding and the ams are great. they always helped my out whenever i had questions, even at 2 or 3 in the morning.
in responce to the below
Miss one store, you're gone...Late for one store you're gone. if you don't kiss their ass the right way, guess what , no more stores for you!
In my area they are already talking about how they are not gonna take crap from anybody!
---------------------------------
this only applies if you are new and can't count (i mean blow in numbers)...in my distict one TG (top gun) the over under is 45 mins late...other TG 5-10miniutes is standard. at least 1 no show (and up to 5) a month from a TG is standard. When a TG misses like 3+ then they start to take it seriously.
Perhaps it's time to begin introducing some thoughts on how we are going to get out of this mess.
The only difference between an expert and a top gun on a 6hr job is one extra hour. Now you've got management on one hand going faster,faster ; harder,harder ; like you aren't good enough and every day you have to prove yourself ... on the other hand you have all your buddies standin around starin at each other in fear and suspicion. Its like everyones waiting for it to dawn on them that WE together determine how much our paycheck will be ... not them. You think you might subtley encourage everyone to relax, have a good day at work, don't let them get you down, be happy for a change? You see the owners have used a strategy of divide and conquer and simply renamed it "performance" ... all we have to do is take the "divide" out of it, become one again, don't fall for the trick of thinking your coworker is out to cut your throat, they're not. And if you do outperform some of the others then this is your chance to show some true character ... back off and lend a hand to a newbie and don't let them scare you. Above all be subtle so as not to be targeted and let this thing unfold like its bound to, see the end from the beginning and know that to be of service to another is the highest thing one can do, not the lowest. Be in control and forgive your managers if they still are drinking the coolaid and you will in so doing dump fiery coals upon their head. This can only turn out one way ... its only a matter of time and how long we want to wait.
Don't know if this is a nationwide thing, or just local. But they got rid of the Big Box team in the Detroit area recently.
All merged into the two districts now (Detroit used to have four, but they merged two districts about a year ago), making two super districts.
It may be just a local thing, since there was lots of trouble with the Detroit Big Box team. Most of them because of the manager and no one from the support districts wanted to work with them.
They got rid of our Big Box District. Even moved a AM to another District so the Big Box DM could be an AM in our district.
fuck rgis haters if you don`t like this company get fuck out somewhere else. be thankful that at least you have a job nowdays...
If you don't like rgis ... then STAY where you are and work with others to change it. Sooner or later you have to stop running and turn around and plant your feet. RGIS is a service company therefore it belongs to us the servers ... if management doesn't like it then they can get the F out! :) besides rgis isn't a name, it's us. Now I'm gonna go own my district, have a nice day.
>> walk outs
I've only seen a few walk-outs on the first day -- most seem to stick it out at least 1 day. One left because he was offended, "there's no job in the world where you don't get a break every 3 hours" ... HAH HAH HAH.
TL too said >> I get 50 calls from my AM wanting to know what we are averaging now.
Back in October I was in a JEWELRY STORE (where most merchandise is handled by the store employees and you scan tags on the items they hold out in front of you) and the AM called asking about the APH -- WTF!
>> calculated APHs
Sounds like this calculated APH thing is yet another way to keep people down. Most of our stores are packed full of long-time top guns who are assigned the easy 'quick to count' (like precount sheets or stacked pallets) so they can maintain top gun status and thus there's really no way for anyone counting regular shelving to improve.
rectal counter said >> Miss one store, you're gone... Late for one store you're gone [---] this only applies if you can't count...
Sounds like my district as well.
-- to new guys --
If your attendance is good they won't fire you no matter how slow you are -- they simply won't assign you to many stores.
It takes a lot to get 'fired' from RGIS. Last person who got fired from my district was doing a 'Wal-Mart Cost', snuck a 4-pack of 24oz beers on the van, and was through 2 1/2 of em when he got to the first store. Store manager noticed how drunk he was before the RGIS manager did -- the guy was fired for this incident (he had other problems too .. twice he'd gotten locked out of stores because he snuck out for a quick smoke)
Our district is also rather 'forgiving'. One team leader 'rage-quit' and simply vanished .. not showing up for the inventory he was supposed to run.
6 months later he was re-hired.
being thankful is not the same thing as sitting down and shutting up.
If you don't like the RGIS hater blog, don't read it, you tool...
in response to this guy...
"fuck rgis haters if you don`t like this company get fuck out somewhere else. be thankful that at least you have a job nowdays..."
Tue Dec 29, 08:51:00 PM 2009
-----------------------------------
i wonder in what position in rgis you would have to be to post a message like this? Regional manager or above? an uneducated auditor? a "pet top gun"...i am really curious at what position and how long you have been with the company to post such rubish?
ok now to a more important post.
really i am fed up with rgis and i don't give two shits if i lose my job or not. i have enough money to last me 4 years without a job.
i think we should start talking about starting a UNION. i am not a big fan of unions. but in this case i think it would be a pretty good fit.
rgis can't ship these jobs overseas. i don't want to be part of union that demands like $24 an hour. i just want to be part of a union that forces rgis to pay a decent wage for the area. where pay actually can go up and never goes down. i want the employees at rgis and the managment and owners all to do well.
i also don't want to be part of a union that pays union bosses 100's of thousands to run the union.
if there is alot of interest in the idea let me know i will start researching the idea. i might talk to some local unions on how to start one. i am not afraid to lose my job because i have enough money to last me for years. i am talanted enough, i believe, to get another job anyway.
if this idea gets a little steam, i would like to start with people that have been at rgis at least 6month maybe a year.
if the idea does get alot of steam i might bring it to rgis upper levels to notify them that if they don't start paying people a little more fairly. they will be paying alot more later on.
LET ME KNOW YOUR IDEAS GUYS AND IF YOU LIKE THE IDEA...
i would love to be part of developing a union and it would be great if we could get someone to represent each district.
am i crazy?
Me again (last post began '>> walk outs')
Just had a meeting where they talked about calculated APHs. In a way it's not bad -- they finally realized 'kicking out all people counting too slow' wasn't necessarily the best idea. Instead they're kicking out people who aren't counting as fast as their ASET rating says they should (i.e. Auditor counting 650APH in a store where auditors are ranked at 600 stays ... Top Gun counting at 800APH when ranked at 1000 leaves).
I'm not really against that policy .. the numbers make sense. It also means you won't have quite so many top guns packed into stores in the first place.
But implementing this requires the inventory manager to do so much micromanaging that in the end I think this will be deemed impractical.
On top of this they want inventory managers to count more.
--
Other policy change. They've started posting the customer review PIQA forms in our office - publicly and in full on a bulletin board (store names, numbers, guy running it, etc.)
Doesn't this go against management policy of doing 'public reprimands' against people who's stores get bad PIQAs? It sounds awfully fishy and unprofessional.
Rectal counter, I am not a fan of unions either. But, in the case of this company, and its DM's, Am's, etc. who operate only on a favoritism basis, I would be 100 percent for it. If anything, a union does protect the employees.
Right now, we operate solely on the whim of idiot dm's sitting in offices, making decisions about our ability to earn a living, based solely on who they happen to like this week. In our district,
the dm looks at the store designations, that is to say small, medium and large stores. He schedules favorites who are not necessarily capable of running those stores to supervise them because they will get more money, then he sends a manager in to hold their hand because he doesn't trust them to run the store. The very capable people are left to the smaller stores or to sink or swim on their own. With a union, the dm would be held accountable as to why he schedules people who have a history of not showing up and his dependable people with the same ASET level are not working.
And as anonymous with the post after you states about posting PIQA's for public scrutiny is not exactly kosher in most companies, this would not be allowed to happen with a union either. We have people in our district who refuse to wear their badges with a colored clip. They still use the clear clips. Their logic and in my opinion they have a point: an employee's rate of pay is and has always been in any other company, a private matter between them and the company. The clips announce to people what you are getting paid per hour. I run a lot of stores. I don't need to see a clip to position my people. Their aset levels are all listed on my cover sheets. So, maybe wearing the clips does go against what should be considered private personnel issues as does posting PIQA's. These are issues a union would certainly address as they would their very bogus bonus program, their bogus breaks and lunch breaks, etc. I think you may be right. The time may have come for the employees to take a stand. This company can not operate without its people out there doing the actual work. And where in the world, in any company, have you seen them readjusting your pay rate every 7 weeks, based on what you counted when they decide what you count.
Just heard that PICS has taken a $35,000-40,000 account away from RGIS.
Have also heard a couple operations managers were fired.
Eventually they are going to another inventory company, after they finish their non-compete status.
They keep firing people/letting managers go, it will eventually bite RGIS in the ass.
PICS seems to be picking up a lot of former RGIS-ers once their NCs are up (former head honcho Al Anthony for one, according to the PICS site). What better way to build up a new inventory company than to cherry-pick the former top talent of the big dog? PICS may not be looking to go head-to-head with RGIS, but they seem to have a good plan for growing into a major second-tier player.
in responce to this...
"Just heard that PICS has taken a $35,000-40,000 account away from RGIS."
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35-40k account is not that big...for a local region it might be but not as a whole...
i also know in parts of florida rgis took back advanced autos from PICS by under bidding PICS
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I would like to see a union that establishes just certain minimums in wages(travel wages)...and certain percentage of employees have to get wage increases based on hours worked. like evrey 1000hrs worked min 0.25 raise...maybe cap it at a 1.00....the company has to stay competive...its not unlimited money...(might be higher in some cities)
as to a union controling a DM...someone has to decide who going to do what. a union can make rules that family members cant do (xyz). but as to who does what that is probably going to be decided by the company. a union is going to be for establish wages and can include protecting worker safety and privacy...
the AM's where i work bring friends/girlfriends and family into rgis too, they hardly ever come before me since my AM's DM's know there will be hell to pay. i am at the top of the pecking order in my district, but i have to be rude to be there. i would rather be nice and alot more people benafit. i admit i cherry pick alot since that is what the system in place rewards. and i will bust out my rectal counting skill if needed.
I have been reading some of the posts and comments but honestly none of it phases me I am going to apply any ways. I am the typical poor college student so shitty jobs are the norm.
If you need money and they will hire you on the spot don't second guess it take it. If you could do better chances are the thought of applying to something like this would have never crossed your mind.
Just my 2cents.
How long after you submit the application do you get a callback?
Anon: Regarding the callback: I worked for RGIS enough years ago to have filled out an application in person at the local district office. Immediately after filling out the application (including taking the retarded counting tests) I was given the date and time for the next orientation. I'm not sure how it works now, what with most people filling out applications online. Can anyone else give an estimate?
Re: call backs from applications.
It probably depends how busy the district is right now. And given the time of year, most are probably fairly busy.
The training person is fairly limited in their hours, so sometimes it can take a week or so to call people for a training session.
A thought just crossed my mind recently while starting a store.
RGIS is so big on effiency in terms of counting (top guns in top gun areas, etc, etc).
Except some of their procedures are so inefficient. Example: having to boot up the RMs before being able to initialize them and download them for the store.
Some programs also make you run a complete range check (even though you have the F9 screen that gives you the percentage of store complete.
Just some observations.
RGIS has an extremely high turnover rate. it doesn't matter how many dm's or am's or managers or supervisors they fire there is always someone else in line. it hasn't bit them in the ass yet. as far as pics taking accounts away from us it is only because they underbid us. and trust me the companies are regretting it. pics got riteaid last year. the first inventory of the year they busted people for stealing wallets from the employees and stuff off the shelves. and guess what riteaid is stuck with pics because they signed a year contract. rgis may treat it's employees like shit but it is the best inventory company out there and it is getting better...how?...i have no idea...but it is and it drives me nuts.
PICS undercuts RGIS...RGIS undercuts WIS...WIS undercuts RGIS...it's how the game is played apparently. If PICS is smart they'll crack down on such problems...a new company trying to grow in a competitive market doesn't need to get a bad reputation...if they want to stay in business, that is.
Anon 12:51:
Not all of the accounts RGIS has lost to PICS is because of lowest bid.
The $35,000-40,000 account I mentioned earlier was lost because RGIS management screwed up.
They have also taken over several Vitamin Shoppes, due to poor RGIS counting and management.
There are others too.
----------------------------------
Anon 9:47:
Very true about each company undercutting the other. But at some point, there is a drop dead number that no one will go below because they would lose money.
Also, RGIS and WIS have both had their share of employees stealing. It's not exclusive to PICS. That's what you get when you don't require much education or skills to work for you.
dammit! i got an interview tommorrow at 9am.i'm seriously contemplating this.
the only thing i really don't seem to like is the traveling.
i applied on the 5th (of jan) and got the ok on the 6th. yeah i know. their desperate.
but this can't be any more worse than working as a loader for UPS!
fuck UPS!!
also does anyone know what is the starting pay? as of recent of course. thanks in advance
Starting pay really depends on the district.
$8.25 in the one I left a couple months ago.
There are only four pay grades, based on ASET level. Auditor: $8.25, Specialist: $9, Expert: $9.75, Top Gun: $11.25. (At least I think that's what the specialist and expert make).
Ok so they just raised standards across the board for no apparent reason ... just because ... and because they said so ... so we make less and less while the economy tanks and they go laughin all the way to the bank. Well I'll tell ya what ... I'm gonna overlook alot of this, they couldn't do this unless we were so blessed, they have to take it from someone apparently besides the customer, and they have found their answer ... take it from your own. Well OK, I understand that ... but what shall I do? First, do nothing (for the Tao Te Ching says "there is nothing to be done")for herein lies peace and I don't want to give that up. Secondly, I think I will dedicate myself to not believing in ANY of their words or propaganda, and I will keep this to myself ... I may have to hide it at times but all of their programs have but one aim ... to destroy me and my service and make me a slave ... Thirdly i will wait ... wait for others to recognize the same thing, pray for destruction of this evil, pray God just take it away, just take it away according to Your will ... my heart will cry out "Father, let not your servant be made ashamed ... let him be not cast aside in poverty and greif ... but raise him up and multiply him, for he is a servant like your only begotten son and is your son in the world. Through service he has chosen to be not of the world as you directed in your word. Look upon your servants and have favor and take pleasure in them for they have continued in faith and service to their brothers who have exploited and cheapened them. Your sons have not risen up in anger but have pushed forward in faith ... leave them not now at the turning point but illuminate them ... let this be their finest hour ... let them be raised up in your sight. This is my prayer father for all my maroon shirts. So be it Father in the name of christ, so let it be.
I have been working for RGIS for nearly 4 months now. I work for the Houston district 186 (I think thats the right number lol) and am now a specialist and am in the process of becoming a "Grey-Shirt" AKA Team-Leader. Honestly I have a lot of fun at my job. Yeah the hours suck and the people are crazy. Some of them are so stupid I doubt they could have passed elementary school! But still, I have fun trying to beat my friend's APH and making fun of all the idiots I work with. I don't think I could do this job alone though. Without my friend, I would probably go insane. Oh, and by the way; I love this site!
this really is bullshit.
their was about 5 people at the interview site including me.
guess how much is the starting wage for an auditor?
8 fucking dollars!
Specialists get 8.50
and Experts get 9.00
It was funny though. as soon as she said this isn't a consistent job and in some weeks you'll only get 10 hours everybody said "HMPH!" like all disturbed and shit. lol
of course everyone stayed for the application. its real rought out here. I'll make it out soon enought with this other job I'm interviewing for.
POPGUN THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!!! Especially praying for their destruction!!!!!!
Have heard that RGIS almost lost the CVS account last summer.
But executive vice president Dan Sheffield was playing golf with a CVS exec. And Sheffield lowered the rate VERY dramatically to keep it.
Could be an interesting year for RGIS. There's at least four lawsuits that could hit trial status.
And Walgreens and Dollar Tree contracts (among others) are up.
Our district has missed 4 out of 6 stores this week and its only Tuesday. We're almost always green, but since they raised the APH goals for 2010 we're going red by just a little. It's like they have scientifically set the levels. Anyway alot of our topguns are pissed ... they're just giving up and saying,"If they're not gonna pay us, then we're gonna sandbag their ass!"
So we were all sitting around today laughing at the AM cause she got a call from the DM who was all pissed, she actually got a nose bleed!, he wasn't pissed that they had raised the APH's, he was pissed that we didn't make the new ones, so you know whose side he's on... we'll sit here all day if you want, ... and the management made it so nobody helps the new guys, so we're like fuck em they'll get dropped anyway ... this is our shit district, why should I show them how to do anything or whats goin on. A small group of us got together last week and tied one on and it came up. Who put the marching band in charge of the company?lol We know how to party and managers can suck it.
Averages, averages!! The new aph calc. in stores is wonderful, isn't it? First, you have the account aph. Then of course, you have the aph by aset level in the job aides. Then you have the aph calc. as interim which tells you what you need to hit once you transmit your TCA by the aset levels you have in the store. Then, you have your post inventory aph calc. which is different again, because if you assign adder roles, the average you need to hit goes up. So, if you assign a prowler adder role, that person gets more per hour, and everyone else in the store needs to count more so that the prowler can get paid. Then, of course, you have the bonuses. If you look at the aph calc. and potential bonus, it is higher without the adder roles. you give out the adder roles and the bonus for everyone else in the store goes down. So, everyone counting their butts off is paying the prowler for his adder role by taking a reduced bonus. Nice system, isn't it. The shmucks are paying for the adders and this company is paying nothing. And, in a non bonus store, you need to average higher with adders, so they can profit a little higher to pay for the role.
And speaking of the aph, I ran a store last week. The account rep set it at 825 an hour in order to be green. The job aide set the experts at 750 an hour. We had 3 experts and the aph calculator set the average needed in order to go green at 940. What kind of math is that exactly? 3 people expected to count 750 each, are expected to hit 940 as a group. What a bogus, idiotic system. Can you understand why stores are not hitting the mark? The calculations don't make any sense.
we are missing the new calc's right and left here too. we use to stack stores with Top guns and barely make the number in some. so rgis raises these numbers by 200pcs. we put in a lesser crew and guess what? slash inventory staffing to bare minimum. we barely make the old standard with the lessser crew.
bonus? i doubt i will see a penny of bonus money this year with the new calc's that are on steroids. maybe dollar tree or target in a slow week
well i got to go and miss another standard in a store by 200, no 300pcs
i am just going to slow down and and fall from top gun down to auditor down to unemployment.
Speaking of APH Calc.
TLs watch your TCAs. If you inadvertently violate and it doesn't show on the discrepancies, after you transmit to HQ., the violation will show up and the APH Calc. will rise because you just had to pay violation pay to our auditors AND YOU HAVE NOT MADE GREEN AGAIN!!!!!
Bonus is BS I just worked a week of doubles and not a single bonus account.
We're missing our Calc APH in almost every store AND our Calc APH is LOWER then the Account APH.
I asked the AM if the account APH is 700 and my Calc APH 635, I just have to hit the 635? Right? Yeah Right, nope you have to hit the higher number. So it seems my management is already SCHEDULING ME TO FAIL.
Big push is over for me, I have a Saturday off the district is only doing one store this Saturday, my team isn't in it (double Sunday though).
So, last night I had a Lane Bryant. Not only was the store manager a dick to us and his employees, he is a flaming homo(not that I have a problem with gay people), and get this, his name is Mary.
So I had to count a table of panties...there were 796 panties on that table, all under 1 area ticket! Later on that night, while the store is doing its recounts, Mr. Mary gets all up in my team leaders face and says," You need to get your act together! This is ridiculous! this table is 300 items off! Your company needs to get rid of whoever counted this table and bring me someone who's not a complete idiot." It was my table, and i thought to myself...Bullshit! I can't be 300 pieces off. So I re-scanned the whole area. Guess what. I got the exact same number, so my team leader counted it after I did and she got the same number that I did.
So Mr. Mary counted it again with one of his employees, and once again they said I was off by over 200. So my team leader got a bucket and said "Watch me while I count." and proceeded to take each of the panties off the table one by one and count them as she tossed them in the bucket.
End total...798! I was a whole 2 panties off NOT 300!!! He then said "Oh well." THATS ALL! No sorry, no I was wrong no nothing. Ugh! What a dick!
In my district, the pay grades are:
Auditor: $8.50/hr
Specialist: $9.50/hr
Expert: $10/hr
Top Gun: $11.50/hr
I just started with RGIS recently (recent college grad and job market sucks) and I haven't made the target APH ONCE yet because they keep putting me in the slow to count areas like backroom counting a huge box full of mismatched tiny bullshit trinkets (it took me over an hour to do one box ffs) and I had the AM down my throat the whole time.
Ann Taylor Loft last night.
I love them. They are always in order and do their countbacks right behind us --no delays.
HOWEVER, the great minds have decided to do what they call recounts, but are actually precounts. One person (preferably the TL) to go ahead of the crew counting pieces only on a recount programmed RM. Not counting inventory pieces for a green store is ridiculous. Only way to circumvent is to do it after it is verified by store associates whichi takes about 10 minutes and the discrepancy report wil show no variances. After that, you report the time on the 908, not on the TCA, and you're green.
they raised the numbers in all the districts including ours. but we've had no problem meeting them. they are actually considering raising them again because of that. meeting them at that point? eh i don't know.
Big Brother is watching you.
At least FSC is now telling you that you are being recorded{you always have been)and you are consenting to this.
Can someone please tell me what the required driving radius is in your district? The radius here in my district in N.E. Ohio is 50 miles. The other day that was 35 miles one way and 70 miles round trip! And i get no travel pay or gas allowance! Are you kidding me? And now they want me to be a driver, even after i told them that i do not want to be a driver!
Twice i've showed up at the meet-site only to be told that i would have to drive people to the store. Each time i refused. When did it become my responsibility to get their people to their work sites? Having to drive 70 miles round trip to work for 3 hours as i did the other day to do a TSC store ain't gonna cut it! They only pay me $8.00 an hour. It seems to me they want your car more than they want you!
dist 357 in order for a store to be considered travel you will have to have traveled a total of 70 miles. that is 35 miles one way. also if you are not put on the schedule as a personal driver you CAN refuse without negative repercusion. Just simply say you don't have the gas. there is nothing they can do about it. you also have to be approved(at least here) by the district to be a personal driver(ie dmv record check) we rarely use personal drivers because our city was provided a 12 passenger van.
in addition if i am a personal driver i get paid mileage and travel pay. mileage pay sucks but by law they are required to do so....and i may be incorrect in saying this but i believe there is a lawsuit againt rgis right now regarding this matter
Driving radius is an hour one way. Yes, complete nonsense. Fortunately, I have a better paid spouse who allows me to refuse jobs that will cost so much in gas that it isn't worth it to attend.
Just driving to the office and back (50 miles) costs me almost $5. So I don't work on the other side of the office too often anymore. And when I do, it snows, so my 45 minute ride home turns into a 90 minute ride. @(*$
anonymous carpooler:
You sound like a new person that`s being typically exploited by RGIS.You might consider parking out of sight near the meet site and telling anyone who asks about your car that you were dropped off.After a few times, the management will probably move on and find another victim to exploit.Read my comment in the June 2007 post for more about what I think of RGIS carpools.
i came across Sales Executive ad on career builder.com for RGIS
under core values it says
12/22/2009 it was dated
1. Honesty, Integrity & Loyalty - All our decisions must be based on these three values
2. Teamwork – Community Before self
3. Partnership – Win When Our Clients Are Successful
4. Innovation – Healthy Dissatisfaction With The Status Quo
5. Positive Presence – Our Attitude Towards Our Stakeholders
6. Passion – For Everything We Do
LET ME TRANSLATE WHAT THEY REALLY MEAN.
1 just a joke we mean the opposite.
2 just a joke again we mean the oppisite. Do whatever you have too to get our number.
3 screw the custumer get as much money as you can.
4 anyway you can make an extra dollar, do it.
5 kiss ass
6 evreything = money
i love the loyalty part. Is there anyone in all of rgis that thinks rgis is loyal to anyone?
They should get sued for printing such lies. Actually i just got a postcard from the lawyers of the major lawsuit they want me to contact them. :-)
We cut your pay ($4 an hour base, I don't work without an adder role now) but don't worry the BONUS PROGRAM will make up the difference.
Yah Right!!
Entire month of January I have yet to work a bonus store.
Still screaming at me to make Calculated APH without any incentive (bonus).
How can national accounts not be on the bonus program?
BS and more BS
This is my first time on here. I read through alot of the comments. I am employed through RGIS and have been for nearly four years. In they beginning, I loved the job. But now? After all the crap over the last two years?
I work on a traveling team. For some reason which I have never figured out, the "local teams" and the "traveling teams" don't get along. I don't know why, I was always glad when we had help to get our "super sized" stores done in a timely manner.
Anywho, the past year especially has been really bad. We all took pay cuts, some having been around long enough that their pay was cut more than half. Then RGIS has set up the counting average so that you cannot make a wage no matter how well you count. My counting borders between a specialist and expert and should be at expert but our managers have made it so we never have a good aph.
Last year I started counting in grocery, with a crew of three going from there to count some crappy areas in hardlines. Then after we would get those areas done, we were sent to softlines to autoscan the rest of the day.
My flow leader can count as a top gun, so why is she having to autoscan softlines when others, barely out of softlines get to stay in hardlines the rest of the day?
It all is a shady system so that nobody can advance and make more money. Unless you are a topgun (one of the protected, and only five allowed on our team) then your screwed. I'll mention briefly that you have to be good friends with the manager to be able to get a suitable aph.
All said and done. I have to keep this lousy job because so far I have been unable to find anything else. It's a great job for newbies and so far pays more than minimum wage. I wouldn't discourage anyone from starting this job, but I would suggest strongly that anyone who does, should keep looking for something better.
I have a question. Last year I was told that when we are traveling to a store from a designated meet site that we are supposed to get paid for it, to and from. If the travel time was less than an hour away we are supposed to be paid "in store wage". If the store is more than an hour away, we get minimum wage for travel time. I have also been informed that we are not paid for the first hour on the road to a store, which is the way it used to be. Does anybody know the truth?
Didn't RGIS get sued a couple years ago for not paying people for their time? If I'm in a company van going to and from work, I believe I should be getting paid something. Not giving away two hours of my time a day , especially when I show up at a designated time and place.
You are not paid for the first hour of travel in each direction.
I've been told "What job pays you to travel to work".
I've also seen on my pay stop Travel to Store 2.5 hours, travel from store .9 hours. Ok rush hour traffic to the store but come on now...
The old system of $0.10 a mile to sit in the car.
In any case as long as you make minimum wage (your state if higher then federal) over the total time (travel and in store hours) there is nothing you can do about it.
The payroll system automatically adjusts if you do a store under minimum wage. For example I've done a shoe store and I've seen on my pay stub a category "Min Wage Adj" for a total of $0.25 >G<.
In NY you have to be paid at least four hours at minimum wage per day if you work. Those two hour shoe stores at Team Leader Top Gun Supervisor Small Store (Adder) is not going to hit min wage in NY.
Heck maybe that is the "bonus" they are talking about.
Got my W2 yesterday in the mail.
BTW,
Tried to sign up on the web site they used the past two years this year and the link didn't work.
If you are traveling between stores in a multi-store run you get in-store wages if the trip is less than an hour.
well i notice that my area managers stop using adder roles, to get these new super calcs. so i did my normal 2k+ over the top gun average in grocery store. i receive no adder. the same night i was in another grocery store and i was counting 3k over the top gun average for 4 hours so since i had no adder role i just stop working. i could do nothing for 2 hours and still hit my goal. the team leader running the store after finding me walking around and talking. said to me "you have not been counting for almost an hour" i told him don't worry i am well over my APH and can not work for another 1.5 hours. since we were so short staffed since we go with bare bones crews now, he had no chioce but to keep me and hope i counted a little. if i worked with an adder role rgis would be paying me 13.00 x 5.5 hours total 71.50 rgis payed me 11.50 x 6.5 hours total 74.75. of coarse i got no lunch break as required by law. do any districts still give out lunch breaks? accept for large stores going 8-10+ hours?
as to travel pay...my dist. does not tell people what they will get payed to travel. they let people find that out on thier own...
as a teamleader i am going to start to talk to the custumers DM's and tell them they have to start requiring them to bring certain amount of people to a store in thier contract. to require rgis not to monitor thier employees for speed but for accuracy. i will start to suggest the custumers to go to smaller local inventory companies that care about accuracy. i am thinking of going to a local one myself. where they actualy pay you to travel. the work slow down does seem good. droping down to an expert is probablly best since you get the same to run stores. As the shit rains down i will continue to look to where i want to take cover. ok take care evreyone.
Better yet, rectal, call the different corporates. Being a team leader, you likely have some contact info that had been in procedures.
Keep a little black book of different things you've seen go on. And if you ever get fired, use it.
i aplogize for babbling so much on here but...i was looking into the union idea a bit, i found sites that said all i need to get from 30-65% of employees to sign a petition that they want to join a union. or hold a secret ballot election in some states. i figure if we can get enough people to either call in sick or strike on certain days of the month. we can put enought presure on rgis to back off on some of these new policies. if we all agree not to work on a certain day(s) rgis will not be able to fill thier commitment to custumers. if that does not work we can hold rallies on rgis custumers stores. imagine what the custumers would do if they had to deal with workers picketing in front of thier stores and its not thier employees...let me guys know if any of you out there think any of these are a good idea. i think i am going to try unionize my district whether there is national support or not. i think i would get good support my district.
Our PIQA scores have tanked, no wonder with everyone rushing to meet average accuracy has gone out the window so the Post Inventory Quality Audit (Strive for 5's) you going to get 3's out of 5's.
Didn't someone post that was going to happen?
I've also been told, NO ADDER Roles, that will raise your calculated APH, then in the next breath "of course if the team member actually performs the adder function..." blah blah.
Does anyone know anything about that aph report that comes out at the end of an inventory that has down time? How the hell can there be over an hour of downtime on a 3 hour inventory? We need to all strive NOT to get their ridiculous aph that they impose on us, and by the way is there a ceiling to how high it's gonna keep going? Let's not play their stupid ass games... they have no clue what goes on in these stores.
TL '86, I'm not now nor have I ever been a fan of the adder role.
The only exceptions are the adder roles that are non paying but protect the average of the person doing the job for that store. Examples would be: recounters, rx counters, and dump bin counters.
These are jobs that need to be done, will lower the person's APH, then would be held against them when they figure out payrates every 7 weeks. The only other adder roles should be store supervisor where you are taking on all the responsibility for performing the job. When you start getting into the other adder roles, you are creating monsters, increased calc. aph, major attitudes from those who don't get the role, etc. This company wants to make a certain percentage of profit in their stores no matter what kind of count the customer is getting. They figure the calc. aph to the profit they want. If you pay adder roles, then the aph increases so they can make the same profit by everyone counting faster, and less accurately of course. The same with bonuses as I have stated before. The minute you put in an adder role, everyone else's bonus decreases to pay the adder. But, in the end, it takes everyone in the store to get it done and not just the adder, yet we end up paying for the adder role. They have set up this system where each ASET level makes a certain amount of money. so, the faster counters, or topguns are getting paid more to begin with. Everyone's job is to count to their best ability. So, if you are a topgun, why do you need extra money to count more with an adder role when you are already making more money to begin with?
The other adder roles I would agree with are control desk operator and flow director. Again, these people could take a hit with averages, etc.
As far as prowler, super prowler, sweeper, etc., they increase the average, and do nothing else but promote 'legal' cherry picking, even more favoritism than ever before with who gets them, etc. etc. etc. The whole system is bogus and unfair to most of the people out there doing their very best and yet it is never enough.
I am fed up with this scheduling stores with the very least amount of people they can get away with, and always stressing that if you have just one 'no show' you are doomed in the store. They somehow feel that if you put 5 people in a store that needs 8, that you will definitely hit the average. Well, it isn't happening in our stores.
I applied for a job and got a call back the next day. I have an interview tomorrow. From what Ive read it doesnt look like I have anything to worry about.
Dead Horse
RE unions
Don't ever forget unions are not free. There are union dues. I once worked in a mega-store where the food side was union (in the days when Target was a new idea and Walmart was just starting). The retail side of the store was told they would also be part of the union-Teamsters has a reail division. There absolutely no benefits to be had for retail, yet food handlers were heard at union meetings. So do beware, things may have changed.
RE APH CALC
Just finished 2 Tilly's and went green on both. Only "trick" I used was clocking myself out at the same time as last auditor and the rest of my time (including hanging tickets at the beginning) is on a 908. Fortunately, DM is ok with 908 just as long as it's not abused. Oh BTW 2nd store was 1 person short. Everyone was counting above their ASET level, therefore they paid my adder role as I couldn't count S--T. I got lucky!!!!
RE that APH report at the end of the inventory.
IT IS NOT AT THE END. Consult it throughout the inventory. It will tell you where you are (if you have half a chance of making it). It will also fluctuate during the inventory-like after break. As soon as you make yourself a supervisor it goes up. Curious how much? Check the productivity before adding SS, then check it after. Last night it jumped almost 100 pcs.
Also adder roles. Yes, we have been told not to use them unless REALLY needed. They raise the APH Calc. because they cost more $$$$$.
RE PIQA scores
Yes they have "tanked". Always used to get 5s, now gettting more 4s.
RE Travel pay,etc.
Same in my district. So sorry.
TL Too
Couldn't agree more re: your assessment of adder roles.
Back to APH Calc. and down time. The down time is: all breathing, filling out the area ticket, moving from rack to rack, getting your pen from your pocket, etc.
Don't breathe, it takes too much time. Carry your pen in your mouth, it's closer. Scribble information on the area ticket, supervisor will have to figure it out. Run to the next rack, don't walk safely. Heaven forbid you have to scratch your your nose, too much noncounting activity.
Although this has been a long entry, I wanted to get it off my chest and maybe provide some help to others out there. All of you have helped me with "tricks" or whatever. I appreciate.
Good luck out there. All we can do is our best.
The APH Calc in the time menu (6 and 7) will change depending on hours work. I was beat and manually signed myself out at 1100 instead of 2300 so it took it as a sign in at 11am so I was in the store 9 hours instead of 3 and our Calc Aph went from 731 to 808 (everyone else was already signed out). BTW, account APH was 750, so you can see they are still scheduling me with staff UNDER the account APH but demanding I make the higher number.
@Jamie... As far as getting hired, you probably don't have anything to worry about. As far as surviving the job with your sanity intact, that's another matter.
You don't have to be insane to get a job here, they'll train you.
@Anon at 3:17... I don't carry my pen in my mouth, but I have it on a badge reel clipped to a buttonhole so that it is always readily at hand. But rather than go for the basic Office Depot badge clip, I ordered one from the Clarke County (Las Vegas) Coroner's gift shop with a toe tag logo.
The effect of the new standards is one of making everyone scared. Scared of this, scared of that ... oh it's so important isn't it that we behave like little lemmings running around in fear all day. Well I've determined to work as slow as I can without being detected and let the managers and grey shirts worry about "we have to make this store" or "we have to achieve that score", no honey, you have to pay me for my time like you've always done. You want to exploit me? then you've made for yourself an enemy, sorry to say for you. You want to make me think that my survival lies in competing with, rather than joining my coworkers? fine I say keep pissing everyone off and lets see who believes in your promotions and declarations of what we "have" to do. You're only decreasing your credibility with the employees and making a joke out of our local management team.
People put too much faith in enforcement. Whatever happened to trust? You want to count behind everything I do ... give the customers RM's and let them go around like "auditors for a day" and be all up in our business ... fine we can play that game ... if you wanna play cops and robbers then its up to you to catch the robbers, I have no conscience necessitated to provide you with what you enforce, for you give yourself the credit.
Labor's role has always been to "join with" management to serve the customer ... that is professionalism. Labor is not here to serve management!(gufaw) Let me say that again. I am here to serve my customer, that's MY customer dammit! ... as far as I'm concerned management can take a flying leap off a fishing pier backwards ... I'm not the one trying to bend the customer over a chair ... I'm not here to take advantage of them, YOU ARE, I provide a service for them while you exploit them ... its plain as day but people seem to have forgotten that ... we've been brainwashed into thinking we're here to exploit the customer ... bullshit I'm here to exploit RGIS ... they're the fools stupid enough to want to pay me for the priveledge of organizing my labor ... taking care of people is what I do naturally, it's what I've always done whether its customers, family, or etc. ... contrary to what many would have us feel or think, RGIS gets its power fundamentally from my willingness to let them represent my labor because I have decided to allow them to do so. cont....
cont. from above ... hehe...
Managers get up every day and put on someone else's shirt(read grey shirt)(or worse yet the corporate uniform of personal banality, the shirt and tie)... because they DON'T REPRESENT THEMSELVES ... they have sold out their own representation to the profit takers to make their living off of the corporate system itself. They thought this a wise thing to do ... to cast aside the right to represent themselves only. I think its a terrible mistake ... why would you give up the right to defend your own position in a cutthroat corporate capitalistic system for a little extra coin in your pocket? It will cost you ten times more in mental tension, ethical crises of conscience, and loss of respect from your peers whether they admit it or not. Why does everyone want to be the police? People police themselves singularly and corporately ... noone needs to wear a badge or take a formal position unless oppression is afoot.Then rather than honor your service they make it like you owe them a favor for allowing you to make them successful. Instead of thanking god for sending people willing to honor them and themselves through service to others, they instead look down and patroize you and treat you like children. They encourage infighting and dispute because it adds to their evidence of imaginary parenthood. Rather than deliver due course which is a legal right and clear things up properly and in the open, they withhold information and gossip amongst themselves to decide what the truth "really" is ... it is deplorable behavior, its politics, it's a lie, and they haven't the sense to be ashamed of themselves and they will give an account. meanwhile (back at the ranch)...
God bless the man who gets up every day only representing himself and only his own interests with only his own power. Anyone else who thought they could build a life based on the structure of corporate exploitation made a tremendous error. Power fundamentally resides with those who provide the service, not with those who hold the whip, for it is only the servant who decides how he will serve.
So it has come down to this lesson. Management is not a better class, just a different function, those who thought it would be an easy ride to the top on the backs of others were wrong. They NEED the everyman from whom they come. They're not going to be invited to the countryclub to play golf with the owners because owners don't care about those who do their bidding, only that they do it. Love, acceptance, forgiveness, and grace can only be gotten from the bottom up and it's to these that they always turn. It's to you that they always turn to see acceptance and belief in your eyes. They play a tough game but they're still human and because of this they will be wrent in two over these oppressive policies. It's really not our problem but theirs, they want you to think its yours but if you just step back you'll find a place of safety and a method of recourse. It's only they who are in a pickle. So forgive them and extend yourself to them to ensure your own survival ... play along but do not take part ... and when you punch the timeclock leave their madness behind for them to stew over ... for it is they who once decided to believe in false corporate power over true personal power.
TL Too and Rectal Counter:
From what I've heard they got rid of just about all 'adder roles' except Store Supervisor (and they've split that up into 3 levels depending on store size). They might still have bin-counter but the only place they did that (Dollar Tree) they've decided not to assign bin counters anymore.. you count your own bins.
I kinda agree with getting rid of things like prowler and sweeper adder roles because top guns and experts are ALREADY being given an advantage simply by being assigned to those roles... adding extra pay on top of that (while nice for the people assigned) is rather redundant. What they do now is simply legitimized cherry picking (they've said it flat out in some inventories ... top guns get to cherry pick to keep APHs up)
The rigid 4-tiered ASET system, however has had the disadvantage of locking one into a role with little opportunity to advance (only a way to fall back) because to advance you're caught in the vicious cycle of having to count at speeds which aren't really attainable because you're never assigned to anything which can be counted at expert or top gun speeds.
I think we've had two or three experts slip down to specialist in our District. I've never seen a new auditor go past specialist (unless they were already a top gun from another district) since they started this scheme.
anon from 1/28 at 8:14pm...
THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anon 1/28 at 8:14PM.....
Amen! That's what i'm talkin' bout. These so-called middle managers and am's, aam's and the like, they have all sold their soul's to the company store. They know the policies are wrong and stupid, but becuase of that coin, they choose to stay silent and watch the slow destruction of this company!
That posting might be the best of all-time. I had to read it twice. Everyone on this blog should read it.........you said it all!
i wish my PIQA scores droped, i usually alway get 5's. maybe a 4 on occasion.
i manipulate the manger into giving me a good PIQA. if i feel i am not going to get a good one. i dont let them fill it out. not to mention you can always fill it out yourself, noone is checking it. i don't care what the PIQA is it does not effect me or my pay.
paying me extra to walk around and count what i want does seems dumb but who am i to argue? now that i see my prowler roles drying up i count really fast still but then i slow up. as a prowler i had inncentive to count for the moon because i wanted to get the prowler role again. so i would count 11k-15k in pcs. but now i still do the 11k for 3-4 hours but i slow up to get my average down to the 7-8k of a top gun. one TG in my dist brags about counting 21k averages (he blows in shit wildly) he never gets an adder role since he will do it for free. so they can pay me the 1.50 extra an hour for 5 hours (7.50) or i will do nothing for an hour and they will pay me 11.50 for an hour. i use the idiot TG to hit my averages in stores. i get paid 14.00 for running the store he gets 11.50...if we switch roles i will just do what i am supposed too and he wont make the goal.
the only thing that will change rgis ways is lost of custumers/revunue. i will do my best to educate the custumer. i might quit and go to another inventory service (a local one) where they give you vacation pay, 401k's, travel pay ect. i think i can take some of the local custumers away from rgis since i can expose rgis way of counting and i have good relationships with them.
i am going to stop commenting on here a while, as i figure out what i will do i will report back my progress. (i might repeat what i wrote below)
basicly my advise to all at rgis slow down...if stores go 7 hours custumers are going to get mad. if you lose a little pay hourly you will make up for it the longer you are there and get a bit more...enjoy yourself...good luck to all
Rectal your gold man, I've read all your posts and I know that your not only a top counter but you look out for others. Much respect!
This is the best blog I have had the good fortune to have come upon. I was an inventory manager at WIS and you have inspired me to reflect upon my adventures in inventory as well. Your columns are beautifully written and I hope to live up to the stand you have set. Imagine, I've wasted the last six months of my blogging career musing about athletics, which is quite mundane when compared to your content.
Regards,
Superfun
Had lunch with a former co-worker today. They still work there. I don't.
Anyway, apparently there is a team leader in the local district that will go in to stores, not punch in, just because she wants to be around this guy she just started dating.
She's coming off a divorce and they have been dating for about a month. He's set to move in with her fairly soon.
She'll just count under someone's number that is fairly low.
Never did like this team leader that is working for free. Deciding whether I should send an anonymous email to RGIS corporate.
Thoughts?
Anyone get a "Law Suit Update". Just a form email asking you update contact info.
I checked the Grady Schneider web site and there hasn't been an update since early 2009.
http://www.grady-schneider.com/RGIS.htm
Haven't heard a whole lot lately, but I do believe they are scheduled to go to trial in the summer.
There's at least four lawsuits out there as well.
Tell ya what else might be a lawsuite ... I'm not shure its legal that a regular employee has to compete with members of the management team to get pieces for his payscale. I know its wrong ethically somehow but I don't know under what premise or principle it violates. Due process? I mean you've got regular employees working beside grey shirts who are gonna be runnin shifts tonight ... how are you gonna get pieces fairly ? how are you gonna say anything ?
well an inventory hater place. thank god. i have only been working for RGIS about four weeks now and i hate the damn place. i unfortunately knew what i was getting into having worked for WIS before, but for me i had no other job choice. its hard to find jobs in san diego. so far i haven't had any big problems yet ut i do have a problem with all the inter-office relationships and with the fact that there are three people who are siblings who are all TL's. only one of them deserves the postion the other two are so unreliable that its not even funny.
I also hate the fact that whe a TL has a bad day they think they can take it out on the auditors, leave your personal life at home, i do.
i went to the interview and didn't get called back. there was 4 other people besides me.
this must be a blessing.
Regarding the 'Wren, et al v. RGIS' lawsuit being handled by the Grady-Schneider law firm, it says at their website,
http://www.grady-schneider.com/RGIS.htm
"A trial previously set for February 1, 2010, has been rescheduled for August 30, 2010, in San Francisco, California. Please note that these dates may change per court order."
Another seven month delay! I sent the opt-in form back in April 2008. I hope the delay means that RGIS is exhausting their chances of winning the suit.
www.rgisovertime.com
has the 4-state lawsuit particulars - a nice read.
www.indeed.com/forum/job/inventory-associate/Lawsuit-Against-RGIS/t44677
is another fun read, which sadly states that the above lawsuit has been pushed back until August. Oh, well.
@ TL '86 - here in CT our daily minimum pay is 2 hours, down from the 3 it was when I started many years ago. The break was 15, now it's 10. lunch was 45, now it's 30. Starting wage was significantly higher than minimum wage, now it's about the same...
I was looking for a second job and decided to try RGIS because of the flexible hours. I was very upfront with the interviewer and told him that I work a 9-5 full time and am only available nights and weekends and he said that was fine. I was hired on the spot and they told me they would let me know about a training time. Weeks later, they finally got around to scheduling an evening training session. Unfortunately, I became very ill that day (102 degree fever ill) and called Gary, the HR guy to let him know I wouldn't be able to attend. I asked him if I could come to a different training session and he said they don't do them very often because they are very selective in who they hire (what a joke!) and don't get enough people together to train very often. I told him I would just call back in a week or so and see if they had set up a new session. He called me the next day and told me that he had rescheduled me to train the following Thursday in the morning. I explained to him (again) that I have a full time job and am not available during the day. He got very angry, told me that we couldn't keep going back and forth like this (last time I heard, needing to reschedule once isn't going back and forth) and that RGIS was "retracting our offer to employ you" and hung up on me. I've never been treated so unprofessionally in my life. If this is any indication of how they treat employees, I seriously dodged a bullet. I'm lucky enough to not need to be bothered with these people again, but for those of you who need the job, just beware of Gary in the Tarrytown office! He's got a screw loose.
Received this morning, which I read to say "show up early, get your equipment and paperwork on, and THEN we'll pay you" because if you ask ANY RGIS auditor, they will tell you RGIS doesn't give a pre-inventory meeting BEFORE everyone gets their equipment on.
"
ATTENTION ALL TEAM MEMBERS WHO WILL BE AT JC PENNEY ON THURSDAY
Please disregard this e-mail if you are NOT scheduled at JC Penney on Thursday of this week. It was just easier to send to our mailing list instead of having to input all of the addresses.
GENERAL NOTES FOR THURSDAY
ON TIME ARRIVAL IS EXPECTED. THAT MEANS IN THE BUILDING AND READY FOR THE PRE-INVENTORY BREIFING AT 6:00am.
[snip]
Rich Pearson
District Manager
District 355
"
For the legal record, I don't see this as something that is confidential.
Even better, we show up at the start time, sign in get equipment on but the store is not ready so they sign us out for 40 minutes.
How is that legal?
Should have walked out and got the 4 hours of minimum wage. WAIT, they probably would have deleted my TCA entry then to avoid that.
TL86, Why didn't you guys just start counting? I've been in plenty of stores where prep was pretty bad. But there's only been a couple of times where we stopped counting because of it.
Hell, there was even one time a store was robbed overnight before we got there. We had to wait for the cops to come (which took an hour) before we could get in and start.
We ended up still getting paid our regular rate (although most of it was on a 908).
TL 86, sign you out?? They can't do that legally. You were scheduled for a start time and you were there for that start time. If the store wasn't ready, they still have to pay you from your scheduled start time. They only signed you out because they would not have hit their almighty average with the added time and whoever did the PIV would have been in trouble also.
Anonymous who posted the letter from the DM: I only have one thing to say and that is that you have my complete sympathy with him for your DM. He was the topic of many of these blogs several years ago from his old district.
They didn't start because you can't just start counting when you want to ... the last person it's up to is the auditors ... you make it sound like they're stupid like why didn't you do this and why didn't you do that. There has got to be about nine layers of police wherever we go ... people who are totally involved in a heirarchy and now that RGIS is here its "My day to shine" ... so everybody's walking around all official and whoop-de-doo I'm better than you ... There's usually some bitch walking around in big healed shoes that make a big noise when she walks ... thats the one in charge ... thats the one who everyone she expects to kiss her ass all day and you know she will never be satisfied with it; the more you kiss her ass the more she will disrespect you and believe and treat you like you are beneath her ... sometimes there's a real fake laugh involved ... and always plenty of thinly veiled hatred disguised as love and acceptance with the BS smalltalk ... and all her minions respond cause it's inspection day. The whole thing usually lasts about 3 or 4 hours with everybody being as exacting as they can be ... recounts, procedure, fault finding, patronizing, walkin around with the heals "s-mack, s-mack, smack, s-mack" ... then something miraculous happens ... almost every time ... happened in JC Penny yesterday ... everyone gets tired of the bullshit including those doing it so the bullshit level drops ... and I mean noticably ... not as close watching, the employees may disappear altogether ...you call out, "sku check ... Skuuu Check !!! .. chek .. check .. eck .. k .. " nothing ... oh well its better than when they up your ass all morning "did you get this did you get that... yeah yeah ... bip bip bip bip ... little duckies all in a row ... marching, laughing , having a party while we work " then all of a sudden nothing ... its F'n weird dude ... people are really nutz ... if you think about it its economic fascism ... liitle fuckin' nazis for the dollar goose steppin around ... falling down over top of themselves to please the man ... god its so sick help me endure the debasement of people who pretend because their scared to death.
Then all of a sudden from the middle of a pack of maroon shirts someone will make some sound ... some kind of communication that isn't even part of english but everyone knows what they meant and upon which overseeing ahole it is directed at and everyone busts out laughing ... and the people around stare at the ground cause they don't understand ... they don't "get it" cause their not on this job in the best position in the world ... suddenly there is levity and peace and it has broken out in the midst of us ... so they split us all up , but now they can't keep track of us cause we're all over the place ... they get put in charge of us but we end up controlling them before the day is up ... it's like they call a truce and back off ... everyday its like this ... especially the big stores ... the little ones that we have our riff down eveyday like foodlion who thought they could own us, we now own, ditto for kroger and cvs ... they always behave now and our am's know the score ... they get to pretend to be in charge but they don't fuck with any one of us unless we offer one up cause they aint playin along ... etc etc ... god I love this job ... let me just say you always have recourse ... and anyone can run a business from the top down but tell me who can run a business from the bottom up bitches?
To Anony:
Early Crew to lay tix and do prelist. Store did not have prelist ready nor staff to follow in laying tix.
AM signed us all out after a minute. Procedure requires store to work one one one to lay tix (Certain east cost wholesale store).
Hi All, I just returned to RGIS after a 5 year state of Bliss. Now Im back in hell. Honestly Im not sure how I got hired back. When I left RGIS the first time it was during a Walmart. When break came around after being stuck in HBA, Pharmacy and most of the grocery(thats me with a team of 3 others, thats it!). I decided I had enough, convinced the others in my group that we should erase all the data in our machines and leave. Let me tell you, the phone calls I got from the District and Regional Managers were priceless!
Nothing really has changed with the "job", store prep is a joke, people wandering around, fucking "cherry pickers" everywhere(you know who you are).
Beware the scheduler that does all the scheduling over the phone. (Backwater districts where schedules are not emailed or printed on paper.) If they want to get you for any reason, they will tell you incorrect start times for the stores so you are late. If you can record the phone conversation and check with a coworker it would be smart.
Hi,
I actually work for RGIS in England and I have seen some absolutely ridiculous situations both here and across Europe!From reading this blog I can see that nothing ever changes but what I would like to know is if anybody wants to share their experiences of RGIS in Europe, I mean it would be an absolute wonder if anything positive came back but its got to be worth considering!
Oh and RGIS Italy really sucks!
Oh and guys, Don't even worry about ASET ratings, if the management like you then you are getting work.If you are female, then you are getting work.If you are female and the management like you you are getting HUGE wages (and probably other 'benefits' which I won't go into).At the end of the day yeah get fast enough to be scheduled but then hell, take it easy!They pay no attention to PPH's and the like anyway!The longer you are there, the more money you earn REGARDLESS of pay increases or decreases!If they don't care, why should we?
They should add some more to the lawsuit, or get another one started. -- Don't have proof (yet) but I've heard our DM has been 'doctoring' time sheet hours in order to make stores 'come in at the right APHs'.
For example: if a store took 3.2 hours with 1 hr travel with average APH of 800 and the store got 760 he'd tweak things so the store would take 3.0 hours (now with 1.2 hour travel time) and suddenly average APH is 811.
I'm gonna be keeping track of my hours to the minute.
I was really happy to find this blog. It really takes me back. I worked for RGIS for almost 17 years (1984 - 2000). I still cannot believe the things I witnessed during those years! SOme of it was really horrible, but thanks to my employment there, I was able to go to college, graduate school and now I work in oncology research for a NYC pharmaceutical company... so life can get better. I have to say, I miss doing the data entry, the mindlessness of the work and the (oh so) interesting characters I met while working there.
They hire on the spot which was a red flag for me to begin with. That told me the turnover is shocking.
I lasted 4 weeks at RGIS In Detroit. I Did everything I was told and gave them unlimited availability, always showed up early.
Here is how the game works and why you wont be there long as it is built into the process for most new hires.
Auditers are newbies and the team managers at the job site will assign newbies the most tedious inefficient slow count areas and kick you out the door to get you off their stats. You are expendable and after about 6 jobs, you show up on management's low productivity report. I explained my position and the DM replied "well they aren't suppose to do that". Well, they 100% do and the team managers at the job site dont care if what they assign you kills your ratings or get you fired, that is how they roll.
I got an email that told me I was dropped due to productivity reasons. Really? Gee, wonder why? Can we talk about it? (no replies)
Some people get the luck of the draw and get enough gravy jobs to make their averages go up.
No manager wants to discuss it, or will return your calls and emails. They just email fire you. There is no evaluation process like they say.
If you need money for 4 weeks, do it. Follow the Cherry pickers who chase easy racks and walk past hard ones to build ratings. If you get stuck on crap areas, you wont be able to do anything about it.
Detroit Auburn Hills RGIS is run so poorly and managed by the most inexperienced managers I have ever seen in Corporate America. They can't even schedule a dozen people correctly. I use to schedule 125 in a restaurant near flawlessly!
They know how to keep their job and hit their numbers --its called sacrificing newbies.
From my point of view how about when they forget to schedule an auditor for the crap job. Think of an office supply store where it is all multi qty except software.
They schedule only Top Guns and Experts, who is going to count the Auto One Software?
Everyone in the inventory refused to count it, "send me home" was the cry.
Who ever had the adder role of Store Supervisor ends up counting it since that average is protected.
Well RGIS great applications of resources, you have the store supervisor counting in a specific head down area and not supervising.
What consultant firm got thousands of dollars to come up with this ASS-ET thing??
I want to work for them.
Anon 1:03:
I'm assuming you were at the D1 office, which is based in the world headquarters. That DM is very bad. The other district in Detroit is much better.
And don't get me started on the former Big Box AM who got the Big Box district closed because no one wanted to work with her, except her 10 or so pets.
There actually used to be four districts in the Detroit metro area. Now, it's down to two.
At one time, not long ago, there were at least 10 districts in lower peninsula Michigan (11 if you count Toledo).
Rumors persist that a district will be cut soon. That would be bring the district count to five (six if you count Toledo).
And with that, they also expanded the range in which they do office meets/pay travel. Has to be more than 30 miles now, instead of 20.
I don't know about you guys, but 60 miles roundtrip is a bit much for $9-11/hour.
The DMs and AMs have to stand up and tell the truth about aset ranking. Higher management won't listen to redshirts or greyshirts, but they might pay attention to the DMs and AMs. The fundamental flaw is that some people are consistantly put in rotten areas that slow them down, and others are assigned choice, easy to count areas. This is grossly unfair and makes the ranking system a farce. The system perpetuates itself, because the low rankers always get the rotten areas, and the so called "top guns" always get the gravy. So comparing "topgun" productivity to lower rank productivity is like comparing apples to oranges--the areas they count are not equal in any sense. It stinks and is grossly unfair. It seems like grounds for a lawsuit, especially if hours are cut because of it. I hear this complaint constantly from lots of auditors. I am a greyshirt and even some of the AMs admit the unfairness. The DMs need to stand up as well and tell management to design a fairer system for ranking people.
Anonymous 3-4:
It`s not only newbies. A lot of experienced good auditors were run off in a similar manner.They were given the crap areas on purpose to lower their productivity and justify huge pay cuts,which ultimately drove them away.
Also, there`s been some newbies, usually friends and relatives of management,that have thrived in this system, a few even undeservedly becoming managers,too.(This is just another reason why your and my district are run by incompetents.) The explanation is because these newbies either they were coddled by their management cronies and given the good stuff to count from the very beginning, or they were tipped off and told what areas they could batch or even slam in wrong skus with no fear of being even observed, never mind caught,by the store, or RGIS, for that matter.I did a store recently where I had to count virtually all the 100% printout store audit areas--mostly an auto quantity slog-- while the newhire brother of a DM and a few other auditors with questionable ethics got to count all the multiple areas with impunity--no store audits.
anon on mar 4, you are very wise. It is their loss and they are a complete joke of a company.
scheduling has been a huge problem in Detroit for years. Some people get lots of hours, some get almost none, doesn't matter what your avialability or APH is.
Some of the managers and TLs are okay. The big problem with Detroit is that they moved the home office to FSC, so the managers there have to "tow the line" on procedures, or look like they are. The big inventories almost always have FSC spies.
Another problem is teh Big Box crew. They were "disbanded" but they still work together and treat everyone else like "the help." And "the help" gets to do all the APH killing areas.
Nobody wants to do stores with the "big box crew" now. Big sruprise.
If accuracy was their primary concern then they would base your pay on it. No!, "Accuracy is our primary concern" is our prmary slogan. It's JUST a slogan ... and you can vet if something goes wrong they'll be looking for a scapegoat. On any level ... thats why a company like this needs a constant, fresh stream of newbies because they always need someone to put the blame on. They don't take responsibility for the organization or its unsustainability. They are leeches of society, and they weren't made that way, they chose to be that way. One day they will only have each other to feed off of ... then it will really get ugly.
Years ago under the Nicholson's I heard a quote that we have 30,000 hourly employees but issue 98,000 W2's.
Now that is TURNOVER!!
Some thoughts on Rgis:
How long can a company with no morals or ethics survive?
It is quite amazing how fast they can turn you.
Remember when they hire you they only plan to use you for a few stores where they need a large warm-body count. (large stores)
Like in situations where they tell the customers they will be bringing in 125 trained counters. This is to trick the customers. After those stores are done, they don'y need you anymore.You were hired like an extra in RGIS's movie production "Rgis does J.C. Penney"
The actual RGIS slogan is "Accuracy is (your-Mr.Customer's) Primary Concern.....not ours! We are all about stealing your money and doing as little as possible, as quick as possible!How do we do it? We have an army of DM's and AM's that do our bidding for us for very little coin and not much else. The have no morals, no ethics and a inflated sense of themselves....they are perfect for us.
If you don't kiss butt and suck up you'll never make it past 4 weeks in this company. If you have to drive 300 miles in one week to get to five "local" stores, do it, without question, and then ask for more. Now that's good ass kissing. Also to be an excellent ass-kisser do it right out in the open, in front of everybody. Don't slip back to the back room after the inventory has started to smack ass...Nope do it right there in front God and country....That will get their attention!
The whole Aph system was a stroke of genius. What a great system to be used to not only get rid of newbies but also oldies as well. Not to mention the fact that you can also use it take money away from them as well. Remember, It does'nt matter what you say your aph is, the only thing that matters is what they say your aph is!
Last thing: Rgis eats it's young!
Great post, anonymous 3-10!
Sometimes RGIS has been known to hire new auditors for ONE store only--can you say one and done? A former DM told me once that in Reno, Nevada they had a big store going (a Penney`s or Sears),and they had to hire a lot of extra auditors just to make the staffing requirements for that one store.At the end of the inventory,RGIS management made all the newhires take off and give back their RGIS shirts as they walked out the door!
what is the 'K" Key. I work for rgis (europe)for almost 5 months now and i have never heard of the 'k'key. And i also cannot get my scanning aph up. It does not matter how quick i scan the other scanners always scan quicker than me. Wich i find strange. Now i get scheduled less to scan stores. Yes, the manager is fucking everybody who does not scan quick enough. Today i had an 900 aph but there are others who have a 7000aph rate. Maybe they are using that K Key. No matter how quick i scanrate always ends up low
"K" Key comes from the older equipment that was before the current "RM" equipment. The "Audits" models A2 thru A14 (there was no A1 but an R1) had a key with a "K" on it. Since "C" was used for "Clear" like ESC is used on the RM, the K key was for "Constant". It is what the RM "PCS" key is used or you can use Alt-9 keyboard command to make the minus "-" key the constant key.
In a financial inventory this keeps the "price" in temporary memory and allows the Audit or RM to "add" up the pieces. If you have several rows of 6 deep would just "K Key It" by depressing 6 and K for each row.
In an audit inventory you have to be on multiple program to do this function.
K Keying is faster since you let the machine add up totals. You can even use this adding up items on a "J" hook by grouping items with your eye -- 2K, 3K or now with the new RM's 2- and 3- then escape to change price or SKU.
Hope that helps.
20-30 miles to qualify as a travel store? I'm in D19 and if the store's under an hour away (one way), it's local.
The "K" key is the old term for the multiple quantity key, which should be on the lower right corner of the keypad. (Or the upper right corner, if you Ctrl-9 it.)
Depends on what store you are in, what program you are on, and what areas you do if you can use it or not.
(If you're doing grocery or HBA, usually yes. Clothing, usually not.)
Some of us old farts can key pretty fast, but it doesn't really matter anymore because your APH is driven by the areas the manager or flow leader gives you. Doesn't matter how fast you can key if all you allowed to do is single scan.
Now we're seeing "Experts" and "Top Guns" in our District who do not know how to use the K key! (I call them the looky-loos, because they're always looking at their machines.)
Those of us that do are getting punished for it by being "rewarded" with the suckier hand-key areas these people never did in the first place. (Because the managers favored them with all the good, non-handkey areas. To make them Experts and Top Guns!)
if you are only scanning 900 pieces while others are scanning 7000. the ones doing 7000 are probably doing precounted backrooms, cans/checkouts ect....while you are giving auto quanity clothing. the K key used to be on the older audits. it just basicly refers to your quanity key.
i am still grinding out top gun numbers. i am doing the easiest areas in the store. in many of the stores i beat the average by 40-100%+. trust me this is no great feat. almost any expert could do the same thing. anyone that can key without looking at thier keyboard probably could and at least hit the average.
i have lined up another job up. that will pay me 12.00 an hour. plus vacation 401k and medical ect.
the 11.50 i get from rgis (plus the bonuses)the 13.00-14.00 for running stores. i must admit, is not that bad for me at rgis. i work hard for a few hours and get to coast into the finish of stores. what will get me to jump ship is anyone getting in my way of my easy life at rgis.
there is very little chance for advancement. when i run stores i put people in spots where they can hit thier number and most do. there usually is an auditor i put to count all the crap, but i count under thier number for they can hit the auditor number and if they do well specialist.
one good thing is they raised the calcs but they kept the bonuses the same. so i am getting alot more bonus money in a few of my stores i can miss the calcs by 200pcs and still get a bonus. i just refuse to do stores i know will have a negative bonus...i am not doing a store that will get a negative bonus after i get a positive one...that is like paying rgis to count.
complaining to your dm's and am's is useless about getting bad areas/aph. they know the problem ,many don't like it, but they have to live with it cause noone is listening up above. they only hear and see dollar signs.
about accuracy...a few accounts have recently complained about rgis counters motives..."they don't care about accuracy"...which is generally true, they are only payed to count pieces not the accuracy of them. i been sent several emails about the importance of accuracy (right above many of them they have that aph calc number)
THE IDIOTS AT CORPORATE set up a system where they only reward fast counter regaurdless of accuracy, and they cry about the accuracy?
they also sent some emails out of some accounts (over 50% in some) accounts going long...that will happen when you send the bare bones crew and a few call in sick (or just no show) or don't make thier crazy number calcs..
THESE IDIOTS AT CORPORATE cry about long running stores when they set it up that way. they ran off most of the people that show up.
the idiots at corporate don't understand that they pay low wages and they demand way too much for the 15-20 hours a week they give to most of the workers. most of the workers don't give two shits about rgis reputation.
trust me all the shit i pull to get around these calcs is just crazy stupid. the great part is they pay me on my 908 to do it too. i don't want to tell too much because i don't want the idiots at corporate to change things up for i have to do other things.
rgis is starting to get alot of custumer complaints about accuracy and lenth. when rgis loses accounts that is when rgis might start changing thier ways. this is years away...i think i might of loss rgis an entire account(a national chain) of stores almost all by myself. i will have to wait til the summer time to see if they are on the schedule.
i am enjoying the comedy...the idiots at corporate don't care really either. they are just going to hang on as long as they can collect thier bonuses and move on. bonuses based on prodution does not produce good quality work it just produces half-ass jobs.
rgis the largest inventory company of half-ass inventories in the world.
banks had liar loans
rgis has liar audits
Blackstone is doing all this just to get RGIS profitable on paper. Once that happens Blackstone will try to off load it on some dumb chit. Blackstone rarely holds on to their acquisitions for any length of time.
Once the money they spent on all the new equipment depreciates and they get some stupid profit number based on average per hour they sell RGIS LLC. IMHO
FWIW, Targets are still locking people inside the stores... not allowed to go out during break. Sometimes at the end of the shift (after clocking out) not allowed to leave per Target employees. I refuse to do any more of these... my best suggestion to those who work them is to get the phone number of the local fire marshall before you go - then use it if you have to.
The most notable new occurence is requiring new hires to accept payment via a Total Pay card. Even when a check was presented by the new hire and direct deposit was requested, it was denied. The new hire had to wait until the first payment was received on the card, then allowed to switch to direct deposit... but, the transititon took app. 4 weeks.
The fees for using the card are outrageous:
ATM withdrawal: $1.50
ATM balance inquiry or decline: $1.50
PIN Transactions: .25
Paper Statement: $2.95
Monthly maintenance fee: $3
Operator assisted fees for balance and deposit inquiries are $1
I strongly suspect RGIS is getting a kickback from the company for making people accept the card... those who have had their own web sites and ran banner ads know that the sign up fee on such a card can run from $5 to $25. Surely, RGIS wouldn't be taking such a kickback at the expense of their employees? RIGHT...
Count me as another, sick to death of RGIS hiring more and more people, when they don't have sufficient work for the ones already hired... and sick of the honchos playing favorites.
One last thing which may have not been mentioned... the bonus system joke. Just because you hit bonus in a couple stores, doesn't mean you'll get it. If you don't make the bonus in others during the same pay period, they can cancel each other out. The only upside to this is that they haven't started trying to take a bonus deduction out of our flat hourly rate.
Not all stores are bonus stores - relatively few are. And, they've begun giving the bonus stores to particular people: "dedicated teams" they call them. Generally the people are fast, except for one or two... they get the trash areas and are the first sent home. In every store, there must always be a scapegoat.
Well, it's been almost a year now since I got hit with a 22% pay cut, and I'm still waiting for the bonuses to make up the difference like they promised. It doesn't help that whenever we start bonusing more than half the time in any store, the bonus threshold gets raised.
Which has to be a good part of the reason they're getting dedicated teams for bonus stores. It's getting to the point where you need to have not just fast counters, but ones who have done the same areas of the stores so many times that they've memorized the max number of pieces in every facing.
As an hourly employee(Paid by the hour) in NY State RGIS can not take away your hourly wage. They can take all of the BONUS because they call it "BONUS" but the $8.50 an hour they can not take away per state law.
Of course it will be 5 years for your law suit to be heard at least.
If they lock you in Target call 911 and state so. Of course the person who did that got fired by RGIS here.
Good Luck
Not to defend Target, but those inventories are conducted at store close.
Do you really expect them to leave the doors unlocked at midnight?
RGIS management could have better communication with them, saying they'll be done in about an hour and to have someone at the doors.
But we all know how inept RGIS management is.
There's one manager in Detroit who basically makes you sign out as you are hitting log off on your machine.
Still trying to decide if the banner over the front door to the office should read "EVIL EMPIRE" or "Arbeit Macht Frei" as it did over the entrance to the labor camps of Nazi Germany.
Any other suggestions????
Bath & Body Works OMG
Blind counts are not enough.
AQ is not enough.
Calc. APH of 1217 is not enough.
Having to count instead of supervising because it is a "green" store is not enough.
You will now teach store assciates how to use the RM-1.
"I pushed the wrong button. How do I get back to where I was?"
"It won't count anymore. Did I do something wrong?" (You've reached data limit.)
"What happened to the little blue screen. It's not there anymore." (It's sleeping.) (Wish I was.)
What's wrong with this picture?
why would anyone want to work for RGIS unless there is nothing else out there, which is the case now mostly. But the management at this company is a -1 on a scale of 1-10. its like working for a bunch of drunken clowns from outer space. They practice nonsense, like not telling people when stores are canceled, or not having enough vans to transport employees, the list goes on and on.. its just so hilarious to just go to work sometimes. because most days something stupid happens.
To add to the comment about Bath and Body Works:
RGIS auditors break areas up into shelves, per procedures. But store employees forget, which spits out a big variance in that area.
And the only way you'll hit that 1200 APH is by batching everything.
I supervised one last year. The area manager (who had been demoted from DM after districts merged)told the store manager at the PIV that we'd be there at 6am.
Only problem, it was scheduled as an afternoon store.
Needless to say the PIQA wasn't great (although accuracy and supervision scores were real good). But the store manager did write a book in the comments about the inept AM.
Problem I've had with Customer using our Audits to recount (intimate apparel that's a secret does it too) is they count the same are TWICE. 9 times out of 10 it is two different store employees count the same area. Luckily it stands out as a 100% error (doubled).
Gawd forbid they update procedures and have the store mark the ART that they counted it.
Formerly Grey in OK:
It's been about two years to the week since I've worked in a store for RGIS. I was literally lucky enough to be sent home from a store and, since the DM didn't like me, given a two week break from being scheduled. It was the best thing to happen to me in my job search that I'd been on for almost a year by that point. I finally had time on my side and was no longer exhausted for interviews or cover letters and other important aspects of getting a job that doesn't take anyone.
And I did manage to get an excellent real job and have been working there since. I was incredibly blessed and am very thankful, especially since it seems like it's actually gotten worse, which I didn't really think was possible.
I haven't looked back since, but it's hard to forget the worst job I've ever worked and the worst company I've ever worked for, a 3 year bad relationship. We had a really bad ice one day and practically no one was out, but I had to get something from the grocery store -- I thought it was closed because there were so few cars in the parking lot due to the weather and I was vastly outnumbered by the staff at the store. As I was checking out, two RGIS employees walked in to do some post-work shopping in their uniforms. I was a bit surprised they'd actually worked in that weather, as it was quite dangerous on the roads, but I recognized one of them and I couldn't quite place my finger on it. As I left, I realized she had been an AAM at the Wichita Falls office, but was now only an ATL or TL in OKC.
The company, in its infinite wisdom and after a couple of years of deliberation, has apparently determined that expecting one district to cover the 7th largest city in the country and some 20,000-odd square miles of surrounding territory might have been a bit shortsighted. Word is going around that RGIS will be resurrecting the San Antonio East district (formerly D192) which was merged with San Antonio West(D158) some years ago. Yvonne, former DM of D192, has quit the company again, so I surmise she was not picked to resume her old post. She previously quit at the time of the merger, when she was demoted due to being significantly junior in seniority to then-D158 DM Jennifer.
The good news is, the new SA East office will be even closer to me than the old one. That should shave a good 20 minutes off my drive time to the office. The bad news is, no clue yet as to who will be running the new district. We've recently gone through a complete turnover of our management team, and several of the managers we have now are on loan from other districts.
For a few of us, this will be our 3rd district transfer in less than 4 years, the first one having been when the border between D192 and Austin South(D159) was shifted 20 miles or so north.
I still miss 159. It had the most reasonable DM I've ever met. And we had meet sites at convenient points along I-35, rather than expecting everyone to drive to the office. In fact, I think I only even saw the office 1 time after I was hired.
Woo hoo! I got a $2.50/hr bonus in a grocery store last week! Boo hoo! I still made $1 less than I was making before the pay cuts!
More quotes from D355: "Everybody know where the Walmart at!" White team leader to black auditor: "Yess, massah!" Male team leader to female auditor: "Gonna put some of ya sugar in my coffee?" Oh, yeah, and he's a top gun, snorting all morning because of his coke habit, I mean, long term sinus infection.
fuck Food Lion.
Going green, going green! When is the main office going to realize that our stores are only hitting numbers because hours are being shifted to 908s? When do they get rid of the 908? Heck, why not pay EVERYONE on 908s? :)How big of a bonus would we get?
Heck Pay me on the 908, for our office 908 pay is $12.00 Top Gun Pay is $11.00, figure the math.
You only make $0.50 more running a small store than 908 pay.
Figure the math.
about targets locking you in. well, in targets i do, we are allowed to go out for break, it is called over the speaker, and i assummed discussed with target before hand. if any store refuses to let you out of thier store. you can always tell them you will sue them, the store, and RGIS for false imprisonment.
this may cost you your job though(or reward you will the freedom of never having to work for rgis again)...i would just refuse to go if it is an ongoing issue.
i have no doubt that blackstone is trying to make the numbers look good before they dump RGIS on some stupid sucker. too bad if they google it(RGIS) they are going to see this blog. the buyers are going to see there is an active current employee base that is not happy and could care less about thier bottom line (since rgis does not care about thier employees we don't care about rgis.)
BTW i loss a second custumer here in my local district not to long ago. i informed them of some of rgis business practices,and i was shocked they dumped us the next week. how much i had to do with it i have no idea. But i got a chuckle from it.
Schedule for next week:
Sunday 5pm 2 hour drive to 6 hour clothing store that may take 7-8 hours the way they like to understaff everything now. 2 hour drive back puts us at meet site anywhere from 3-5am.
Monday 6am 3 hour drive to hardware store that will take 6-7 hours, which puts us back at meet site at 6-7pm but oh wait we have to leave by 3 to get back to start another clothing store at 6pm but at least this one's local. However, it shouldn't end until 1-2am, possibly 3 with everyone dragging tired and the way they understaff everything lately.
But wait after finally getting home and taking a 2 hour nap I gotta go count another 6 hour store in the morning. But hey, it's local, right? And everyone will be fresh after that sleep, and everyone will show up to every store. And I should be happy to have a job, right?
The life of an Expert. Meanwhile, Auditors sit at home, only to work when every single able body is needed, or someone is needed to drive. They can't pay their heating bills or even afford fast food. I can't keep anything down because I'm forced to live on fast food...gotta get to the next store, no time to stop at a decent restaurant and take an extra 20 minutes to eat!
I think I shall look into gathering support to change the labor laws in my state. I don't mind doubles, but I'm not going to do a quadruple.
Anyone else feel like every store is tremendously understaffed? I notice they have been watching us more lately. I wish Blackstone would sell the company to someone that actually wants to be in the inventory business.
We never work Mother's Day but always have work Father's Day. Explain that?
can anybody tell me what is an RX TRAINING for rgis
WITH RGIS THEY DO THE CARD THANG FOR PAYCHECKS BUT DO THEY SEND YOU LIKE A STATEMENT SO YOU CAN HAVE EVERY PAYCHECK?
Why do the card thing? Keep all of your money working for you and get it when you want it.
Get a bank account and do direct deposit. It's really quite simple, folks.
No unnecessary ATM fees, no searching for the right kind of ATM, etc, etc.
But to answer your question, yes, they still send out a pay stub with hours on it.
And learn proper English. There is no such word as Thang.
I've been to RGIS for a little over a month and when I tell you the hours suck they really do. This job is for people who don't have no bills. In la. auditors get $8.50 but when you get your check for 2 weeks you looking at $140 which is sad. Then time you have to drive 50 miles which is considered local. I'm run it down on a daily basic:
Leave time: 6:30pm
Start time: 8:00pm
You get to a store like a stage and u have 15-20 people there you looking at 3 hours worth of work. So you are now leaving at 11:00pm and arriving back to your location about 12:30. So out that day of work you not even looking at $30.
Then you get you next week schedule which is 14 day and out them 14 i was scheduled 6 of them days looking at 4 hours each day. I don't think I'm going back because this not gonna work. I really appreciate the effort that was put forward in them hiring me but I can't make a living off of $300 a month.
What TL Too said is so true for most districts, us top guns are pretty spoiled but the district im in us top guns freakin rock and we do fight for numbers a bit but most of the time we can all auto scan tools for half an hour just for the hell of it and still hit our numbers. So we usually do what were told, we have pretty good attitudes most of the time and were plenty fast enough to count some crap areas. I went to help the montana crew and blew them away, and im one of our newest/slower topguns. But the favoritism is pretty ridiculous though. you have to work hard if you want to be given good areas, but also in my case, for the first six months as a topgun, they new i would work hard so they put me in the harder areas, that is until i gave up on trying to be a favorite and relized that they would never be able to drop me down to expert.and as far as being a team leader goes, its ridiculous all the shit you dont get paid for, they say the policy is time worked=time paid but you dont get paid for reading procedures or planning the flow etc. the only reason i do it is because you get extra close out hours some 908 office time and you dont have to count very much when your running things. but on the positive note i really do like the job, i've made alot of friends and have alot of fun traveling with them, the overnight trips are cool if you have someone you like to room with. and as an awesome counter i get alot of glory at the end of the day. The pay rate could be worse too, but im not happy that every out of state district i've worked with gets payed more, and as a team leader topgun i make the same wage as a team leader expert. stupid pay cap. Although alot of things are pretty shitty i do like the job.
it's not that bad and as long as you can count and use a large type of calculator (our RM machine) you'll be alright. It's more than minimum wage and they pay travel money to a certain point.
Horrible company expct half the hours they say and the pay card is the worst pay option i have ever had. Its automated card system sucks and cannot cancel your account without mailng hand written request. They say its to verify info but they dont to activate card and no where in their user agreement does it say thats how you cancel. I have met l three conditiond stated to cancel and they refuse to
I have worked there just months and am already a Team Leader. I find it a great job, only worth it though if your not just a regular counter.
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