How Lowes Can You Goes?
I’m not saying I’m perfect (yes I am) but really. Rejected by Lowes? For a cashier position? Twice? At least Lowes had the decency and good manners to notify me of their decision with a formal rejection letter, in marked contrast to the non-committal stance of the majority of big-city law and accounting firms that can’t be bothered with such niceties. So, kudos to Lowes for having the gumption to actually make a decision and the courtesy to let the applicant know. But still. Really? Lowes? And I’m not talking corporate management here, I’m talking cashier, floor worker, front of house, just above minimum wage.
Granted, I my education wasn’t ivy league but I did graduate summa. And granted, I haven’t stood behind a cash register since high school, but (again) really? Doesn’t working during the stone age of check-out technology count for anything? Back in the day when I was a part-time, after-school supermarket cashier, we weren’t exactly using an abacus to tally up purchases recorded in hieroglyphics on clay tablets, but it was pretty close. Historical fact: the supermarket conveyer belt hadn’t yet been invented. I still have an overdeveloped left bicep as evidence of the physical demands of hundreds of hours pulling heavy items close enough to read the smudged ink-stamped prices (Price check?) In those days, a “bar code” was the substitute word used in front of parents to hide the real identity of your destination. “OK, we’ll meet at the ‘library’ at 8.”
And the noise! The cheeka-cheeka clunk of pounding in the two-digit price and palm-sized enter keys. The final ka-ching bell that heralded the total cost, followed by a gentle woosh of the opening cash drawer. After payment, the cash drawer was closed with a hip-thrust followed by a satisfying thunk, an audible signal that the drawer was secure. The front of the supermarket sang with the satisfying rhythms of a factory floor. The line of cashiers were the Radio City Rockettes of the supermarket, dancing to a pleasant cacaphony of the sounds of progress, action, accomplishment. We were earning money engaged in an activity of consequence. It was fun. I was 16. Everything was fun.
That was then, in the Mesozoic Era of technology, when dinosaurs ruled the supermarket. This is now: a 58-year-old professional marketer cannot get a job in an actual brick & mortar market. Go figure.
I was recently turned down by Lowes??? too. Are you sure your not me? Yeh, what a joke , so much job experience and ability and Lowes turns you down. Definitely, age discrimination at it’s best. And very sad. Maybe because you still have all your front teeth because occasionally in your life you went to a dentist. Or maybe because you werent on the ” welfare to work roster”. Or because you looked like you have a brain and might be able to learn alittle more than how to scan a bar code. I’m guessin that’s why you were turned down. INFINITLY over qualified.
Like you, I have also been rejected by Lowes. Seemed a bit strange, I’ve only been involved in Architecture and construction for 25+ years, Multiple years of “customer service” working with consultants, owners, tenants, and developers. I have the skills and knowledge to do most any of the jobs there with my eyes closed, but they decided to go with other applicants. I’ve been rejected so many times in the form of “You’re over qualified” that I stripped my resume down to one employer and lied about my previous income, and I still got “You’re over qualified” I exploded and asked just how stupid did a person have to be to get a job with their company. At what point do I need to have dropped out of school? Should I be an ex junkie? Perhaps have done time for theft, or assault? Needless to say I don’t believe I’ll be getting a job with that company any time soon.
I was also turned down by dozens and dozens of retailers for Christmas 2009. Apparently I didn’t pass some of those long “personality tests”. Others just emailed me the “your qualifications don’t match bla bla” Some I just never heard from at all.
A good friend is in retail management. (Well, she was.. She got axed recently with everybody else who was over 45 or 50.) I applied blindly to her chain. She was always having a hard time getting decent help. The last guy to work for her missed his second and third day of work because he was in jail. The guy before that just stopped showing up.
All hiring had to go through their district office, so she couldn’t hire me directly. Anyway, I took their online personality test and I promptly received a “Thank you; your qualifications don’t meet bla bla bla” email. When my friend inquired, she was told that they wouldn’t hire someone without recent retail experience. Now, I actually co-owned and ran a small retail establishment with three locations.. but that was a decade ago, so it didn’t apparently count.
So my friend wound up with another worker who apparently did pass their tests. He was a complete and total whack job and he was fired when he was caught stealing from the cash register after a couple of months.
It is amazing, based on these and other stories, that the American economy isn’t in more serious trouble than it is. How can it function when the competent people are out of work and incompetents and crazies run the show?
My sentiments exactly!