One from October:
Sometimes after schedules were issued we would receive updates:
Nail your schedule down, people!
And here is the infamous "not to be discussed or termination will result" schedule, as mentioned in this previous post:
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Schedules, We Have Your Schedules (But Not Every Day)
I thought it might be a little interesting to see what some of the district's schedules looked like, back in the day. To view each image in a larger size, right click on the photo and select "View Image". Here's a typical one for the month of January. Long's Drugs I miss you.
One from October:
Sometimes after schedules were issued we would receive updates:
Nail your schedule down, people!
And here is the infamous "not to be discussed or termination will result" schedule, as mentioned in this previous post:
One from October:
Sometimes after schedules were issued we would receive updates:
Nail your schedule down, people!
And here is the infamous "not to be discussed or termination will result" schedule, as mentioned in this previous post:
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175 comments:
Years ago,in my district,RGIS used to give the grayshirts a master schedule that showed every store that was going over a period of about three or four weeks.It used to also have either projected grand total pieces,or the last inventory's total,for most stores. This was important if you were running the store,for an experienced supervisor could check his scheduled manpower for an upcoming inventory to the piece count, and generally know if it was going to be a long(ask the DM for more auditors), or short inventory.
There never was any gag order in my district about not discussing the schedule.Some of us actually let the more experienced auditors look at it,if they wished.They would know if they were being deliberately screwed over and left out of stores,or, put into further away, and less convienent ones.The management "There is no work that day" excuse didn't work any longer once the rank and file had seen the master schedule.The only time this may have been abused was when we had a woman who would "party crash" stores that she wasn't originally scheduled for,in order to get more hours.(What grayshirt would turn away an unexpected extra body at their store?)It's unclear if the "crasher" got her info from the master schedule,or from just word of mouth.The management did finally catch on,and I believe she began to get sent home to be cured of her habit.
The confirm your schedule with your team leader thing is a big waste of time. Our district's team leaders cant help us out when our schedule gets messed up. I have had at least 3 different team leaders during the last 12 months. A lot of the RGIS grey shirts, flow leaders and team leaders are clueless and they do not know to run things right.
Hello, I'm a RGIS auditor working in District 159 at Austin, Texas. I've read the stories and comments, it is an eye-opener.
I'm thinking about staying for five more months due to the wrong actions made by this company. Can anybody who worked in that district tell me how it truly is?
My DM sends an e-mail with the schedule as an attachment. You can reply to it and either confirm the schedule as is or if there are issues, specify the reasons for declining any of the assignments. If you don't confirm by the deadline date, which is usually a day or two later, it is assumed everything is OK. It is important to reply because sometimes the DM forgets that you requested time off, there is an availability issue the day of a particular assignment or you're scheduled for a night store then one the following morning. My DM also asks that time off requests be given two weeks in advance, which is fair in most instances.
What is RGIS policy on sick leave? Do they expect you to work with a bad cold or a flu & infect everyone?
Should I party crash stores so I can get some more hours? Lots of people in my district did not very many hours during the so-called busy period in January.
I heard that WIS may have taken over the Lowes Inventories now?
If schedules are not to be discussed with other auditors then wouldn't everyone at RGIS have to be fired?
RE policy on sick leave. There is no policy or sick leave offered. They want you to work since they are short of employees. People keep quitting so they need people with 105 degree fevers to work. If you are coughing & sneezing all over the place, you must work. If you have a flu you must work. If you have a heart attack you must work. You have agreed to your schedule. There is no getting out of it.
I remember at one store, the AM who was running it went into labor during the store, and had to wait til the store was over before going to the hospital. I'm currently applying for disability, if you do call in sick, you tend to get fewer stores. Opinions in this post are mine, and not of RGIS.
Heads up on Sick Leave, some cities are requiring employers of X or more amount of employees to give sick leave.
Jersey City just did that. If you work in Jersey City for an employer more than 80 hours a year you earn one sick hour for every 40 hours worked. Of course RGIS if you call out sick will only pay you at your ASsET level no adder role even if the schedule has an adder role and only for the length of the store (when areas range goes 100%).
I hear NYC is going to pass a sick leave policy too.
Currently if you call out sick it is a No Show and whatever your office policy is on no shows the computer will send you a termination letter if you go past the number of allowed no shows.
Two Lowes in our office haven't done them in awhile.
I don't know how the rest of you feel, but I don't appreciate working next to someone who is sick and coughing and sneezing. I don't want to get a bad cold or flu. The current flu going around is nasty.
RGIS managers should tell people it is OK to call out sick. Of course, the managers probably think people are faking illness to get out of work. But I think the opposite is true--many sick people come to work so they get a paycheck or to avoid a "no show". The illness is passed to others.
RGIS should institute a policy of 10 days a year, where it is OK for an employee to call out sick, or for family emergency, etc. without worrying about losing your job. 10 days a year seems reasonable. Most companies do this.
Yes RGIS lost the Lowes account.
These companies change inventory services constantly. They just go with whoever is willing to give them the cheapest inventory. RGIS has sold the farm on many accounts in order to keep them. The result is longer inventories with less staffing in order to still make money on the account. Doesn't matter if the days are long with still no breaks, and never being offered a lunch break in our district 356. They expect the impossible from a handful of crew and treat them with zero respect and go against all labor laws for lunch breaks in order to make the most money they can.
The only company in the world that expects you to go to work in blizzard conditions, with the flu, working extra long hours with no breaks and lunch, working with not enough staff, and going from one store to another in their busiest of months, and then sends out letters that your pay might go down because you didn't count your average. Thank you so much for risking your lives and vehicles, getting us through our busiest times! We really appreciate it!! Not!!!! Then they wonder why people cancel out on snowy days, refuse to go help in another store, etc.
RGIS team leaders r not fair in my district.... If the person is special for supervisor, that person get good area & aph is up! Especially at walgreens team... What is team work at RGIS ?....
Lucky u.my sister work in Scotland dist. She get schedules but no shifts. Shifts were given to favourites. N moreover one of the supervisor sign in her wife even if she doesn't come to work. Lucky people are getting paid for sitting home n other poor fellas rubbing their ass to make some money for survival..
How will RGIS Handle this?
New York City paid sick leave bill passes despite council members’ reservations
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/nyc-paid-sick-leave-bill-passes-worries-article-1.1703440#ixzz2uYQmHdnJ
anybody in the HQ offices?
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140303/METRO02/303030073/1361/Officials--4-000-gallon-fuel-spill-under-control-in-Auburn-Hills
So fun. A blog about RGIS.
I work for them in Europe. And in my district, you make the same pay if you are A, S or E.
T make more. Same as a Supervisor.
FL are in between. And no other pay rate.
Just three ranks: Crap, Crap Leader, Boss/Counting God.
Only advantages to gain rank is to count less crap.
And there is rivalry between area in a same district (or the inverse). If you're Area A, you go 150miles to count on Area B. You'll count crap, even if you are a Top. And do that too much, you'll be back to Crap rank.
And it seems to have more control. Store people make around 5% check. RGIS people check around 10%. And some store. it's 30%/30%. Batching is very hard to do. Even with training :p
And of course, communication problems. Make 3h trip to stand in front a closed store with a note 'Inventory Cancelled', it's fun the first time. Not so much after a while.
We lost JCP last year Lowes this year... wonder who's next?
@Anon: "Crap, Crap Leader, Boss/Counting God" Ha!
Anon said "Make 3 hr trip to stand in front of a storewith a note 'Inventory Cancelled' "
Anon forgot to add, UNPAID 3 hrs. Just great--get up at 4AM, drive 100 miles in rain or snow, and you're the only one around because they didn't call you or you forgot to check your email for a last minute cancellation. If you've been at RGIS long enough, this will happen to you sooner or later.
What's the deal with the recent RGIS pay stubs? They don't have as much detail as their old ones.
They used to give us a breakdown per store for every store we worked at during the pay period. Now they just give total hours and pay for week 1 and week 2 in the pay period.
Is RGIS up to their old tricks again? It seems like it would be MUCH easier for RGIS to short people on their hours with the new way they present their pay stub info.
Are they still paying their hourly people by the minute?
Some supervisors have NOT let us punch in until after our scheduled starting time even though we are there early waiting around for the TCA.
Then there's being called 45 minutes before leave time, to fill in for someone who called in sick. Or having 3 overnight stores, being cancelled out of the third store. Then having them show up at your door, on their way out of town to that store and expect you to go, even though you hadn't washed your work clothes yet, and had spent the money budgeted for food for that trip. All views are my own and not that of RGIS.
Yah new pay stubs favor RGIS, no break down of hours so you miss 0.1 hour (That's 6 minutes BTW) times 30,000 employees you know how much money they save?
Don't put equipment on until you punch in, read the freaking message on the audit!! Big law suit that I got money from for not paying employees to do work related chores. Do NOT touch an audit until you are punched in. Get grief point to the message on the audit that is above where you put in your ID.
Of course after the huge law suit RGIS just like the credit card companies and banks changed it so you have to go to arbitration not sue in court for any issue. You could opt out one time only but I bet most employees did not bother to opt out.
Now that you mention it, it is kinda odd that the hours aren't on them. I've noticed that my district is printing the breakdown of hours of the stores. I know some on the team I'm on keeps a close eye on their hours, to make sure they get paid for things like driving. The views in this post are my own, and not of RGIS, or it's employees.
After sending out a blanket e-mail promising to get schedules out by Sun. evening, we've maybe gotten three [OK, maybe four] by Sun. evening. They usually arrive sometime late Mon evening or Tues. Maybe I'm special but got one at 12:01 Thurs. that's one minute after midnight so technically Thurs.
Here in SoCal paystubs are still broken down by week and store. Clocking in by TCA is at start time and then you are allowed to get equipment, PIB to be presented shortly thereafter. Always check your clockout time to make sure it is the same as you are paid.
Sick leave??????????You've got to be kidding!! Congrats to JC and NYC.
Mahroni Labor?????? EVIL EMPIRE
Crap, Crap Leader, Boss/Counting God good call. Store manager asked to have one counter sent home because of errors BTW it was our AM embarrassing.
No phone call to tell you of cancelled store?? RGIS minimum is two hours pay!!!!!!!
On to other items. How about UNDERCOVER BOSS?? Oh, that's right, RGIS does NOT care. How about LEVERAGE?
My opinion not that of rgis or its employees. Do you really think no other employee thinks this is untrue?
Misfit says "Longs Drugstores, I miss you" So do I. Those were good stores to inventory, always reliable for 6 hrs+. And that funny letter code they used for prices always made me laugh.
I have come back to rgis three times spanning over 16 years. Everytime I do I realize nothing changes. STill have the smelly guy, the grey shirt that never moves up (or gets any faster), the drunk, etc. I can tell you some stories, oh man. You wouldn't believe half of it. Alot of the dangerous stuff has stopped (no more riding in the "trunk" of the van on top of the equipment). Right now I feel we have a good DM. I've been through about 12 DM's over the years. I really like this one.
This is the thing about this type of work it can be easy and it can be rough I have my own vehicles to drive and I get tired of hauling people around cause here we go my car is broke down or my car may break down love that one! Another they have no license :) why do they get hired for a job they may and will need to drive! The travel is a pain at times and as far as the aph I'm a TG and I still count lousy areas getting there means we TGs do and should get priority however becoming a expert and TG you should be able to keep your numbers up only the lazy cry I make great money as a landlord and a TG at RGIS D6 Uniontown PA!
To the previous poster: are you a "top gun" because you are fast, or because you are given easy areas to count? I once was given precounted rope to count--500 feet, 200 feet, 700 feet etc. I was a top gun that day LOL! 90% of ASET rank is probably what you count. Sure there are some fast counters, but there are also average counters who are "experts" or TGs because of being given easy areas. Is this fair? Pretending that all areas of the store are the same is nonsense. There are hard/slow areas and easy/fast areas. The ranking system as it currently exists does not take this into account. Shouldn't everyone have an equal chance? These are my views, and not those of RGIS.
(Note: the following comment was left by a reader as 'Anonymous' at the blog entry Training Session Trauma. Unfortunately it accidentally got deleted before I could publish it here. However all comments left here are also sent to the blog's email account so I was able to copy/paste it here.)
I have worked for RGIS now for about 8 years. It is the worst company I have ever worked for. The pay sucks the most. Those of you that were here prior to 2008 know what I'm talking about. The sky was the limit before on what you could make. Now instead of giving a cost of living increase they come up with the most screwed up pyramid pay policy I have ever heard of. You can make 9,10,11,13 or add 2.00 more if you run stores. How in the word is someone supposed to live off this!
And before you RGIS employees that suck face to the company say it's supposed to be a part time job or a second job for many this is their only job and count yourself lucky and shut the hell up.
When they screw us with the new pay system I went from 14.57 down to 11.00. I know people that went from 19.00 and 22.00/ hour down to 10 and 13. And RGIS has not given us a raise in many years. Then you have their b.s. "accuracy is are primary concern". Who the hell are you kidding, you set the damn pay up so accuracy went out the window and it's how fast you can count. Just more RGIS bull crap.
Oh and what about those adder rolls that,we were suppose to get. Yay we got them for 5 months and then they disappeared. Too much money not going to the manager's bonuses so now we don't get them.
And speaking of bonuses how about the biggest scam of them all. Those big bonuses all the area managers said we were going to get, MORE B.S.
It all comes down to this: there are so many of us WE NEED TO FORM A UNION! I know some of you heard this before. Especially in Florida, California, Massachusetts,Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey but we need to reach more of you. What we need to do is put those suits in Michigan in their places. Don't let them bully us. What we need is healthcare, not that crap supplement they have now. Vacations, maybe after 2 years but give us something. Let us wear shorts and t-shirts in the summer, we are sweating our asses off for these people at least let us be comfortable.
I have a friend that works in the northeast. He had to go to the hospital at least 3 times that I know of because the damn stores we work in they shut off their air at night. If we could wear light clothing this would not happen. This goes the same for the winter. My aunt worked here for 21 years and she has sweatshirts from RGIS. Well why the hell can't we get them?
Sick time: to be fair the type of job we so sick days are kind of moot. But how about an on call system? If someone calls out page one of the on call people, just give them like 2.00 more and hour for being on call.
Here is a good one, NO LOWERING PEOPLES PAY. Which brings me to the biggest one of them all: RAISES. You hear me Michigan we want RAISES! OR AT LEAST COST OF LIVING INCREASES. Some of you may ask, were would they get the money? LISTEN UP MICHIGAN, GET RIDE OF THOSE B.S. BONUSES YOU SUPPOSEDLY GIVE US AND CUT DOWN ON THE BONUSES YOU GIVE YOUR MANAGERS ( we do all the work anyway and they have nothing to do with it).You have kept us the same pay at least for five or six years. It's about time to show us some appreciation.
People, we didn't get organized like before. Come on we can do it this time. Just like the fast food people are doing with their 15.00 an hour UNION push.
Please post here there are some of you in every district. Remember in 2003 we only had about 100 in 3 states. In 2007 we had over 300 in ( I think ) 7 states. We would have had more but people got scared because of the law suit in California. The last I checked we are 500-600 in almost 22 states so reach out let's get what we deserve!
even being a top gun sucks balls
Last year I was at Kmart and the RGIS manager was late for the inventory. While waiting in the parking lot I saw some dudes get in a van and they smoked some weed before the inventory. A couple of them guys was very hi during the inventory. It was very funny to see them smoke weed while they was getting paid.
Welcome to RGIS the home of working long shifts without breaks. Do all districts make their people wait at least 4 hours before they get their paid break (when they give us breaks)?
Four hours, try NY State, 10 minute break is BEFORE the 5th hour so you get your break at 4 hours 59 minutes. 30 minutes before the 6th hour so in 49 minutes after your 10 you get 30 minutes and you can not waive the 30 minute break. Of course 10 minutes after your 30 minute break they send you home, store almost done.
We still have managers that have us clock out before we put our equipment away (sometimes it could be 5 minutes before). Many times they wont let us clock in until after our scheduled time. That can save every district thousands of dollars every year.
Do all districts try to cheat RGIS employees out some minutes and hours?
Quick question from a former RGIS employee.
Is it true that RGIS doesn't pay ANY travel pay anymore?
When I was there, it would be anything after the first hour. I have since heard it's more than two hours before you start getting travel pay.
Anyone with info on the California new minimum wage and the effect it will have on rgis team members pay rate please post here we are all being kept in the dark and rumors about a new ranking above top gun along with the minimum wage change is causing uneccessary drama between coworkers
Does our APH go up when we work off the clock?
Travel Pay has to follow your State's minimum wage law or federal minimum wage if greater.
They still do not pay for the first hour in travel in each direction, then it is minimum wage pay.
In my state if your total pay is less than four hours at minimum wage they will "plus" it so you are paid four hours at the minimum wage rate (two person shoe stores a happens all the time).
As to averages, if you are clocked out and counting yes your average would go up, but if the account program was updated then they are time stamping every scan. They know the downtime between when you stop scanning and the next time you scan an area number. So they can tell if you are punched out and scanning if they want to look.
It is insane that APH has become more important than earning an income. ALL aset levels are important. THe system doesn't work with out the existence of all aset levels. Every aset is equally important and vital to the process.As you master each type of area you gain the competence to move on to more complex areas and then master those areas as well. Attempting to shortcut the process of mastering each type of area will only set u up for failure in the end.
I love doing K-Marts. They should be renamed Batch-Marts cause they have been a lot of batching fun. Accuracy oops I meant aph is our primary concern.
Question about travel pay: if you drive ALONE to a job in your own car, and it takes more than one hour, are they required to pay travel pay? Or is it only for car pools?
>> if you drive ALONE to a job in your own car,
I don't know company policy but in my district if you drive alone you get no travel pay. You have to be an approved company driver (run license) to get reimbursed mileage and if your travel alone they will pay you if you are carrying equipment only and an approved driver.
So alone, nope no travel pay in my district. I WILL NOT drive for RGIS, been there done that. Got in an accident was carry equipment and I was left hanging.
Don't even ask me how the compute disability, it SUCKS.
Regarding travel pay while driving yourself:
When I worked for them from 2004-2011, I often drove to stores myself because I smoked at the time (the vans were non-smoking), and because I didn't like to be cramped into the back seat of a van with insane drivers. When I did this, I was always paid travel pay as if I'd ridden in the van despite driving myself. If they ever would've tried to not pay me my travel pay, I would've raised hell, but it wasn't an issue for me as my manager was a decent guy in spite of his horrible driving skills.
Now, when I did this, they'd often try to get me to take people back to the office for them after a count was done but before the printouts and other post-count stuff was finished, but I always refused.
Does anyone know how much District Managers make? Someone said over $60,000 a year but that seems hard to believe. How about area managers, or whatever they are called now?
Does anyone know how much District Managers make? Someone said over $60,000 a year but that seems hard to believe. How about area managers, or whatever they are called now?
Your 60K is because Glass Door shows that as the salary. I don't know what the base pay is but I'm told that if they don't make bonus it is not worth the hours.
I also hear that the have an excellent benefit package.
Glassdoor.com said District Managers make about $60,000 a year (with free co. car) & Area managers about $36,000 a year (& free car). I guess they're worth it (?) The next time they call you from their house to go work somewhere because someone didn't show, think about that. I don't begrudge them their salaries & benefits, but all the auditors (from top gun down to new auditor) should make at least $12 an hour imho.
Here is a fair pay scale: Auditor: $10/hr.; specialist #12/hr; Expert: $14/hr.; Top Gun: $16/hour.
These are my views and not those of RGIS.
Glassdoor.com said District Managers make about $60,000 a year (with free co. car) & Area managers about $36,000 a year (& free car). I guess they're worth it, but the next time they call you from their house to go work somewhere because someone didn't show, think about that. I don't begrudge them their salaries & benefits, but all the auditors (from top gun down to new auditor) should make at least $12 an hour imho.
Here is a fairer pay scale: Auditor: $12/hr.; specialist #14/hr; Expert: $16/hr.; Top Gun: $18/hour.
These are my views and not those of RGIS.
Wow...how did you manage to get three days off in January, and no doubles? It's not uncommon for us to work day/night for 3-4 days in a row, even in the second-busiest period in July. Once you prove yourself reliable they will work you until you drop. Then they wonder why every single store is short-staffed, and even the more reliable people are starting to go missing. I run a couple of small stores a week, and I haven't managed to get 100% attendance yet this month. Overtime is great, but not when you are spending 7 hours in a damn clothing store on no sleep because half the crew didn't show. Do I sound bitter? Probably because I'm at 50 hours of work but about 15 hours of sleep for the week.
No all those district managers have been fired by ruthless bastards called Blackstone
Lets see up at 4am for a 5:30am start. Did 8 hours plus 1/2 hour non-paid lunch so now 2:30p have to be at 2nd store for 4pm start. If I go home I have less than an hour at home before I have to leave to make it to next store.
2nd store went 4pm to 2am of course with my 1/2 an hour unpaid lunch given when Mall is closed and can't exit and return to get anything to eat, just sit on your a$$ for the 30 minutes.
Now supposed to be at a 6am store the next day all at regular pay as not hit 40 hours in the week since RGIS splits the weekend when I work into two different weeks...
Yup not many can do that.
Time for the rank & file hourly workers to say "ENOUGH!" We demand a living wage ($12 to start), travel pay, basic benefits. The head of Blackstone makes billions of dollars on our hard work. How about sharing a little so we can afford to buy the necessities of life? Some workers don't even have enough money for gas.
These are my views & not those of RGIS LLC.
I was briefly an AM before RGIS and the employees (many of them were fantastic, most were not) completely broke my will to live. Worked my way up from part-time auditor over two years in a stable district. Can't even imagine what it's like working in even an average one, let alone the ones that appear to be in constant chaos.
Those DM and AM salaries look about right as of Jan 2014. They are definitely negotiable and cost-of-living-based, depending on where you live.
One point -- the company van is definitely not free. They deduct something from each paycheck unless you specifically tell them you don't want it. In my district, the company vans were in constant demand during heavy periods, but almost always available during the down times. I still spent way too much on gas.
As far as pay increases, don't get your hopes up. The 50 cent raise was like pulling teeth and they claimed it would cost them millions. There was a project foisted on office staff to call around to other inventory companies to see what they started at which kind of shamed them into doing something.
Since I started at the bottom, I really did try to treat all the auditors like I wanted to be treated, but the truth is they have the leverage. We fired no one and people flaked all the time.
I would've happily paid OT to anyone willing to work it and show up to all reasonably scheduled shifts, but we only had a couple of people that would and they were insta-promoted. I was never given a hard time by my DM, even when logging 60-70 hours as a team leader for months on end. My biggest paychecks were January/July as a team leader. Crushed anything I got as a manager.
If someone asked me about working for RGIS, I would say you can get to DM fast if you're willing to work and move once or twice and your work history/education isn't a disaster. Otherwise, stick to counting, get top gun and grind out the OT when you can. Nothing in between is worth it.
My Distict 322 pays $7.75 an hour for every hour traveled, that just started this yr.
RE/ Travel pay Dist 322: does the $7.75 an hour for travel pay only apply for people riding in the company van or carpools, or does it include people who drive alone in their own vehicle to the job? Is the money only for travel OVER one hour, or does it include the first hour as well? It seems to me that ALL districts should be treated the same, in wages, benefits and travel pay.
These are my views and not those of RGIS.
aph is based on skills if Ur aph is low then that means u can't count as fast as the person with the higher aph .... it's sad that u would base aph on ares on not your own abilities
Not sure where to post this, but has anyone ever gone thru the Dispute Resolution phases? I'm stuck on Phase 5 and unsure how to go about it.
News item in today's paper:
"Paid Sick-leave law passes California Legislature" & "Higher Minimum Wage Being Considered"
Law will require all employers in California to provide at least 3 paid sick days per year to all employees.
In addition, major cities in Califonia--Los Angeles, San Diego & San Francisco have passed or are considering laws to raise the minimum wage to above $13 an hour.
Hmmmm..will RGIS stay in California and pay sick leave & $13+ an hour? What do you all think will happen?
These are my views & not those of RGIS.
To the poster who said "APH is based on skills" & "if your APH is low it means you can't count as fast as the person with the higher APH". Really?
Or could it mean you're stuck counting dump bins & 1 on 1 furniture areas missing skus while the cherrypickers & favored people get the easy precounts & multi-q areas?
I would say the latter, mostly.
These are my views & not those of RGIS LLC.
Is it time for a class action lawsuit on the unfair & rotten to the core APH rating system on which wages & promotions are based? Anybody agree?
These are my views & not those of RGIS LLC
Went way back & read some of the older blogs. The stories about 500+ lb. Mondo fermenting pizzas in the oven for weeks--hilarious. Did Mondo ever climb ladders? Maybe Mondo caused the NAPA quake. Good stuff.
>>Is it time for a class action lawsuit
Unless you "opted out" in the paper work you signed when you were hired or the forms they sent you where you had to mail it back you can not sue for anything.
After the last class action they sent out the same policy credit cards did automatically requiring you to go to arbitration instead of suing for ANYTHING.
If you did not send the paper back you are SOL. I bet most employees did not opt out so no class action on anything.
I don't know what post you are referring to ....but I can say this: regarding dump bins ; it's a matter of how hard you are willing to work and get through the dump bins so that you can move on to a better area . Regarding 1 on 1 furniture; it's a crappie task but just know that just about everyone had at one time had to count some type of 1 on 1 crappie area it's part of the job all you can do is work hard in other stores and they to reach the he next asset level . There are no favored people it's trial and error and when it becomes clear that a certain person is very efficient in a certain area then that person will be most likely repeatedly placed in that certain area ... it's not about favorites it is about getting the count done in the manner and time frame that was promised to the stores.
Check yourself man cause that post was directed to the poster of the comment directly above it (expets and topguns) and definantly check yourself if you aew on of those who is always carrying on a conversation the whole time with the store 1 on 1 person if you didn't talk so much you would finish furniture faster and move on to better areas ....
From most of what I have read on here, all of you RGISians are working for the walmart of inventory. If you like the job (and are good at it - actually good), but wish your employers gave (more of) a hoot about you, paying you - look into a small, local inventory service.
From my experience and what I see with others in the company I work for, hard work, consistently accurate counts, and professional demeanor result in abnormally regular raises, new opportunities and scheduling flexibility while never losing the circus-like atmosphere that we love about inventory.
To be honest, we get a few migrant RGIS workers per year and.. well.. let's not go there. But for those who like the job and like doing it well, look for a local company where your work will be appreciated.
Do other districts have a problem with people falling asleep while driving RGIS vans lately? Our district has a problem with that and some our TL's who drive have fall asleep while they drive.
Re falling asleep while driving RGIS vans: I personally experienced that happening several times while riding in a company van to and from inventories. Usually it was a manager driving, although once or twice it was a TL. Fortunately, each time it happened there were several of us riding in the van who were awake, including someone riding shotgun. That person would say something to the sleepy driver and then he would jerk awake and not kill us in a terrible crash.
Because of the crazy schedules you could understand how sleepy some drivers could be but still it's no excuse to put so many people in danger. And not just the others in the van but other innocent people on the road. However, I don't recall this subject ever really being seriously addressed by management or anyone else at RGIS.
(Note: the following comments were left here by someone this morning. Instead of publishing them as is I removed surnames and one small personal detail. Everything else was left as is.)
[edited]
From Stephanie
October 9, 2015
Complaint about John
On October 7, 2014, I quit my job after John began verbally attacking me in the backroom of the Canadian Tire store in Williams Lake. I had begun working at eight in the morning and had been there for about 90 minutes, when John came up to me and told me to follow him. He became irate after Vivien and one of her employees from Vancouver, a Chinese man, asked me to help him with a section and told me to do the right part of the automotive section in the back and count an area. John came along about five minutes later and became angry that I was doing this ticket.
He asked me who told me to do that section and I told him that Vivien told me to do it, and he accused me of disobeying his authority, insisted that I was not to listen to any management except him, and that I was going against his orders. He told me that I had a habit of doing what I wanted and picking my own sections, and was doing it this time. I told him that I was instructed by management. He told me never to follow a store manager's instructions or any other member of management or supervisor of RGIS staff, and that if and when I did so, I was disobeying him directly and was only allowed to answer to him. He then obtained Bryan and dragged me to a section I had previously done, where the count was right, only to complain about the use of barcodes from the store.
[edited]
I had to request store help to enter items that did not scan with the RM properly, and John became distressed that they were according to him, 'not exactly in order or with the bar codes on the items'. Bryan asked me to redo the section politely and calmly, and I did so. The amount was the same.
John then dragged me to another ticket that was not my own, and complained that I had not finished it, when I had never done it in the first place, as I had been pulled off it after I was told to let someone else do the ticket and head down to another section. He started pulling off written instructions and told me I didn't follow them, when I had not done the ticket in the first place. He also pulled a ticket off another area I had done and claimed it was that area. I found his behavior bizarre.
He accused me of not being a nice person, not saying hello to staff members, and told me he was issuing my 'final warning'. I have never had a personal meeting over conduct with John, received any written warnings. phone calls, or letters, and had generally maintained a good working relation with Zimmer, and there had never been any significant issues brought up with me. John, however, has made numerous comments on my associations with staff outside work, insisting that I 'do not fit in', 'do not make enough effort to belong to their clique', and other comments.
After this, he told me he was issuing his 'final warning', and then begged me to stay with the company because he wanted me to work there.
[edited]
I have never heard of any issue regarding insubordination. I then told John that I would quit after the Canadian Store audit. He came back ten minutes later, with Bryan, and told me that if I wanted to quit, he would send a van back to the hotel with me in it, and that I could leave on the next bus with a paid ticket. John then commented outside that I was 'not a nice person', and claimed that I was 'impolite to staff in the parking lot', and that I handled my suitcase improperly, and that it was my fault I was 'not liked by staff, that I had a 'bad attitude', and that he was personally offended by my refusal, according to him, to not say hello to staff when walking or being outside.
He told me that he became upset because Jade informed him that I had considered applying at Western Inventory after I finished with RGIS in six months to a year. He claimed that he had trained me and that I was responsible to him for this, as if I did not have a right to make a decision about my employment, and as if I owed him something for being hired, and that I was supposed to stay a long time. He also accused me of not being able to count and insisted that I would not succeed at another job or inventory company like Western.
I would point out that several people were responsible for my training, and that I was hired by Annette and the district, and not specifically John. John claimed that 'hostility towards me' was my fault. I pointed out that his staff was not communicative towards me and others, and that they stuck to their groups, and even would refuse to work with certain people, and would leave areas in stores they were assigned half-finished and move to new aisles they were not assigned to work with favoured co-workers and friends.
John then came back to the room I was in around seven or eight in the evening with bus tickets and told me I was personally responsible for seeing Cathy, a fired employee, back to her home, and that I should call him when she arrived in Kelowna.
I do not feel the arrival and delivery of any employee is my personal responsibility, particularly Cathy, who is impossible to manage and does not listen. I will not get into the details of having to deal with her, but I felt it was questionable that John would think that I would act as a sort of babysitter to an adult employee who chose to intoxicate herself, show up late, and continued drinking on the bus trip, in the cab, and at the hotel, even bringing liquor on the bus with her, and allowing her boyfriend in her hotel room against policy for intimate activity, which I had to leave the room to avoid.
I feel that it is particularly unfair that I was expected to handle such a person on a trip.
I feel that John's behavior was irrational, unprofessional and emotionally loaded. It was Kevin who gave us instructions in a meeting before the audit, and not John when it came to instructions, and I had not had a personal conversation about the audit.
John essentially pushed me into quitting and acted in a way suggestive of a character attack. I am offended by his behavior towards me, which I haven't seen or experienced before.
Note to Stephanie, the person who left the 3 comments above that I edited, and everyone who reads this blog:
First I wanted to thank you for leaving your comments here regarding your RGIS experiences. I really appreciated your comments and indeed appreciate everyone who takes the time to read and/or leave comments here at my blog. But from reading what you wrote I got the sense that you may be thinking that this blog is an official RGIS company blog. It is not, and I want to make sure that everyone knows that. This blog is just a personal blog about experiences working for RGIS. If you wish to make a formal complaint about RGIS or one of its employees you need to contact the company. Again, this blog is not an official company blog but instead a personal blog that is NOT affiliated with RGIS or any other company.
Again, thanks to Stephanie and everyone who reads and leaves comments here. I plan on making more posts at this blog, hopefully soon.
Sorry about your experience with John. That being said, There are always jerks, perverts and assholes out there. You are better off gone.
Is RGIS offering everyone real Obamacare health insurance next year or will people have to work a lot of hours to qualify? If so will it be expensive?
RE: Med. Plan, Oct 31 Anon.
The medical plan RGIS offers is full of huge deductibles. Maybe just pays 1/4th the cost of hospital care. I would skip it. Way too expensive for the little they pay for. Besides, I got a letter saying the medical plan does not cover the insurance minimum coverage of the new national healthcare plan. So, at best, its just a "piggyback" plan.
These are my views and not those of RGIS LLC
Just received a letter in the mail about a new class action lawsuit against RGIS called "Cross et al vs. RGIS"! The suit was about the old issue of time required to get ready for the inventory off the clock. Checking equipment, etc. The letter said that RGIS has already proposed a settlement.
What I'm unsure about is does this only apply to people who opted out of the "dispute resolution" process, or are all people (present & former employees) in the settlement pool who worked during the claim period elible?
Can someone explain? Need to send this claim form back.
These are my views & not those of RGIS LLC.
RGIS company cars should have RGIS written on them, DM and AM use company's car for personal pleasures and provide ride to their favorite employees only.
Hamilton's DM is a manipulative B*tc*, headquarter people are wrapped around her ass. There is no point of making a complaint against her, she gives more hours to people who are related to her. RGIS is not an equal opportunity employer, there is no room for advancement in 548 dist. Current managers are unprofessional and rude at times.
Regarding Cross vs RGIS. Many RGIS mangers and gray shirts have made me clock out before I put my equipment away.
A lot times I would arrive at a 6am early ready to clock in but our manager or TL would not be ready or would not let us clock in until after 6am (many times well after 6am). Then I would not get paid some time that I was scheduled and supposed to be paid for.
So much for the time paid equals time worked BULLSHIT that RIGS told us.
I just got the brochure from them. There are two plans. BOTH are Employee Funded Fully, the company does not pay ANYTHING.
First plan meets the minimum of Obama Care called Minimum Essential Coverage (MEC), that is 63 some odd tests, this is not major medical. Of those 62 most tests have some qualifier. Like cholesterol test only for 50+ with high blood pressure.
Standard or the MEC plan is Bi-Weekly $36.85 (1)/$74.47 +Spouse/$68.40 Employee W/Children and $106.58 Family.
Select Plan following above $54.51/$116.63/$100.20/$154.24
Both have limits per day and per year.
Again its Voluntary and paid 100% by employee.
You can setup credit card or debit account for weeks you don't get a paycheck. Coverage is paycheck to paycheck and you have 30 days to pay. If you don't that pay period you don't have coverage and if you apply for benefits they will deny you.
Hope that helps.
RGIS Company cars/vans don't say RGIS on them because they are leased. Without their own mechanics leasing is the best option because of the mileage put on them.
What's up with the expected APH crap? How the hell are people supposed to reach RGIS unrealistic bullshit APH goals? Are we supposed to batch and not give a shit about accuracy? I bet this expected APH crap will make RGIS fuck up more areas then ever. Happy Thanksgiving.
I had a weird nightmare last night. I was stuck in this huge decrepit store bigger than a Sears. Only half the scheduled auditors showed up. None of the lasers worked, so we had to hand key all the skus. Half the things had no sku, so we had to call "sku check" but there were only 3 store employees to help. The inventory went on for hours and hours, and little territory was gained. 4 became 8, 8 became 12 hours. The tiny auditor staff dropped like flies as people quit or left for other jobs. I was the only auditor left, and the store was only 30% counted. I bravely carried on for the next 3 days, but finally succumbed in some dark backroom with spiders and mice and bags of little flubdubs that I had to hand key since my laser didn't work. I bravely carried on for the next 4 days, but they found my skeleton years later buried under bags of skuless product with my audit machine fused to my fingers. They pried it off since they needed the machine for the next inventory. A sign was put up as a warning to the newbies: "Here lies the unknown RGIS auditor who failed to complete the job". I woke up with a start, delighted to find it was all but a dream and pleased that I had quit a year earlier.
Does anyone else have nightmares about inventories that went wrong?
These are my views and not those of RGIS LLC.
Read somewhere that the head of Blackstone will get a year end bonus of several hundred million dollars, if not a billion. Good to know someone at RGIS makes some pocket change! Carry on serfs--good work!
That was in Feb of 2014, figures for this year won't be published until Feb of 2014.
The only reason Blackstone bought RGIS was to sell it once it became profitable... that hasn't happened yet... They projected spending some money on the new equipment, AsSET rankings performance pay etc would let them sell it at a profit. That is what Blackstone does, just like flipping a house.
Steve Schwarzman received $374.5 million last year in pay and cash dividends, an increase of 76 percent from 2012, as the world’s biggest alternative-asset manager took advantage of rising equity markets to sell shares of companies.
Now that its January the RGIS workers will be able to eat. Happy new year RGIS peeps.
Anonymous said the "Head of Blackstone made $374 million in 2014". Hmmm.....assuming the average RGIS auditor makes $10,000 a year (actually average is prob. more like $5000)....$374,000,000/$10,000 means that the head of Blackstone makes 37,400 times what the average auditor makes. We should all run hedge funds instead of working as auditors! Carry on serfs, good work. Where is our bonus?
These are my views and not those of RGIS LLC.
Does anyone know what the RGIS employer ID is when trying to logon to Money Net?
During my two plus years at RGIS I got 2 bonuses for less then $5 each. I made less then $10,000 total while I was at RGIS.
So for those RGIS employees in cities that now have a law requiring the employer to provide sick time, has anyone tried to get sick pay from RGIS?
Most laws are like 1 hour sick for 40 hours work with a max of 40 hours in your bank per year.
Just wondering.
What exactly do the district and area managers do anymore? In my district, they don't run stores and the auditors do PIVs (if 1 is done at all), secretarial work, and training. Every time I go into the office to drop off equipment, they are just shooting the shit. It offends me that they aren't busy working on something. They might make calls and answer emails, but that's about the extent of their job. All my area manager does is annoy the shit out of people. My district manager, while a nice guy, does a shit job on the schedule-always sending the wrong people to the wrong stores. If the store requires 100% accuracy, why on Earth does he constantly send the people with a reputation for effing up everything they touch? I just end up having to recount their areas in addition to the crap I have to do. I even have to recount the supervisor's areas sometimes because apparently training didn't cover being able to count to 40. BTW whatever happened to the printout? In my district, they just delete the area and redo it.
Also, why does he send me to Timbuktu when there's a store across the street from where I live? And why do I get constant emails for last-minute stores? The schedule he sends me is basically a rough draft with all of the cancellations, additions, and switches that occur. He also puts me in mall clothing stores, which is the only type of store where I can't hit my numbers every time. I have no problem anywhere else. I always seem to find folded tables or scarves with tags tucked into the fold or the damage rack where you got to key all the UPCs in while my cohorts are banging out racks. I could easily hit my numbers if I did what they did, but somehow I was designated crap sweeper.
Now that the geniuses put the APH goals on the screen of the RM, I usually just try to hit the Expert goal and not do anymore than that. There's no way I could ever hit Top Gun in most stores with the areas I'm assigned. So why would I go above and beyond and chase some bullshit number when I know I'm never getting bumped up? In most of the stores I can ensure that I go green, but there are a few where there's no way. In those stores, I don't even try and just count the crap slowly.
I gotta believe the next lawsuit is not being compensated for the first and last hour of travel. RGIS doesn't have a legal leg to stand on here. The law states that once you do something related to the job duties for the day that you should be compensated for that time. So if we're lugging ladders and equipment to and from the van, taking attendance at the meet site, or simply signing a travel log, then we should be getting paid for that labor since all those activities are necessary for the inventory. We should all be signing in at the office. I'm really surprised nobody has challenged them on this. I realize most people didn't opt out of arbitration so they can't sue, but I think it would be a slam-dunk case if it went to court. The problem is RGIS would lose and cut auditor's pay again like they did after they lost the other lawsuit. There is no winning with this company, and we're all losers for staying with them. This is not RGIS's opinion. It's just my own disguised as fact.
RGIS managers and gray shirts made me carry equipment while I was off the clock many times. I also was forced to put my equipment away many times after I punched out. Its too bad the DOL doesn't make RGIS pay a multimillion dollar fine for all of illegal shit they make their employees do.
Lawsuit?
I can't believe how many times someone posts there will be another lawsuit against RGIS on the blog.
NO MORE LAWSUITS, get that thru your head.
Most hourly's signed that right away and it is just a paper all the new hires sign without reading.
You have to go thru five (5), yes I know you can't count by try to get to five, five steps of arbitration, no law suits.
Read the dang darn poster in the office, the one that starts with "open door policy" that is your first step on a dispute.
The only thing you can do is file a complaint with your state labor authority about not being paid for work requested from you. No more class action suits, no large awards. Yah you could get some back pay but just for the hours work, no "award" for damages.
They would settle any claim from a state on a state by state basis admitting no wrong doing as part of the settlement. No cash win fall for the hourly IMHO.
There absolutely is still a possibility of a class action lawsuit against RGIS. A class action lawsuit only requires 50 people to participate. I opted out of that dispute resolution bullshit, and I'm sure there are 49 other people company-wide who did as well. I have no interest in suing RGIS, but I wanted to keep the option of joining a class action suit open in case someone else brings a case against them.
I understand that most auditors didn't opt out and waived their legal rights. However, even if only 1% of the auditors opted out, that would be a substantial number of people eligible to participate in a class action suit. It won't be as massive as the $27 million that RGIS had to pay out a few years ago, but it would be something to acknowledge an injustice.
Truthfully another massive lawsuit wouldn't be good for auditors. RGIS would just cut everyone's pay again to make up for the money lost in the suit like they did last time. But I think several smaller suits would be effective in getting policies changed and/or back pay for eligible auditors without hurting RGIS's bottom line so much that they have to do pay cuts across the board.
If RGIS would quit being shady, there would be no need for a lawsuit, but they always seem to toe the line of what's legal and illegal.
This is my opinion and doesn't reflect the views of RGIS, LLC at all.
Reply to Feb. 13 "Anon":
Hopefully more than 50 people opted out of the dispute resolution agreement. talking to people, I would guess the number might be at least 10% company wide, and maybe more, which might total over a thousand current and former workers. And those that did "opt out" no doubt tended to be the the longer term employees and more informed employees, who would have more to gain.
Still, because so many did not opt out, and agreed to arb., it would presumably make a class action more difficult to do, since it would be harder to find lawyers to take the case since the award pool would be smaller.
I'm still not convinced however that those who "opted in" and agreed to to the arbitration would necessarily be excluded from a class action. any lawyers who might know the answer? Also, could an employee change his mind and say he wants to opt out of arb., and refile the form? Not sure.
As far as grounds for a future class action that someone might initiate (not me), just hearing other workers there seemed to be a lot of gripes (valid or not) in 3 areas, but whether anything emerges is uncertain:
1. Allegedly, the travel pay system not compensating employees for 1st hour of travel, or any travel in your own car if not carrying other auditors. Maybe this is completely valid under state laws, I'm not sure. It is difficult to drive 30 minutes or an hour to and from a store inventory that might only last a couple of hours; when gas and car upkeep are considered, you might actually lose money that day.
2. Allegedly, unpaid time before and after inventory when you are helping lug ladders, equipment etc, from van or car into store or back to van, etc. Time off the clock doing company work?
3. Allegedly, the APH ranking system not treating all workers the same. Certain employees are often given the easy to count and fast areas, while others get the harder and slower areas. Those given the bad areas end up with lower ranks and pay. A fairer system to judge productivity and pay raises needs to be found. Maybe some sort of annual "speed and accuracy" trials where all employees count similar areas, so correct rankings can be assigned. This could be done in December, when people need work. Just an idea for management.
Anyway, I finally left this company last year. I miss it sometimes, but mostly not. There are many fine people who work there. I don't miss the alarm going off at 3 or 4 AM, or climbing the 10 foot ladders for overstocks, or the cramped backrooms, or looking for a place to eat in the middle of the night on a 30 minute break, or the total exhaustion of January, or the soreness of strained muscles, or sometimes finding mice and spiders in a counting area, or being stuck in traffic. Good riddance to all that!
Good luck to all current and future employees!
These are my views, and not those of RGIS L.L.C.
Reply to Feb. 17 "Anon":
PART I
There already was a class-action suit (Cross, et al v.RGIS, LLC)in California involving travel time allegations against RGIS. RGIS won this case. According to a July 16, 2014 article in the Daily Journal, "The court ruled that RGIS is not required to pay its employees for their commute time, regardless of this distance involved, as long as it does not require them to use company transportation."
I suppose state laws do vary, but it seems like RGIS is within the law for not compensating for travel time, including the first and last hour of travel while riding in a company van. However, it's my interpretation of the law that as soon as you participate in activities related to the job duties for the day, then you should be compensated for that time.
I can't tell you how many times my coworkers and I have gone to the office PRIOR to a meet time, gathered equipment and ladders, and carried them out to the van. The equipment and ladders are integral to the inventory for that day. Without them, we wouldn't be able to do our jobs. Yet we don't get paid for that time, and that is wrong and is what should be grounds for a class-action suit against RGIS. Also, someone is usually taking attendance and calling people who haven't shown up at the meet site. These are activities that aren't compensated as well. Heck, even something simple like signing in on a travel log should be compensated. It's a necessary task for determining travel pay.
RGIS could designate a person (perhaps the driver who already gets paid for the first and last hour of travel) to do all of the above tasks and pay them under 908 time, but they don't and that's what opens up an invitation to litigation. Just like the uncompensated donning of equipment PRIOR to an inventory that led to RGIS losing a lawsuit and having to pay out $27 million to employees, the uncompensated time PRIOR to the leave time where employees are doing work should be retroactively paid to employees.
RGIS not paying passengers for the first and last hour for travel stores really saves them a lot of money. I've had 2 1-hour travel stores in 1 day many times. That's 4 hours of uncompensated time for the day. I've done as many as 8 travel stores in a week. That's 16 hours of uncompensated time. When you calculate these figures company-wide, that's an incredible amount of savings and complete bullshit. Under the previous travel pay system, we'd get $5 for traveling an hour away. Yes, it wasn't much, but it at least wasn't nothing like we get now. While they might not have a legal obligation to pay for any or all travel, they should have a moral obligation to give us something for the travel. It's not like that first and last hour is ours. We're expected to conduct ourselves in a somewhat professional manner during that first and last hour. We're supposed to be wearing our seat belts, and it's not like we're allowed to smoke or vape, drink alcohol, or use drugs like some of my fellow auditors have been known to do on their own time. A little compensation recognizing that that first and last hour isn't our time would go a long way.
These are my opinions. They're not the views of RGIS.
To Feb. 17 "Anon":
PART II
While the APH system is completely unfair and total bullshit, RGIS can legally evaluate people however they want. It falls under the same umbrella of them being able to fire you for almost any reason. In lieu of this stupid ASET bullshit, I wish they'd be smarter about the inventory process. If they really want things done faster, they need to have people do the exact same things in every store. If people do the same thing in every store, they will get faster at whatever is they do. Generally speaking, the wall guy will get faster at the wall. The table person will get faster at tables. The checkout person will get faster at checkouts. Improvement at whatever your role is should be the emphasis of APH and is also how an inventory gets done efficiently. If people have ownership over their respective roles and know what they're doing, they don't have to find a supervisor to determine where to go next. That's where the most time is wasted. Also, people wouldn't have to skip around the store cherrypicking to get their numbers up to ensure that they go green.
Shame on RGIS for not understanding that precounted rope/wire isn't the same as auto scanning jeans. Auto scanning jeans quickly is way more valuable to the inventory than slamming in thousands of pieces, but the latter is held in much higher regard and actually rewarded by RGIS if the person cherrypicks enough.
Anyway, I'm not a lawyer or anything, but I believe the auditors who didn't opt out of arbitration waived any legal rights, including class-action suits. I think I remember reading that when those papers came out.
This is just my opinion and not the views of RGIS.
You are correct counting the same thing in every store does make you faster. That is how the dedicated Walmart and Home Depot teams work. You count the same area's each inventory and become familiar with the product and how it is stored/displayed.
"Anonymous" Feb 17, part II said:
"RGIS can legally evaluate people however they want" (in discussion of APH system)
Well, only if people are counting the similar areas, on average. It is incorrect to say that multi-Q areas are the same as autoscan areas, or slow areas like furniture, luggage, dump bins, etc. Some people always seem to be assigned the easy & fast & precount areas, while others usually get the slow areas. Is this fair? And then to determine rank and pay on this-- Really??
Anonymous Feb. 17 also said:
"shame on RGIS for not understanding that precounted rope/wire (isn't) the same as (counting) autoscan jeans.
Precisely. You think they don't understand?
These are my views and not those of RGIS L.L.C.
Take a look at the big box retailer with the red dot.
Exclusive customer, anyone assigned to count shoes will not make even the lowest required APH. That Auditor only works nights so get this customer on Tuesday and Thursday and that is all the stores for the week.
3 hours in they are sent home for not making their APH and come Thursday back in the shoes.Never will be given the opportunity to advance, that is not fair evaluation. IMHO
It's been established (and was known when it was implemented) that this APH system has been complete bullshit and benefits the kiss asses and friends/relatives of supervisors/managers more than anybody else. Even so, I wouldn't call it illegal. It's just highly unethical and indicative of present-day RGIS since it became an LLC.
What I don't understand is how people in the same classification aren't even treated the same. I'm an expert and spend so much time in these stores doing auto-scan areas even though it says in the handbook that I'm not supposed to be touching them.
The supervisor will say they put me there because I can hit my numbers no matter where they put me. But that's bullshit. I was supposed to hit 2700 per hour the other night in a hardware store. 50% of the areas I did were auto scan. I had no chance of meeting my APH. The other experts were slamming in high precounts and pegged hook sections of small tools and plumbing parts while I auto scanned bullets, paint, oil, dog leashes, and power drills.
That's the issue I have with this system. The supervisors are usually inept and can never ensure that people are placed in the areas necessary to meet their APHs. Usually the people who complain the most get the best areas to count. I don't complain at all on the job (just here), so I'm the one who gets sabotaged.
I've actually been in a store when I was auto scanning boots while an auditor was struggling to get through a gondola of precount sheets that I could've blazed through in a minute. It was frustrating to watch her fumble through them and she didn't want to do them.
This system will never be fair, but they can at least try to make sure we all have a good chance of hitting our numbers. All top guns should get piecy shit to count rather just a select few. All experts should be doing multiple quantity areas when possible and be able to save the auto scan stuff for the auditors/specialists as outlined in the handbook. Half of the specialists shouldn't be in multiple quantity while the other half is doing one-on-one jewelry. And auditors shouldn't be keying in precounted areas unless they have previous 10-k experience and can key without looking at their machines.
It's stupid to lend credence to the APH system by talking about it, but I have to pay attention to it because I can't afford a pay decrease.
These are my views and not those of RGIS.
The only way to have a fair pay system based on APH is to test everyone on the same or similar areas. For example, in the office they could set up "areas" with skus to be keyed and scanned, or perhaps they could "borrow" a store for a day or two. Some of the areas would be autoscan, some would be multi-Q & precount sheets. Everyone would be tested on the same areas. APH & accuracy would be the two bases evaluated for the test. Speed without accuracy is worthless. If you are fast and not accurate, you would fail and be retrained. If you are slow, but accurate you would be rated specialist or auditor, not top gun/expert. These tests could be done during the slow period from Nov.-Dec., and those tested would be paid for their time, maybe 2 hours. During this same slow period, there could be training for lower ranked people to gain 10-key skills.
As far as what constitutes a "top gun" & "expert", I would say STRONG 10 key skills--counting fast with accuracy without looking at the keyboard. Right now, there may be some "top guns" and "experts" who can't do this. They are assigned easy areas or they may "cherrypick" them.
Anyway, this is the way I would handle an APH system in my opinion.
These are my views and not those of RGIS LLC.
Reply to Mar. 10 "Anon":
That's an interesting idea about having annual testing in the office to determine ASET classifications. It's certainly fairer than the system we currently have where "cherrypicking," blowing in fat numbers, and nepotism are rewarded.
In my district, most of the "top guns" are unbelievable counters (accurate and mind-blowing fast), but we have 1 "top gun" who has a reputation for being wildly inaccurate and rarely get areas right. She was once off $75,000 on a side of cards that she did in 5 minutes. Instead of reprimanding her for her poor accuracy, the managers salivate over her numbers. The solution has been to give her the pieciest areas to count, knowing that the store employees won't recount those in most stores. They usually put her in areas like checkouts, canned goods, etc. Her numbers are ridiculously high, but her accuracy is shit. This becomes painfully obvious on the rare occasion she gets put in an store that verifies 100% and she's off on every area.
We also have a "top gun" who still looks at his keys when typing in numbers. He's a very fast auto scanner (aka batcher)and excellent "cherrypicker" and got to "top gun" that way. As an auditor, all he did was mall stores and he was a "top gun" in 7 weeks. Because he's a "top gun" he gets put in good areas now and even though he can't 10-K worth a crap, he can blow in high enough numbers to keep his ranking. But some of our longtime specialists who are fast 10-keyers are appalled by how slow he is doing precount sheets. My point is that strong keying ability isn't necessary for RGIS if most of the stores an auditor does are auto-quantity and one gets piecy enough areas in the rest of the stores. In my district, I would say 50% of the stores I go to are auto-quantity, 45% are a combination of auto-quantity and multiple, and only 5% are financial. Strong keying skills are helpful, but not necessary for the fat cats who know how to play the game.
I just wish RGIS would value other stuff besides APH like accuracy,attendance,longevity attitude, and dependability. We only have 2 people in my entire district who are accurate, attend everything on their schedule, will say "yes" to any schedule additions, and have a good, positive attitude. These 2 people should get raises, but they won't because they don't get the requisite areas to get promoted. Because they're agreeable, they get sabotaged. Meanwhile, we have "top guns" with major attitude problems who attend jobs when they feel like it and are inaccurate when they do show up. Yet these are the people who get paid the most. That's absurd and why this system sucks so much.
I would share mine but it's so pathetic. I work ONE day a week!! If I were in a small district I would understand. But I'm in one of the most busy ones, and I work one good damn day a week. People who have much worse APH than me get more days than me. Our new district manager that we hired was kicked to the curb by our competition company, so we basically get our competitions shit. The district (and the company as a whole) just blatantly underpays its employees because let's face it, we're expendable.
Funny to read about RGIS on the web.
I work for them in Europe, Belgium. I used to despise this work, and there wasn't a day where I didn't curse one of the managers or the company in general. But now I read this blog, and I think I shouldn't feel that bad considering how most districts in the US seem to treat their counters so unfairly.
For one, in Belgium, most of us get contracts, which means we get a guaranteed number of hours every month for a certain period, contracts can be limited to 3, 6, 12 months or more. Right now I have a contract of 24 hours per week, it will be over in six months. That also means that if somehow I don't manage to make my contract hour, I will still be paid for them. That is my case, almost every month RGIS pays me 10 hours I didn't work for. That's just great.
Now about the pay, here we get a starting pay of 9.99 euro per hour, which is 11 usd I guess? Specialist get 0.30/hour, Expert 1.42, Top Guns get 2.69/hour. So you can get to a max of 12.68 eur as a counter, which is +13 usd.
Now, we also have the BS part, with bonus not getting paid for no reasons, mishaps with hour (oftenly for people who make a lot of overtime, if you stick to your contract you'll be fine) and some other shit. For example I have worked as a Top Gun for five months now, and I have been paid as an expert, when I went to my District manager to complain, he found shitty excuses to not pay me, he started inventing AHP goals for shop we never were told about beforehand.
I average 1150 euro per months as an expert, with 22 hours per week. As a Top Gun, I should get to fancy 1250 per month.
We used to count with old RM1 machine, but the district decided to introduced a new machine, RM2? And they started forcing us to use finger and machine on the belt, which for me is so much slower than using the RM directly in my hand. They sayd this finger system would make productivity go up, and that they experimented heavily in other countries, mostly US/UK. I don't buy that crap, using finger is only good if you don't manipulate products, but here in Belgium, we always have to manipulate them to get to the barcode, so it's totally not adapted.
I'm wondering what these machine look like and if you guys also use them in your countries?
RE: Anon Ap. 13 from Belgium..
Interesting pay comparisons....so they pay the Europeans better than Americans!
I guess America is not at the top of the pay scale anymore. Shocking!
These are my views & not those of RGIS LLC
To all those crying about APH and how they are counting slow areas.
I'm a Top Gun myself, and being the fastest counter in my district, I do get the multi q areas in priority. Is this cherry picking? No it's not, it's called efficiency, put someone else in there, would they hit 10k/hour like I do on non precount areas? No they won't, even the fastest of them barely go over 6-7k/hour.
I also had to start in slow areas as an auditor, like everyone else. The system is not unfair, it's a survival system. The best counter gets to go up in aset. When I was auditor, there was a point when I was working faster than all specialists. I didn't have to say a word or complain, I had confidence my supervisors would notice soon enough that I was faster than all their specialists. And soon they did, they put me out of the auto scan hell and I started doing low level multi Q. Then, it didn't take me long to be faster than all their experts as a specialist, and again, I shut my mouth and waited for opportunities, mostly when one of the expert would go sick, I would replace him and prove myself to be faster than experts, despite being specialist.
One year later, I went to T, I think I now deserved the right to jump auto scan areas in some of the shops. I worked hard and developped techniques to count very fast without sacrifying my accuracy. I proved myself in slow areas. Most of the people who get stuck in low areas are slow and have zero pentential, or are unwilling to work faster and don't care about APH. I have yet to see someone, who's putting the efforts and has minimal brain not getting expert after some time (could be a year for the slower ones).
Blame yourself.
To Jagger,
It's Auditors like you that blow my protect 5, Specialists out counting an Expert.
As the person running the store, you are rated on my different things among them are PIQA and Protect 5.
I won't be getting to run stores which means that nice Adder Role money and PROTECTION of MY average if I'm constantly not making the Protect 5 (Top 5 Asset Rankings better be the top 5 on the productivity report).
So from the Auditor point of view yes you can do what you say and put in your time and climb the ASsET ranking but the deck is stacked against you.
Better hope your event has enough people so the Supervisor can make his Top 5 and be able to kick out his low performers.
Yup if you and not making your goal all event procedures say to let x% go at x time into the event. Just another way they stack the deck against you.
FWIW
RE "Jagger"
Are you one of those fast but inaccurate counters Jagger?
Please tell us your counting secrets, oh Great "Topgun". Thanks.
These are my views & not those of RGIS LLC.
They have robots to build cars, pick vegetables, trade stocks and serve as bank tellers, but so far no robot has been designed to replace human inventory auditors. The job is safe for now. Robbie the inventory robot is still years away.
These are my views and not those of RGIS LLC
@Jagger:
A 10 K APH is impressive, and I agree with what you're saying about efficiency. You should get to count the pieciest shit because you're the most efficient in those areas. I also agree that almost anybody should be able to become an Expert within a year. I'm an Expert despite being slow as shit and counting mostly crap areas, so I feel like an Expert rating is easily attainable for most. If I can do it, anyone can.
What I don't understand is bragging about your APH. Yes, some people do have a knack for inventory auditing, count crazy fast, and are the best at their craft, but it's still only counting. Almost everyone has been doing it since they were 3, and it's held in low regard by the general public. We're not curing cancer here, but some people puff their chests out like they're god because of their APHs.
Consider yourself fortunate that someone in your district noticed that you shred the shit out of things and let you move up the ladder so that you can now skip over the crap. That would never happen in my district.
In my district, we have had a core group of top guns since this ASET bullshit started, and they're not going anywhere. All of the other veterans have their established roles (i.e. stay out of the top gun's way), and there's really no possibility of moving up no matter how hard you work because the pieces aren't there. The people who were experts when this ASET bullshit started are still experts today. There's only an interest in maintaining the status quo. There's no interesting in promoting anyone in my district. All the top guns in my district also have their own equipment while the rest of us lackies have to resort to the community bag of finger lasers and machines. Having working equipment every inventory is such an advantage. In addition to your hard work ethic, the only reason you're able to blow in 10 K an hour is because of the "blame yourself" peons who count the rest of the stuff, so I suggest you get off your pedestal.
Besides it's stupid to count 10 K an hour when you probably only need 5 K an hour to meet your top gun quota. Maybe you're district assigns you with a Super Prowler adder role so you can make a few extra bucks an hour. My district doesn't do that. If they don't, you're an idiot for counting double the amount you need to do for the same money that the 6-7 K TGs are making.
You're also costing yourself and your team money by making the stores go faster. You're a manager's wet dream and they probably get bonuses for your efforts. My managers SUCK and don't do shit, and I'd hate for them to receive bonuses for my work. That's why I do the absolute minimum to stay an Expert.
When RGIS was a family-owned company, the sky was the limit and there were people making $20+ an hour. I can see counting your ass off for that, but why bust your butt for $13? This company is using you by not paying you what you're worth and you're a pawn in their game to maximize profits that you won't see a dime of outside your measly pay. You will eventually come to the realization that you're being played and when that happens, blame yourself.
Super Prowler?? Whats that?? Yah I know but my district does not hand out adder roles other than Supervisor. The more adder roles issued the Calc (Overall Store APH) is raised.
Try it, run the productivity report with and without adder roles.
Company wide they got rid of Sweeper. And Top Guns don't get any extra money for most of the adder roles and its a joke if you are Top Gun the adder roles for supervisor is not even $0.75.
They don't want Top Guns running stores, just count your chit, be in the top 5 and go home.
Some adder roles only protect your average (supervisor automatically does). But like RX counter it protects the company because Pharmacy counters get huge piece count averages.
Err, my comment is in response to people who keep crying about their APH. Personnaly I don't care, actually I'm leaving this job next month as I've finally found and signed for a better one.
You have no idea how many time auditors and specialists were busting my nuts everyday how I was not doing shitty areas. I even had to count shitty areas for some weeks because one of the new supervisor was afraid of his auditors and specialists counters, so we basically were lined up all together doing all the same areas. Still made my APH, best part of the story, had one of the expert insinuating I cheated my way to get it, I saw him harassing the supervisor about it, that was ridiculous. Anyway, these are the people who really were obsessed with APH. As of me I always saw it as a playing game, I like being fast, it made the working hours go faster, and admitelly I had some advantages for counting over my target.
But let me tell you something, this kind of story is not restricted to RGIS, this happens everywhere. It's a life lesson people just don't get, I remember in my boxing club we also had the same type of cry babies. Maybe it's RGIS, and clearly, it's not worth the efforts, but there are people who never made the effort and never will. It's just the syndrome of the new era where people are getting lazy and require privileges they do not deserve.
Laugh at me, but before RGIS and after, I will always do my best, certainly not for my managers but for myself. To each it's own moto.
Also I'm sorry if my comment felt a bit arrogant. That wasn't the point. I just read a bunch of comments saying Top Guns were cheaters, inaccurate, and replied in the same tone. That and having to deal with the same obnoxious people at work everyday was getting on my nerves.
The most ironic part, is if they got the chance to cherry pick, these people would not hesitate to.
"Jagger",
I divide people into 2 classes at RGIS: those who care most about accuracy, and those who care most about speed (APH). There seems to be a minority who care equally about both speed & accuracy. What good is speed without accuracy? The ranking system favors speedsters. In the old Nicholson days, most people all cooperated to get a store done, including what you call count the "junk" areas (low APH areas). Now, the top guns like you won't touch the junk areas & the system apparently says that is OK. The ranking "caste" system means the auditor/specialists count the junk and get the low APH & low pay and get sent home early. When you are sent home early, often you don't even cover your gas costs. Is this fair? I finally quit because this was a constant annoyance.
I have heard some people refer to "Protect the Five" on this message board. Could someone explain what "protect the 5" is and how it works? It strikes me as favoring 5 people over all the others. I don't know enough about it to comment. Thanks.
These are my views & not those of RGIS LLC.
@Jagger
Congratulations on the new job! I'm always happy for people who get to leave RGIS. I hope I'm one of them one day, and I imagine it will feel amazing to leave this craphole company. I know everyone says "if you don't like it, then leave," but I need to have another job lined up first, and I'm not having any luck with that so far.
That sucks that other auditors were giving you shit for getting to count the gravy. In my district, some of my coworkers can be pretty insufferable when it comes to APH and who gets to count what. Most auditors seem to think they're getting screwed. When corporate came up with this ASET and APH bullshit, they knew damn well that it was a system designed to make auditors compete against each other to maximize profits. It has worked and the working environment can be downright hostile sometimes as a result. Auditors are constantly complaining about other auditors cherrypicking and cheating and about being sabotaged during and after the inventory.
Quite frankly I don't care if my fellow auditors cherrypick or cheat. They're just trying to get a raise or to ensure they don't get a pay decrease. IMO the anger should always be directed at the corporate retards for instituting these bullshit policies that have made inventories a joke, mockery, and a game. My fellow auditors could never do anything as unethical as what corporate has to done to me and my fellow auditors. When the pay cuts were doled out in 2009, some of my coworkers lost as much as 9 dollars an hour even after 30 years of service! So if my coworkers want to blow in fat numbers without respect to accuracy or count gravy to ensure high numbers,I say more power to them. They're just trying to survive.
Snapping at each other in and outside of the store is uncalled for though. That's exactly what corporate wants and we shouldn't let them bully us to the point that we're turning on each other. Corporate is the real enemy who created these monsters (both the blow-in artists and the people who complain about them) and we shouldn't lose sight of that.
Having pride in yourself is a great reason to do your best and to exceed expectations, Jagger. Just don't put down other auditors while doing it. Yes, your coworkers can be annoying (mine too), but there's obvious legitimate flaws and injustices with the APH system. To suggest that hard work alone will give you a high APH is ludicrous. There can only be a select few that can count the gravy that is in limited supply in most stores, so there's bound to seem some jealousy. But to tell those who are doing the labor intensive grunt work to "blame yourself" is a low blow.
Best of luck with your new job!
"I have heard some people refer to "Protect the Five" on this message board. Could someone explain what "protect the 5" is and how it works? It strikes me as favoring 5 people over all the others. I don't know enough about it to comment. Thanks."
I'm not a supervisor, so I don't know all the details of this "Protect the Five" nonsense. It's my understanding that it means protect the top five counters (usually top guns) in the inventory by letting them cherrypick high-quantity areas so they can get high numbers and ensure that they meet and/or exceed their APH expectations. It is indeed favoring 5 people over the rest of the auditors, and it's up to the supervisor and/or flow leader to make sure that those 5 are getting enough gravy to get high APHs. If the top 5 aren't at the top of the productivity report at the end of the night, I guess it reflects poorly on the supervisor, which is, of course, bullshit.
IMO real top guns can get their numbers just taking the next end and side and don't need to cherrypick. In other districts, I've even seen area tickets marked with "P" so that the top 5 know which areas to cherrypick. Us other lackies are supposed to skip over those and save them for the "top 5" prowlers. What a joke!
Are auditors still being sent home early? That hasn't happened in my district in years. I remember getting sent home from a Dollar Tree once because I only had a 3750 APH. The supervisor didn't care that I was in auto-scan gift bags and flowers for half the day.
Someone left the following comment here on 06/01/15 and it accidentally got deleted before it could be published. Luckily a copy was sent to this blog's email address so I copied it and am posting it below:
"I have heard some people refer to "Protect the Five" on this message board. Could someone explain what "protect the 5" is and how it works? It strikes me as favoring 5 people over all the others. I don't know enough about it to comment. Thanks."
I thought I explained the Protect 5, let me try again.
Supervisors of inventories be it an Area Manager, Top Gun Team Leader, Expert Team Leader or Expert (without the Team Leader, yup there are 7 titles, no Auditor Team Leader) are ranked in several categories on the Event they supervise.
You probably heard of the PIQA (Post Inventory Quality Audit) the survey the customer fills out. That is one of the things you are rated on. Making the "Calc" is another. There is also the "Protect 5".
For the Protect 5 on your productivity report the top 5 highes APH's better be the top 5 asset rankings in the store with the exception of anyone with a protected adder role (like Store supervisor or Control Desk).
If you have 5 Top guns in the event that are unprotected then all 5 of them must be the top 5 highest APH. If you have 1 top gun and 3 experts 4 specialists and 6 auditors, the top 5 better be the TG, 3 EX and at least one of the Spec.
You have to protect your top 5 even by letting the leave when you only have the dump bins left to count.
All of these factors give you a district and division rating on how profitable you run the store or event. You don't have good numbers you are not going to be running stores and then you loose your extra money (adder role store supervisor) and protection on your average.
Protect your 5!
FWIW
Ha-ha! I worked for RGIS in the late 80's and early 90's. They were then the same crappy dishonest company you read about today! It's sad to see they haven't raised the AM and DM salaries and the other hourly wages in all these years. That's how Blackstone makes millions. Run away, fast!
"You don't have good numbers you are not going to be running stores and then you loose your extra money (adder role store supervisor) and protection on your average."
Maybe this is true in your district, but this is bullshit in mine. We're so low on supervisors that they'll let anyone run a store regardless of how low their numbers are. We have one supervisor who probably has never hit in a store, and she runs more stores than anyone. We also have 2 kick-ass top guns who run stores that are always profitable. They count twice as much as anyone while running the store. They say top guns aren't supposed to be running stores, but without those 2 running stores, our district would suck from a profitability standpoint.
It's also bullshit that the slow counters don't get work in my district. The slowest counter in my district works more than anyone because he will do the bullshit that no one else will do. He'll drive 4 hours away to a store, work 11 hours, and drive 4 hours home, work an in-town store, and then go to another store 4 hours away and work another 11. He's been an auditor for 8 years and is extremely accurate. He usually counts about half of what an auditor is supposed to average and had his job threatened several times, but he's so reliable and doesn't complain that they abuse the shit out of him not caring if he quits.
It's also a misnomer that we're replaceable. I live in a city with a good economy, so no one wants to work for RGIS. Even so, we have a good core group of auditors in place. Without us, our district would be sunk. It's not like they can hire people to replace us. They have tried hiring throughout the year and we've gotten about 5 new hires. The notion that auditors are a dime a dozen is false in my district, and our core group of auditors are valuable despite the way we're treated by corporate and management. Our district wouldn't be profitable or even survive without our efforts. Without us, it would take 24 hours to get through a grocery store that our core group can blaze through in 5 hours. We definitely have a leg to stand on if we want to unionize or do a work stoppage or slowdown.
It has been a rough June. It's clear we're short of people, and our management sent out an email asking us to help find new employees and offering us a $200 referral bonus. This, of course, has gotten no results because friends and family of an RGIS employee already know that it's a shit job. If RGIS is serious about acquiring people, they need to start hiring at the local jails and pursuing people as they come out of the slammer. RGIS is already known as a felon-friendly company, and they might as well be more blatant about it. We've had some good employees with felons on their record. Of course, they usually flake out eventually, but we get a few good months out of them. They, at first, feel lucky to have a job, so they work hard and move up the ASET ladder. Then they usually go out in a blaze of glory because they are felons after all.
The above was just my opinion and doesn't reflect the views of RGIS, LLC.
Unionize?
Been there tried that, all of a sudden no show rules were being enforced. It stripped an east coast district when they tried to unionized. That January I spent more days in NJ then my home state because the canned the entire district.
Illegal to fire you if you attempt to unionize you say?
With the "policy" for needing 3 weeks vacation notice and now show policy that is what they sited as violations and canned em.
Read that there are new rules from the government now about overtime pay for salaried (non hourly) workers. Salaried managers making less than $51,000 a year must be now paid overtime if they work more than 40 hours in a week. May not impact District Managers (presumably most make more than $51K) but it will certainly raise the pay of Area Managers. I wonder if RGIS will forbid them from working more than 40 hours?
Also, the minimum wage keeps going up. In L.A. & S.F.,for example, it will go to $15 an hour in a couple of years. Other cities are requiring mandatory paid days off and sick leave.
These are my views & not those of RGIS LLC.
What does everyone think about the new rule where you can't scan the same area ticket twice? If we closed out an area and forgot a piece or pieces or needed to add in a sku check, we used to be able to scan the area ticket and add it in. Now, in some stores, if we scan the area ticket again and add a piece, it will delete the area. Why the fuck did corporate come up with this shit? Just to make inventory unnecessarily more complicated?
Now we have to move the piece (if it's moveable) to another area or get a new area ticket to add something in. If an auditor is dying in an area at the end of an inventory, we need to track down another area ticket to help him or her out instead of just scanning the same area ticket they're in and counting in the same area. I actually moved a hidden clip strip of lip gloss I missed to a pet food section the other day. I'm sure the store appreciates that. I just wonder what brilliant idea these corporate geniuses are going to come up with next. I just hate how their policies seem to stand in the way of efficiency, which is the purportedly the only damn thing they claim to care about since it makes their pockets fatter.
This is just my opinion and doesn't reflect the views of RGIS, LLC.
MAO or Multiple Area Occurrence or some shut thing you are talking about. You left off teh good part of if you loose wireless connection and do count an area after it was transmitted when the laptop sees both areas IT WILL DELETE BOTH AREAS. So when you add a piece to an area with already 100 pieces and send that 1 piece both the 100 and the 1 pieces are deleted and you have to recount the entire area.
If you have wireless connection to the RM at all times, the RM updates every 30 seconds with the list of what had been and what has not been counted so when you enter the area number you won't be able to count an area that has already been counted and/or is voided in the laptop (marked as DNI, or Combined).
All things go out the window when the RM is not on the network and updating. I management is under the impression that all stores have 100% wireless coverage 100% of the time which is pure BS.
When you scan a ART that has already been counted it even displays the persons name that counted it.
Seriously duplicate areas have long been a huge problem. Supervisors forgetting to delete a recounted area and such, Auditors forgetting to fill out the ART or leave tags.
But this solution requiring not only putting an audit in Supervisor mode to add a piece, those pieces have to be individually approved on the laptop before they will be added to the inventory or even show up as a transmission.
Oh by the way, in supervisor mode adding pieces do not dare to take a reading because the Audit transmits without showing the total when you press the total button.
Good idea, poor execution IMHO.
reply to Anon Jun. 29:
You say they selectively discharged workers in a NJ district because of a unionization attempt for "no shows and taking vacations without the 3 week notification". If this is true, that would appear to be a violation of labor laws, since allegedly they SELECTIVELY ENFORCED the rules in the district where the unionization attempt happened, but not in all the other districts. Grounds for a lawsuit by the discharged employees? Maybe just a coincidence that they enforced the rules only in a unionization district--Uh huh.
These are my views and not those of RGIS LLC.
My biggest gripe with RGIS when I worked there (besides the unfair, in my opinion, APH rankings for pay raises) was the non-compensation for travel costs for travel under an hour. Hundreds of times I must have worked for 2 or 3 hours, after driving 50 miles & 50 minutes. When you factor in the car costs, you actually lost money on a short job. This, along with the unfair (in my opinion) APH business, was the reason I finally wised up & left. It is probably the reason many leave. Believe it or not, I sometimes miss the RGIS job, and many of my co-workers, but I'm not going to continue to work for free!
These are my views & not those of RGIS LLC
My Area Manager doesn't do anything but mess around in the office. According to my DM, he only works 25 hours a week in addition to poorly running an occasional inventory. The new law definitely won't have any impact on him unless he's motivated to work more to obtain the overtime pay. However, it should have a major impact on districts with real managers instead of glorified gray shirts running things. It's cause for concern because whenever RGIS loses money somewhere (like they would if they have to pay out OT to AMs) they take it out on us peons, the auditor, the most. Nobody lost more, collectively, after the $27-million lawsuit than the auditors.
I imagine RGIS will skirt around the minimum wage issue somehow. They'll probably have their offices located just outside the city limits (if they don't already) of Seattle, LA, and San Francisco just to avoid paying those city minimum wages. Does anybody know the legalities of that situation? If someone regularly does inventories in LA, but the district office is in Compton, for example, are they eligible for the city minimum wage of $15 per hour? If some team from San Diego comes up to LA to help out in an inventory do they get $15 an hour for the day? It seems like a murky situation for RGIS, and they tend to gravitate towards the cheapest route and toe the line of what's illegal in such situations. It will be interesting.
The above is just my opinion and doesn't reflect the views of RGIS, LLC.
I was in a supermarket recently. As I went through the checkout line, it occurred to me that the skill set of the cashier was actually less than that of the average RGIS auditor. The cashier scans the items with a laser, and sometimes needs to type in skus and quantities. The cashier NEVER has to climb ladders and lift heavy items or deal with dirty & dusty settings. The cashier does NOT have to meet arbitrary APH goals or drive 40 miles (uncompensated) to get to jobs. The cashier does NOT have to wake at 3 AM or work late at night. I asked the cashier how much she made. She told me--$17 an hour. The cashier belongs to a union. Hmmmm.
You are governed by the home state/county/city you employed in. For example in NJ you can wave your 30 minute meal break but in NY you can not. A NY employee working in NJ can NOT waive a meal break and has to take it.
As to the cashier, you said it UNION.
The 27 Mil law suit also brought about the arbitration clause, most employees sign the notice and now can not sue RGIS without going thru arbitration. For labor violations, the municipality can bring suit against the company but not the employee I believe.
Reply to "Anonymous" Jul. 29
RE wages: in the newspaper it said that you are supposed to be paid the local rate. So, if you help out in a district where the minimum wage has been raised to $15, you are supposed to be paid that pay rate, even though you work in a different district with a lower wage. This will prove to be a nightmare for figuring out pay checks, since the wage will change depending on where you work.
These are my opinions & not those of RGIS LLC.
I walked into a Walmart the other day and saw RGIS area tickets from the previous night's inventory.I couldn't help but laugh cynically at the latest version of area tickets: they now come with a preprinted,"VERIFIED"in boldface type inside a black outlined box.I guess this is the latest scheme from RGIS management to try to con the customer that every area has been counted twice and that the totals are super accurate.Yeah,surrrre.... I was a grayshirt for ten years,and I know for certain that the only way for an area to be "verified" as being completely accurate is to give the store the printout and let them do a 100% audit.Once again,RGIS is trying to pull another fast one on their clients( or should we call them suckers).
To put a "verified" stamp on area tickets,before the area is even counted,is laughable,and of course,unethical and deplorable.
>>This will prove to be a nightmare for figuring out pay checks
Nope, they put "adder roles" that cover the pay increase, do that when counting some federal accounts and have to make the federal pay which is more than my local office min pay.
While pay is covered by where you work, the rules you work under you have to follow your locality if it is more strict then where you are working.
>> preprinted,"VERIFIED"in boldface type i
That's for that account specificity, that account has dedicated teams that all they count is that store. In January they come help the regular districts since that store does not do inventories in January but year round up to November they only count that store.
While I agree that the "verified" stamp on the area ticket in Walmarts is a con game, things have definitely changed in most stores. Many of our accounts do the "auditor for a day" bullshit, so the customer can go into every area and ensure everything got scanned. RGIS is more transparent than ever and we can't get away with shit in some stores. I've even seen stores recount checkouts, trial size and 59-cent cat food and get upset when those areas are a couple of pieces off. The store is usually only supposed to check a certain percentage (like 20%), but most do damn near 100%.
I was in a Batch n Body Works recently. This account finally switched back to multiple quantity like it should be. There was only 4 RGIS auditors counting, but the store had 10 people doing recounts. They were right behind us with our machines recounting what we just did and getting in the way of areas that weren't completed yet. It's a wonder they don't just scan it themselves. Of course a bunch of the recounts came out incorrectly because they missed one, so they double scanned it. That would've been fine, but they didn't delete their first count. So their recount would be 47 pieces for a 24 piece area. My supervisor became so fed up with the store employees miscounting that she demanded that they stop recounting since they were well above the required percentage of recounts.
I understand that this "auditor for a day" bullshit makes the customer feel like they're getting an accurate count, but in the hands of the wrong store employee, it can ruin the inventory and add an unnecessary, additional headache for the supervisor. Not that corporate cares.
These are my opinions and not those of RGIS LLC.
Well they have lost a big national retailer and two east coast regional customers.
Nationally TJX, then the sporting goods that you have to go to Moe's and a grocery chain that went bankrupt.
A lot less work this January
Did they lose all TJX companies, or just TJ Maxx?
Who is doing TJ maxx inventories now?
Probably most of the posters here are former employees. We enjoy hearing from current employees posting the latest RGIS fiascos, and successes too. Keep us informed current employees! Have they provided the new audit machines they said they would ages ago? Have they changed the ASET ranking policy? Have they started paying for long commutes? Current denizens of RGIS, keep us informed! Thanks!
These are my views and not those of RGIS LLC.
I haven't seen one yet, but I'm scheduled for training on the new machines, next week, and the week after. I'll post, my initial impressions next week. This'll be the third different machine I've used with RGIS.
>>Probably most of the posters here are former employees
Not a current employee but keep in touch...
>>Did they lose all TJX companies
TJX is Marshalls Home Good and TJ Maxx,
>>Have they provided the new audit machines
Rollout in November, ya I know its the 9th day, rumor is though no where near enough given to each office to replace current inventory. Even under Nicholson's roll out of new Audits happened near January and you always ended up using the old stuff for the entire time.
Bluetooth lasers.
>>Have they changed the ASET ranking policy?
Nope
>>Have they started paying for long commutes?
Nope hour free each way, state laws may vary, YMMV
@Anon on Halloween:
There really isn't anything new to report. It's just the same old nonsense and daily ball-dropping by management. My main gripe right now is too much work in November. We have these scan convenience stores in my district that go year-round, so I'm slammed. I'd rather be at home collecting unemployment this time of year. I could really use the break from inventories, which seem to be getting more disgusting and ridiculous the longer I do this.
As far the new machines go, I heard from my DM that we're going to get them before the end of the year as a Christmas present. Of course that's what he said last Christmas. I heard they were already tested out in California and those auditors said they were quite cumbersome. I just hope they work out the glitches prior to doling them out to the auditors. I remember how many the glitches the current RMs had (and still have) when we first started using them and it was an absolute nightmare. It was also hard to get used to because the buttons were much smaller. I think the buttons on the new ones are even smaller, so that should be fun to key with.
There have been no changes to the ASET policies (other than a small pay increase for Experts and Top Guns), but auditors seem to be more relaxed with not making their APHs understanding that it's a bullshit system. I remember when it first came out that everyone was freaking out about their numbers and were being quite insufferable. Now it's understood that you just do the best you can and you're not going to get a pay cut if you don't go green on your screen (they put your expected APH on the audits now) every inventory. Heck, I haven't hit my numbers in years outside of an occasional good store and I haven't been bumped down to Specialist. I'm sure it's coming soon.
Travel pay system hasn't changed. We still don't get paid for the first and last hour for a travel store. I still think that we should be paid for lugging equipment to and from the company van prior to the leave time and after the inventory is completed. That's free labor right there that needs to be challenged in a court of law. To me, it's no different than not being compensating for donning equipment (the issue for the $27 million lawsuit that RGIS lost).
One thing I did hear about, which could be bullshit, is a new points system coming out soon. Supposedly every auditor is going to start out the month with 20 points and they will get deductions for absences, tardiness, inaccuracy, etc. and if they're at 0 or less by the end of the month, they'll be automatically terminated. Even if this crap was implemented, there's no way my management would enforce it. We simply can't lose the people who would definitely exceed their 20 monthly. We have no one to replace them with. I also don't see how it's enforceable. Yeah, management can find out about absences and tardiness via the TCA (though tardiness could be disputed), but they don't attend enough inventories to deduct for anything else. Again, this points system is just something I heard about. I don't think it'll ever be implemented. It was probably just a drunk corporate guy talking nonsense. That's probably how APH started too.
These are my views and not those of RGIS LLC.
To the RGIS "newbies" out there: you are allowed to file & collect unemployment insurance payments during the slow period in Nov. & December. However, you must accept any work offered, even if its 100 miles away, or they can deny your claim.
These are my views & not those of RGIS LLC.
Monday's mail brought the new "employee medical benefit" pamphlet. Enrollment dates from Nov. 18th thru Dec. 4th. That leaves 4 {cont'em 4} days to peruse the info and make a determination. Heavy info on the penalties if NO medical coverage. THANKS RGIS for the timeliness of info. {Fortunately, I don't have to be concerned.} Also the timing is terrific. The slowest time of year is approaching and many will not be able to survive with or without "benefits".
The RM2 is out Our district has 16 to start
What happened to all the posters???? Misfit, any more funny stories???
These are my views & not those of RGIS LLC.
>> van prior to the leave time and after the inventory is completed. That's free labor right there that needs to be challenged in a court of law. To me, it's no different than not being compensating for donning equipment (the issue for the $27 million lawsuit that RGIS lost).
Two issues right there for compensation for carrying equipment etc.
The employee has to put that time on a 908 - Non-Inventory Hours Time Sheet, that was part of the settlement of the law suit this time sheet that you are supposed to submit every week for time spent working that isn't charged to an inventory.
AND 2nd point, you can't sue civilly or not being paid unless you are one of the very few that opted out of arbitration. Yah you can go to your state labor or the Feds but not a huge award like the $27 Mill suit, no class action since you won't have enough people for a class action as they didn't opt out of arbitration.
For my district its just been SLOW very little work other than the store with the iced drinks, you know the store with the name you roll in craps and that only takes two people.
I'm a driver and if I don't feel I can get my crew there safely I will turn around as I have done a few times and got into trouble but nothing is worth losing my life over or risking the lives of other
You want funny stories? Wait till you first try the new RM2! No cords---nice. Laser has its own battery --interesting. End of inventory--reassemble laser and battery back into the RM--we'll see.
Look at the RM2...
No way you can five key on that (use five fingers to key numbers).
What are they going to do at the big box warehouse store with two initials when keying in the overhead sheets?
Sure great for scan inventories but I've even keyed in 12 digit UPC's from register receipts and you won't get anywhere near the productivity with an RM2 that you got with a RM.
>>Two issues right there for compensation for carrying equipment etc.
The employee has to put that time on a 908 - Non-Inventory Hours Time Sheet, that was part of the settlement of the law suit this time sheet that you are supposed to submit every week for time spent working that isn't charged to an inventory.
AND 2nd point, you can't sue civilly or not being paid unless you are one of the very few that opted out of arbitration. Yah you can go to your state labor or the Feds but not a huge award like the $27 Mill suit, no class action since you won't have enough people for a class action as they didn't opt out of arbitration.
In response to the above from Anon Dec. 9:
WTF? I could've been getting 908 time for carrying equipment and ladders to and from the vans? I didn't realize this until your post. Why haven't any of my managers ever offered compensation for this? I'm aware of 908 time for supervisors getting ready for stores and special training, but never once have I heard of 908 time being given for lugging equipment and ladders. I've been at RGIS for way too many years and have never been compensated for it once (not even after the lawsuit). I downloaded machines once in a company van and demanded 908 time from my manager who wouldn't have given it to me otherwise, but I've never been compensated for lugging machines and ladders. This is definitely grounds for a lawsuit if they were supposed to be paying us for this under 908 time the entire time. This is the exact same "de minimis" shit (i.e. donning equipment) that the $27 million lawsuit RGIS lost was based on. It's one thing to not get paid for something you should get paid for, but it's quite another to have a policy in place to pay employees for tasks and for the employer to not follow the policy or to not make employees known of the policy. It shouldn't be up to the employee to request 908 time if they have been explained that 908 time is a possibility.
I opted out of arbitration so that I would have a right to join the next class action suit when it inevitably comes to trial. I realize most didn't opt out, but there should be enough auditors out there who did for a nice pay day since there won't be as many people to divide the money with. I'm sure there are many auditors out there who have lugged equipment and ladders without receiving compensation and that seems likes grounds for the next class action lawsuit to me. I've worked here for 15 years, so if I got 2 minutes of compensation for every travel store that I've done over the last 15 years, that would be a pretty decent check. I really hope someone challenges RGIS on this. They already won the suit about not compensating for the first and last hour of travel, but I don't see how they would win this case.
This are just my opinions and not those of RGIS, LLC.
>>Two issues right there for compensation for carrying equipment etc.
The employee has to put that time on a 908 - Non-Inventory Hours Time Sheet, that was part of the settlement of the law suit this time sheet that you are supposed to submit every week for time spent working that isn't charged to an inventory.
AND 2nd point, you can't sue civilly or not being paid unless you are one of the very few that opted out of arbitration. Yah you can go to your state labor or the Feds but not a huge award like the $27 Mill suit, no class action since you won't have enough people for a class action as they didn't opt out of arbitration.
In response to the above from Anon Dec. 9:
WTF? I could've been getting 908 time for carrying equipment and ladders to and from the vans? I didn't realize this until your post. Why haven't any of my managers ever offered compensation for this? I'm aware of 908 time for supervisors getting ready for stores and special training, but never once have I heard of 908 time being given for lugging equipment and ladders. I've been at RGIS for way too many years and have never been compensated for it once (not even after the lawsuit). I downloaded machines once in a company van and demanded 908 time from my manager who wouldn't have given it to me otherwise, but I've never been compensated for lugging machines and ladders. This is definitely grounds for a lawsuit if they were supposed to be paying us for this under 908 time the entire time. This is the exact same "de minimis" shit (i.e. donning equipment) that the $27 million lawsuit RGIS lost was based on. It's one thing to not get paid for something you should get paid for, but it's quite another to have a policy in place to pay employees for tasks and for the employer to not follow the policy or to not make employees known of the policy. It shouldn't be up to the employee to request 908 time if they have been explained that 908 time is a possibility.
I opted out of arbitration so that I would have a right to join the next class action suit when it inevitably comes to trial. I realize most didn't opt out, but there should be enough auditors out there who did for a nice pay day since there won't be as many people to divide the money with. I'm sure there are many auditors out there who have lugged equipment and ladders without receiving compensation and that seems likes grounds for the next class action lawsuit to me. I've worked here for 15 years, so if I got 2 minutes of compensation for every travel store that I've done over the last 15 years, that would be a pretty decent check. I really hope someone challenges RGIS on this. They already won the suit about not compensating for the first and last hour of travel, but I don't see how they would win this case.
These are just my opinions and not those of RGIS, LLC.
Ok. Our district got several RM-2's recently. Here's my impression about them: they suck! The biggest complaint is a very small keypad. The pieces button is not over-sized like it was on RM-1s. To make matters worse, it has no palmrest. When I first hooked it up to my belt and tried keying by touch my fingers instinctively went to 789 row instead of the 123 row. The long time RM-1 users will probably have difficult time adjusting to the new machines and relearning how to key by touch. Cordless laser is convenient and, unlike RM1s, it's not a single line scanner. Instead, it's an image scanner that allows you scan a bar code regardless of how the laser is positioned. The drawback of the new lasers is that they are too damn bright. When you scan a barcode on glossy surface or a plastic covered surface, it shines back in your eyes, which is a possible health hazard. I really hoped they would've revamped the existing RM-1 technology, instead of coming up with something new. Well, that's my $0.02.
RE: Dec. 9 anon poster that said future class actions are not possible because most didn't "opt out" of arbitration:
Well, not so fast (maybe). There is a pending class action case against UBER (the self driving cab co.) in Calif. where the judge ruled that even those that didn't "opt out" of arbitration CAN participate in a pending class action against Uber over whether they are independent contractors or employees. This thing is far from certain, and Uber will appeal. If this decision by the judge stands, even those who didn't "opt out" of arb may be able to participate in any future hypothetical class actions for companies that have these arb agreements. Stay tuned. Besides, you can change your mind and "opt out" of arb at any time even if you opted in earlier, isn't that correct?
This is my view & not those of RGIS LLC.
Hey, MISFIT. MERRY CHRISTMAS D293
Does anybody feel that working at RGIS is like being in a real life T.V. comedy, like "The Office", but real? Good for at least 10 chuckles every job. I remember finding a nest of mice in one dirty store backroom. No, I left them alone--they were kind of cute and I thought of Mickey & Minnie. Spiders don't get off so easy though.
These are my views & not those of RGIS LLC.
Issue with RM2 is the laser is synced to the machine. If you put back the wrong laser in the wrong machine the laser won't work.
Imagine scanning product with a laser from another Auditor's machine and that would actually count it?
I'm a new employee of RGIS in Southern California. I will not say my district. But I have read some horror stories that people do not get a lunch until 5 hours and 59 minutes? That is against CA state law. you MUST take a lunch after 4 hours and 59 minutes of working and you MUST take a 10 min break after what ???? I think after 2 or 3 hours of working. If this company makes me wait to take a 30 min lunch after 5 hours 59 mins of work, I WILL report them to the department of labor. I will not hesitate.
I shouldn't be working here since I have an MBA and I am very underemployed. I took this job since I needed something and I couldn't work in sales (it was commission only).
Does anyone else work for RGIS (as an auditor) with a current degree (at least a bachelor degree???)
Since 2014 I've worked for three difference companies that don't pay overtime - don't pay their checks on time, they are not honest with you on the interview AND they don't follow the Fair Labor Standards Act with respect to breaks and lunches.
What is it with so many companies? Seems that MANY employers hire young 19 year old kids in HR and in payroll - instead of hiring someone with 10 or 20 years of experience in HR and payroll. God, what is going on? It's not just RGIS.
This guy has more work days its actually not bad i wud be happy to work days like that
you guys just need to be patient rgis is just like any other companies out there u hv to make ur way up n work hard
Any January hilarity yet? You know, things like where 15 are scheduled at a store but only 6 show up, forcing everyone to work 12 hours, etc.? We old timers who left years ago still get a chuckle. Also, how are the new audit machines working out--are they an improvement?
Sure pleased I don't have to wake up at 3 AM anymore and drive 50 miles uncompensated in pouring rain to get to a store, and work for 2 or 3 hours. Those were the days!
These are my views & not those of RGIS LLC.
I remember riding in a van to do a inventory at a JC Penney in Indianapolis. The driver who smoked pot quite often drove over 90 miles an hour on i-65. We made it to the inventory early and lived to tell about it.
What does everybody think about the new "Employee of the Week" bullshit? I'm not a supervisor and didn't get the email about it, but I guess supervisors who get all "5"s in all stores they run in a given week will be eligible for a random drawing in which a supervisor will receive a bonus. I'm not sure about the bonus amount or any of the details like how many events the supervisors have to run to be eligible. This info I just typed is just hearsay. An actual supervisor can correct what I just wrote and divulge what this nonsense really entails.
While it looks like RGIS is actually doing something decent here, shouldn't all supervisors who get all "5"s for every event in a given week be given a bonus instead of making it a random drawing? I remember when my district won a random drawing for a bonus store we did. They drew the names of 25 people (I think) out of a hat and gave us lucky ones $200. That sure pissed off the people who didn't have their names drawn. We had top guns who did most of the store that day who didn't get squat while someone who only counted 300 an hour got a $200 bonus. RGIS could have just divided that $5000 equally among the number of staff that day so that everyone could get an equal cut since they were supposedly rewarding the team's performance with that bonus. Why exclude people who do well?
If you run 5 stores in a given week and get "5"s in all of them, you should get a bonus for that effort. It seems like getting all "5"s for 5 stores in a week would be extremely difficult. Some managers who fill out the survey are brutal. There could be few errors or none at all and they'll give "3"s and "4"s out of spite for RGIS or simply because they don't like the accurate results. Conversely there can be a lot of errors and some managers will give all "5"s regardless. Just like with APH as a form of evaluation, there's no real fair way to evaluate supervisors. Supervisors can do an excellent job and still get bad survey results or they can do terrible and be fortunate to have a manager who doesn't care.
I understand that RGIS is too cheap to reward everyone who does well, but instead of giving $1000 to 1 employee of the week, they should give $50 to 20 employees of the week and recognize more people. Hopefully "Employee of the Week" does that and I don't know what I'm talking about. Otherwise this new perk is just another joke.
These are just my views and not those of RGIS LLC.
The rm-2 is a big letdown. Good theory on the laser, and it does seem to work well and consistently, but having loose pieces is sure to be a nightmare- I forgot mine wasn't attached to anything and almost threw the damn thing over my shoulder when I took break! Clearly no one who actually keys designed these machines, because the keyboard is near impossible to type without looking, keys too small, and the machine itself hangs awkwardly so the keys don't even sit where your hand wants to go. The smaller screen might work out if they can fix the contrast, I can barely see what quantity I typed in unless I turn the machine just right. The laser was more comfortable than I thought it would be after 9 hours, but a little too bulky when counting in small spaces. They also shrunk the enter key, so I buzzed all night accidentally hitting - or esc when I didn't mean to. The sound effect on the keys sucks too, very inconsistent clicking.
It's almost as though they put effort in to making the machines less efficient. Makes the rm-1 look like a far superior device.
As to 908 time, there are two 908 forms one for Team Leader and one for Auditor. If an Auditor carries equipment outside of being punched into an event TCA they should fill out a 908. Training uses other "900" numbers.
RM2, wow the issues we are having. Had a full RM2 with data and it froze followed the written procedure to restart and it gets stuck at the windoze screen (company splash screen is next) and we lost all the areas. This hasn't just happened a few times.
Lasers are already missing, wrong lasers are in the wrong machine, no way to tell what laser goes with what machine unless you squint at the serial numbers.
Batteries may last hours or just one or two, it is a crap shoot and yes this is supposed to be all new stuff, cheap.
Point about hand rest is right on. This is the first time they have made a keyboard smaller. All the models R1 A2, A3, A5...A12.. had the same size keyboard.
Talking about keyboard forget the missing lasers, 1/4 of the machines are already missing keys.
Navigating in search is a pain, you have to hit extra keys just to move up or down. Alt key is used even just to get into the menu OHH yah and all of the sudden the enter key (piece key or grey key) just stops working.
So far all I've done are auto stores with it, I can't wait for a qty store or heck no a financial store....
Yet another iteration of a bonus program.
Let me count, well I can't count that is why I had this job, the bonus programs.
We had the longevity program (TWICE) where you got paid a bonus if you were around for 6 months and x number of events you got a percentage of your salary as a bonus.
When Blackstone took over we had the Bonus Program where if the store made the calculated average (Calc) everyone at the event got a bonus but if a bonus event did not make it not only did you NOT earn a bonus (from that even duh) but took any you did earn away during that pay period.
When that kicked off they claimed they would add stores to the bonus program. The jean store with three letters, the office supply store that holds paper together were the events to start off with.
The thing was a failure, illegal in some states as an hourly employee you can't take earnings away etc. They stopped adding events and then stopped paying for the ones that had it.
Now we roll out the Perfect Event with threats that if you are not perfect, make budget hours, make calc get a perfect review you won't be running stores anymore.
But if you do you may have a chance to win yadda yadda yadda. Of course during the perfect event training any issue you brought up like short staff etc you were told it "was a one off" not to worry. I used to have a lot of "one offs"...
The average event supervisor has no clue the odds of getting this bonus. Each Division gives two awards out but only if the store is rated (some do not have a calc so they don't qualify) and only if you are perfect in it.
Doubt it will achieve what management wants and until the all for one and one for one attitude from auditors to management is addressed no bonus program will work. It just fosters a non-team approach that has invaded the company.
But that is another topic.
We already have several broken RM-2s. LOL. The base (where you strap it to your finger) of a detachable laser needs to be twisted every it's taken out of the RM or put back in. If you're too rough with it, the scanner brakes away from the base. Horrible, cheap-ass design.
Maybe go back to the old big blue (and before that the big brown) audit machines they used in the 1990s. Easy to key on, rarely broke down. Only bad thing was you couldn't download the data without some collector coming around to collect it. The things lasted. Do they still have them in some dusty storage room? LOL
Also, re/ the "bonus" program that some have mentioned. Seems like they must guard against favoritism. I can see possibility "pets" getting the $, and possibilty of "shady dealings" (possibility of people splitting the $ with the one who awards you the $)? Have they thought this out?? They need to have truly objective criteria--attendence, APH improvement, lack of errors, etc. Just trying to be helpful.
(These are my views & not those of RGIS LLC)
I was forced to finally use the RM-2s yesterday. What a piece of shit! Yeah, the wireless connectivity is good and it seems to transmit quicker, but the laser detaches too often and that 10-second delayed scan that you get after every 20 items or so can really throw you off your rhythm. Alt-7 to search is a real pain in the butt too. I also thought that they were really loud. That's great if you're by yourself, but if you're surrounded by other counters, it's a real headache and hard to know if the scanner was yours or someone else's.
RM-2s are an epic fail simply because of the small keyboard. They only really work in a well-prepped auto scan store and we have very few of those in my district. Any kind of keying on that thing is going to be a major pain in the ass, and I can't imagine going into a multiple quantity or financial store with those. The first few months of those will be disasters, and it will be quite frustrating to have stores that we used to blow through take forever because corporate came up with such a stupid design. Management would be wise to hang on to the RM-1s for most stores, but I'm sure corporate will mandate RM-2s be used since they invested money into them. Yes, the auditors will adjust. Whatever stupid shit (APH, blind count, MAO, etc.) corporate has thrown at us, we have found a way around. We'll make it through this too. It would just be nice if corporate wouldn't get in the way and put us behind the 8 ball with their stupidity. RM-2 is physical proof they're mentally challenged.
These are my opinions and not those of RGIS, LLC.
You can already see the "awards" going to their pets when you read the bio on why that person got the award money that week.
"Joe Team Leader hit 4 stores and two other stores would have hit if they were calc stores".
Why are you counting non-calc stores in the competition, er I mean bonus program?
I would have hit in my non-calc stores but since all I did that week was non-clac I am not eligible for the bonus money?
RM2's did anyone ask Auditors that actually do the work during the design phase?
Why such a big battery on the finger laser? Yes wireless is great but on a tightly packed rack I can get the old wire laser into places I can't get the new one into even with its all direction scan instead of one straight line scan.
I know the company wants to push and sell scan inventories but the need to key will not disappear and the RM2 is going to pay the price when even in scan inventories you have to key, like pre-listed displays or entire overheads.
I CAN DREAM. UNDERCOVER BOSS @ an inventory using an RM-2. ROFL.
Bonus Program Ended (I never got one, heck during the entire period did three stores that were even eligible our of many hit 2 of the 3).
Bonus Program now announced it is back but with new rules yet to be disclosed. Only for Event Supervisors, Auditors can go batch...
Anon who posted Feb 5:51, There are also cases where the store file is incomplete, or has errors, and you end up having to hand key a large amount of the upcs in the store to even get them to go in. Particularly if the upcs are alpha-numeric, inputting them with the RM-1 is tedious, but it's even worse with the RM-2.
The opinions in this post are my own and do not reflect the opinions of RGIS, or it's employees
Do many auditor's and gray shirts still show up at inventories drunk and hi?
Wait...according to comments above, I should have been paid for lugging equipment to inventories...for THREE YEARS...I should have known no one would have told me that, I'm still waiting to get paid for 2.5 hours of hanging tags in Jan. 2015 ("oh you should have clocked in and it would get taken from the store, it doesn't go on a 908"...AFTER the fact, when previously we always used a 908...this is what happens when a long standing DM leaves and we play musical DMs for 3 years, none of whom really knew what they were doing). I don't even work for RGIS anymore, and I can't believe I wasted so much time working there and getting ripped off for everything.
" Anonymous said...
Do many auditor's and gray shirts still show up at inventories drunk and hi?"
We only had a couple that we knew of, but no one said anything, since they were among the most reliable people. One had worked for the company for years and years and would always show up early. If I could have run stores drunk, I very much would have, maybe I'd still be working there instead of finally deciding I had enough. But I had enough trouble staying awake as it was!
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