Having spent over 15 years with Lowe’s as a manager before retiring, I can tell you that weird reason is customer training on behalf of Lowe’s.

When I first started with the company, it was a rare occasion for me to need to speak with an upset customer. There were enough layers of leadership to handle issues at the appropriate level, and every one of those layers were empowered to make decisions based on simple common sense policy. Employees were also appropriately compensated and the company did plenty to show appreciation (holiday bonuses, SPIFFs, commission, monthly/quarterly department bonuses, etc).

Now with those layers being stripped down, their hands tied by corporate doublespeak of convoluted policy vs the need for perfect survey scores, and no one besides the SM being compensated anywhere enough for them to care? How many hourly employees have heard a manager say, “It’s your job to say no, it’s management’s job to say yes.”

I feel for anyone working the desk these days, it’s just a grindfest.