I work night at Lowes in MST (merchandising). It's been one of the better jobs I've had related to retail with it's good and bad perks: good enough pay for my area, 10 hour nights, 3 day weekends, no night shift differential (booo), and etc. I took the job because it was easy for me to hop onto with my skill sets at the time, and I had a borderline extreme fear of covid and wanted a job where I could avoid the public.
My manager is not only having to suffer through the new hiring program (Luci or Lucy) that seems to be garbage (it won't show him people's resumes? Or sometimes he still has to interview them even if they don't upload a resume.), but he's being bombarded by problems such as: people didn't read the description and missed that our job is nights and we travel to different stores so they change their minds, are asking for $16 or $20, people changing their interview times moments before it starts (one guy changed it 3-6 times), and some people are just not taking the interviews seriously at all (one guy was playing video games while on the phone and drinking soda).
Unfortunately the biggest reason why we're not getting new hires is that the pay is crap and inflation is crap. My manager can't control how much new hires are paid, but it generally seems to be $11 if you have no related skills at all, and $14 if you have relative experience (What I started at).
One time we almost got a new hire from someone with related experience, and $14 was the price my manager assumed would be given, but, for some reason, Lowes tried to screw her over, and only offer $11? I don't know why they did that, we could have really used a new person with working brain cells. Our team is slowly dwindling down, and I won't be surprised if it's disbanded, as the team in the state next to us only had 1 night MST manager and 1 MST member when they were disbanded. And no night shift differential on top of that??? That's the main perk of working nights for any other place! There's rumors that they'll soon implement a differential due to an email that was accidentally sent and then immediately deleted, but that might be too little too late.
But it's been kind of funny listening to my manager complain. I like him, but he's older and is out of touch. Always complains that people are only bombing the interviews for unemployment, no one wants to work, but he has plenty of complaints about Lowes as well. I don't think he understands that younger people are demanding more because companies have been STEALING more from us every year.
This company isn't treating its employees right. It is so BARE inside the stores. There should be red-vests stationed at every area who are specialized to help customers with certain needs, but there is NO ONE. Customers always come to us for help, when it is not our job to help customers at all. I don't work the weekends, so maybe employee numbers are different on those days, but I have my doubts.
But that's all. I just thought it was funny to share because I know folks my age and younger are demanding more from companies. I had a really good phone interview myself today for a job that's only at one location, has the possibility of mixed remote and office work, and $16-$17 pay, and it's day shift. I'm super excited for it, as it seems more rewarding and challenging than my current job, and working remotely might also give me a chance to work on commissions during downtime lol.
Keep fighting the good fight, everyone!