Thursday, January 03, 2013

Tag You're It! (Part 2)

In one of my old posts I wrote about the tags that RGIS auditors used during inventories. They were long strips of colored paper (most of them were yellow but there were green ones, red ones and blue ones as well) that were used to mark areas of the store that had already been counted. In the comments section at that post someone mentioned that RGIS doesn't use those paper tags anymore and that stickies are used now.

That's too bad because some auditors would have fun using those old paper tags to play a joke on a fellow auditor. Those paper strips would be used to tag someone's car. The tags would be stuck all over the vehicle after an inventory,  the idea being to annoy someone when they had finished an inventory for the night. They'd be all tired and just wanting to get out of the store, drive home and collapse into sleep. However, when they would finally be allowed to escape the inventory they would go out into the parking lot and be confronted with the unlovely sight of dozens of tags covering their car. They would then have to spend time picking them all off their car, whimpering with fatigue the whole time. 

Writing about tagging is one thing but actually seeing it is quite another. I recently came across a couple of old photos of a vehicle having been tagged with RGIS tags and so without further ado here they are:








Note all the spots that the tags were placed in. Under the windshield wipers of course, but also in the doors, under the hood, in the tire rims, on the door handles, in between the roof and the windshield, in the bumper...no good spot left untagged. Ah the memories.

Update: Several people have remarked in the comments section that their districts still use the paper tags. I'm glad to hear that as that means the possibility of tagging cars will live to see another day.

157 comments:

Mahonri said...

We still use those paper tags, now they are only yellow, but you still see the blue and red ones every once in a while. You can always tell when the AM is sent new tags, because they bring them in the box that they were shipped in, and that probably the only time they look neat and not folded or ripped. I remember back when the different colors, were used to show department changes in financial inventories. The red ones are still occasionally used, at least in my district, to tag the top stock areas.
I recently heard some of the others talking about gray shirts, how they are supposed to be running stores, and that a lot of those who are gray shirts shouldn't be because they don't run any stores, or haven't even been trained to run a store. The people talking would know what they're talking about, but it seems strange that if that's the case, why someone would be promoted if they aren't doing a part of the job that they are supposed to be. Any thoughts on this

Diego lee rot said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Hi - love this blog !

As a newbie - can someone pls tell me any tricks of the trade to counting faster and raising my APH. I see ppl moving like the speed of light and I a moving too - but not catching up. I know there are tricks but I have no one to clue me in how they get their stuff done...please anyone...

Really need this job and would never wanna get fired for not making the APH. Thanks.

diamondcutter said...

ah... tags... before the 1.5 inch tags that were introduced circa 2000, there were the 2 inch wide tags... colors of yellow (the main ones), red (which were used in some financial accounts to mark GM items), green, and blue (with RGIS running the length of the the tag for Wal*Marts purportedly to keep auditors from using them for notes)... some older tags that I ran across had lines for price and quantity precounts... were there any other tags used out there?

Anonymous said...

Someone had posted about counting at the end of the 2012 blog. With financial stores/multi-quantity, you're really just estimating. That's why you see some people just walk by a display and get their numbers. We just finished a week of counting at a large grocery chain and the noobs are trying to count 250 bags of rice. Of course, I was that way when I started. Now if you try estimating or batching at a clothing store, yes, you'll get busted but for grocery stores when you're doing financial counts, the best you can really do is estimate unless you want to count 10 rows deep of soup cans on the bottom shelf.

The Misfit said...

@diamondcutter: I forgot about those tags with "RGIS" in big letters, running the length of the tag. My district only had a few of those, though (they probably came in through auditors from another dist. or something like that). I also remember some of the yellow tags with lines printed on them, going across each tag horizontally.

StewieGriffin said...

When I was at RGIS, we still used the paper tags for the most part. That was about 3-4 years ago now.

I believe now it's more up to the store if they want tags used. I have heard Kohl's doesn't want them brought in the store at all.

Walgreens used the yellow stickies. Every shelf was still tagged, but with the stickies instead of tags. Made the store look a little neater during the inventory, especially if it was open.

Anonymous said...

The only change from the old yellow paper tags to the new ones is the new ones no longer have "Accuracy is our number one priority" on them. I wonder why?

Anonymous said...

@anonymous Friday 4:24...funny you mention counting soup cans. Whenever I'm bored out of my skull at my current job, I tell myself it beats counting soup cans at 3:00 am on a Sunday morning (we did that every six weeks at a particular grocery store).

I do remember one of my first grocery stores, trying to count something that didn't have a price and yelling "price check" until the team leader took pity on me and said "don't do that at a grocery store, just use your best judgement".

In other words, an estimate in a grocery store financial inventory is just fine, LOL

Anonymous said...

The noobs are crying already--"I have to go to another job and its 4Am!I am sooooooooo tired". Poor noobs.How many will be there at the end of January? Only the toughest. Survival of the fittest. I have sympathy for them and try to help if it won't hurt my APH because we all were noobs once.

c204 said...

Here's a tip for faster counting: learn how to key without looking. The numbers are set up like the number pad on your keyboard and the with 7 8 9 on top and a raised dot on the 5 (also like the keyboard). If you learned how to type in school like I did (home row, feeling the dots on the F and J keys) then it'll be simple to learn the number pad.

Just remember to always feel for the dot on the five with your middle finger before typing, every time you put your hand back on the machine. We use the RM1 so if that's what you use then I know it's really simple to learn every key by feel. (The smaller buttons underneath like backspace I still get mixed up though!) Keep practicing, if you type fast on the computer then you should be able to type fast on the machine in no time.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe there is a blog about working at RGIS. For that, I applaud you. I have only been working with them since september, and this is one of the best things I have found online that describes working for them to a tee. Thank you for making my day. You have a new follower.

Kevin said...

To the person who wants tip and tricks. Learn to key without looking. Always feel for the bump on the 5 key. Try keying in larger quantities rather than 2 piece'ing everything (however top gun can be reached by 2 piece'ing everything). Count ahead, learn shelf capacities. Do you wear a belt or the shoulder strap? I personally prefer the shoulder strap because I can control the machine better vs. the length of my arm. I am not all jammed up with the belt and the belt clips just break all the time anyhow. Keep tags close and accessible. For me, I wear Dickies pants and keep my worksheets in my left back pocket and my tags in my right (I am left handed and key left handed.) On the subject of tagging and fun. We have tagged the AM's car after a long night at Penney's and he gets a kick out of it. Will actually sport it too. Sometimes, if we are all in a grumpy mood because the store managers want to see a yellow tag on every shelf, we will go overboard and put a few on each shelf, at every break, every peg hook (pisses the off a dollar tree), every clip strip on both sides, and so on. It looks like a yellow tag nightmare. Did a Kmart one time and my AM couldn't stand the store manager so he told us to tag every rack, every shelf, every peg we could, then after the inventory, he packed up, then left with all the tags hanging. We make origami with them and my children love them. Btw, do you ever hear a Top Gun yell "SKU Check"?

Anonymous said...

Kevin,
Good to hear from another left hander. Loose fitting pants with lots of pockets such as dickies/cargo pant are good. I keep protein bars in a pocket. Use another pocket to hold tylonal/advil. Another pocket for 5 hour energy. Good idea on the shoulder strap for the machine as they do tend to slide around too much on a belt.

Anonymous said...

I have an interview Tuesday. They advertise $8.00 an hour. With all the posts it seems like a difficult company to work for. I dont work well with a lot of presure - should I loose a day of work to interview only to be treated badly? Do they really yell at you?

Anonymous said...

Back before Blackstone we had larger tags then the 2" ones. They had lines on them with RGIS logo and 800 phone number. You had to tag each shelf one in first item one in from the last item.
I had managers demand recount of a shelf if there was not two tags on it.
Then blackstone spent gazzillions dollars figuring out how to better count (ASSeT levels etc). And tags went to one on end of each shelf. One on each arm of a four way etc.
Now people hardly tag, it just slows you down.
Who are you going to get to pull them at the end of the inventory?
No one will because you are not counting your APH is going down.
I leave the tags that are up and tell the manager he has to pull them and throw them out.
Grocery stores that is where RGIS started, financial counting. Yellow was for Grocery, Greed for Non-Food and Red for HBA. (Health Beauty Aids).
Each department manager would walk the store to ensure their area or even dump displays had the proper tag on it.
Now with Scan inventories it is pointless.

Anonymous said...

Regarding the person with the interview, I wouldn't say there's a lot of pressure. I've been here a year as a part-timer and the hardest part (as with any job) is just learning the tricks of the trade. After a year, I'm very comfortable but I wouldn't say there's a lot of pressure. Sometimes our District Manager if she's running a store, will try to persuade a newer person to speed up but all the other supervisors who run stores, don't really care. So I wouldn't say there's pressure to count fast. I'm sorta a slow learner and it took me a while to catch on. I'm still not a real fast counter but I'm reliable, dependable and get along well with everyone which is important too.

dead horse said...

Does no one remember the plastic dividers/tags

Anonymous said...

Tough going from almost no work in Nov/Dec to constant work and some double shifts in Jan--but the check will be good! Has the flu hit in any of the districts? eems like a pretty bad flu season. Everyone got a flu shot?

Mahonri said...

I didn't get the flu, I ended up getting pneumonia, and lost a week of work because of it.

Anonymous said...

Annoys me when people show up for work coughing and sneezing, and spreading to others what they have. Showing up with a cold may be OK, but not the flu! But RGIS pays no sick leave, so I guess the sick people feel they must work even when sick. So, the flu spreads.

Equally annoying is people calling out "sick" when they are not, so we are short handed, or saying "my car broke down" when they really overslept. Those of us who always show up must carry the burden for the no shows.

StewieGriffin said...

I've heard that RGIS has lost the JC Penney account. Not sure who they decided to go with instead.

RGIS also lost Penney's about five years ago to WIS. WIS did three stores, got booted out of the third in mid inventory and RGIS got the account back.

WIS and PICS are probably the only two other inventory companies that could handle Penney's.

And I'm not even sure PICS could, so in all likelihood, they went back to WIS.

Anonymous said...

Hooray! Tomorrow is first day off since New Year's Day! I actually ENJOY RGIS due to the fact that I don't just have to count all the time(SmartSpace, GTS battery testing, WAG outs, etc). I made quite a grip of money a couple of years ago in the "DEAD ZONE"(December), when unfortunately my fellow drones were scraping by. Anyone else got into the non-counting projects for RGIS?

Anonymous said...

Started working with this company a month ago. I will be quitting this week. Its not the fact that Im a noob or someone who doesn't get it. I was well aware after the first week that your training doesnt mean anything once you get into a store. The whole APH system is a setup to me. I say this because if your new, don't expect your APH to be high unless your lucky. Certain areas you can increase your APH by double in less than 20 mins. Good luck getting those areas because you can be certain someone else has already done it. If you try to "wander" over to these spots that will increase your APH greatly you can be certain that someone will try and correct you and put you somewhere slow. This job is a very cutthroat I'll get mine before you get yours type of attitude. If your new: Have fun getting stuck on all the crappy, time consuming, difficult stuff so you won't show up someone that has been there for years.

Anonymous said...

I'm a current RGIS auditor in a district in Virginia which I will leave unidentified. When a potentially promising job offer fell through in January, I spent the next week frantically filling out applications. RGIS was the only company that responded (via e-mail...actually WIS responded as well but never called me back when I tried to follow up with the interview!) I went to the appointed time and place for the interview and was hired on the spot, even though I couldn't see at all how much more qualified I was for the position than the girl who applied with me (who was told she would be getting a phone call in a few days).

At this point I'm thinking "This is a bit strange...this seems an awful lot like favoritism"...and I was a bit irritated as well, seeing how clearly desperate the girl was for a job. I'm sure she could have been trained.

Since being on board two weeks ago, I have witnessed blatant favoritism, lack of respect among coworkers, a bovine manager cracking the screen of a Flow Leader's personal computer and laughing about it afterward, and the shocking revelation that money is actually WITHDRAWN from our pay if APH is not met in certain locations.

I expect most readers of this blog are familiar with APH so I will not elaborate any further on it here.

This morning, however, was the most enlightening day of all (if you can call it that). We were counting product in a medical supply office, and all items, including individual pills and tablets, had to be counted as one item. It's easy to see that if you count 200 pills in 15 seconds your APH will go through the roof.

At some point during the counting I realized that this is really the only way managers have to increase their favorite employees' overall APH average. Where else can you expect to walk away with 2500/aph after two hours of work? The real kicker was the total pay for the shift was $20 (minus the $7 I spent on gas to get up to the location...Jesus Christ).

It is truly appalling when management has to resort to such shallow and underhanded tactics to fulfill such a bullshit requirement (APH). I think it is quite obvious that APH levels are purposely set where they are to keep the majority of hourly works out of reach of a halfway decent wage -- thus easing the bottom line of Blackstone.

I also had a gray shirt tell me today to "guess" on the amount of tablets in a bottle. For someone who takes pride in their work and their accuracy, counts at and Expert/Top Gun level after two weeks of employment, and can work the 10-key blindfolded, this was a sorry sight to see. This is inventory...the PURPOSE of taking inventory at ALL is to be ACCURATE...and we are told to "guess". It's complete doublethink.

This company has clearly strayed to the point of no return on virtually every front. It is truly disgusting to see it in action.

I have recently been hired by PICS, another inventory service, and am quitting RGIS next week. I still enjoy the inventory industry and hope that PICS has more integrity and respect for its employees than this pathetic excuse for a company.

My opinions are my own, and not those of RGIS. (Nothing like having to cover your own a** in this day and age.)

Anonymous said...

Virginia anonymous, my guess is PICs isn't much different. There's a certain gamemanship involved with doing inventories. A lot of it is estimating (guessing) quantities. Unless it's a 100% inventory where the store counts every section behind you, all we're really doing is providing an estimate. We're not screwing the customer but we do provide a reasonable estimate when quantity counting. Yes, there's favoratism but there is in any job. I've done some 2 hour stores but most stores are 3 to 5 hours and most are within 20 minutes of my house. Sure there are some stinkers occasionally. All in all, RGIS isn't bad. Just depends what you're looking for and what works for you.

Anonymous said...

Correct RGIS lost JcPenny in all but a few very very large City Stores.
They didn't do Children Place this January except for a few backrooms only.
They are about to loose Walgreens.

Anonymous said...

I was buying sheets at Macy's last weekend and lo and behold, white RGIS tags on the endcaps with what looked like precounts.

It's much nicer to be able to SHOP at Macy's than have to INVENTORY Macy's

StewieGriffin said...

Anon 2/05 5:06:

Who are they going to lose Walgreens to?


That area ticket at Macy's had to have been an old one. I don't think RGIS has done Macy's in years (at least in Michigan, they haven't).

Anonymous said...

We have all the Walgreens stores now - how could we be about to lose the account?

Anonymous said...

PICS is terrible I used to be a DM for them, they're worse than RGIS and have way less work for the counters. I work for WIS now and we treat our people way better and have more steady hours.

Anonymous said...

Did 12 years at RGIS, 3months at PICS and 6 months at Reliant and they all suck. I'm an Inventory manager at WIS now and so far so good.

Anonymous said...

RGIS this January did Macy's 34th Street NYC over multiple day/nights. Had to order special 6 digit ART's (Area Recount Tickets).

FUCAN Momma said...

i am a retail merchandiser in the CVS/Pharmacies all across the country and i find a yellow tag or two under a gondola when we are moving or remodeling a store. I began as an auditor before moving to retail services. I can say that i truly abhorred the tags as some of my coworkers who had been with the company for a couple decades would paint a store with all the tags they use.

Anonymous said...

Anyone, in terms of wages, amount of work, etc. compare RGIS, PICs and WIS. Which is best to work for? I'm satisfied with RGIS so far--doubt the others are any better. We've had people who worked for WIS come over to RGIS and they have bad things to say about WIS. No company is perfect. I actually like my AMs and DMs. These are my opinions and not those of RGIS LLC.

that one chick said...

Hey there, I know I can ask HR this question tomorrow but is there a site to view your hours and payroll for RGIS employees? I made the switch from WIS to RGIS recently and haven't been impressed. How can I not review my payroll or hours? The machines totally blow, the counting "method" is just laughable, and there are NO hours. As soon as I find another job I am blowing that rinky dink popsicle stand. RGIS is such a joke, man...just like those retarded ass tags. If people knew how to count a section correctly they wouldn't need a gigantic yellow tag to make sure they don't go over into the next area. Fucking waste of time.

Anonymous said...

that tag at macy's was very recent, like they were getting ready for inventory and it was a precount. They were all around the department (Detroit area)

Anonymous said...

As far as wages, I can only compare RGIS and PICS.

You can actually get raises at PICS. I made more per hour at PICS than I ever did at RGIS.

Depending what area of the country you are in, you can get some hours in PICS. Michigan, Connecticut, Ohio and North Carolina would probably be the hot spots, along with California (which is more Muscolino territory. PICS owns Muscolino).

Anonymous said...

>> is there a site to view your hours and payroll for RGIS

Nope, RGIS is scared of its own shadow. In this day and age the "pay stubs" are printed in the district office and then mailed to you.

We used to get them via email but someone in some state sued saying it was not secure so now its US Mail but you have to have direct deposit... Go Figure.

Hey they used to FedEx the checks to the office and then mail them so at least you getting cash on Friday in your bank instead of a check on Monday.

Mahonri said...

I remember, that the up shot of when they used to Fed EX the checks to the office, was quite a bit of the time, the checks would be handed out after a store, on Thursday and sometimes Wednesday. As for me I liked the idea of getting the pay stub by e-mail, as a lot of the time you'd get the pay stub, before you got the check deposited, and knew in advance how much you were getting.
Now about per diems for over night trips. I don't know how they are handled elsewhere, but I remember when they used to hand out the cash, either before the store, or before checking into the hotel (if checking in before going to the store.) Now because someone was caught stealing money from the van, they are added to the check. Which can be inconvenient for last minute overnight trips.

Anonymous said...

I love this blog and I haven't been getting many hours at RGIS lately. A lot of times we work more than 5 hours and RGIS don't give us breaks. Also, many times even on travel meets they will have us work around 5 hours then make us take a 30 or 45 min lunch then they will have us work less then an hour after lunch then send us home and they don't give us our paid break. A lot of our travel meets are a 1 hour drive each way or less so thats 2 hours of unpaid travel time we are stuck with.

Anonymous said...

I've been with RGIS for a while and I like the work. Please don't confuse the fine line between 'work' and 'job'.
The pay could be better... DOH! The dress code is a joke!

Cherry picking by the "elite" (experts and top guns) used to annoy me, but hey... I learn quickly. "Big table with a messy pile of sweaters and such? Aw hell nah!" And it's off to another part of the store!

Batching! The 'taboo' of the trade. ;-) Nobody ever batches... unless they can get away with it or are "told to do so".

So, as I said, I enjoy the "work" and approach the "job" with a sense of humor and a decent helping of cynicism. We get along.

Anonymous said...

I saw a employment ad for RGIS district 7. Some funny things I saw posted in this ad about some attributes in employees they are looking for. I am sure that all RGIS gray shirts and managers always to adhere to these priciples stated below.

Places community before self, engages and works effectively with and assists other Team Members.

• Ability to relate information clearly and accurately, verbally and in written form, in a positive manner that yields cooperation.

• Creates partnerships and instills trust and confidence in one's abilities, based upon demonstrated

Demonstrates a positive presence and energy. Is optimistic, maintains a positive view of life. Is respectful and honest with others.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone at RGIS rode with sleepy drivers, shitty drivers and people who reely on GPS's too much? Some shitty and sleepy drivers keep on gettin to drive and some rude and stupid bosses keep on getting to run things.

Anonymous said...

Some funny ass shit I saw earlier bout a "RGIS' job posting. It says that for pre-employment testing it:

As a committed equal opportunity employer who maintains a DRUG free workplace RGIS conducts pre-employment criminal DRUG and social security screening.

Anonymous said...

That's the generic ad--It's used in all the RGIS districts.The person at HDQ who wrote it probably was never an auditor,nor manager,for that matter.

Anonymous said...

If we get put on the homedepot and walmarts crew do that mean we gets to batch?

Anonymous said...

Times are still hard, with few jobs. RGIS at least provides work for many. Too many gripers here. No one forces you to work someplace. Not a perfect job, but what job is?

Anonymous said...

They are required by Federal law to do the Social Security Screening its an app that ties into homeland security. You fill out any employer the I-9 form.
And they have started a criminal background check even for current employees. I signed a form allowing it and I am long time employee. the drug screening is voluntary well at least for current employees, don't know about new.
There some accounts now, Pharmacy counts and Hospital marketing that require the drug test clearance.

Anonymous said...

Its always funny hearing people at RGIS wine bout their aph. When peoples aphs go down they get all crabby. So many at RGIS smell like smoke and show up to work looking like they drunk and on drugs.

Anonymous said...

Managers play favorites, paid training don't actually prepare you for anything in the workplace, the work is much too backbreaking and tedious to be less than $10 per hour. People compete to be high in the count per hour aph ranks, and will give new employees bad advice just to stay ahead. I was really excited to get this job until i had to deal with shitty supervisors, unfair aph system and all the cherrypicking. Its frustrating to keep getting paid for less hours then I worked and not getting paid for all of the travel time.

Anonymous said...

I love them smokey rgis vans when its cold out and them smokers open them van windows in freezin weather and smoke cause they cant wait a few mintues to get there smokes.

Anonymous said...

I used to work for Rgis, but thankfully I am now retired. Looking at this site.

I can not believe that the USA is still putting yellow tag on everything. We in Canada quit using tags 4 years ago. At least in Edmonton Ab.

Anyone that is a Top Gun is estimating!! Trust me I have noticed it for 3 of the last 4 years.
Thankfully I do not have to worry about RGIS any more,

Mahonri said...

It's not really worth whining about APH, either I'm going to make it or I won't, as long as it all averages out, in the end. If there were one thing that I would personally complain about, is the fact that the APH standards aren't uniformly administered. It all depends on which AM is running a store, and District the store is in. For example Kohl's, you go to one store where you are told the goal for specialist is 600, then you go to the next and you're told it's 850. In different stores you'll be told that the number is one number, but when you get your quarterly report, the actual number is completely different, and the number you were told was inflated significantly. I also realize that those who run the stores is trying to motivate the auditors to raise their numbers, but if the number is inflated too much, it kinda makes it harder to care. Just my thoughts, and not the thoughts of RGIS or other employees of RGIS.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous on 3-4, yes, people complain about APH because your pay depends on it. Doesn't matter if you are dependable,etc. It's all about how much you count even if everything you count is wrong!
As long as you are fast, accuracy doesn't matter. There was a time when you geared up for the January rush, working all kinds of stores no matter what you were counting. It was team work and the goal was counting the store as accurately as possible, and working together to get it done and get out. It was a time when they remembered how hard you worked for them in January, how they could call you and you would always come to help and you always showed up. They would remember what you did at raise time. Now, you can go out of your way to work extra hours, etc in January. And, your reward is at the end of week 7 of the quarter, you get a letter warning you that your rate of pay might go down after week 13 unless your average goes up. And, this comes after helping out in stores with averages set so high that even the very best topgun can't hit the average. Thank you all so much for being there for us during our busy season!! Reward..your pay might go down. That is what this APH thing has created.

Anonymous said...

You have to remember the APH in the procedures are well above what you are rated on. This is a secrete set of APH numbers per account that an Auditor is not privy to.

It is a pure and simple scare tactic to get you to count faster. If a 1800 APH is in the procedures you probably can get by with counting 1300.

Anonymous said...

Accuracy does count unless it's a financial/multi quantity store. The clothing stores are killers. Old Navy, Victoria Secret, etc. They do count back most areas so you do need to be 100% on your pieces. If you've got a table of 200 t-shirts, count it 2 or 3 times and then power scan through the tags. If your count is high, delete a few. If you're low, scan a couple more tags. They're looking for accurate counts, not distinct sku's. Now if you scan an XS shirt 200 times, you're gonna get busted but just scan most tags. However, if it's a smaller boutique clothing store, they may check printouts against the inventory in which case you do really need to scan each piece.

Anonymous said...

If we no show a lot even when we is supposed to drive can we still show up late drunk and high at the next store and batch like crazy?

Anonymous said...

If we smoke weed every day wood we bee better off working at pics, rgis or wis? It'd be cool to count pills at walgreens and cvs right after smokin a bowl.

Anonymous said...

do you think wis and rgis would hire me if have tattoos on my neck and face?

Anonymous said...

Will rgis people be getting there paid breaks until a new pope is selected? Are any rgis managers and gray shirts at the papal conclave at the vatican?

Anonymous said...

i just got hired at rgis. i want to be specialist soon. can i show up hi an drunk at old navys targets and victorias secrets and batch? how often can i no show?

Anonymous said...

I'll disagree on getting by with the lower number. I've had people on my team get letters that their Aset level is in danger. They have asked for printouts of their stores to see which stores hurt them. They must provide you with these printouts if you ask for them and in my district, even with things usually not so much on the up and up, they do provide you with these printouts if you ask for them. The Aset levels are based on some elaborate formula of points. If, for example, a topgun needs to count 1800 as per procedures, and they do, they get a point score of 10 for the store. If they hit somewhere between the 1300 and 1800, they receive a 5 for the store. If they fall below that lower number, they receive a 0 for the store. At the end of 7 weeks, they take all these scores, add them and divide by the number of stores, and that is what determines the Aset level. If you had too many stores with very high averages and you only got scored for the lower number, or just 5 out of 10, then you are going down. As far as not being accurate in financial/quantity stores, are you aware that many of them now use the RM verifiers? That even some supermarkets are using them to check on individual Skus?

Anonymous said...

Does the new pope approve of rgis and wis people batching and estimating?

Does top gun mean top batcher and top estimator?

Anonymous said...

Is it easy to get away with batching cosmeticks or will we be likely to get caught?

The Misfit said...

@ Anon 3.18/13 02:43:00 PM:

My own experience batching in cosmetics:

It was at a Long's Drugs (now CVS). Someone had left a plastic tray full of Revlon lipsticks on top of one of the displays. There were probably 40 or 50 lipsticks in the tray and because I was too lazy and disgruntled to count them all individually I just scanned one and did a quantity count for the whole lot of them. But the area I counted was printed out for the store manager to check and...busted.

What's funny is that the only reason that area was printed out is that I had a reputation for not batching so the RGIS manager running that inventory felt safe in printing out that one area. Sucker.

Anyway, nothing really bad happened. The RGIS AM running the inventory told the store manager that it was probably an accident, like a miss-key or something like that. And then he asked me to recount that basket of lipsticks.

But that's just one example in one district. Maybe someone else can share their experience of batching in cosmetics (or "cos", as our DM liked to call it. Douche).

Anonymous said...

do rgis am's and dm's and other managers and grey shirts get special training with learning how to lie and cheat?

Anonymous said...

will rgis, wis and pics people be able to batch on easter sunday?

TL Too said...

Misfit, they now use an RM verifier in Cvs. The store is given RM's with all the data that has been counted in it. They can go around the store just pulling up individual SKU's or whole areas and check item by item. No more printing out safe areas. You have no idea what they will check. I saw one store actually pulling up individual greeting card Sku's and checking them.

Anonymous said...

where am all of the hours we was going to get during jan threw march? lots of us aint being given many hours since early jan. I only be getting one day a week for a while. our rgis managers lied to us bout that. are things any better at wis? should i try to go work theire?

Anonymous said...

i weigh over 450 pounds do you think rgis or wis will hire me? would i be able to get to where black sweats and hitops at work? i has lots of retail experence i did inventorys at 1 of my old jobs. do i always have too be acurate all the time?

The Misfit said...

@ TL Too: Wow, they checked the greeting cards? Oh man, that would have been a disaster in my dist., back in the "good" old days. People used to batch the hell out of greeting cards.

Mahonri said...

Batching greeting cards? They are one of the easiest things to auto scan, I make my numbers easily when doing greeting cards, without batching.

Anonymous said...

In terms of store employees using RM verifiers, it's still sorta a joke. Most either don't know how to use it, don't want to use it or don't have time to use it. Doing these last night audits, the employees want to go home as much as we do. They can count inventory behind us just fine but for many, having to use a verifier is just a pain. It slows them down since they're often using it for the first time. They don't get lasers and they often seem to make mistakes so that it's really a distraction for them.

Anonymous said...

A large sporting good store on the east got RMV's and all the do is watch the store progress on percentage complete.
They still bother me for printouts even though the procedures say not to print and instruct store on us of RMV.
Can't wait for True Count or whatever they call it.

Anonymous said...

why are rgis managers so hung up on its peoples tuking there shirts in? many of its people show up to work drunk and high. some of its people are smelly like they aint never bathed before. rgis dms need to get busy getting its peoples lasers that work instead yelling at there people all of the time.

Anonymous said...

FYI: Rumor has it that Calc stores and APH are out as of the end of last week.

No words on what will replace it yet.

Mahonri said...

So no more bonuses? That was a joke to begin with, since they rarely told you if a bonus was even available.

Anonymous said...

Much more often than not lately we have not been using the yellow tags at the stores.

Anonymous said...

If my aph were to drop below 750 would I get demoted from specialist back to an auditor?

Anonymous said...

rgis is so generous that its gray shirt supervisors who get to run inventories at stores like holister, vicotria secrets and michaels get $3 more per hour. so a specialist who gets $9 an hour normally would get $12 a hour while running a large store and being in charge of a lot of people. with huge pay like that no wonder so many people want to run stores for rgis.

Mahonri said...

Anonymous, it isn't as simple as that, there is no real set number, that if you fall below it, and your aset level falls. It's all dependent on the type of store, the store, and the contract with the store. In a grocery store for example, 750 an hour would be beyond horrible, because for a specialist, the aph would be somewhere around 3000-4000 an hour. Which is why I love doing them, if I need to raise my numbers put me in a grocery store, because that where I got most of my experience, and I can usually double the expected aph. Even with clothing stores, there isn't a set in stone number, again it all depends on the store, and the contract, sometimes the number will be lower than 750, and at other stores in the same brand, it will be higher than 750, and some stores because of the contract won't count at all towards your aph. It doesn't help that you're not consistently told what the expectations are, and often are not given the correct number. I've always just done the best I can and hope I made it. Remember these are the opinions of me, and not those of RGIS, or it's employees.

Anonymous said...

Well I've thoroughly enjoyed your blog. Whatever happened to Mondo and Luis? I'm sure with Mondo, even management in that district got fed up with his horrendous BO.

I've just passed 90 days at RGIS (District 231 in Glen Burnie, MD). Still an Auditor, working my ass of hoping to get promoted to Specialist.

Anonymous said...

Does everyone love the office meets where you ride in rgis van 1 hr each way to work 2 to 4 hrs and you dont get paid for the 2 hrs of ride time?

Anonymous said...

aint it fun riding in the middle of the 3rd seat of them mini vans between 2 fat people with one of them bein smelly then getting to hand scan every thing at kmart and not getting breaks?

Anonymous said...

happy april fools day. at rgis and wis a happy inventory is a batched inventory.

Anonymous said...

Bonus store was a joke. It appeared when they cut everyone pay. VP went on and on how we would make more money with bonus even though our hourly rate was being cut.
They NEVER added any new bonus accounts in our area. BS if you made it one store but not the next they took the money from ya.
More lies than worth it.

Anonymous said...

is home depots bonus stores?

Mahonri said...

Anon, I don't live anywhere near the office, so we meet in a parking lot of a bank. Even better than that, is traveling 3 hours each way to work 2 hours, and getting paid for 4 hours of travel.

Anonymous said...

Does everyone love how some AMs end up sticking some poor specialists in JCP jewelry departments? Im sure that helps there aph.

Anonymous said...

Regarding gettting stuck in jewelry, that's what sucks about RGIS. You could also be stuck up on a ladder and/or in clearance. Anyways since not knowing where I might be stuck in a store, I try to sneak around to the best areas when certain AM's are at a store. Some AM's don't care about flow and we can pretty much pick and choose our areas but other AM's are more finicky.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how many long time rgis people are getting less hours than the rgis newbies? Are things the same way at WIS? Is WIS better to work for then RGIS?

Anonymous said...

most of the time when i get stuck in jewelry i am one of the 1st people to get sent home. me getting stuck in jewelry means i usually get less then 4 hours when im at that store.

Anonymous said...

One time I had bonus points for home depot and targets in the same pay period but rgis took my bonus away because of team perfomance.

Do non-management people at rgis ever get bonuses and do the bonuses amount to much money?

Anonymous said...

Its stupidly funny to watch rgis people skip counting the tough areas.

Anonymous said...

Some AM's don't care what your Aset level is when they stick you in 'one on one' areas. They should be using lower Aset levels but they stick experts in jewelry, then send them home when jewelry is done because they are 'bottom producers', or averaging lower then they should for their Aset level. Fair, isn't it?

Anonymous said...

How many people have had some 2 hour work weeks at rgis lately?

Do any rgis workers feel like they have taken the vow of poverty while working at rgis?

Anonymous said...

Do peoples team leaders schedule RGIS people and it seems like they keep changing my team leader all of the time?

Anonymous said...

Do RGIS people get drug tested before they put on the Walmart teams?

Anonymous said...

Can we get away with estimating while we inventory pills in walgreens and cvs pharmacies?

Anonymous said...

rgis should create a new position of inventory estimator which would be above the current top gun position.

one person in each district who is best at pulling numbers out of their asses should be promoted to inventory estimator and they should get 50 cents more an hour than the top guns do which means a huge $12 an hour instead of $11.50 an hour.

Anonymous said...

i heard that it really sucks to be on the rgis reset crews that are run by rgis east coast managers.

Anonymous said...

Do people at wis get regular raises?

Anonymous said...

The RGIS careers page shows all those happy, smiling people. Wonder what their expressions would be after having a week's worth of work cancelled for no reason.

Anonymous said...

>>week's worth of work cancelled for no reason.

Funny you should say that, scheduled emailed Friday had jobs for the following week. All of sudden surprise surprise emailed new schedule Monday, BLANK no jobs...

Those people on the web page are probably union card carrying actors paid a lot more for 2 hours of work then we are.

Anonymous said...

I just worked 4 days and averaged 3.25 hrs a day. After putting $20 in gas each day I am not making anything. Been with RGIS since Sept. Also I have been sent home from a store, because someone was twisting the arm (his words)of my team leader. He didn't want to send me home and said so. So if your APH isn't up where they think it should be then they send you home after 2 1/2 hrs. Doesn't matter if there is still a lot to be done and you drove an hour to get there.

Anonymous said...

I just started with RGIS in March 2013, in District 293 (Upland, CA). I mostly enjoy it. However, this upcoming week, I have ZERO hours. It was rather unamusing to e-mail my DM to confirm I'd received my schedule with ZERO HOURS and ZERO STORES. So unamusing that I'm now looking for another job. Apparently they're doing a lot of Target stores in the following week and don't let anyone that's below the high Supervisor range in those stores.

We also use the yellow paper tags in most stores-- but not in Kohls. Apparently they think the tags look "messy", which considering the state of the Kohls stores I've been in so far, well, so funny I forgot to laugh.

Next up-- a 99 cent only store that we meet at the district office for and then commute up the 15 to Victorville. Should be a barrel of monkeys; it has a bad rep.





Anonymous said...

Our Fat DM yells at people a lot and powertrips about making his people tuck their shirts in.

Anonymous said...

Would I have to pass a drug test in order to be allowed to drive RGIS vans?

Anonymous said...

do everyone love the favoritism going on at rgis?

some people are getting mutliple stores in the same day lately and a lot of hours while most of us aint been getting many hours.

favorites being put on target, walmart, home depot and lowes teams and getting lots of hours and double shifts while most of the rest of us get like 1 or 2 days a week.

do wis play favorites?

Anonymous said...

Its funny at some RGIS inventories lately when the grey shirt or manager running the inventory during the pre inventory speech calls out this one specialist on our crew by his name and tells him no batching or they look right at him when they tell us not to batch.

Mahonri said...

Someone mentioned bonuses earlier, asking if there were still bonus stores. I noticed that there was a bonus store on the most recent check stub, the total of which wasn't even an hour of minimum wage.
When it comes to the amount of gas I use, I guess I'm lucky, because the area we cover as a travel team, I rarely have to drive further than the meet site, which is pretty close to where I live. The furthest I ever have to drive, is out to the Res, and that's only 22 minutes away, anything further than 1/2 an hour we all car pool.

Anonymous said...

Happy RGIS payday everyone.

Some people in our district no-show a lot on payday Fridays.

One guy got sent home early the other day for mouthing off to the gray shirt who was incharged of the inventory.

Anonymous said...

I did this work while in college years ago making $12.50 a hour.I did not have to use my vehicle and never had to clock out!As far as aph and being top gun here is the thing would you rather take your time than rush less money and don't worry they will never fire you they need ppl trust me on that!What is funny is most of the ppl that work for rgis has a piece of scat ride or no ride at all!Beware if you have a nice car cause they will love you just to use your car!

honeybadger said...

Fuck this company before they fuck you

Anonymous said...

A RGIS gray shirt showed up drunk at one of the inventories at a big store recently. At the same inventory I think one the experts was popping pills or something cause she was extra jittery looking like she was ready to explode. I stayed out of her way and didnt make any comments to her when she was skipping hard sections. Some of our other people were either hi or drunk. A lot of our machines and lasers did not work right. Nothing too new here for the RGIS longtimers.

Are things the same way at WIS?

Anonymous said...

saw WIS tags at Penney's last weekend. Did RGIS ever do JCP?

The Misfit said...

@ Anon 5/14/13: I remember RGIS did JCPenney's back around 2001 or so. We did a couple of Penney's in the area for a couple of years in a row. One manager told me Penney's signed a short-term contract with RGIS, just as a sort of tryout but I have no idea if that's even true. I don't think they're doing Penney's anymore but that may be just around here (No. CA). Maybe it's different in other districts.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous because I'm ashamed I work for RGIS. I have been there less than one year and have seen 5 DM's come and go and 3 AM's come and go, not to mention the team member turnover here in Georgia. The starting pay is 8 bucks an hour. They treat you like shit, work you like a slave and expect quality work for 8 bucks an hour?? I just tell myself "you get what you pay for" and don't even stress about the crappy job or play their stupid APH games. And OMG - some of the people they hire are straight up thug and nasty!!! That's one of the reasons I'm ashamed I work there......just sayin'

Anonymous said...

RGIS lost most JCP's. We only did one January cycle and that is because WIS couldn't cover it.

Anonymous said...

We used yellow tags at a Bass Pro Shop inventory recently. We have not used yellow tags at a lot of the RGIS inventories lately.

Anonymous said...

Some work is better than nothing. The way you all talk you should win the lottery because you seem to expect to get $$$ for nothing. No one put a gun to your head and force you to work here...no one has stated that you aren't able to pay your bills....

Anonymous said...

I currently work for RGIS Canada and I really like my job, it suits my life and temperament. I'm also currently being trained for AM so I'm very stimulated. I heard some pretty horrifying things about our American counterparts. Getting paid by the piece? Having pay withdrawn if you can't reach the APH minimum? I mean it's not all sunshine and lollypops here, there is still the favoritism and a rumour mill that puts Gossip Girl to shame, but we make 25 cents above minimum to start, 40 cents/KM if you drive your personal vehicle, you make your pay regardless of your APH, and Top guns automatically receive a pay increase. We staff based on skill and reliability, nothing to do with seniority or who's doing who. I think it's the best system we can manage, for our type of work. Even in stores, where you count is directly decided by your ASET rank. Yes, Specialists count Jewellery. Because it has to be single scanned, why waste someone who could be off counting something more piece intensive quickly on a single scan department. A specialist is also more likely to be accurate because they are still working up their speed. It's a good challenge for them and almost guarantees accuracy, which is actually important to RGIS Canada. In my district, we outperform WIS in everything we do and are easily taking their customers and their employees.

Back to the reason I posted, I know some people in our district still have some paper tags, for personal use while counting, but we no longer use them. :( For out larger stores, like Walmart, we use small, blue, two inch by 1/4 inch stickers to mark each shelf. We don't mark up anyone's vehicle on purpose, but these "Stickies" get EVERYWHERE! I can track where my fellow employees have been in town by finding the stickies disintegrating in a puddle or caught on a tree.

I really hope that those that try the RGIS job find it rewarding and if not that they find something that fits them better. I love your blog!

The Misfit said...

Thanks, Canadian RGISer! Your comment was very interesting. I always like hearing from RGIS people everywhere and am especially curious about how RGIS districts in other countries operate. Yours sounds quite nice. It's good to know that not everyone has had a miserable experience with RGIS.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad to hear that some Canadians are having it better at RGIS then I did when I was there.

Does RGIS in Canada let bad drivers drive its company vans?

In Chicago area RGIS let lots of people drive its vans who should never have been allowed to drive.

Got stuck riding with dudes who kept falling asleep while driving. RGIS let one dude with narcolepsy keep driving its people in its vans. They kept on letting there bad drivers keep on driving RGIS vans. One dude fell asleep on us while driving and we had to wake him up cause he almost ran us into a semi-truck.

I now see why many people at RGIS have bad attitudes and no-show a lot. I saw some RGIS managers and supervisors use some of the stupidest business practices ever.

Anonymous said...

i guess penneys uses us both for different stuff cuz i just did one last year in lincoln NE

Anonymous said...

besides keying and counting techniques, being a topgun is about knowing when to be accurate and when not to be quite so accurate. the reason were the best is because we're the fastest which means the cheapest. so it could be said that were fast enough, that we dont need to be perfect. for example inventories used to take 2-3 times as long, if a grocery store has 14 hr inventories for years and then we cut it down to 5 they don't ask too many questions

Anonymous said...

I would say the way i became top gun was keying practice, dont look down ever. you may think a glance doesn't slow you down, but your wrong. while your looking down you cant count two, three facings ahead. also, don't hesitate, when counting deep just key what you see(likely smaller qty's) however when counting larger qty's don't be afraid to take a second and put in 120 at once. and last but not least learn the process for each store(key presses required to change shelves, departments, areas, etc.) and once you have counted for long enough you will make less mistakes like blending areas and sections thus improving your productivity. once you learn the natural flow of different stores you wont waste any time looking for where your supposed to be counting. and thats what it takes to become a top gun

Grumper92 said...

In america we dont get paid by the piece and if its a bonus store and the overall store aph is too low we get docked based on by how much, but its usually something around a dollar/Hr or less but if we hit the goal we can bonus too. its not bad here in colorado were one of the best districts in the company, with amazing top guns like you wouldn't believe. districts nationwide ask us for advice(on a walgreens trip we also did a claires and they detailed 35% of the store and gave up cuz they had found zero errors, recommended us to be a dedicated team next year, and several districts were baffled by the fact that we hit the store by 400 pieces and all we could say is "we had five badass top guns". working for RGIS in Dist 255sat2 is pretty awesome. compared to what i've read about other places. 9$/Hr starting awesome ppl, and the opportunity to be taught by some of the best

Anonymous said...

The thing about favoritism with rgis is, its the people not necessarily managements fault. the employees that know they're good and the company needs them go in and say im quiting if something doesn't change, usually the ones that could find another job. and if they don't give management an ultimatum management knows that they are good and need to be kept happy. its unfortunate and not really fair but some ppl are more expendable than others. its not managements fault that your more expendable than your co-workers, but also not necessarily yours either

Elaine said...

Can anyone give me time estimations for shifts: Macys sales floor, Michaels with backroom, LaneBryant Barcode and Kohls Validation. I'd like to know how many hours I'll be getting or at least an estimation.

Anonymous said...

To August 1st poster:
I'd expect an average of 4-6 hours for each salesfloor;maybe considerably more if you are shorthanded.You'll probably can expect at least 20-25 hours for the whole lot.

Anonymous said...

I have worked for RGIS, PICS, and now WIS. I was a DM for both RGIS and PICS. By far, PICS was the worst of all to work for and WIS has been the best. PICS was absolutely hellish so if you think you'll do better there you are absolutely wrong.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 8-14:
What was so bad about PICS that made them worse than RGIS?Management? HDQ meddling/micromanaging? Scheduling? I didn't think that could be possible.Also,what is it that makes WIS better,in your opinion?

Anonymous said...

Someone in our district just started tAgging others cars I got out of an inventory and found my car tagged

Anonymous said...

I'm part of a travel team for home depot. Honestly its not too bad. If you're smart with your money. The daily 20 dollar per diem wprks in your favor. Also the trips are amazing too.

Iv e worked here for almost a year and I'm the only counter left from what we started. Its a 15 person team with one prowler.... me. You want to talk about stress? Count 30% of a home depot in 3 hours by yo urself.

I hated the shoulder and belt strap. I bought some mini carabiners and hooked ethem on my belt loops. Doesnt move and it doesn't bother me.

I don't hate rgis because I'm treated like a god here pretry much. I get laid either from the bars or other team members. But I can't wait to leave.

Anonymous said...

I started with RGIS technically in November 2012 but didn't work my first job until Dec. 30, 2012. I am retired from full time work and took this job just to make some extra money. By no means is it essential that I have to have this job.

So basically I am just posting for people who may be considering a job with RGIS. These are just my opinions, not of RGIS themselves.

PROS: You can basically create your own schedule if you can count fast, or in my case not really fast but very accurate, you will eventually get offered as many jobs as possible. However the down side to this (and I don't allow this for myself)is that I work with many employees during an overnight shift where they complain that they have to be at another job in 2-3 hours. Please give this some thought when applying for RGIS because on the application they want to know the best times you are available. If you put down "anytime" you will probably regret that later.

If you enjoy traveling to jobs, this is a job for you. However, in a van of 6-7 people it only takes 1 person (smelly, snoring, etc.) to make it unpleasant. But if you get the right mix of people to travel, it makes it much better.

The last "PRO" comment would be you rarely work at the same place/location unless you are assigned to a specific store team (WalMart, etc). It can be tough on gas for the long drives, but personally I enjoy the variance of stores.

CONS: If this is a job you need to pay all your bills, you need to look elsewhere. It starts at $8.00 an hour, and if you advance, I hear it can go up to $12.00-$13.00 an hour. But as in my case, if you only need part time work or to just make a little extra money, this is pretty much an ideal job.

Some stores you work are not very clean. RGIS requires you wear dark slacks, so if a store requires you to crouch, or get on the floor to count low level items, keep a supply of detergent handy at home to wash your slacks often. RGIS does supply a shirt, but in a hot store, its easy to build up a sweat.

The last "CON" for me is not knowing how long each work day/night is going to last. I've worked as little as 45 minutes at a job (that I drove 25 miles to get to) and as much as 12 and a half hours (which resulted in me getting a parking ticket since I was parked in a shopping garage overnight)on another job. So if you have a personal life where you have to be at certain places at certain times most days, this might not be the ideal job for you.

Hope this helps!

Anonymous said...

I agree with Anonymous above. I've been working RGIS part-time for almost 2 years. I do 2 or 3 stores a week, nights only.

There is a lot of flexiblity if you're reliable and do a decent job. Slow counting is ok. There's a lot of folks just at the auditor level that are reliable and hardworking. I'm just borderline specialist but will probably drop back to auditor level as another $.50/hr isn't worth the stress of trying to make APH in softlines all the time. Night stores can easily run to 3, 4 or 5 in the morning by the time you get back home. I have flexibility in my day job so I can go in at 10am but usually I'm home by 2 or 3 during week. If it's a Sunday night, those stores usually start a little earlier.

I live in a big city, so there's not too much driving. Most stores are within 30 minutes of my house.

You won't get rich here. You can make 10-12/hr if you're really good (fast). There's virtually no work between Thanksgiving and Christmas but January/February is crazy busy.

Most stores are very clean but occassionally you'll get a tire warehouse or auto parts store that's dirty. Also, it's hard to tell how long a store will last. Having been here now 2 years, I'm doing a lot of the same stores and so I can sorta tell in advance but the store is full of merchandise and/or someone doesn't show up, it can add another hour. I'd say 4 to 5 hours is about average not counting drive time.

Anonymous said...

Doing this since the late 80's as a part time. Work few hours now but as the others have just posted is totaly true. You do the store one time it takes two hours but the next it has double the merchandise in sealed boxes with the items in plastic wrap you can't scan thru.
Then on top of that only half the team scheduled shows up and you are there until the sun comes up.
This has always been the way even before Blackstone and their concept of ASsET rankings and no customer service.

Anonymous said...

And how many people have we lost this year with IT people, account managers, division vice presidents. It is a company known for burn out.

Anonymous said...

One of our districts batching kings felon Sir Batch a Lot got fired recently for batching. This sucks cause he was funny as hell when he was hi. He would laugh at everything with high ass voice like a junior high school girl when he was hi. Some people in our district smoke weed and drink beer during breaks and lunches. He problem was he would batch stupid. Sometimes a little batching can go a long way in helping youre APH. If you dont get to greedy with the bathching then you should get away with some batching.

Anonymous said...

My district does not send me to stores that are less then 20 minutes from where I live but rgis will send travel teams to those stores. Those travel teams will have many auditors, specialists and experts who suck at counting and have bad attitudes. They send me to stores that I have to drive almost 1 hour each way for a 2 to 4hour shift. One of our former grey shirts applied for a job at a store while he was running that stores inventory. He got that job and I am very happy for him.

Anonymous said...

if you like working long hours without getting breaks and riding in vans with shitty drivers who fall asleep a lot while driving then you need to go to work for rgis ASAP.

Anonymous said...

RGIS Employee or not employed????

I was e static to stumble across RGIS back in 10/2012 after 3 years of fighting back from illness and finding out my last employer was blackballing me to any prospect calling for reference. Two years worth of applying for thousands yes thousands of jobs with no response, no thanks, or no positions suddenly. After being hired on the spot, i was paid for my 3 hours of training were i quickly found a unique way to scan, putting me up there with veteran RGIS guns. Then a month of absolutely no hours at all followed. Then around November i started getting more hours, but that is when i was witness or subjected to situations that were illegal and disturning. I saw Grey shirts pocketing merchandise padding it with blame on a red shirt miscount. Locked in a break room for hours until inventory was finalized listening to fellow female employees descriptively boast about how how well they screwed their partner the prior night. Refusal to be allowed to use restroom facilities or being docked to do so.Going from one job to another with no lunch,no breaks, and screwy travel pay which i am still researching if it is illegal in my state. Here is the kicker, In January my hours disappeared, emails stopped phone calls were ignored and finally disconnected and then finding the office disappeared.I have not worked for RGIS in 9 months. To this day i still have not received anything stating my termination and i still get benefit info from HR corporate. They will not return any of my calls or emails. So this has hindered finding another job i believe. I have contacted a law firm handling other RGIS lawsuits and encourage others who have been tortured by RGIS Inc. to do the same. This is just my experience, but it is true with many others reporting similar issues. There are some good grey and red shirts that still work for RGIS, but RGIS is a menace.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Why don't RGIS put pay stubs online?

Does RGIS have a clear break policy? It was not written very well in their manual.

Does RGIS have a clear breakdown of their APH requirements? Is it the same for each store?

Anonymous said...

Why don't RGIS put pay stubs online?
They used to, then an employee sued saying it was not secure.

Does RGIS have a clear break policy? It was not written very well in their manual.

They can't, break policy is by State Labor law and each RGIS office is supposed to follow their state law even if they go to another state. For example in NJ you can wave your meal period but in NY a meal period before the 6th hour of work is mandatory. So if you are from a NY office working in NJ and they tell you to wave your meal legally you can't. That's how it is supposed to work, your experience may differ an mine sure the hell does.

Does RGIS have a clear breakdown of their APH requirements? Is it the same for each store?

No, the APH levels set in the computer for the account may differ than what is listed in the procedures if the account manager does not update the procedures.
You have account APH and then everyone has their own personal APH even in a man hour store which is totally crazy. You have the published APH and then some lesser number that really counts that they don't tell you.
The APH in the machine is pure BS since you are rated from the APH in the laptop from when you clock in until you clock out. The machine only starts when you enter your ID which people mistakenly don't until they are ready to scan the 1st item thinking they are upping their APH. NOPE its from the TCA punch in time. That is also how they get time to first count...

Anonymous said...

do crazy chris still work for rgis in d68 Merrillville? dude was very funny when I worked with him.

Mahonri said...

About breaks, I've noticed whenever I've worked in a store that people from Seattle come to, whether it be in Idaho, Utah or Montana. The store runner always uses the break rules of Washington, for some reason.

Anonymous said...

RGIS sure knows how to improve company morale during the Holiday
Season.They just sent out a letter upping the pay rates at each ASET level by 75 cents.But underneath that letter in the very SAME envelope was another letter reducing my ASET level by one(which just coincindentally happens to be 75 cents)!So much for that "raise"--it was good for about five seconds, until when I turned the page.Way to go RGIS! Keep spreading that Holiday Cheer!

curiousgal said...

I'm new to RGIS, but I've been scheduled for about 6 stores in the first week I've been working. I work hard, listen and correct any mistakes, am not sensitive to criticism, and I guess I also have been scanning and 10-keying fairly quickly and accurately.

I did a big store today, it lasted about 10 hours. I surmised that I 10-keyed about 25,000 things. I worked hard, but... you can't help but guesstimate slightly, sometimes.

My question to you experienced vets is : what's the REAL deal behind blending/batching? When can one begin to experiment with this practice? I've already learned it's inescapable to an extent - for some more than others, obviously.

But what's the real timeline of this practice? How does it evolve? What's a 5-year expert-top gun doing differently in year 4-5 than in month 1-7?

Anonymous said...

curiousgal:
The difference between an experienced veteran and a new person usually comes down to the fact that the veteran is alert to the procedures(having done the store before), and to all that is going on around him in the store.If it's a 100% printout store,or the store people are very fussy about scanning each piece(especially if they watch you),batching opportunties are limited at best.On the other hand,if the store doesn't do audits,or,if they only care about the dollar amount--not the individual skus,then it's a completely different ballgame.For example,if you have a pile of tee shirts that all the same price and there are a couple of them without tags(or hard-to get-to hidden tags),people will batch more consistently because the store isn't checking the skus,just the quantity.If the store is not watching you--or completely indifferent or even accomodating to batching in some cases,then the inventory becomes a batch-o-rama.Usually a RGIS manager or gray shirt will turn a blind eye to all thats going on because RGIS is making money and everyone is making their APH goal.The other problem with being new,is that if there going to be area printouts,it's going to be on a new person.Part of that reason is just because the person is new,but sometimes it is used as a diversionary tactic.New people may be excessively audited,while a "top gun" type is immune,and can go around,often with reckless abandon, batching the hell out of everything.This is especially true when the top gun is a friend or relative of the person running the store.I've seen this plenty of times over my 25+ years of doing inventories.So,my advice to you would be to be alert to exactly is going on around you.Don't be afraid to ask a veteran or grayshirt if areas are being printed out,or how much the store checks areas.I think that you'll get a natural feel for this after a few months on the job.

Anonymous said...

Do not batch at Ulta. Rgis people have been sent home early from Ulta because they have been caught batching.

sueon2744 said...

Hi, doing smart Space 4 Wal-Marts. What is WAG?

Anonymous said...

Back in the day, you could get by with estimating, at least in financial inventories....big emphasis on counting without touching anything...we used to count freezers without even opening them. This was back when the only APH was to hit a certain dollar amount in financials, and other stores they did not really care as long as they didn't run too long. Imagine my surprise after a hiatus of several years, to find I had to scan each facing at a ShopRite, and that they were recounting after us. It was a whole new world.

Unfortunately, the APH system has really proven detrimental to the atmosphere in the workplace. I recall in my old district, *most* people would help out others (there were always some, including team leaders, who just wanted to do their own thing and not be bothered), but now it is very cutthroat, constant cherrypicking, and if you get stuck in a horrible area all day, you are likely on your own, because no one wants to risk their APH. It can be extremely difficult to move up in the ASET system, but if you play nice and are reliable, and make it known that you do not intend to be stuck on the lower levels, that helps. People who just do the low APH areas and never complain about it, are the ones who get stuck wavering between auditor and specialist for years.

As far as counting pills, as someone mentioned, that is the one thing they do not typically expect to be 100% accurate. (Or maybe I should say, they EXPECT it, but they are not going to recount 1000's of pills to check). Typically pills would be in halves or tenths, but even if it requires an "exact" pill count, no one expects you to sit and count one by one, as long as you are close enough. The exception might be the pills on bingo cards, as it's very easy to tell if they're off if they are all full (but then again, also easy to count).

Anonymous said...

"No, the APH levels set in the computer for the account may differ than what is listed in the procedures if the account manager does not update the procedures.
You have account APH and then everyone has their own personal APH even in a man hour store which is totally crazy. You have the published APH and then some lesser number that really counts that they don't tell you.
The APH in the machine is pure BS since you are rated from the APH in the laptop from when you clock in until you clock out. The machine only starts when you enter your ID which people mistakenly don't until they are ready to scan the 1st item thinking they are upping their APH. NOPE its from the TCA punch in time. That is also how they get time to first count."

Then you also have the inflated APH, which some managers like to use to "motivate" people, although I believe it has the opposite effect. (It is usually managers who do this). Some inflate the numbers so much I don't even bother asking anymore.

Anonymous said...

I get high and drink 2 24oz cans, that shit puts me in the zone, focused. This is not meant as a joke.