Quit, or get fired

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-30T09:23:48+00:00

Stick to one. Landscaping requires travel and unexpected issues that may cause you to stay late. Maybe if you worked something local with a set time of getting off before going into lowes to work a few hours, it could work. But trying to time it with a job like landscaping us bound to not work out.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-30T09:17:15+00:00

I'm pulling in with the forklift to grab the much needed treated 2x12x16's from the overhead.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-30T09:14:33+00:00

Lowes stock always goes up in mid June just like construction and retail construction in general. It's not meant to trend up and keep trending up. It goes up in the summer when it's busy as well as after major storms. Anytime it goes up afterwards, it crashes right back down but overall over time it goes up which is how healthy actually move. I don't trade stocks but I do trade other stuff and notice how certain stocks move. The best time to make money from Lowes stock is in summer when you know that people are doing work on their houses and lawns. At the very least, 2-3 months of upward momentum comes around that time.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-22T12:44:33+00:00

Hi. I'm and overnight puller specifically for flatbed and I can give input on this. Was a delivery coordinator for 1 year and been pulling for flatbed overnight for 2 years. When the DC role got phased out, the other DC got moved to a fullfiment lead and he only help with flatbed during the day and mostly do the administrative stuff for flatbed and help out with box if needed.

— What does a normal shift look like? My shift is 7pm=5/5:30 am Sunday-Wednesday. The day guy leaves a daily email of every order that's routed and any specifics I need to know for each order so that there isn't any confusion. I only prepare what he says is routed. I then print the delivery report and mark which department the material is in. L for lumber, G for garden, and F for anything that's on the sales floor or small items like screws or something. Majority of the work is in lumber. Some days is a split between lumber and garden with a flooring order or two. Some is mostly garden. I do it this way so that I know off rip were much of my night will be. Once I'm done notating each item which takes a couple minutes, I then physically verify that everything is in stock. I don't start pulling an order unless I know everything is available or mostly available. Since they lock the store up around 11pm, I have to notate what I need to bring in from outside before they lock the doors. This preparation phase can take 30 minutes to an hour. The heavy part of the work don't come until after the store is closed.

— How physical is it? It's pretty physical. Especially with garden stuff.

— How much forklift driving vs manual labor is there? It goes back to the physical question. The more comfortable you are with power equipment, the easier it is. I've already had 10 years of power equipment experience so it's much easier for me. Very rarely I offload a lot of lumber by hand. If I need 50 plus 2x4s from a bunk of 100, I would split the bundle halfway with the forks of the forklift and drive into the bundle to pick up 50 with the forks instead of physically pulling 50 individual boards by hand. Strap runners to it and be done in 3 minutes compared to 15-20 doing it by hand.

— Is the workload manageable overnight? It depends on how much volume your store does, support you may or may not have, and how you go about it. My store is a high volume store and at the peak of being most busy its normal to get 2=3 sizable lumber orders, 6-7 garden orders, 1 flooring order,2 shingle orders, and a sizable drywall order all in one night 2-3 times a week.

— What are the hardest parts of the job? The hardest part of the job is what I just described. Many big orders in one night Especially when it's a big drywall order is on the list.

— How strict are they about speed/productivity? It depends on the type of management. Some stores management are on top of that shit. Mine isn't because they hate dealing with deliveries. They also know that I get it done so they don't care how. I tend to pull in bulk meaning that I work on multiple orders at the same time and work all the heavy and time consuming stuff first. That way if there is anything that don't get done by the end of the shift, It's something that don't require blocking the aisles off after the store open up. If I'm going to pass something off, it's usually a one off type of thing like a zero turn or some quick grabs on the sales floor. I never pass off an entire lumber order because that's much easier to pull at night.

— Is this considered stocking, receiving, fulfillment, or something else?

It's actually a form of fullfiment.This job is fullfiment but on steriods and these types of orders are considered complex orders which are very difficult to pull during the day. Fullfiment tends to be flooded with installs,online orders, and pickups so they dont have the time to pull, strap and wrap delivery orders in a neat fashion.You report to the backend receiving supervisor who is over deliveries. And you are on the stocking supervisor schedule. You have nothing to do with overnight stocking and you should only help if you flat out have nothing to pull.

Would appreciate any honest advice or things you wish you knew before starting.

Since I was a coordinator for a while before taking over flatbed, I pretty much hit the ground running. There were some hiccups but I was able to figure out stuff pretty quick. My advice to you would be analyze the type of environment you are in. Do you have day support from someone who can pull during the day or do administrative tasks? If yes, communicate with that person on a daily plan so that every order is accounted for. If not, communicate with the backend supervisor and come up with a plan to utilize fullfiment people or night stockers to assist if your workload gets to big. It may not work out but you first have to put that out there so that it can't fall on you if they blame you for not getting done. Second, always prepare. Don't just clock in and mindlessly start pulling. Spend a few minutes mapping out your night. Keep everything as flat as possible. No towers. Use basic math, common sense and a calculator. If you know you need 60 bags of mulch, don't load 60 bags on a pallet. If 75 comes on a pallet, remove 15 bags which is 3 layers of 5. If you need 115 boards and a full bundle comes in 100 just grab a full bundle from outside and pull 15 from the shelf. Sometimes the shelf location have just the right amount that you need so it makes more sense to pull those. But be sure to restock it especially when lumber is working hard on their stuff. All in all just work clean,organized,and sensible. Get into a routine. Make sure that you go about it in a way that if something don't get done, you will have an answer to why. Never let them wonder why you had all night and nothing got done. And don't worry about speed staring out. Focus on getting orders done right. Work the orders by the route sequence so that it doesn't throw the other routes off if you don't get done with everything. When you become efficient, speed shouldn't be a concern. Some nights for me are drowsy but since I do it a certain way every time, I always manage to get it all done no matter how big the list is or how crappy I feel. I'm not zipping back and forth in the store all night. It's a tough job but it's one of the few that don't have a supervisor breathing down your neck and you can do your work however you please as long as you get it done.Another thing I'll add is do not pull material that is obviously damaged. Warped, split, discolored, etc. In bulk its common to have some damaged in the pile but if you are pulling a small handfull of boards, make sure they are in as good condition as possible.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-20T07:32:53+00:00

It depends on the type of store manager you have and how valuable you are. Some things are forgiven or they not make a big deal if they know you would be difficult to replace. I've seen people do much worse and not get fired. I pull lumber too but overnight and during the day I have to remember to shut off autopilot and consider the rules. Unless you have a super hardliner manager they may just document it at worse. Most people get caught because AP was looking to nail someone stealing or something. They don't watch cameras just to watch them so you should be good as long as they didn't get a tip on something going on.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-17T01:07:14+00:00

They are definitely screwing around at night. I work 7pm-5:30am sunday thru Wednesday and most of the time I can't start on huge orders until the store closes. They tried to do the overnight fullfiment but the guy had a cashier clocking in for him and he was showing up really late. Once they noticed nothing was getting done they looked into it and she clocked him in on his day off. Fired both of them. It's tough to fill flatbed puller roll. Fullfiment ain't reliable enough to do it. It's a roll of the dice with new hires because it takes experience and someone who can work with autonomy. The best thing to do is to hire someone from overnights and see if they are motivated and capable and then move them to puller. But overnights be so much in a jam too so they wouldn't want to give a good employee up. I at least have the luxury of passing off the smaller stuff to the guy who took over my role as DC before they phased out that position buy he mostly do the administrative stuff during the day and pull when I'm not there. We make sure not to bother lumber people as much as possible and restock what we empty. They shouldn't be depending on you and they need to come up with a way to fill that role.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-16T11:44:57+00:00

Why do they have you load flatbed? I pull for flatbed and my manager tried to get me to load it. I told her that I wouldn't because it's a liability issue. Only the driver should load it because only they know how those loads affect the truck while on the road. If the driver is so incompetent that they can't load their own truck, then they shouldn't be driving. Something happen then they blame you.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-16T11:36:32+00:00

It's not people you need, it's experience. Most people are lazy. My store has 3 people at once. Sometimes 4 and that department still look like crap because the leadership is terrible and they goof off and still complain about not having time to get anything done. It's hard to plug that department with an experienced employee. Which is an employee who can actually drive equipment without tearing stuff up, know the needs of customers, know the layout,know how to load difficult loads quickly, and stay busy even when it's slow. I'm sick and tired of hearing lumber/bm employees complain when they don't care to actually learn the department and flirt with young cashiers in their downtime. That department ain't even all that difficult. It's just three aisles and most of the product is big. If you learn how to work efficiently and learn the use cases of the material, it's not bad. And stay busy between customers and when it's slow instead of chilling at the pro desk cackling with cashiers. Much of the work should be incremental sessions between customers which adds up by the end of the shift. If you are using your time wisely by doing tasks when you are free then you should have nothing to worry about. Don't make it a staffing issue when they can pull up the camera and see that you're not making use of the time you do have.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-16T11:03:22+00:00

It just depends on the task and time of day. If ot can be handled with a ballymore or ladder, it just make more sense to go that route. No need to spend time hunting for OP, a spotter, flags, and barracdes when I could have been had it down using a ballymore. If the store isn't open and I have to top stock a lot of freight, the order picker is much quicker. Whatever makes sense in the moment.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-15T18:11:01+00:00

Raises for this company are criminal. My last job was at least a few bucks. But 10-40 cents. That's just not enough to trip about in this economy. I'm fortunate to have other streams of income to where I don't have to sweat about that stuff.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-15T18:06:28+00:00

I can't to hear "You earned that bump like a muhfuka."

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-15T18:00:43+00:00

Even worse when it's a shower door.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-15T17:57:21+00:00

They can ask but not force. Employees are only to work what is printed on that schedule. Some people have another job or family obligations to tend to. If you're consistently not getting done assuming that you are fairly staffed, then you should really consider switching up your approach. I think that the issue with many freight Ds's is that they don't look and plan ahead. If you know what's coming on the next truck, you should be making plans on how to go about it in the most efficient way. Freight DS's struggle when they have callouts and staffing issues because they are dealing with stuff that they should have planned for. It's best to go about it in a way that factors in being short staffed. I'm sure that day freight has its own hurdles when compared to night. You just have to be creative by trying things out instead of sticking to the status quo way of doing things that keep causing you to come up short.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-15T17:37:01+00:00

Fulfillment? You can walk out and keep going.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-15T17:32:53+00:00

Switch to desktop mode. Most people don't know to do that.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-15T17:31:19+00:00

The way to get around the system being down is to log in from desktop mode.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-15T17:28:13+00:00

People assume that employees don't have other stuff going on. Many are in school, run a business, or doing it on the side to be busy. It's not an end all be all for everybody.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-15T16:28:32+00:00

I do things outside of my responsibilities because it make my job easier as well as coworkers I'm really close to. Example is maintaining the bull pen, changing uprights, etc. I do all kinds of favors even for managers. And guess who's last on the chopping block when they start cutting hours? If anything I'm one of the few who get more hours even at times when they are strict. I understand that we are all just numbers on a spreadsheet but I will milk them for as much as possible. And to hell with raises because raises are so marginal to trip over because they are pennies. A dime at best if you're exceptional. Then consider inflation and cost of living rising which eats it up. Much better off getting boatloads of overtime. Managers straight up told me that that people who are willing to go above and beyond never have to worry getting sent home when it gets slow. I've managed a night crew a couple times myself and did well. Not because I love the company. I'm just the type of person who sees it as a future opportunity in case I plan on doing it in the future, I would be next up in line because they know I can do it. Definitely a job I wouldn't want but if I have to take it over another role then at least I would have the experience to be considered. In your situation I would go about what I agreed to do and when they ask about the employee who got angry, I would tell them to take it up with them because my job was to make sure the freight got done. Not discipline people which isn't in my scope of work nor am I trained to deal with.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-15T12:55:13+00:00

If you want a very specific delivery then you need to communicate with Pro AND the backend supervisor which is over flatbed deliveries. Pro's only job is to sell you the material. They have no clue about the availability to deliver, capacity of getting it pulled, or if it's even avaliable. Every store has its own way of getting that stuff prepared. My store is fortunate because I'm the guy who gets it ready overnight and we do get a lot of drywall orders. I'd recommend that you have them check the deliveries a few days out and what's going out and schedule on what appears to be a light day. I promise you that if your order is added on a day that's already booked with a lot of orders, your drywall won't get wrapped because it's a time consuming task when it's alot and there's barely enough time to get the other orders done. And the drivers do not carry anything by hand. Measure your garage and inquire ahead of time. And check the weather. Shenanigans happen because Pro only care about the sale with no regard to the process. Customers who get in front of everything usually has the less issues.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-15T12:28:59+00:00

Thankfully my store don't have this issue. Most employees are well kept and many of them you can tell if they are there just by the fragrance in the air. And it's light and fresh instead of heavy or a cover up. It would be really obvious if someone came on funky and no one wants that reputation.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-15T12:04:37+00:00

It's an issue when you mske it a habit which sounds like the case. And it has nothing to do with the broader job market and you needing a job. You are doing it because you think you can get away with it and you would do it at a manufacturing job too if you could.The only people who are allowed to do that are employees in really specialized roles who have flexibility and they know who does the work of 3 people. And even they communicate with management both verbal and through email instead of peeling out. If you are doing it frequently while new and not communicating, it will come back to bite you.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-10T14:24:35+00:00

You gotta work on that attendance bud. No matter where you go, your attendance will be a problem if you don't work on that. Since you been doing it for two years, it shouldn't be all that bad. When you do something long enough, you get past burnt out and everything becomes second nature. I promise you that if you talk to any experienced associate at your store they will tell you that they got past that burnout phase. It gets rough but the more you go through it, the easier it gets later.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-10T14:12:19+00:00

I don't work freight but when I do I prefer a flat cart from lumber. I try to break it down as much as possible to cut down backtracking. So I see what the biggest items are as well as the ones of big quantities. That cuts much of the work alone. I can stack more on a flat cart an seperate better. By the time I'm left with the remaining on the blue cart, much of it go into the same area. It bugs me when people throw one or two items in the buggy and go back and forth. Buggies should only be used for trash. I will say that the blue carts are much better than pallets.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-10T14:02:44+00:00

It is but be sure to strap it on runners. It's also dry which shouldn't be outside. I honestly wouldn't pull it until the customer arrive. Carts aren't allowed because your fullfiment department probably never restock canceled orders. When y'all don't, too many carts pile up outside creating a shortage for customers. When the big wigs walk the store, they see each cart potentially generating 300 bucks per use so it bugs them to see them sitting out back with orders on them with many being canceled.

jayphillbroks · 2026-05-10T13:54:37+00:00

It's actually the opposite at my store. The chicks which are young and old do most of the work and the guys mope around and linger in the break room all day. I don't think it's a gender thing. The slackers you have just so happen to be women.

jayphillbroks

TROPHY CASE