Thursday, September 23, 2010

So Why Do You Still Work For RGIS?

Someone posted this comment on my previous blog entry:

Misfit
Thank you for this blog
Could you please start a new topic - suggestion, how you managed to leave, and recover your sanity. There are good people suffering out there. Try to tell them, it's ok to not suffer, how to leave. thanks!!!


I thought it would be a good start to a new blog entry, for people who have already left RGIS to share their stories on how and why they left, if it's been a good or bad decision for them and if they regret not leaving sooner. Or if they're still with RGIS then why? Is it because of financial difficulties perhaps, needing the job because there's little else available where you live? Or maybe you're that rare individual (winks) who still enjoys working for RGIS in whatever capacity. Whatever the case share your stories here. And of course anything else about RGIS you'd like to post. People have been using this blog as a way to pass on info about the various lawsuits that have been going on vs. RGIS, and also to ask questions about all sorts of things like time sheets, breaks, questions about the equipment, etc. I think it's a great way for people to share and exchange useful information. As I've said before I wish I had found a blog to share my tales of RGIS woe when I was still working for the company; I think it would have helped me a lot to know I wasn't in the only RGIS dist. with problems.

As for my story about leaving RGIS it isn't really that exciting. I just found another job. It took a while but I never stopped looking. And I started looking once I stopped enjoying my job as a RGIS auditor. Because as strange as it may sound to some, for quite a while there I did enjoy it. I found I loved counting things and trying to devise new ways to count sections of things in stores to increase my speed but without sacrificing my accuracy. And for a while the people I worked with were enjoyable as well. But things worsened within my district as the years passed and I stopped enjoying what I was doing and started looking for new work; luckily I was able to find something that paid decently and that I liked doing, or at least that I could stand it better than my RGIS job.

I guess the bottom line is: if you're not happy working for RGIS, if it makes you miserable and you hate every minute of it then start looking for another job NOW. Not exactly the most earth-shattering or revelatory advice, I know. But that company, no company, is worth risking your health, mental and/or physical, over. Most people know about Craigslist as a place to look for jobs. Another couple of websites that people I know have found jobs through are indeed.com and snagajob.com. If your local community college/junior college offers business classes then they're worth checking out as most of these schools have job placement for their students. And all of the old suggestions are worth doing too, things like telling friends and family you're looking for work, pounding the pavement and handing out your resume to businesses even if they have no Help Wanted signs in their window.

There is life after RGIS. And it can be very good indeed.

143 comments:

Superfun Happy Slide said...

The sentiments you shared, about your disillusion with the auditor role, is pretty common. I was a manager with WIS, (gasp—the enemy) and I encountered that type of frustration among my office personel all the time. As a manager you can only do so much to make the daily inventory grind engaging; try as we may, the lack of a liveable wage is a huge stumbling block to overcome. However, I think I should let you and other inventory people know that you will find a degree of apathy in virtually any industry, regardless of schedule demands and pay. All I can say is that I have a great deal of respect for the job and commitment that many auditors display. The time I spent on the inventory circuit has left me with some of the best stories any job could have ever provided.

Oh, by the way, great blog; I really enjoy it.

rectal counter said...

Basicly i am still with RGIS because i just don't want to look for another job. I hate this job 95% of the time. I am basicly here with RGIS to take evrey dime i can from it. I could work for myself 20-30 hours a week and make what i do at RGIS doing something i like alot.

I don't need the money and i feel i could get a job to replace this one if i needed to. I am basicly telling my bosses to fuck off constantly and they are letting me get away with it. I would rather make 11.50 with RGIS and steal 0.50from RGIS than make 12.00 somewhere else. I get great joy from taking evreything i can from RGIS.

Having a job that you don't care if you get fired is a liberating experiance. The freedom to do almost anything i want is why i stay.

Sanity Check said...

I am especially motivated to find a new job today. I just spent almost 23 hours at the Abercrombie and Fitch outlet store. 5.5 hours Sunday night doing the sales floor, and then back early Monday morning to spend 17+ hours doing the stock rooms.

Garcy racks from hell, 27 shelves per side, packed so tight that you often had to grab the stack with both hands, brace a foot against the shelf, and heave just to twist the stack enough to get at the tags.

dead horse said...

Today's mail brought some welcome news to California RGIS team leaders, in regard to Garcia v. RGIS. Seems the aggregate days I've worked in the time frame for this suit (Nov 9, 2005 thru May 1, 2010) is 504 days. Based on that info I shall receive $822.29. Can't really dispute that as I don't have records as to number of days worked, only total $. But for the 50 or so persons involved it's much better than the proverbial stick in the eye.
This has NOTHING to do with the Wren v RGIS case at all which we are still waiting for as we have contributed suffficient $ to
our own settlement.
Know this is not in line with current post, but feel it's info some of us need.
But why DO I stay? Basically, it's as rectal counter says. It's a job I can do in my sleep and do it well. I used to care, but no longer.

John said...

I unfortunatly fell victim to the economy when I was laid off from a very lucrative position. I worked for RGIS in 2000 (I began in 1999 and made it to team leader in a few months). I came back and began to loathe it in a matter of hours. Area managers yelling at you, team leaders that act like they're hot s***, and now you have to unrealistic expectation of APH. In an ideal setting I could exceed standards, but in the real world it doesn't quite work that way. When I last worked for RGIS I was making 50 hours a week during the slow months; now I'm lucky to get 15 in the busy months. It's not worth making $17 when I have to spend $10 in gas to get there. I just began working as a substitute teacher, and it's real likely that I will become a permanent teacher, so I am looking forward to kicking RGIS to the curb.

Anonymous said...

I just quit RGIS after about a month. Supervisors screaming obscenities at people because their own lives suck and they have no idea how to manage their emotions. No training. Sending people out an hour's unpaid drive for a two and a half hour job, for which they don't get paid until two weeks later - good luck with paying for your gas! 8-12 hour jobs with NO breaks. None. Not even ten minutes. And, god forbid if you tell them you have to leave! After ten hours with one ten minute break on one job, two hours from home, I told the manager I was leaving only to be screamed at that he was going to lock me in!! ROFLMAO! I immediately imagined the call to the police and the ensuing scene. Of course, he unlocked the door after he had his hissy fit. Unbelievable! I was looking up the federal labor laws tonight when I came across this blog. I want to report them. Taking in unpaid time driving to and from work, unpaid (non-existent) breaks, and other such violations, the actual pay is less than minimum wage - by quite a bit. Slave labor. Run as fast as possible away from this job!

Anonymous said...

Hi! I have been working for RGIS for about 5 months. This is my first job so I guess I don't really know whats bad is but I very much dislike working for RGIS. I love a lot of the people that I work with but there are the ones with no manners or respect for anyone and also the power crazy people.. OK I suck I know that I am really slow compared to some people but my work is accurate. I still work for RGIS because I need the money. I need to complain so here I go. Every time I do target I get "RANDOMLY" picked to pull Yellow tickets and the last two targets I was asked to pull area tickets. its just started to bug me. Okay also I don't really use anything i learned in training. here is the icing on the cake I worked for a new supervisor the other day at a Kohl's. He was so rude. here's what happened well of course I got stuck on a bunch of men's folded shirts where of course the tags were inside the fold. well anyways my APH was low so this guy sends me home after I wasted my time taking a break (why he couldn't he tell me before I left for break he saw me punch out for break). I never knew they sent you home for low APH. I thought it was so stupid. so I agree RGIS sucks.

rectal counter said...

When i supervise an inventory i never send anyone home early from an inventory. Usually because i am running with a bare bones crew and need evrey slug there. I did a store that was so short that the client felt bad for me an offered one of thier people to scan for me. I accepted...Sure i could get fired for that...But my managment team can't staff my store. So WTF am i suppose to do? Really i don't think RGIS cares since i crush the calc with the free employee.

Well on the lawsuit i got an email from the lawyers. The court has scheduled a hearing for final approval of the settlement on January 28, 2011. I love taking money from RGIS...

to the guy that said..."OK I suck I know that I am really slow compared to some people but my work is accurate." RGIS (rough guess inventory service)does not care about your accuracy...It wants you to pump out pieces anyway you can. RGIS is not checking your accuracy unless the custumer makes them and they will cheat the recheck most of the time anyway.

I would say in at least 50% of the inventories i count. I am pulling numbers out my ass.

HBL said...

There are two types of people that work for RGIS---those that are stupid and those whose next career move is prison

StewieGriffin said...

Re: recounts

I couldn't tell you the number of times a supervisor/manager has told me to go scan something on that rack to make it come out good.


You could even cheat in financial recounts as well, even if one of their managers was with you. Text messages did wonders to get the actual count.

Anonymous said...

I worked for RGIS for nearly 2 years--July 2007 to May 2009. I stayed that long because I enjoyed not working in an office and going off in my own little corner to count. I also enjoyed getting large chunks of time off if I so chose.

Getting up so early in the am got to me though, as well as the new standards (I was the accurate, thorough one put on areas likely to be 100% printout). Mileage dropping, skeleton crews, no training for noobs--it all got to me.

So when I was offered a retail job a 3 min walk from my house I took it. No brainer.

I do miss being able to ignore customers though. Sigh.

countess said...

I resent that, HBL. I am neither stupid nor a criminal; just really, really lazy!

Anonymous said...

actually there are 3 types of RGIS employees--the third is "doing this until something, ANYTHING, else comes along"

Anonymous said...

If the bullying would stop, that would be fantastic. Imagine a day where no one was degraded, publically belttled. A day when you did a fantastic job, it was recognized, rewarded, even with a simple Thanks, that was great. I no longer work there, no longer have to handle the results of the belittling of my self or others :-)
Get rid of the bullies, RGIS execs are NOT dumb, they could find a way to get it done!

Anonymous said...

Oh boy seems now the Billing Inventory Supervisor will now be paid (Starting 10/23) $1 per store to cover cell phone charges.
If this does not cover your cell phone usage there is a complicated form to submit each month but you have to be over your plan minutes.
Stupid, for a travel store with your AM calling your cell phone every 10 minutes asking where you are, you will not get the $1.
Must be a result of some law suit somewhere. I'll still pad my 908 for use of my cell/internet connection for RGIS use.

Auditor who quit this morning... said...

I quit this morning and it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders.It was one of my crappiest job experience in my life ever. It was like I "Paid" to work with the crappy wages they pay me with the gas for traveling to job sites and the like.

I have another job for few months now that is close to me- good morale in the workplace. Great bosses and awesome team. I get to see my paycheck bigger instead of disappearing!

Indeed, there is such a life after RGIS!

Anonymous said...

Here is the major problem. We have this management company that wants to make a hugh profit and then sell RGIS as a IPO. So, they don't care who gets screwed. I had to find a way to get rid of my AA b/c we were paying this person to much money. Now I am stuck w/ a incompetent for $3 less per hour, a wetback AM plus a worthless piece of white trash as an AM. I am expected to hit the APH and produce 75% profit. These folks are out of their worthless minds!! As soon as possible I will be going back to Wisconsin

rectal counter said...

I am glad RGIS is paying me an extra dollar per store for my cell phone that i refuse to get for this job. On occasion when my AM or DM wanted to talk to me when i am running a store they will call the store or call a employee with a cell phone in my store.

When the Calc 1st came out my DM called me once i think. If my DM or AM was still calling me every Calc store i ran i would so not answer that phone.

The only call that happens is me calling them basicly saying hello i am 3 or 4 people short out of a 7-10 person store. Oh nobody is available ok thanks for nothing!!!

Well it really can't get much worse. Maybe the lawsuit will help RGIS evolve thier payscale. More and more of the top talent in my district is leaving and not being replaced. In my district the teamleaders are spread thin. No one wants to become a teamleader.

Anonymous said...

I quit when they threatened to fire me for the 4th time. Mind you this was because I no-showed to a store. In fact the other 3 times were for no-shows. Kinda hard to show up to a store when they fail to mail/email a schedule or notify me in some shape form or fashion I'm going to be needed.

countess said...

I'm actually pretty excited about the cell phone allowance. If first quarter 2011 is like last year, RGIS will pretty much pay my whole phone bill for me without me doing any extra work. My AM and DM have pretty much stopped calling me in stores since when they ask what our APH is I always just tell them, "Not as high as it would be if I didn't have to spend half the inventory at the portable looking up irrelevant numbers."

TL Too said...

Rectal Counter, same issues in my District. We have lost so many long time people, and I mean really good people, in the last year. It was only a matter of time. People stuck around with the paycuts, but only till they could find something else. Now, the reality of working all the time with never the chance of a raise unless you raise your ASET level, is hitting home. I ignore my cell phone in most of my stores, but then they just call someone else with a cell. Does it ever occur to them that they are affecting the store APH and that person's APH? They are not counting while they are running around the store looking for me. And, I am sick of the short staffing of stores, and then you have 'no shows' in a store you were shortstaffed in to begin with and you are screwed. We call them and get the same as you. They can't find anyone to come. Gone are the days of people leaving one store to help another.
But, when they lowered our pays, they clearly told us that they were no longer paying for availability, dependability and longevity. They were paying for productivity only. So, they are basically getting what they are willing to pay for. People will try to be productive if they feel like showing up, if they feel like doing certain stores, etc. We are stretched very thin for supervisors. People are stepping down from running stores. Everyone is tired of everything that goes wrong in a store, even if the store is the problem, being made the sole responsibility of the supervisor. Our district has not had much luck in the past 2 years with their December hiring frenzy. We get very little response even in a bad economy. And now, off they all go to their yearly Florida meeting where I am sure they are coming up with new 'exciting' ways to take more away from us.

Anonymous said...

Countess:
>>"Not as high as it would be if I didn't have to spend half the inventory at the portable looking up irrelevant numbers."<<

Why isn't your RM in supervisor mode, why aren't you counting your a$$ off and then going into supervisor mode to check everyone's APH. Why isn't your access point at least 15 feet in the air?

Why haven't you stopped counting and talking to store manager every 20 minutes?

Why haven't you done searches?

I'll tell you why the deity with three letters, no not G*d, its APH!!!

rectal counter said...

RGIS is settling thier lawsuit for 27million LMAO....My share is a little under 3500.00 for a long term teamleader that seeems to be the norm. I know another got estimate close to $3800.00.

I was expecting maybe $300.00 at the most. I would love to hear all the amounts that everyone is getting. RGIS is getting raped and i am loving it!!! This makes up for most of the shit RGIS has pulled over the years.

rectal counter said...

article on lawsuit

Costly wage and hour litigation appears to be continuing unabated, with a $27 million settlement by inventory services provider RGIS LLC marking the latest example. In addition to tens of thousands of state wage and hour claims, the RGIS settlement covers Fair Labor Standards Act claims filed by about 27,000 current and former employees. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California recently granted the settlement preliminary approval.
The volume of litigation filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act has nearly tripled in the past 10 years. According to federal statistics, 5,644 FLSA lawsuits were filed in federal district courts nationwide during the 12-month period ending March 31, 2009 -- a 7.5 percent increase from the prior comparable period and the second-highest total on record.
RGIS denies any liability and states it is entering into the agreement to avoid incurring further litigation costs. The RGIS lawsuit was resolved partially in favor of the plaintiffs -- primarily auditors, and some other employees -- more than a year ago by the district court (Wren v. RGIS Inventory Specialists, No. C-06-05778, 2009 WL 2612307, (N.D. Cal. Aug. 24, 2009)).
Among several findings in its 2009 opinion, the district court held that the employer’s policy of not paying the plaintiffs for time donning inventory equipment at the start of the workday violated the FLSA. The plaintiffs’ donning of audit machines, scanners and related equipment at the start of the workday “is an activity ‘performed pursuant to [RGIS’] mandate for [RGIS’] benefit as an employer,’” explained the court, quoting Alvarez v. I.B.P., Inc., 339 F.3d 894 (9th Cir. 2003), and the donning time was “‘integral and indispensable’” to their principal activity of conducting audits.
In addition, the court ruled that the company’s policy of not compensating the inventory workers for time spent waiting between their donning of the equipment and the beginning of their inventory-related work violated the FLSA because such time is compensable under the “continuous workday” rule. Under this rule, time that follows an employee’s performance of a principal activity at the start of the workday -- in this instance, donning of inventory equipment -- is compensable under the FLSA (see Alvarez v. I.B.P., Inc., 546 U.S. 21 (2005)).
A court hearing at which final approval of the settlement agreement is expected is scheduled for Jan. 28, 2011.

rectal counter said...

article on lawsuit (part 1)

Costly wage and hour litigation appears to be continuing unabated, with a $27 million settlement by inventory services provider RGIS LLC marking the latest example. In addition to tens of thousands of state wage and hour claims, the RGIS settlement covers Fair Labor Standards Act claims filed by about 27,000 current and former employees. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California recently granted the settlement preliminary approval.
The volume of litigation filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act has nearly tripled in the past 10 years. According to federal statistics, 5,644 FLSA lawsuits were filed in federal district courts nationwide during the 12-month period ending March 31, 2009

rectal counter said...

article on lawsuit (part 2)

-- a 7.5 percent increase from the prior comparable period and the second-highest total on record.
RGIS denies any liability and states it is entering into the agreement to avoid incurring further litigation costs. The RGIS lawsuit was resolved partially in favor of the plaintiffs -- primarily auditors, and some other employees -- more than a year ago by the district court (Wren v. RGIS Inventory Specialists, No. C-06-05778, 2009 WL 2612307, (N.D. Cal. Aug. 24, 2009)).
Among several findings in its 2009 opinion, the district court held that the employer’s policy of not paying the plaintiffs for time donning inventory equipment at the start of the workday violated the FLSA. The plaintiffs’ donning of audit machines, scanners and related equipment at the start of the workday “is an activity ‘performed pursuant to [RGIS’] mandate for [RGIS’] benefit as an employer,’” explained the court, quoting Alvarez v. I.B.P., Inc., 339 F.3d 894 (9th Cir. 2003), and the donning time was “‘integral and indispensable’” to their principal activity of conducting audits.
In addition, the court ruled that the company’s policy of not compensating the inventory workers for time spent waiting between their donning of the equipment and the beginning of their inventory-related work violated the FLSA because such time is compensable under the “continuous workday” rule. Under this rule, time that follows an employee’s performance of a principal activity at the start of the workday -- in this instance, donning of inventory equipment -- is compensable under the FLSA (see Alvarez v. I.B.P., Inc., 546 U.S. 21 (2005)).
A court hearing at which final approval of the settlement agreement is expected is scheduled for Jan. 28, 2011.

Anonymous said...

You would think these management fools would figure it out. RGIS will settlle for $27M on their law suite. The lawyers estimate I will get $1441.00. Thsnk you BB, RH, and KK. Your incompetance is greatly appreciated!!

Anonymous said...

i've been working here for, well, i guess forever. this used to be a fun place to work. now it's a assembly line where accuracy comes in about 4th on the priority list. 1st, of course is speed (batching is a great aph builder). 2d is speed (yes, again). 3rd might be cust service, but only if it's an account we might lose.
even showing up to work seems to be optional- we're always so short that management won't fire anyone just in the hope they may show up at least now and then, (or if they happen to be young and chesty).
i guess i fall into the too lazy to find another job category.

otl said...

rectal counter:
I`m due about $4,000, according to the settlement letter.I expect RGIS to appeal and delay the payout as long as possible,since they are naturally stingy corporate assholes.I will be suprised if both I receive the full amount, and if it is sent promptly after the final ruling.

Anonymous said...

I love working with rgis everyday is something different and you never do the same boring day in day out company with the same people, and the pays is not so bad it does put food on the table and pays the rent.

Anonymous said...

OTL:
If you are settling a lawsuit out of court, you would not be able to appeal.
It could still possibly be months before money is doled out though.



Anon 12:18:
Wages of $8-12 per hour may put some food or rent on the table, but probably nothing else after that. Which is a sad way to live.

Anonymous said...

For those getting Thousands I assume you are in one of the four settlement states out west. I'm on the east coast continuous employment with RGIS since mid 80's and getting only $486.

Since I'm just under the federal umbrella not one of the state I think that explains the difference in settlement amount.

rectal counter said...

1st RGIS is settling... they are agreeing to this 27 million amount. The court is the only one that could refuse or if half the people in the lawsuit object to the amount. (highly unlikely on both accounts)

2nd i work in the east. Location does not seem to matter.

I am thinking that i might be getting a 1.00 per every store i ran (this new phone thing might be part of the settlement) for the last 4 years. Plus a certain amount for "donning" equipment every store i was in. I might of ran a ton of small stores. I remember running 14 in one day once.

But i am just speculating on why mine was so much. Seems mine was one of the higher ones. Many seem to be getting 500-2k.

Would love to find out what they factored the amounts on. I would imaging its based on how many stores you were in, your pay at the time, and maybe if a teamleader(phone compensation)

rectal counter said...

Also rgis seems to be coming out with the next generation of audits. Yes new equipment to get use to and work out all the bugs too.

Their is supposed to be something called TRUcount. This is supposed to allow customers the ability to look into our machines on the internet from home if they want. Stores will be able to spot scan or look into any machine they want. Really i think this is just a selling point to customers. The real practical uses of this i think would be pretty limited.

This could potentially cause huge problems over small issues. Trying to explain to an anal store manager that 500 5cent items miscounted by 30 is not a big deal in a million dollar inventory!!!

I have sometimes a hard enough time transmitting to the portable as it is...Now they expect real time stats on the internet?

I might be wrong on the specifics. I was trying to sleep during the teamleader meeting :-)

What will happen... as the store is checking one thing we will be blowing in everything else. Really the less the store questions the count. The more time i can spend on actually counting it the best i can. If a store manager bugs me a lot. I will blow in anything i can get away with just to make up for the time they wasted of mine.

Anonymous said...

I have a secondary job that requires me to travel at length. Because I was on the verge of becoming a Top Gun they had no problem with me taking several weeks (occasionally up to three months) off and then they'd put me back on the schedule when I came back. This worked out great for me.

I came home after three weeks break during the dead season to find a termination letter. Evidently the home office decided since I hadn't been on the payroll in 30 days that I should be fired. The office manager said "Oh, I didn't look to see who it was. I just signed the letter and put it in the envelope to go out".

Any job that values me that highly can rot. Really excited to see we'll be getting a whopping $50 for the class action settlement, too. That's about twice as much as some paychecks I've had through the years. What a goddamn joke.

rectal counter said...

The 50.00 was a minimum if you worked 30 shifts during the period as your letter probably stated. Also the letter stated you can feel free to opt out and sue RGIS on your own. But from what you say you did not work much, taking long extended time off.

Blackstone is trying to sell RGIS but can't get a buyer because they have over 100+ lawsuits against them. That is what the yahoo's in Florida said.

I remember when one of those yahoo's told me not to go to the web to discuss problems. Then they told me that after a month of the new pay system people will get use to it. They did, most of them quit after a year. The ones that remain don't give a shit. The newer ones just know how to cheat.

I really hope part of the reason they can't get a buyer is the truth about how RGIS cut back so much of their employees. That they have a lower grade on employee that has not been factored into their upcoming lost in customers.

My district lost 10% in sales and i expect it to continue next year. I am pretty sure it is a national trend.

Anthony D255SAT said...

What a bunch of whining fucking babies. "My job suuucks." "My boss doesn't like me." Wah. If you did your job worth a shit, maybe you'd still have one. In response to one of many of you who choose to post anonymously, the reason the turnover is so high is that dumb idiots like you don't show up to work, or you can't count to 20 without taking your shoes and socks off. Seriously, how most of you morons manage to dress yourselves every day is a mystery. If you put half as much effort into doing your job well as you do bitching about it, you might actually make something of your lives. Many of

Anonymous said...

You're here, Anthony, and you're spending your valueable time complaining about us, Anthony, which means that you've taken the time to read through this Anthony, so how pathetic of a loser must you be, Anthony?

Anonymous said...

to Anthonyd255sat
Its people like you who wrecked this company. You are so blind. You ignore how many good people are treated badly. One day you will be treated badly for no reason, except that they can. poor schedules, bad equipment/area assigned, etc. one day it will happen to you. tell us when it does :-)

Anonymous said...

Rectal,

I know the Cleveland RGIS district has lost a ton of business to another inventory company.

Lots of regional type grocery stores. Some national accounts in that area have also asked their corporate not to have RGIS do their inventories.

A couple DMs didn't really have a preference between PICS or WIS, but they hated RGIS.


That could possibly be more district management by RGIS, but it doesn't say much about the counters either.

rectal counter said...

Anthony D255SAT

Most people quit RGIS because there are horrible hours and no benefits. What does rgis do to keep them? Tells them to count faster. When a lot of what their average consist of where a person is placed and how INACCURATE that are.

I promise you that i have no problem counting. The only problem i have is hitting my average 4 hours into a 6 hour count and trying to figure out how i am going to kill 2 hours, with the person running the store not bitching too much. After i hit my average i am not being payed and have no incentive to count anymore.

RGIS does not pay me one dime to be nice, on time, actually show up, look professional or TO ACTUALLY HELP ANYONE. For sure does not pay me to call me up to come in on short notice to work. Pay me anything for the relationship i have established with their customers. I use to do 99% of this and more, now i do 1% of it.

The only reason i post semi-anonymous is because i don't want a shit storm to land on my bosses desk!

Anonymous said...

RGIS is owned by a holding company. Their only goal is to show a profit, issue an IPO(or sell the compamy again) and "take off". They could care less about you, me, or the customer. Profit is what it's all about. Those salaried employees make a hugh bonus when they produce profit. We are just "dog poop" that is in the way.

I am an hourly employee that works as an AA. The salaried management that comes in this office could care less about me or what I do. They walk right in w/o saying a word. They don't care about me so why should I care about them. Hourly emlpoyees here are just "trash". If one leaves there are ten more to replace them.

Anonymous said...

Hey there folks.

I have a question - yes even after reading all the blog comments!

I applied and have been asked to go for an interview next week at my local RGIS office. I think you have to make a 4th category for people who work there or are willing to work there. Those that are SOL in this economy. I have a graduate degree and lost my job in 2009 - my work sector has been torn apart and I don't see it coming back any time soon.

Yes, been job searching since mid 2009 with no luck. I've also been taking classes part time towards yet another degree. RGIS seems like it may be the only option - and my UI checks will probably be gone soon (March or April).

Buuut, after reading all these blog posts, now I'm a little leery of showing up for that interview! Do you think things will get better due to the lawsuits? I need something soon, but is RGIS really an option? What do you all think?

Thanks in advance,
Michelle

rectal counter said...

The thing that the corporate idiots wont get until its too late. TL's like me have no incentive to be professional. There is no raise coming. I am at the max.

When my boss calls me up to help a new TL in a store since the one that was scheduled hardly ever showed up anyway and surprise was not going to show up again. I tell them to go to hell.

Sure they replace me with a expert or specialist. That has no clue how to run a store. The TL will make it through the store but, the manager will be less than happy. The customer gets inexperienced TL and an unprofessional crew that many like myself are there just to ram in pieces.

The corporate is trying to rein in accuracy but they have no clue they are going to shoot themselves in the foot doing so.

Losing another 3 Tl's in my district. Any replacements? nope! We already have 2 non team leader running stores. That's the quality RGIS gives now!!!

There needs to be some control over wages by a human. Or a newbie in a month or two can be payed the same as your most reliable,fastest and long term members.

My district already lost a local account of gas stations (about 10-20 a month) when too many times. One of the 2 people would not show. The final straw probably was when one team leader running the account called up the store and said he could not make it and canceled it and did not tell my DM. The next month they sent a letter saying they no longer needed our services.

I also told the DM of the gas station about RGIS new pay policies and why so many times people just no showed and did not care. That could of been it. No one from RGis knew i did that and just assumed it was because of the canceling of the store. I was just so embarrassed at the quality of service we were giving.

Can a DM tell corporate of the problems? No because they are scared they are going to rip there nuts off.

Anonymous said...

to Michele
Do NOT work for RGIS, politely call and cancel your interview
They will lie about everything. benefits, hours, responsibilities
Having RGIS on your resume is NOT a plus. Surely some one else will offer you a good job!!!!

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I have a full time job now, and I still work with RGIS some hours per month, just to meet some old folks and earns some extra cash.

I have been working with RGIS since I was a student about 4 years ago. I did suffer from rude manner of few supervisors and stupid non-sense instructions. I witnessed cheating and some similar kind of stuff.

Sometimes I was not happy with the way some supervisor treated staff, I did stand up and talk to his face not behind his back. I must admit it did not make the situation better but at least these rude people aware of what they were doing (some eventually left the companies)

But there are still good people out there and there are some aspects of the job you cannot find from anywhere else if you are able to look at the brighter side of the job.

The bottom line is that I am not so proud working with RGIS but I do not blame it. It helps me on rainny days, I come to the job not the job come to me, why keep complaining. If you are not happy, you have choice either talk to them or leave.

Anonymous said...

Even with all the BS I'm still with RGIS for 20 years. I enjoy the extra money I make, only 1/6th of my full time salary but it helps with vacations.

Blackstone does not WANT Top Guns to run inventories. Top Guns are being paid to count and count fast only.

They want Experts and Specialist TL's and they want Experts and Specialist to run the stores.

I only work stores I run so I don't have to worry about my APH. I won't work a control desk anymore since as a Top Gun I do not get any adder pay for that role (though it does protect my APH).

I may Flow Lead since you only have to count half your APH if you get that adder role.

As RGIS has always been it is only for some people. I ignore the BS and enjoy the fact that for me the time at the inventory passes quickly.

Anonymous said...

The fact remains - all those incompetent bad rude even bullying mgrs etc are still working for this company. They are being rewarded for blaming others when it was the mgrs' fault. No company or group should reward bad or evil behavior
No one who points the finger of blame at someone else when they are the one who is at fault should be rewarded. My mgrs were liars/bullies and they are still getting away with it, RGIS has been sued many times for their behavior, Rgis just goes thru the legal motions then settles if they have to. But Karma is a wonderful thing. I no longer work for RGIS and now am looking forward to even better days ahead.

Anonymous said...

Wow, after reading your blog, I'm glad I never set up an actual job interview with RGIS. I actually applied for the job (since I really needed one after quitting my other job) last month and they responded fairly quickly. However, what turned me off was how far I had to drive for the interview. I live in Livermore, CA and supposedly the job was fairly close by. When I selected the date for the interview, I was surprised on how far I had to drive for the interview (I would have had to go to Newark, CA for the interview). I basically said, "Screw it! I'm not gonna drive that far for a job interview." Then, a bit of the desperation caught up with me again and I almost tried to reapply until I searched "RGIS" on Google, which conveniently added the word "scam" to one of the search results, thus, bringing me to this wonderful blog. Now I'll cross this employer off my "Job Application" list.

Anonymous said...

rectal counter,
To be paid the same or less than a new person whose performs at 50 percent of the more senior person's level is wrong. That is what is wrong with RGIS and many other companies. I remember hearing from some newbie who had just quit that they wouldn't do the job for the pitiful amount they received, 25% more than I was making as a good top gun with 3 years experience.
So are we old timers and good performers underpaid, yes. Are the newbies and underperformers overpaid yes.
Like you said some Human needs to look at pay.
Is anything at all getting better at RGIS? Is it all just bad mgt?
Sure I can "look at the bright side" - and keep my job. but it's not worth it.

Sanity Check said...

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the new lawsuit-inspired warning appearing on the RMs. When you get to the screen to scan your badge, this cheerfully-yellow highlighted message comes up:

*REMINDER*

Prior to beginning any work activity, including putting on your equipment, you must be scanned/signed in.

If you are not scanned/signed in, do not continue.

Anonymous said...

The lawsuit reminder message is a PIA, blocks everything, including battery level.
You show up and they still wait until 5 minutes before scheduled start time to let you punch in.

Anonymous said...

2 thoughts about that warning "sign in before starting work" message on the RMs
LOL, 1000 auditors a day waiting then responding to a "reminder" message every time they use an RM. How many minutes per day/ I think we would rather be paid for those minutes and what effect does that time spent have on our APH?
They blame us for "not signing in" when we start work LOL.

dead horse said...

Why are we being treated like imbeciles by corp. when the idiots who write and publish the procedures include instructions:

".................., you must first ask which item is link with cause you only count what is physically in store."

Last time I looked at English. it should have read "it is linked with".

I'd tell you the store but I'm doing it tomorrow and don't need to aggravate my D.M. January is tough enough.

IDIOTS AND IMBECILES AND CRETINS RULE!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Anyone do an account with the RM-V or RM Verifier??

I've done two, one where we have to recount using RMV Recount mode which is worse than Gamestop. At least at Gamestop you can count the area before it is 1st counted. With RMV you have to wait for the area to be transmitted. Slows the entire process down, and forget about finishing up at the end. Those last areas transmitted then have to be rcounted.

Then there is the RMV you give to the Customer... They can look at any area (that's transmitted), can do a random item search or even have detail listing of the area. Some customers are given permission to make changed to the area. You still have to approve the change in the portable so what is the point?

So now I have to run the store, teach new people, ensure everyone is hitting their APH, train the store how to use the RM and recount the store which in the APH the didn't take the recounter out of the calc APH target.
Go figure.

A annoyed worker said...

Why do I still work for RGIS??? Because it is my first job and I need some working experience before I can apply for some other jobs since they require it. Basically Im waiting for something, ANYTHING better to come along. But here is the thing. I have learned APH is like everything. Only for SOME of the supervisors is accuracy more important than your APH. Besides that its always about your APH and speed. Working for measly pay is really no fun. I only look forward to my paycheck at the end of the week.

Anonymous said...

how much do they pay? I have an interview this thurs.?

Anonymous said...

DON'T GO!

Anonymous said...

I am thrilled to read these comments. I somehow got turned down by RGIS for an inventory taker position because I did not meet their minimum qualifications. This is in in spite of the fact that I have a BBA in Accounting and was once an audit supervisor for the largest company in the world! I supervised twenty-five exempt(management level) employees and we audited very large companies. I was interested in this job because I have been out of the work force while raising my children and was looking for something to jump start my career.

APH=LOL said...

I'm about to hit a minor milestone with RGIS having been my employer, but getting my paycheck this morning is making me want to either give them my two-weeks' notice or (what I really feel like doing) outright quitting. What would have been overtime one week was just pushed onto the other week; same amount of hours, no overtime for me. It's about a ten dollar difference, but honestly: I have dealt with:

*pissant greyshirts moving me around from an area ("finish that one you're working on and come with me") and then blaming me for leaving the gap in areas at the end of the inventory (we had boatloads of bodies sitting around doing little towards the end, run the ranges or whatever and get somebody on it!)
*having to work without a break, not being paid for at -least- the length of the non-paid break (why not dock me a 45-minute lunch since you're taking 30 minutes away anyway? Good business!)
*never getting the call that a location a half hour away has been canceled
*getting a follow-up call to my "uh hey was this canceled or what" amounting to "why the fuck didn't you go to a store on your new, revised schedule for this week that we didn't send to you LOL WHOOPS"

I know I've already entered that territory, so I'll spare you guys all the gripes I have that are probably universal for us auditors. All the store employees hawking over you and following you at creepy-stalker distances in a goddamn low-end retail store, the calls for you to make a recount because the store employee decided to count stuff by the number of hangers (the one true beginner's trap!), the newly-hired morons who don't speak English and are assigned near you, making you do your own work and half of theirs until they figure it out. Last but not least, getting dragged out and paid minimum wage for bullshit credentials (complete with a supervisor feeding you the answers) to work at some "more discerning" store or location and then never being scheduled for those places (at least it'll look good on my resume HURRR HURRR HURRR).

tl;dr edition: All I can say is RGIS is fun times. And APH really does make me laugh out loud.

rectal counter said...

ethics hotline

RGIS has set up a hotline for whistle blowers pretty much.

So i sent in my ethical complaint (i was forced to choose a district so i picked earth city) most of my complaint below...



The unethical violation is the company heads setting artificial hard
goals based on numbers inflated by cheating. After one does it
some follow and so on till you have a company full of people
cheating. All the team leaders in my district cheat. The ones that
had ethics quit. Now there are just the batch kings and the ones
that just make things up.

This is nationwide. I have talk to people all over the country

When you set artificial goals to make more profits people will cheat
to obtain them to save their jobs or to make more money.

SO WHAT IS UNETHICAL IS CORPORATE SETTING
UNREALISTIC GOALS. AFTER PEOPLE OBTAIN THESE GOALS
THEN GOING ON A WITCH HUNT TO SCRAPE OFF A FEW
RANDOM ONES WITH AXES TO GRIND.

THEY ARE NOT UNETHICAL PEOPLE THEY ARE IN AN
UNETHICAL SYSTEM.

All the DM's Am's and most team leaders, which i am one of them,
cheat to obtain their numbers. You can recount, printout, let stores
view real time counting all you want there will be cheating. The
best cheaters have the best numbers. When my numbers are
triple the calc that would be a clue something funny is going on.

No DM is going to say anything major is a problem since they don't
want to risk their job. I don't give a shit about my job. I would have
no problem revealing my name. But i don't to protect my district.

I don't expect much of a response if any. But just to see if the
corporate people are just blindly clueless or just don't care and like
to put cosmetic bandages on problems. I assume the corporate
people are all just sitting on their paychecks protecting their jobs till
something explodes.


ALSO i am not from the district i clicked on. Earth city seemed funny. I am just from the planet earth.

complaint number 8139804329

rectal counter said...

On the recount program. The basic computer manual they gave me to "train" me for the recount process was a joke. Of coarse i cheated when i took the test to certify myself. Sure big surprise at RGIS.

I had to do a gamestop recount once, the manager was clueless so i was able to get away with murder. I just walked up to the areas and type in the pieces.

Also had to do a store where i had to recount a certain percentage of the store. The best part was when i was all done and had to make a correction that the store gave the wrong number to one of my employees. When i transmitted the piece the portable spit it as a recount now. So now i had to recount the entire area.

Also fun to catch all the people just deleting out one piece to make the pieces match but guess what not the skus.

So the new recount systems i am clueless since i was only fake trained.

As to procedures my last store procedures were typed by two retarded monkeys. I could tell it was two since one did not agree with the other.

It would say no overrides allowed.
two lines later...
If you have to override get permission and put in price

The Misfit said...

Rectal Counter: Please let us know here what kind of response you get from that ethics hotline. If you get one. ;-)

Anonymous said...

95% of people who work for RGIS, I believe, are cheaters. I was a Top Gun. I cheated to get to Top Gun. Once I was Top Gun I could easily hold the Top Gun numbers by not cheating, but that's what makes me a Top Gun I guess. If you want to get paid the most you can you have to cheat to get there. I'm a good counter, I can get a top gun number without cheating but most of the time I cheated anyway just to make the supervisor happy, and believe you me, the supervisor never cared, nor my am, nor my dm, give them numbers with minimal errors, I was great at it, they loved me, then I wised up and quit. But I will say this, it does take some common sense to be able to cheat and make a top gun number, there are some stupid f**cks out there that just do not know how to cheat. You would think it wouldn't be such a difficult task, but for some, I guess it just is. I liked my job, sometimes I miss it, I don't miss the BS that came with it, but it was fun sometimes. I was a great top gun, and that's what is so sad about this company, if you are good enough to be top gun then you won't stay because you're also smart enough to know this company doesn't deserve you

BEST TOPGUN EVER! said...

I have read this blog a few times and have found some quite humorous posts. I recently stepped down as a DM for RGIS. I ran a travelling crew that took care of home depot inventories. My travel schedule was insanely brutal for my area. I travelled throughout the entire upper mid-west of the U.S. conducting these inventories. My main states included MN, WI, IA, NE, SD, ND, IL, MI. I had to drive to these states, and the many cities within, multiple times a year. Many of the trips were by myself in order to conduct pre inventory visits and whatnot. The drives to NE were especially bad due to the fact that i would have to occasionally wake up at midnight, drive for 10 1/2 hours, do a 15 minute walkthrough of a store and go home another 10 1/2 hours.....it gets to you after a few years. I was making great money as a salaried manager, especially for my age but the travel and strain on your mental and physical health was getting unbearable. The stores loved my team, my AM, and even myself, so much so that i now have offers to work at HD ;) I will most likely go to HD but for the time being I have decided to become a counter again. It may sound wierd but going from a management position in RGIS back to an hourly capacity is a very freeing feeling. No longer do i have to scramble to send my scorecard for the days inventory to my ops manager, scramble to send my store to HQ because the customer NEEDS TO LOOK AT THE DATA IMMEDIATLEY!!! No longer do i have to do timesheets for twenty some people on my day off, or sit on a "motivational conference call" only to listen to the failing managers get yelled at, and when they actually ask for guidance they are told to stop complaining. I, fortunately, was a good manager. I won awards, my team loved me and was sad to see me go, and i will miss most of them too.

Most of the comments and testimonies on this blog are correct and ive experienced all of them...

So, if you are indeed thinking of getting a job with RGIS and are reading this post...smoke weed....lots and lots of weed. Youll make it through any inventory. It is one of the most tedious and monotonous jobs out there but it can pay well and keep you employed. And if you just dont know what to do with yourself in life, move up the ranks in RGIS. Its easy, and you will learn a lot. Just dont get stuck there...my senior managers are completely consumed by inventory, it is very sad listening to these people speak when you can hear the defeat in their voices.

My name pays homage to all the cocky-ass top-guns and team leaders out there. Keep whining, we'll listen. And remember....

ACCURACY, ACCURACY, ACCURACY!!!!!!

ahhhh f*ck it.....

TL Too said...

Guess everyone got that email about the "Code Of Ethics" that everyone will have to sign. And, about their hotline to report abuse. I didn't realize this company had any ethics left. Managers outright telling people to batch in stores to improve the store APh etc. And, Rectal, you are right about their goals. They are continuously raising the store APH's once we hit them too often making it even more difficult. And, the reason they are being hit to begin with is that everyone is cheating. And, they want us to sign a Code Of Ethics?? Yeah, so that if we get caught doing what managers are instructing us to do, we will be the people going out the door. A good example of their ethics is the fact that they eliminated bonuses in all financial inventories. The reason?
They realized people were cheating by switching dollars and pieces.
And, this of course, was increasing the bonuses in those accounts. Solution? Eliminate the bonus or the extra money the auditors make, but no where in their scenario did they tell people to stop doing it or they will get fired. Nope. As long as they are still making a ton of money in those stores by people cheating, it is OK. They just won't give you a bonus for doing it. Ethics?? yeah, right. The TL/supervisor of one of our larger financial supermarket accounts told me that her solution is 'tell everyone to slow down so we are in the store an hour longer' making up the lost bonus but still just hitting the store by a few pieces to keep them off her back. The troups are starting to balk and to start fighting back. As far as just counting in your own stores where your APH is protected, did it ever occur to anyone that you are in a dead end position. We will never get a raise. Ever!!
We are running their stores, making them a ton of money, and basically, will get nothing in return. Think about it. We have had several of our supervisors who run dedicated teams step down because they felt dead ended.

YouKnowMeButYouWishYouDidn't said...

A question for those auditors based in the UK, and any ex-management who may like to provide some information. Every year we usually sign the Auditor's Handbook, this year I haven't...can anybody tell me if there are any repercussions from this?

Anonymous said...

Let's face it, RGIS,WIS and the rest of the so-called "inventory" businesses are all shams. The only way to really inventory a big grocery store is to take everything off the shelves and out of the coolers. It should take at least 10 hours. But they are not gonna pay for that. New people learn real quick that you either cheat or you won't get called to another store. If you have worked more than 3 inventories .....you are a cheater!And some of it is just plain acting! RGIS acts like they are paying you a decent wage, and YOU act like you are honestly giving the customer his money worth. We were all there at the scene of the crime.Someone should have called 9-1-1. We should all be arrested for being an accomplice to a crime.Think about that when go to that ATM to get your blood money.....there's blood on everybody's hands. After you take off the rose-colored glasses ,because now you know what this job is all about, then you show up to do the next inventory....guess what? you have just sold your code of honesty for a paycheck!

APH=LOL said...

I didn't sell my code of honesty! All of my batching is in the utmost of good faith! And my speedy estimate of how many boxes make up that splendid, ten-foot, slightly-off-because-the-stockboy-didn-t-care pyramid of Oreos on display? Truly based on the rigors of the hard sciences!

Giving half a shit is all I expect of myself now because it gets the job done. Give a shit and a half if the store manager is nosing around (funny how so many managers that have been around a while truly don't care and overlook some of the plainest attempts at batching or gross estimation) or giving the crew trouble. Hell, we all know most of the time (all of the time if you're good at it) you can safely cease brain function and regain consciousness at some point in the future and the inventory'll be over. Autopilot FTW, everybody just hang in there.

Anonymous said...

TO APH=LOL: An employer cannot legally move your hours from one workweek to another workweek to escape their obligation to pay you overtime, it is a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act which defines a workweek as a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours, or seven consecutive 24-hour periods. Contact your local US Department of Labor - Wage and Hour Division to report their violation.

Anonymous said...

APH_LOL, I'm not trying to start a fight with anyone. But the fact still remains, that if you put an honest man or woman, in a den of thiefs, he or she will become a thief. Yes, you sold your Code of Honesty....bought and paid for. The only way to get your Code of Honesty back is to quit RGIS! I worked for RGIS for ten years. If you need the job and the money, i get that, been there! But remember, they ask for a chunk of your Ethics, a piece of your Honesty......I just could not give anymore! What is the Code of Honesty? Just go to a mirror and look at the person staring back at you..... is that an honest person?

rectal counter said...

The "ethics response"

Thank you for contacting the RGIS Human Resources Department. Please be assured that we received your concerns and we are reviewing the information thoroughly, however, in order for us to ensure the matters are investigated and handled appropriately, we will need you to provide more specific information regarding the 'cheating.' More specifically:

• Please provide the nature of the 'cheating.'
• Who has been engaged in the behavior?
• What managers are involved in carrying out these actions?
• Please provide stores for examples of when this happened.

Concerns of this nature are taken very seriously by the Company. Please respond at your earliest convenience as I would like to ensure that your concerns are reviewed and addressed in a timely manner.

We appreciate your time.

Thanks,
Kim Previch
Employee Relations Specialist
RGIS, LLC - Human Resources
P: 248-601-6978
F: 248-656-6609

Honestly i give up. I can't dumb it down anymore for them. I tell them most of the company is corrupt and i am not going to scapegoat anyone. Thier response is generic asking me to single out people. If anyone likes the feeling of bashing your head against a wall feel free to call the number above and try to explain.

rectal counter said...

This is how all emails from rgis come now...I always get a chuckle from it.

NOTE: The information in this email may be confidential and legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not read, use or disseminate the information; please advise the sender immediately by reply email and delete this message and any attachments without retaining a copy...

My response to this nonsense is your lawyers must be getting their degrees from cracker jack boxes if you think you can send me an email and put an obligation on me to do or not to do anything with it.

rectal counter said...

APH=LOL (pretty funny stuff)

All of my batching is in the utmost of good faith!
Truly based on the rigors of the hard sciences!
Giving half a shit is all I expect of myself now because it gets the job done.

I use to give a half a shit but then they did not pay me too so now they get a quarter of a shit. Well i have to go to work i am 2.5 hours late already. Oh wait i called in sick for the entire week. I forget now when i get a sniffle i call in for the entire week :-) When i gave half a shit i would work at least a few days. I am just extending my Superbowl weekend for 9 days big deal :-P RGIS does not pay for my availability.

i try to keep what ethics i can with the 800lb gorilla (rgis) jumping on my chest demanding profits.

The Darkone said...

As sad as it may be I prefer RGIS over WIS. I worked for them both in the past and over the many years of doing inventory I've gotten tired but as was said earlier, there isn't a whole lot out there to choose from. So I will bit my lip and bare through the soul stealing RGIS till I can find something more suitable for my families own sanity. Granted if it weren't for a few of my coworks helping me get through the the days of long hours and multiple stores I don't think I could handle the drama. Needless to say if you are working for RGIS or WIS and are hating it. Just hang in there something else is bound to turn up sooner or later (I hope). I hate running stores....

Anonymous said...

I must be the odd duck, while RGIS is far from a perfect company, for the most part I haven't had any real problems. Even though the hours are a bit strange, it kinda works for me, because I'm a night owl anyways. As to office politics, I am for the most part able to disengage from all that, but at the end of the day, it's just a job, a way of making money.

Anonymous said...

The worst memories I have are of the new hires realizing what hell they had gotten into, the look in their eyes. Yes they needed the money, but at what cost. Then seeing what happened next.

Anonymous said...

In terms of inventory companies, the best one to work for might be the newest one, PICS.

A lot smaller company, obviously, but there's not the super pressure to be sure to hit your specific numbers. Sure, they want to be done as quick as possible, but they don't sacrifice accuracy to do it. They also don't put unrealistic counting demands on its auditors.

Not a perfect company to work for, not the worst either.

They also just beat out RGIS for the Michigan Kroger account.

Anonymous said...

just returned to rgis after a few years away.Wish i'd seen this before applying.It was bad before,but now its just a horrible joke.It's 100 times worse.Thought that after the lawsuits that they would have come to there senses.Silly me!!

Anonymous said...

Wow! I just stumbled upon this blog and I had to read every single comment made! I was a DM many, many years ago and I loved my job! I haved missed it, the strange hours, counting, and top guns were a serious "put on a pedestal" real person, raises were given based on your average and loyalty (always on time, showing up to every inventory). We gave awards out locally to those who went above and beyond the call of duty, to the most improved, etc. I loved doing sales calls and even was asked and delivered a speech on doing sales during the company wide meeting in Vegas. I loved the people that worked for me (some of them are still working and are DM's now)and training was my specialty. I always held training! I wanted everyone to be a great counter and enjoy getting better all the time. Soooo...now that I live in a remote area...I was thinking that it's time to go back. I was sure they would love to have someone that can lead and count in a travel district...BUT, after reading all of these blogs, I just can't believe how downhill it has gone. I can see how it happened though and honestly recounts have always been easy to fix and I guess that still hasn't changed. The difference is we had trained counters that were really good and now RGIS creates untrained batchers that honestly put a damper on those of you that are great counters. In some weird way, I'd like to go back just to see how bad it is, but in another way it just doesn't sound worth it. I was going to do it without letting them know that I used to work there and my capacity when I was there. The funny thing...I was fired! I guess that was a sign of how low they were about to go...

What a great blog this is!!!!

Anonymous said...

PICS, LOL, that is the old AST, the company that made audits for RGIS before they were bought by Blackstone. I used the R1 then A2 thru the A14 model. The R2 had a battery pack of C cell batteries attached by a wire to the Audit.
The A5 was famous for being released in January and not transmitting.
They even have a picture of the audit on their web site, that brought back memories.

rectal counter said...

funny... We were on a conference call recently and we were discussing some of the best practices on how we were doing so good in some stores. Well there is this auto scan inventory and one of the counters was near 3000pcs an hour and they were genuinely asking how and what the person was counting to get that high an average. Absolutely preciously clueless. I really think that they thought there was no cheating involved.

Well on the good side of accuracy Abercrombie and Fitch and Hollister stores seem to have made an agreement with rgis there will be a non counting supervisor and no Calc but the averages of all the counters will still count. So the counter will still have motive to cheat.

rectal counter said...

As to PICS i here it is a pretty good company to work for, they try to treat there employees well. But the problem is the company is new and does not have that many clients so work can be limited.

This company use to make machines for RGIS but they only had a verbal contract with rgis. So rgis screwed over this company and went with a cheaper model. So since this company had all these machines they opened up a inventory company of their own. Way to make the market more competitive. "allegedly"

Rgis is trying to crack down on all the cheating but the more they come up with the more creative the cheating becomes. There was so much cheating with financial stores they just gave up and stop making them calc stores.

If the idiots continue to put up hard goals the cheating will continue regardless of any counter measures.

I know i cheat on occasion and i am sure if i wanted to i could get around all of the cracking down and make every goal. My 10% calc hit rate shows how little i care to cheat now.

Anonymous said...

Hello fellow RGIS'ers! I have been watching this blog for years, and thought it was time to put in my two cents. RGIS did used to be the best company to work for until the buy out. Now it is nothing more than a sweatshop from HDQ to the auditors - and the worst is yet to come. To get the facts straight, RGIS and AST were in a partnership. After the buy out, the new buyers severed the partnership with AST. Because the VP did not share the vision of the new buyers, he left ON HIS OWN accord and joined up with AST to recreate the world's leading inventory company. Virtue and integrity of a organziation starts at the top, and that philosophy has been moved to PICS. PICS is the new RGIS made up of many of the same people that started RGIS. These are the same people that were running RGIS when it was the best company to work for. It is smaller right now because PICS is so conscientious about delivering quality and accuracy, and growth needs to be controlled to continue delivering the best service. Working for a smaller entrepenurial company is tough, but if you have the drive and a commitment to excellence, then I would look at PICS. I would imagine we will see some of the national accounts moving to PICS once it is large enough to service them 100%. I hope so anyway.

Anonymous said...

The real reason they went with a non-counting supervisor and dropped the Calc with Abercrombie and Fitch is that A&F threatened to work.
RGIS knows people are cheating so they drop the Calc on certain stores. They done that are some of the bath stores as well.
New for A&F if the area is transmitted twice the portable will delete the first area. So if you are off one piece and add it to a 100 piece area the 100 is deleted and all you have is 1.
Anything to keep this customer.

Same thing with Staples, we now can't go in early to count backroom/security and midstocks. In the 100's of Staples I've done I've never seen anything sold from the midstock. So supervising you now end up there well past 1am on a 9p salesfloor.
Anything for the customer.

Anonymous said...

RE: PICS

Depends on the area, but you can get pretty good hours, including overtime.

Pay is also significantly higher than RGIS.

They don't have offices nationwide, but probably could open more with a big nationwide account.

Have heard they are starting to turn profits now, instead of just breaking even.

Anonymous said...

My RGIS experience. I found this blog a couple years ago but just now posting.

I applied and worked for RGIS during Jan of 2009. I am 40, and was a full-time graduate student and had a little down-time during my winter break.

When I was an undergrad college student in the late 80's and early 90's, me and several of my friends worked for RGIS during the rush periods. I actually enjoyed it then, though it was also crazy then. At the time, the pay was good, it was fun, and I liked the people I worked with. I worked RGIS off & on, in two different districts, throughout college. By the end, I was a "dark blue shirt" (LOL, forget the title) and ran a few grocery stores before quitting to take a FT "real" job.

So in Jan 2009 I stupidly applied for RGIS thinking it was like it had been previously, and I'd be able to make a few thousand bucks during my school break. Hah! What a completely disfunctional company it is now. I never really was trained, I basically sorta figured out the new Audit machine on my own. "Back in the day" APH was a factor, but you weren't a slave to it. Everyone helped each other out, and new employees were teamed up with a "buddy" to make sure things go smoothly during the first few stores. Now, it's everybody for themselves, and if you ask questions or try to learn, it hurts your APH, so nobody bothers. There's literally no time to even be nice to people.

I managed to put up with it for a month until school started, but it was more trouble than it was worth. Very few stores ever lasted much more than 3 hrs, so you got few hours, even though you might have 2 or 3 stores in a day. In the old days you got paid very well for mileage, and there was a company carpooling policy, no more. Driving 30 miles one-way to a store to get paid for 3 hours, screw that.

Funny thing is, I didn't care, which is not like me because I'm a conscientious person. This time, I was like "f*ck it". You want a high APH? Fine. I took every opportunity to just scan anything, multiple times, while keeping an eye out to make sure nobody saw me. The risk of getting fired was not a threat, because I every time I went to work, I was prepared to quit! In an strange way it was liberating.

In my earlier RGIS experience, accuracy was more important than speed. I was fast, but not the fastest. Nobody ever complained about my speed, it was only if a recount was wrong. This time, during an entire month, I think they checked my accuracy ONCE. Years ago, at EVERY store, spvrs would routinely do checks where they'd pull you and search back at least 10 items in your machine. This time, nobody was checking, so I'd scan one sweater 5 times to keep that APH up. Price checks? HAH! Who has time to wait for that, just double-scan something.

A couple of the managers were on to me, and realized I had half a brain and were decent and put me to good use. A couple others I think were suspicious of me, probably because they realized I was smarter than them and could be some sort of threat.

Anyhow, if you work for this company, try as hard and fast as you can to get out. It was always a crazy and sometimes stressful job, but it used to be a decent company run by a decent family, but those days are gone.

BreakTime said...

I have a friend that left Rgis to work for PICS. They are struggling right now to make a profit. They are trying to show the customer that they are better than RGIS and WIS, but that is causing them the following problem. By playing it straight and bending over backwards to please the customer, it's costing them their profits. The higher gas prices sure don't help either.PICs is currently looking for an investment of 5 million dollars by the end of 2011 in order to keep going. They are still small time players behind RGIS and WIS.
The management team at PICS are no fools. They know that at some point they are gonna have to turn a profit or fold their tent. 2011 is gonna be their make or break year. It's been a lot harder to take accounts away from RGIS and WIS than they thought. They found out in the Cleveland, Ohio area that RGIS would loss money on certain accounts rather than let PICS get them.
WIS launched a whisper campain aginst PICS that basically called the PICS auditors everything from theives to druggies, and the mgnt team incompetant liar's. My friend also told me that it's a known fact that WIS and RGIS have sent spies in to work at each others company.
They have really targeted PICS. Don't be fooled, Blackstone has deep pockets. The inventory business is brutal and ruthless. They could pay a living wage if they wanted. But why should they when they can get all the warm bodies they need, and hire them from the waist down at lower pay.....and pocket the rest. We are all just pawns in a rich man's chess game. And i do agree, a job is a job! Why do i still work for RGIS? The paltry 20 hours a week i get so that my family can keep our $500 a month in food stamps, that's why!!!

Anonymous said...

I was just offered a job today.... I'm guessing I should decline? Still don't know the hourly rate! 3 people in the "interview" which consisted of filling out papers, watching a video, and "Ed" saying thanks, we'll be in touch...WTF.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone have the latest on the settlement check? I thought we were going to get it in February. I just heard it may not be for another month. Someone said there was another court hearing on Mar. 25th. What gives? I need that money badly! Plus, I hear the gray shirts got their check already in a separate case--why not the rest of us???

APH=LOL said...

I realize the comments have been somewhat slow 'n' stagnant, but how about a new blog post for the (not so much anymore I suppose) new year? Maybe rattle off a few more RGIS tidbits if they come to mind, Misfit?

All my fellow auditors, keep on batchin' in the free world. Also, how're your schedules looking? I've been seated at the 35-45 hour per week table for a long while now, and the extra peanuts are making me feel too lazy to look for a better job, lol.

Anonymous said...

The law suit check may also be based on state. I'm in NY not one of the states in the law suit but covered by the Federal Fair Labor Act. Maybe the states in the law suit gets their check first. I haven't seen a red cent from any law suit.

Anonymous said...

Who has gotten the letter about requiring 3 week notice to take time off?
Three weeks for a part time job?
Then a DM said he had someone ask for two weeks off and he did not approve it as he felt it was excessive. One week is fine by this DM (not mine). The kicker is the guy was going to get married. Stay Tuned...

Anonymous said...

My schedule this year is way better than it was this time last year.

Anonymous said...

Dear RGIS Employees and Former Employees,

Thanks for posting the warnings. I was just about to post my on-line application, but it looks like RGIS is not a nice place to work. I'll keep looking.

rectal counter said...

AS to checks be written there was a delay. I think Oregon or some west coast state did not have all their paperwork in. So there was another hearing on march 25th.

I heard checks were going to be sent May 2, 2011. Also heard from a coworker he called up the lawyers and they said middle of April. I called them up then realized it was Saturday(noone there)...lol.

It has nothing to do with which state you live in.

To the people that post at other blogs about RGIS and say there will not be any large payouts. I would like to send out a big, Pre FUCK YOU. I laugh at your ignorance, at how the world works.

rectal counter said...

As to comments being slow, there are many times,(like every few days) I would like to post on many topics but I don't want flood this blog with my opinion.

My schedule is constantly loaded with bullshit stores. That i don't like doing and that is all it takes. That is my valid reason since the way they pay me and rate me now. I am averaging one store refused a week. I should be refusing two or 3 honestly most weeks but i guess i feel sorry for my DM and AM's and co workers that have to stay at stores til 2pm since I am not there.

As to giving 3 weeks to take time off. That is something Your DM craped out his ass. And hell i have taken 6-8 weeks off as a teamleader just because i hate working. Have not done it recently last two years but I am planing to take off about 6-7 weeks coming up in the summer. Why? because i hate working and don't need money.

To stay in subject with this blog...i stay because I AM WAITING TO BE FIRED TO COLLECT UNEMPLOYMENT. BUT REGARDLESS OF WHAT I DO I CAN'T GET FIRED.

If you start a new blog saying Holy CRAP! Tell us about the crap going on at rgis...I could post something new every 3 days easily.

Anonymous said...

To rectal counter... please post all of your comments... I enjoy reading what you have to say.

B said...

@rectal counter Yes, please, comment often I work for a district in virginia and absolutely love hearing horror and bullcrap stories

Anonymous said...

Couple of questions.

1. Is it now certain that the settlement checks will be mailed out soon? Rust Consulting has no info when you call them (what else is new), but others say early May is the mailing date. Can anyone provide correct and up to date info on when we might expect to get checks?

2. How badly are employees being hurt by high gas prices? It seems a moneyloser to go to a job that lasts 2 or 3 hours, 30 or more miles away. The gas cost eats up the wage. Has anyone raised this issue with management? Carpools only cover some jobs, and driving to the meet sight takes gas too.

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

I miss the old RGIS. even with its faults (inter-office politics, competitions, etc blah)
In the old days - it was not impossible to earn a living wage, to feel a great sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.
If I had even had a slim hope of that joy of feeling that, I would still be there. No. Not gonna happen. sigh. it was a good place to work.

Tired of the abuse said...

Honestly I am working only until I can find something that is better.

Its been about 7 months of working for RGIS and their crap. Apparently recently a lot of the Top Guns have been taking vacations or due to the recent policy changes that they adapted from the west where you cannot even refuse a job sent to you via schedule or its grounds for termination. If you are a no show be sure to have official documented papers to explain why: Most likely you better have been dying or else its probably no excuse. In New York (where I work) when a job is to far away a company van takes us. Now if you miss that van YOU are still responsible for finding a way to get to work or you are a no show.

So then since there are a lack of top guns they are getting desperate to train more. So now I have been mysteriously ranked up to specialist and in a couple of day will be trained on how to supervise (bullshit much?) a store, use a computer, etc. It will be my first time so supposedly there will be a top gun or someone there to help me.

I honestly have gotten to a point where I am like why? I am not even an expert so why do I have to be trained??? Especially if as an auditor in some stores I couldn't keep my average (note: my aph didn't completely suck but it sometimes would be at 580 of 550 when its supposed to be a 600 aph) Well then since I have to I will do it.

But honestly if I can get a different job sooner then I will happily kick this job in the ass and leave.

Anonymous said...

I find it odd, seeing people talking about "the old" RGIS, either things were always bad here, or things have alway been above average here, but when I came back, things were pretty much the same as when I had left 5 years previous. I think the only thing that was noticeably different, was when I left the emphasis was dollars an hour, and when I came back it was APH

FullTank said...

When gas prices hit the $4.00 mark back in 2008 there wasen't much complaining about it. But this time is different. We had to drive to stores up to 25 miles away(this was considered a local store), but then they changed that to "all stores within one hour away" was now considered a local store. Well here in NE Ohio that translates to 55 miles-one way, 110 miles round trip. And no travel pay. I had to go get another job so i afford to work at RGIS. Now, i only do local (in-town) stores. They only call me when they really,really need me. So i don't get much work anymore. That's OK I'm now working at home for GE Capitol where i call the Rgis people that are behind on their credit card payments....what a hoot! The tipping point for RGIS and alot of service type businesses will be $4.50 to $5.00 a gallon. That price for a gallon of gas will force big changes at RGIS, WIS and any other inventory company. What will they do when the poor auditor can no longer afford the gas to get to work? I know of two people that have run out of gas on their way to do a store! Hell, it's hard now and it will only get harder. The other day i get to the meet site and the driver is asking for gas money....what up with that?

B said...

They tried to force me to train as a supervisor, I told them no, they can't fire you for refusing to take a promotion. I have absolutely no interest in being in a position of authority. Especially in this district. Everything is blamed on the supervisor no matter what it is, and they blow up your phone constantly calling nonstop, might as well just keep them on speaker the whole time your running the store. No call no shows, they don't care, no consequences whatsoever.

Anonymous said...

the Old rgis I was remembering was from the 1990's.
sure some things happened that sucked. But there was a core team of individuals that cared. across the board, auditors to execs. little by little that team was ripped to pieces, replaced by evil no-goods pointing their fingers of blame and wrecking good doers lives. I saw it happen over and over again out of the blue. quote from an evil doer after railroading a good worker out the door "we tried to work with him" lol, effing evil bastards

Anonymous said...

RGIS does not want Top Guns running stores. If you are a Top Gun they want you to be counting and making money for the company.
There is a push to train more experts and specialists to run stores. Not only do they get paid less it won't effect the store average as much.

As to travel, RGIS used to charge customers more if we had to travel to the store. I think they cut that out to be more competitive. If say a district that was over 100 miles from the store took on the entire store themselves RGIS would charge a higher rate. I know because our DM would take a huge amount of travel stores, I mean crossing two states to get to them in the past.
Now we hardly ever travel out of our operations group. So I think the increased rates are things of the past. Maybe they'll bring them back.

rectal counter said...

I remember one of my AM's (the asshole) he bitches a lot. Saying in this so-and-so state the auditors drive the whole entire state...i was ignoring him like usual so i did not pay attention to the details.

Well "travel stores" are less that 25 miles in my district and they do try to get us to go to stores over 25 miles on occasion. Most of the employees do. There might be a revolt if they were asked to drive 55miles one way.

I personally reject any store for any reason (why even provide one) One of the team leaders just no showed for half his stores this week. Written documentation?!! LMAO My district management is lucky they get a call.

We are so short in some stores, i can't believe customers keep rgis.
I did work 2 stores about 22 hours with one hour break in between. No lunch breaks or anything of coarse. So i did call in for a store in the mourning. I got back around 4am after starting a 6am... Had another store at 430am so i called in. I could of done it and would of but i was not on overtime so it was not worth it. I would of done it if i was making my old wage.

I just don't care if they fire me...

As to the new yorker getting ranked up from auditor to specialist is not that hard. You do a few good stores and there you are. In new york they are desperate for TL. I know that for sure.

Many people in my district have moved up. Do they count any faster? Nope the just drag down stores. We miss stores by double digit hours now. I remember all last quarter my AM'S DM'S bitching how bad we are doing... at the end of the quarter. Guess what? one of the higher ups emails us telling congrats were one of the top districts of are division for the quarter. Fuck them...

i got my APH for all my stores. The averages they were telling us mainly to the top guns were way over exaggerated. A store we were told to hit 1500 the average was 800. 1500/real 1000 in another...most grocery stores were told 7-8k pieces when 4-5.5k was the real goal.

I don't believe any of their shit

rectal counter said...

When i train a new team leader, i get punished. 1st off i get my pay cut since i am only making top gun pay when i am basically running a store. Also my average is going down while i train this person. Most the time i just tell them the basics and give them a few tips on one or two things. I keep the really good stuff to myself. RGIS is not a team its all for one...NOT one for all. I am not giving any of the really good stuff away for free to a company that wont reward it. A couple stores ago i buried a secret that would of help. a Store that could only go 5 hours went over 7.5...i just laughed my way to the bank. I was not being PAYED to run it. so why should i help? I am just there to count.

as to "grounds for termination" if you refuse a store. If that was true i would of been fired almost every week and twice on sunday" I just send reply back wont be at xyz store. No need to explain.

sending my request/demand to have many weeks off this summer...i am not asking!!!

This blog will be the 1st to know when i get my check...actually off to check the mail right now.

Anonymous said...

i have been with this company for almost 4 years, and i have grown to loathe going because so much has changed and the people suck. my dm lets people get away with astonishing amounts of bs and i dont know how these people still have jobs! i used to love going to work, back when it was fun, and you werent constantly hounded to "count faster but still be accurate". how? my dm has never picked up an audit and has no idea how hard it can be to get good numbers sometimes. im still here because i dont have the money to quit, and soon that will change!

Anonymous said...

>>When i train a new team leader, i get punished.

If you train someone you should have the CAAP Trainer adder role. It is in every store.

I say that with caution, TCA is changing, I've been ordered to the office to watch a video and they want to update my laptop.

>> A store we were told to hit 1500 the average was 800.

There are two averages. What they tell you in the store an in the procedures is higher then the weekly run reports. There is a secrete MUST MAKE average that isn't in the procedures.

APH=LOL said...

Any blog readers engaged in CVS store setups? I spent nearly six hours today fixing up a section tobacco... turned out the plano was wrong, missing labels, etc. I'm usually the PS on these assignments but I let myself get too far ahead of my expected timeline... now I'm setting up shelves and cleaning fifteen year old fixtures (I like the company, but CVS is cheap (addendum: at least they ain't RGIS cheap)).

Inflate your APH and take a smoke break for good ol' APH=LOL. Stay sane out there!

JohnLocke'sBrokenBack said...

Just a comment to the "so why do you still work for RGIS?" portion of this post.

First of all, let me tell you all that I escaped the wrath of RGIS in April 2010. Months and months of searching for a new job came to precisely nothing, until one day I was contacted for an interview by one of the UK's leading supermarkets. I wont name names, but here's a couple of hints for you British folk. RGIS count it, and it starts with "s" and ends in "ainsbury's". Believe me, the underhanded tactics on THEIR side during stocktake's equal RGIS'. They're as bad as each other.

So happy days. After five years (to be fair, I only started to hate it during my final year and a half there), I was out. At last, I had steady hours, no pay disputes (in theory) and no worrying about work in November and December.

Since then I have moved onto another well known British supermarket chain. Let me tell you, it's RGIS part two. I have only been working here for two months and already the level of mis communication, lack of information and dreary work environment is up there with that of RGIS. In two months I have had them lose all the forms I filled in. After I filled them in again they were lost en route to their office in India (?), resulting in be still being emergency taxed. One guy I work with claims to have been on emergency tax for SIX MONTHS when he started. I wouldn't put this past Tesc . . . eh, I mean, this company.

So does any of this sound familiar? Ridiculous targets enforced onto us by management who sit behind their desks who haven't the first idea of what it's like to do the work, passing these targets onto a duty manager who then forces it onto us. We can't possibly achieve these nigh on impossible figures, so we get it in the neck from the duty manager. He gets it in the neck from his boss and so on and on and on . . . . .

I guess my point is sometimes it's better to work for the devil the better you know. Due to a financial crisis the world over, there's not much difference between working for RGIS or any other major company.

Happy job hunting everyone!

The Misfit said...

J.L.B.B.- I meant to publish your comment but when I tried to Blogger had a message that said the comment no longer exists. Please re-post it if you wish to see it published. If not then that's okay too.

bet I bust said...

been with rgis for 2yrs, and prob will stay for a bit more. Theres nothing wrong with wanting a job an gaining experience BY working here... but just dont make the stay TOO long, or else this company will eat you alive. Actually, the company AND coworkers (well most of them.

I wont disclose my district, but I am part of the travel/home depot crew.`If i could summarize us in one word, it would be "DRAMA!!". Im getting pretty sick and tired of the ass-kissing, the sabotaging, the envy amongst coworkers, the rudeness, AND more.

Travel team is GOOD money, but grief and drama is also included in the package. Go for it, but just dont put up with the bulls**t.

I think Ill post more experiences along the way (:

Anonymous said...

My father worked for RGIS from a teen to his mid forties. He worked very hard for the company, and seemed to do well. Unfortunately, after RGIS decided to be the company it has become, they just let him go. He was an Area Manager, and made very good money. He supported my mother and two children. While also supporting a second wife and child. They just seemed to let him go, all of a sudden. Luckily, my father is deceivingly aware, he doesn't look it, but he is very intelligent, and saw the move coming. He saved various emails and was able to get a year of severance after a good fight for it. And now hes joined a new company that seems to have formed from the several fired RGIS workers, which he calls the resistance. A lot of my family has worked with RGIS, on both sides, my uncle still remains, and a few close friends, though the only reasons being the comfortable life style they can afford to give their families. I do miss it, I must admit. My dad always seemed to live so glamorously with his nice company car, and getting to fly all the time, plus it was nice being able to ask for money with out any hesitation. Times change though, and it seems hes working twice as hard, for half the pay, when he should be thinking of retirement. RGIS, really good in screwing.

The Misfit said...

@Anon: Wow, your dad worked for RGIS for a really long time. It sounds like he's the kind of employee that the company should have been hanging on to for dear life, instead of being let go just like that. It sounds like another example of RGIS not valuing the right employees.

"The Resistance", I like that. So they've formed a new inventory service to compete with RGIS, is that it? If that's the case then best of luck to them, I hope they're successful at it. :-)

Anonymous said...

The only reason I work there is because I pretty much have to. I could not find a job all summer after my lay off in June. I saw an opening in early August and applied online. Surprisingly, I got a response quickly to set up an interview. I had no real idea about the job other than I knew they went around and did inventory. Did not know it would be so monotonous, although I had a feeling it would not be the best job and I should have known better. My suspicions were confirmed when I went into the local office for an interview. The door was locked and no one was home. Just a sign that read "Interview tomorrow at 12pm, saturday". So they never had the decency to notify me of this. Other than that, it felt weird they would offer me an interview only 2 days after applying, before I could even follow up. In this economy, who is getting job offers that fast other than places where there is so much turnover? Anyways, the interview was rather easy. There were no real hard interview questions. Just questions about availability and whether or not you could stoop and crouch for hours. I then had a training session the following monday. A day later I had my first audit at 3:30 am (leaving time). We all met in the parking lot and I felt like I was the only "normal" person there. The unfriendly stereotypes about the people I have read on this blog are pretty much true, although no one has done pot yet. The people are basically near do wells. Everyone smokes in the raveling vans with the windows open..Yes! However, I have been lucky that most of the people there are nice, but I have heard stories of pot misadventures. Apparently, on a different trip someone just whipped out a joint in the company van. Yes!....ANyways, my first audit was somewhat hectic. The training video dosnt really help you understand the RM-1 in terms of its inner functions and my car pool was late because the people stopped twice for smoke breaks on the way. So when we got there everyone else was busy counting away. The area manager is somewhat aloof and not very helpful. I'm still learning new thing each store because there is no one there to really show you the ropes. However, it seems like you can do no wrong because there is so little over sight at the bigger stores. But all the horribleness is true. Stores are constantly understaffed to the dismay of store managers. The grey shirts are somewhat at a loss to this. They cant do much about it. I soon realized the APH is a joke. I was at old navy and my aph was supposed to be over 600 or something. Impossible! Tags are never just 'there' to scan. They are always tucked in shirts, sometimes in other shirts! Cheating must be rampant and the only way to advance. Occasionally, you will also get store managers, seperate from RGIS that are very strict about the count. THey hover constantly around you. Its probably the worst job I ever had. THey do not send out checks either. Its direct deposit or 'pay cards'. Pay cards are basically debit cards and they have there own account. Why they do not send out checks is anyones guess, however, this is rgis we are talking about. Direct deposit dosnt kick in until 5 weeks, so your stuck with the pay card. The first card they sent was wrong....of course. Basically, this a bad job although the work is somewhat simple and difficult at the same time. Two people have quit since i started 6 weeks ago. I might after I find a full time job

The Misfit said...

Anon @ 9/20: They smoked in the vans and they stopped for smoke breaks? Damn. That was one of the things that I felt was unfair about things at RGIS: smokers got to take as many 'breaks' as they wanted while on the job while us non-smokers could only take the 1 or 2 breaks as determined by CA state law. Of course, the AM was a smoker so he let his smoking buddies just drift on out of a store to smoke as much as they liked.

Anonymous said...

You know, RGIS could be a grate company, but is not. I do have to admit you have to be one mean tough dog to survive RGIS. They only care about their own profits/commisions. They need to get sue more often and tamed the beast down. See how they behave when you attack there pockets!

Anonymous said...

Just quit RGIS last week. I gave them my two week notice via email and have not heard anything back. As far as I know, I only have one more shift to go this week. Its a super early morning shift and I'm tempted to just not even show up, especially since they don't even bother to acknowledge my email. Why did I work for RGIS? Because its the only thing I could find in a bad economy. Thats the basically the only reason why anyone should work for them. I'm not trashing anyone who enjoys the work or the company. To each his own. i just don't see anything thats great about this company.

Starting wage is minimum wage, but I think RGIS would pay 2 dollars an hour if they could. Maybe those liberals were right all along. They seem to always have just enough people to stretch the jobs. I'm not sure if they have a difficult time hiring people. Within the first 3 weeks I was hired, two people quit and I have not seen anyone new for about 4 months now. I think they will probably be in a jam if I leave but I don't think everyone else will mind because it means one less counter and more hours for everyone else. Mind you most of the people who work for RGIS are on some kind of government assistance because the pay is so low. That was another thing I never got about the company. There is almost no incentive provided to work hard. They want you to count the store as fast as possible, but that means less hours and less money. You could get more per hour (up to 12 i believe) by becoming a top gun. However, its surprisingly difficult to do this because of the shear volume of items you must count. Not to mention, you have to maintain this constantly. One slip up and you will be demoted. This is of course assuming you even get promoted in the first place because you have to get approved first. Meanwhile, people pushing carts at Costco get 12 dollars an hour to start....Not to mention, the people! Most of them all are weird to the max, seriously desperate people. RGIS is the job that ex cons get after their release because no one else will hire them.

RGIS is a joke company. My training consisted of watching a video and then being jammed into a smoke filled van at 3 am the next monday. Of course, once I got into the store, I knew very little about the actual useful features of the RM-1. Its a learn as you go experience. Everyone was so busy counting, you just pray someone will care enough to help you out if you need it. Some stores are more strict about counts, but working bigger stores hardly felt accurate. Who is going to recount your 200 plus item area??? Grocery stores especially make no sense. You scan nothing at these stores. You simply enter in the price and then the number of items for that price all the way down the isle. And you will do some fudging because that is the only way to finish. I just wonder why they even bother since all they want is a dollar amount. Apparently, this is supposed to be accurate to withing 2% of what the store manager thinks they have. However, the real trouble comes with the smaller mall type store, specifically clothing stores. I think RGIS is losing some business here where the counts are not that accurate. but because everything is on racks and shelfs in somewhat limited form, the managers rightfully expect it done perfectly. What happens is RGIS may not have enough people sent to the store and the store has to be done in a certain time, but there is not enough workers and it takes forever and you find yourself there until 2 am listening to the 20 something store manager dress down your superviser.....fun times...


Work there if you have to. Do what you can. Look constantly for another job. Any job is better than RGIS and never look back.

Anonymous said...

I started working for RGIS back in January 2009 after I got laid off in December of 2008. At first I liked the job and thought it might be something I could get into but later realized that I should of ran, ran as fast as I could from this job. Now it's been three years and I'm still here. I'm still looking but it's a dog eat dog world out there now and finding work is not easy. It's a shame RGIS don't pay there employees a better per hr wage. I have never worked for a company that won't fire a no good worthless piece of poop of an employee. We always have people showing up late, not at all, drunk, half drunk, on drugs and still manage to keep their jobs. Amazing!!

RGIS hater said...

Anon@Dec13 pretty much hit it right on the spot. Work there if you absolutely **HAVE** too such as if you're going to lose your apartment or something if you stop getting a paycheck. Otherwise, run. Run and never look back.

I was hired in the beginning of December, went through a "training course" that literally consisted of watching a few videos about the company and scanning two pages of practice barcodes, then was sent home. I literally had two shifts for the entire month of December. I didn't work for over three weeks straight. January comes and I finally get some shifts and I come to find out that the job is absolutely dreadful. You literally scan barcodes all day like a friggen robot. Stores/areas where you have to scan in auto mode, meaning scan every item individually is just tiring as hell. Retail/grocery stores aren't as bad because in those you're counting in manual mode where you scan one barcode and physically count the amount of items, enter it on the pad and move on to the next item. But clothes stores are just hell. In clothes stores you're counting in auto mode, where each individual item is scanned. Then you have to try and put them back in at least somewhat of a fashionable way when you're done, otherwise you get bitched at (at least I did). The work is tiring, you're constantly moving things, bending, kneeling/sitting on floors, getting up, lifting shit constantly for hours on end. And every shift I've worked so far, we've only gotten one 10-minute break. Nothing else. Even in a Macy's where you're there for nearly 9 hours, I've only gotten one 10-minute break. Friggen ridiculous.

So the work itself is terrible. Next, we have drive distances. In my first two weeks of working (my first two 'real' weeks once I actually got shifts), I had to drive 90-mile trips to stores, four times. Added on with a 65-mile, a 50-mile and a few 20-somethings. I only had _one_ shift that was less than 20 miles. Do you think they care? Nope! The only sort of gas compensation RGIS gives out is 'travel time', which you get if you go to a meet site before a shift and offer to drive in a carpool. And even that is only a dollar or two extra per hour. And when you only work a 4-hour shift, that's at max 8 dollars extra. Do you think that will make up for the 90 miles I had to drive just that day, not to mention the other shifts where I drove myself? Not even close.

So we've established that working at RGIS is physically demanding most of the time, and they make you drive out to BFE with barely any gas compensation. Not even the worst part. The worst part? The shifts. At RGIS, there are only two types of shifts: Early morning (starting anywhere from 4AM to 6AM) or Late night (starting anywhere from 8PM to 11PM). There's literally no normal morning or day shifts. I understand this isn't exactly RGIS' fault, the stores don't want RGIS people counting their stuff while customers are trying to shop. However it's still a shitfest for the RGIS workers. So either you can't have very long day plans because you'll have to work at night, or you can have very long night plans because you'll have to work in the early morning. This one's probably more of a personal issue rather something everyone can relate to, but you can't deny that it's still terrible.

However don't let that detract from the true reality of the company; it's a terrible place to work. Unless you're desperately looking for work and you're literally about to lose everything if you can't fork up a little bit of cash, steer clear of this iceberg.

As for me, I'm unfortunately still here. I've been putting job apps to just about everywhere but finding work in this economic climate, especially in Detroit, is not easy. I plan to leave the second I find a different job.

DO NOT WORK FOR RGIS, SAVE YOURSELF FROM CERTAIN MISERY

imustbecrazy said...

I lasted all of 7 days. They had me drive 3 hrs, work 4, then drive back just to be at another location less than 7 hrs later then had the balls to send me home because I was dragging down their beloved APH. No pointers on how to increase my speed, no break and I was in freaking HOUSEWARES! How can you be fast and accurate when pulling everything off the shelf to find the tag?

Lisa said...

I began working for RGIS over 5 months ago. My APH started out great and then fell and then went up slightly. The RM has froze on me and I hate to reboot it but I am told doing that is not affecting my APH but when I check it on the machine it has fallen. I have never been sent home early from a stocktake. I scan the areas i am given and always turn up. They want accuracy according to the member handbook and if they want me to increase my aph they aer the ones that should show me what to do. I recently batched 11 items which I though were the same. Only 8 items were and the other 3 had different barcodes. I told the supervisor it was a genuine mistake because the barcoes were not being detected by the laser and thats why I scanned a different barcode. My aph is not the best in certain stores but I keep getting called when its quiet to do a job. I am praying that I am not let go. Can you imagine telling the local benefit office " Oh I was a great worker. I always turned up and did what i was told to do but I was not fast enough fo them".

I heard that my Area Manager was full of praise for me even though my aph fell.

IF RGIS want to retain contracts they better change their ways and take accuracy over aph because their clients want to exactly how much stock they have and how they are selling. Shop floors tend to be fine but its the storerooms that are impossible to get good aph's in when they are so disorganised.

To move up from auditor level to the next level is there anyone that can tell me what needs to be done?

Anne McCann said...

I was just let go from RGIS working a district that the meet site was aprox 50 minutes from my home for most shifts then there was just under an hour driving or often more in a carpool. At the most recent store which was local, after getting up at 4 am to be at the store at 6 am,I was told to go home after two hours of working (which was essentially my gas to the store$15 round trip) because I was too slow. I was hired in late December and my first shifts were in early Jan. My first week was night inventories at Macy's in the Detroit area - thus being gone from home more than 14 hours at a time. then my schedule was a shift about every week to ten days. today when i called to reschedule a shift on monday- i was terminated. (same supervisor) yesterday when she sent me home i was 'too slow' and today it was because i had too many errors. the supervisor at no time came over to work with me to help me do my job better. I met some nice people but I think this company is really screwed up.

Anonymous said...

I love this blog and is reading this - January 2013. Would love to get more updated stories from recent experiences. I am a newbie that is slow and annoyed that I am not given time to get accustomed to the machine and the whole system...been sent home for been slow and called a few hours before a scheduled inventory - to say its been cancelled - don't show up !! I am thinking the "cancellation" story is made up - any thoughts? Does this really happen ?? A store is cancelled on a weekend hours b4 we are to start - really ???

Anonymous said...

I don't know what it is like in other locations but in Georgia RGIS is basically the only company that will hire anyone from off the street. The pay is just a bit above minimum wage and I am quite sure there is something fishy with the way they count APH. The only reason I am with them now is to provide some income until I can land something better, which as of right now is just about anything else.

Anonymous said...

I worked for about 6 months from 2002-2003.

I left for several reasons. First off, in my previous (seasonal) job I was being paid only 7.25 an hour. But because I was working 40 hours a week, sometimes more which meant overtime, I was earning anywhere from 1000-1200 a month. When the season was up, I had to look for a new job which I found in RGIS. When I saw that they were offering 9.50 an hour, naturally I thought I would be earning way more money than my previous seasonal job. Right? Wrong.

They scheduled me for so few hours. 4-12 hours one week. About 20 hours the next, that in the entire time I worked for RGIS, I never earned more than 610 a month.

Also, I got tired of having to drive to a new location every day and in the middle of the night at that. I'd find myself on the road at 3-4am. Whereas in my previous job I had only the one place to drive to and I came home at night or late afternoon.

Also, our RGIS supervisors treated us all like little children. Employee morale was in the basement at all times. We rarely got breaks. The few times we did, you can count on being given only a 5 minute break during a 12 hour inventory.

Horrible job.

Anonymous said...

it sucks when you have to drive 40 miles each way to get stuck working a 2 hour shift. im stuck at rgis for now til i can find another job. the job market sucks ass right now.

Anonymous said...

ive worked all year for rgis and i aint made a $1,000 yet. i wonder if they think that i have taken the vow of poverty or something.

Anonymous said...

I am a current employee of RGIS. I was sent on a job an hour away. I only worked for 2 1/2 hours. The team lead said to me as he was clocking me out that he didn't want to send me home, but someone was twisting his arm. My APH was not high, because I got stuck having to dig the tag out of pants that were hanging and the tag was inside. Clearence items so crammed on wall racks that you couldn't even push them apart to find the tag. Go Figure my numbers were down! Then you have the Cherry Pickers who walk thru your area and scan all the clothes on the (easy) hanging racks. I chose not to show up for a Kohls this morning at 4:45 a.m. meet time. I would have gotten into a van full of people and not paid for the first hour of travel time. I also had a wheel bearing go in my truck about a month ago. Because I had to take time off I went 13 days with nothing on my schedule.

Lone Wolf said...

I am currently employed by RGIS. Accomplishing 800 aph without making errors is near impossible. The problems I've come across is missing/hard to find tags that eat up your time. Or employees that gives you a hard time/take too long to answer your sku checks. Coming across racks/shelves that are overstocked with items making it hard/tedius to count. There are some (RGIS) client's who are ill prepared on inventory day that they run around with their heads up their tushes. Oh let me tell you about RGIS computers that blank out or reboots itself when I was in the middle of a count or run. or it takes forever to transmit the info or for the computer to connect to the network. or trouble with finger lasers. Need I say more?.

Was RGIS once said...

I worked for RGIS for a good 20 years and it was a good job when I first started because I would get plenty of overtime and my check would have commas. But then they started to change getting rid of the secretaries, area managers, not promoting from within downsizing and cutting our pay. I you work for RGIS now, good luck, it is nothing but a joke. There is so much back stabbing in that company,I am really surprised that it is still a company.

Unknown said...

I worked for RGIS District 077 (Cedar Falls) for 2 1/2 years, and I hated every minute of it. I'd had the feeling I should quit for a long time, but due to fear of disappointing others, I stuck with it. All it took for me to quit was one day.

They sent out a schedule two weeks before with the locations. In the past, they'd been pretty good with picking me up at a stop along the way so I wouldn't have to make too long of a trip. This came up again, and when I called to confirm, I asked if it was possible to pick me up along the way if they were going a certain route. My contact--who also happens to be my supervisor's wife--said she'd look into it. Closer to the work day, I call and ask about it; she says to just come to Cedar Falls as usual and ride with everyone else.

Along the way to this particular store, I notice the route getting very familiar, and I know exactly where we'll pass. I am sadly proven right. We were four miles north of my house, from whence I had just driven 25 miles. Knowing full well that she's sitting in front of me, I said very calmly, "I am now officially mad."

I quit about a month and a half later. It seemed fitting that I was sick on what would be my very last day of work, so I had to leave early. If the definition of bad is "the absence of good," being an auditor was just that. I consider that job a complete, utter, total waste of my time and abilities.

unknown one said...

It depends on who is your flow team leader and where they put you. I unfortunately was always put in the difficult areas and my aph suffers. Like lone wolf says there are some stores that are ill prepared for the inventory counts and store workers who give you attitude or not fast enough to answer your SKU checks. Finding the barcodes for clothing & domestic items can be a chore because they are hidden which eat up your time. The best way to get a better idea on how to do the job is to ASK other RGIS workers because some were helpful others weren't.

jussme said...

Tell them no about pulling tags and tickets.... I always tell them no it drops your aph to nonexistence. .. they can't MAKE you pull tags it's a part time job so the can't by law keep you more than 5 hours a day (lmfao) it is also "at will" employment. ... you need to read your hand book... I use it against them alot

Taliesyn said...

Man, it looks like it just got crappier and crappier since I left the control center (I believe it's audit control now?).

Working at headquarters was a lot like working at Dilbert's company. My favorite part was the flashing light and horn that ran any time there was a call queue. Which there was from Jan 1 through mid-Feb every year.

Another Nameless Employee said...

I've worked for RGIS for four months. And things must've improved a bit in the last few years or I just got lucky with my district, work at San Jose, CA but live in Livermore (about 45-60 min drive, excluding rush hour). I've yet to experience anything as bad as you people have described (yet).

I only took this job since I'm super lazy, I'm still in college, and I like having little work hours.

At first they had me going to far places so I was thinking about leaving but then the new year rush hit and they had a lot of closer stuff for me since I only live down the street from one mall and 15 mins from another so I thought I'd stick around for a little longer.

The hours and pay are shit but a lot of the people I work with are pretty cool. Yeah a lot of them are ex-cons, pretty easy to tell, but they seem to hold it together at work. I've had no issues with fellow workers yet and we actually have some fun conversations together. Though a lot of what we talk about is the shitty pay, hours, and stores we have to work.

The DMs, AMs, and TLs don't think they're better or treat others like shit. The only bad stuff I hear are about people who used to work there a while before me. I think the only thing keeping us sane is being able to talk to each other.

Though I've had quite a few problems with employees at the stores we count; being snobby or giving us attitude for no fucking reason. Such as today at 7-11.

I've worked a couple 7-11s now and surprisingly a lot of the employees there have been cool and even at times help us out, such as letting us get a free fountain drink or putting some of the back room stuff in order to help us move faster.

7-11s usually have their own person come through and audit us, most of them just recount the areas we did. But today we had some bitch just follow us around and refused to leave us alone. Especially me, although there was only three of us (including TL). Every 5 seconds she kept pestering me asking "if I scanned that one item" or "saw that these items were different", which I'm pretty sure even a blind, retarded monkey could have seen were different.

Finally we were hitting the end of the store and she just would not get off my ass. As I was scanning and counting the ice cream and putting them back, she told me to put them back in neatly even though all 7-11s are disorganized as fuck and that was pretty much the way I found them, but I thought fuck it and evened them out to make them seem neat just so she would get off my back. But she says "no put them back nicer than that" and I just about had it and said "it's not my job to prep your store".

So she apparently went and had a hissy fit to the store manager about this and the attitude I've been giving her all day (just returning the favor) who in turn kicked me out by coming up to me yelling that I had numerous errors. Which was bullshit because throughout the store I saw them only recount the cigarettes which I did and apparently messed up because they didn't prep it right and I even went back and recounted it correctly.

As I'm about to leave I thought I'm going to tell her off and not give a shit if I get fired. But my TL comes up to me and tells me "it's ok". I could just tell from his tone of voice and the look on his face that even he thought they were out of hand (and this guys seen and been through some shit).

I decided this bitch wasn't worth it and I'll instead wait til they have me start going long distances again to get fired. So I just flipped them off and left. And if I get fired for that I will honestly be happily relieved or they'll at least take me off 7-11s so I won't have to deal with that again so either way I'm good.

Sorry about the long rant and I know this wasn't fully hate towards RGIS. Like I said it's been good here so far, or at least compared to everyone elses. But I really needed to vent about what happened today and this seemed like the best place.

Anonymous said...

I have been working with this horrible company ever since I lost my job due to down sizing and have been searching ever since to no avail in my career field and it has now been over a year. The list of sh@t one has to deal with while working with this dead end job is so long it would take forever to list everything. To start. I'm an older man that has been in the corporate working world longer than most of the young adults I am so called supervised by. The constant talking down and yelling is beyond anything a normal human can take. People are always late to the meet sites causing the rest to fall behind. The low pay for the horrible working conditions. No benefits which is very important to anyone that is out in the working world. Now as far As equipment goes. It's a 50/50 chance you will get a machine that works. By the time you initialze and then download your already on the clock and listening to the accuracy speech and then it's all hell getting to your location spot to work with people you don't know and most of the time a TL that doesn't know his hole from a hole In the ground. Yeah that's the one that is usually yelling and screaming because you have to go get another machine. Down time down time. So low pay. Horrible working conditions. Mean mean co workers crappy machines and traveling with no pay is just a short chunk off the long list why RGIS is under some many lawsuits and will continue to be until someone can get their acts together. But don't worry about the bigwigs wondering if us peons are ok because they are flying around in private jets searching for someone else to get this headache off their backs.

Anonymous said...

I just put in my two weeks and while I have work tonight, I won't be going. I am currently in sober living and need to attend meetings, on top of it, my health is not the best but the job can suck it if I am hurting constantly, I had injured my ankle about 8 to 9 years ago and now its flairing up and getting worse.

Anonymous said...

This job is shit LMAOO!!!! They use old ass technology and the interview wasn't even an interview, they just told you about the job, which means they didn't even drug/background anyone. This is why you have dumb people working there who have no common sense, dumb supervisors, I really hate how they use UGLY technology, The shirt is ugly. I attended about 6 stores, and they were all boring as shit. I had to go to three this week, but I didn't even go because I got a new job, where I'm happier. I'd also like to point out that it's not really a professional environment either, one time at Macy's they made me count this random rack in the backroom that had like 500 random/messy items on it. How the hell am I suppose to count that accurately?? It was also my first day on the job and they went crazy. The training was dumb as well, it lasted like 30 minutes, all we did was watch videos and practice counting jeans. Horrible job, company is OK, the people are horrible as well.

Unknown said...

Rgis is a complete fuckhole. My crew made me drive 30 minutes locked me out of the store while I stood in the rain then was made I wasnt in the locked store. I told one of my Co workers to shUT the fuck up when they let me. You get awful hours at like midnight and they don't tell you when you can leave. You don't get paid for gas and it hurts your back bending over counting and no one ever actually does a good job by the end because the employees stop checking to see if you are accurate