1. If you are a woman, love yourself enough not to take this job. The amount of harassment you will face on a DAILY basis from associates and customers is super draining. Be prepared as a woman to not have any customers take you seriously, customers will often lecture you and "try" to teach you about your own tools. They act as if you're not getting paid to sell those tools. Management will have higher expectations for you if you are a woman. It’s so obvious the difference in standards that they hold to their female reps versus what they expect from their male reps. There have been numerous incidents where I have heard of pregnant reps being required to perform physical labor at the same level as non-pregnant reps. If you are a woman trying to start your career and do not want to put your life on hold then reconsider this job.
2. You are a glorified Home Depot associate. Be prepared to stock boxes, to be standing and kneeling on your bare knees on concrete floors for 8 hours a day. You will constantly be getting cuts and minor injuries on a daily basis. You will be given no direction whatsoever and be expected to do the same thing every single day for 8 hours a day. The direction you are given is often short-sided and comes from those who do not work in store. They make you do morally questionable things such as steal competitors PAID spaces.
3. SCHEDULING IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WHENEVER THEY WANT. Despite them telling you in every single interview that your schedule is strictly M-F. There is constant inconsistencies in scheduling between reps. As an EMS (entry level position everybody starts as), they will tell you your schedule is M-F from 8-4:30 pm. What they fail to mention is the fact that they will constantly change these days and hours. You are expected to work through these changes with no questions asked. These changes in schedules and hours include TUES-SAT 9-5:30 pm and WED-SUN 9-5:30 pm. You will be expected to work weekends all throughout the SUMMER and WINTER months. Seriously say goodbye to your social life and loved ones as your free time is basically gone.
4. You are expected to use your own hard worked accrued PTO for every single absence you have. They do not care what the reason is, even if it involves serious illness or COVID related symptoms. You are only able to accrue 13 days worth of PTO for a whole years worth of time and energy. Paid Time Off encompasses sick time and vacation time. When you take that into account it's almost alarming how little time they give employees off.
5. You are expected by managers and members of corporate to know and take "your business" seriously. "Your business" as in knowing what is selling in your Home Depot. They want you to take it seriously, yet you won't hear a peep from them for months on end. You will quickly realize that no one actually gives a crap about what they do and lazy coworkers will be rewarded simply if their Home Depot is located in a good area.
6. If you are looking for a job where you are seeking professional growth and development then this is not the place for you. This is not a marketing position whatsoever. You will learn no skills related to marketing. Their idea of marketing is simply having reps place their products around the store. You are required to set up a sales table every single day you are in store which is an ABSOLUTE waste of time. I could literally count on one hand how many items have been sold due to my sales table.
7. As another reviewer very eloquently said, "Resets will literally want to make you kill yourself." These are full day projects that require intense physical labor and you have a high chance of injury. In your first two weeks of training you are given no training about the physical or logistical workload that comes with a reset. You are expected to learn it as you go which is what causes so many injuries. If you are near a store with no rep you will be expected to complete that workload on top of your own when it comes to resets. This will not be taken into consideration when you try to move up in the company, when you are negotiating for salary, or in your yearly bonus (Oh yeah there is no yearly bonus or commission!).
8. Lazy incompetent people are often promoted as long as they fit the look of the company and are friends with the hiring individual. They like to brag about how they've made strides with diversity but thats all within the rep pool if you look at who's in corporate and higher level positions they are predominantly white individuals. As long as your white male in a store in a good location you'll be promoted within a year. If you are a white male in a store in a bad location you will be promoted within 2 years. If you are none of the above as long as you can hang with "frat" bros you will at least have a shot at promotion. Oh but most of those promotions will require you to move to Milwaukee or South Carolina.
9. Managers are so awful because of the fact they are given so much work. They are required to recruit for the company while also managing teams of 8+ reps. They are required to visit their reps in stores, which barely happens because of their massive workloads. You are given no feedback or direction leaving little room for growth. I would at times go 6 months without seeing my manager or any managers for that fact. It makes you feel like what you are doing in the Home Depot is in fact useless.
10. The CEO once said he would kill himself if he were our competitor's CEO. You can gather what kind of company culture he creates and allows to trickle down in the company from this comment.
