I’m mostly writing this for the benefit of my fellow Michigan readers, because this blog gets picked up by the blog section of Flint MLive (hi guys!), and I have something I want to say to Menards.
Dear Menards,
When my husband and I heard about you coming to our neck of the woods (Clio, to be specific), we were really excited about the extra jobs you were promising. We heard it was somewhere around 250 jobs that you were bringing to this employment-starved area (I tried to find a link, but I failed for now), and we felt certain that one of those jobs would be right for Troy.
We drove past the job site every chance we could, sometimes driving up to the doors and looking for a sign – anything – that you were about to start the hiring process. We checked your website, we checked all the employment websites. We trolled around online looking for a mention of what you were going to do next, because we wanted to be ready.
Troy happened to read this article on MLive’s website, which said that a bunch of people had already been able to start applying, so we drove up there right away. He sat for less than five minutes in a quickie-style interview, and was told that he’d be called if there was a second interview in the works.
And we’ve waited. And waited. We went back a week or so later, to ask if they could tell us when the interviews might start, or at least if Troy was on the short list. He was brushed off, rudely, by one of your managers. This manager wouldn’t even tell him if you had STARTED interviewing.
You have had no media coverage whatsoever that we can determine, apart from the blog article from back in April, almost a month ago now. For a company that promised new jobs for the area, you’re being awfully damn sneaky about it. You don’t seem to care about the people around here hoping for something, anything, and won’t even give us the courtesy of a number to call and ask questions.
Your new store isn’t listed on your website, there are no listings on the job search sites for this area, and there are no numbers to call.
In short, Menards, you suck. Epic fail. What gives you the right to offer jobs and then be secretive? Is this the way you treat people when they’re your employees? Badly done. You can rest assured that I will never shop at your Clio store, because I’m positive that your customer service will suck just as much as your human resource service.
Yours truly,
The wife of the best damn worker you could possibly have hired.
EDITED TO ADD:
If you feel so led, here is the link to their contact page: Guest Services.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
FOR GREAT JUSTICE!!
LEEEROY JENKINS!!
This seems to be so typical of the bigger corporations, they promise the jobs and they arent to be seen. I feel for you and your family. seems all that company wanted was the publicity…
@ Neil:
Yup, and now I’m giving them some BAD PUBLICITY. :)
If it’s any comfort, not working there will save your husband from a lot of headaches. They, by nature, treat their employees as badly as they apparently treat their applicants.
They are really good at switching new hires to a lower wage than they were promised, too. (Food for thought, should he get that call.)
Angie’s last blog post..A snapshot of spring
@ Angie:
Wow, thanks for the heads up on that. I sincerely HATE companies that treat their employees like shit, even BEFORE they are employees. And we put up with it because we need work.
Time to stand up for ourselves. Down with the man! :D
I grew up in MI and my parents still live there. It sucks what your economy is going through and I wish you guys luck. Menards has always seemed like a poor man’s Loews, I’m sure they are not a thrill to work for.
Rachel’s last blog post..5 minutes in Rachel’s day
@ Rachel:
Thanks for the well wishes – still no call from them, but at this point I don’t really think we’re expecting one.
I was just looking up unemployment figures for this area (Flint) on the department of labor’s website – DEPRESSING AND ANGRIFYING, to say the least.
I wanted to add to my frustration with Menards and would agree that it is a good thing Troy didnt get a job. I bought a power washer on March 2nd 2008 for 350.00USD. I used it once and now it doesnt work. I took it in to Mendards yesterday to learn that it was no longer their problems because it was 30 days since I bought it. I now have to go to have it serviced. Menards refuses to help me.
FYI.
Great company to work for. 4200 apps and/or interviews were turned in at that store. As for the service I highly stress you to shop there then draw your conclussion.
Our son works at Menards in Grand Rapids, he hates it. They really don’t treat people well, employees or customers. My husband refuses to shop there too many bad experiences to list here. You can save some money but you also have to watch what you buy, they sell some generic name junk. Prices on name brand stuff isn’t any lower price then Home Depot. We gladly don’t care if we don’t “save big monet at Menards, we don’t want to support them in any way, shape or form. We can’t wait until our son can get another job and tell Menards to screw off.
I work at Menard’s. I have to agree that when I heard they were coming to our hometown I was THRILLED! Genesee Co is a deadtown and this seemed to be a glimmer of hope, an answer to prayer – JOBS! And since we have always spent tons of free time in home improvements stores (Home Depot & Lowe’s) it seemed a great idea to work at a home improvement store, especially one so close to home. From the start is was great, but soon after the store opened, about 1 wk later, it went downhill from there. I guess they went way beyond their forcasted figures in sales, so why would mgmt suddenly turn nasty & rude to it’s employees? Moral has dropped and it saddens me. It doesn’t have to be like this. I’m not only an employee, I’m a shopper – so in that respect, as a shopper, when I know of a store that is treating it’s employees poorly, I tend to hate that store and refuse to shop there, even if they have good prices. I hope someone from the mgmt at the Clio store reads this as I still have hope for morale to turn around, possibly a change in mgmt if needed, and get it back on track as being a truly wonderful place to work for. I’ll hang out for a bit and see what happens as I do believe this store has great potential for it’s GREAT employees. yes, they have some truly wonderful people working there who love to give good customer service. I guess I’ll never understand why most of mgmt tend to act like idiots. Why not lead by example? If you are mgmt and reading this – you are not above anyone, or better than anyone. And you don’t need to be bragging on your big fat profit sharing check in front of us pee-ons who are living on nothing. Yes, there is a mgr there who has often bragged outloud about his fat profit sharing check. Also – I’ve noticed as an employee that the number of managers is exaggerated to the number of employees. Why on earth would one dept need 3 mgrs? And they are often all there at the same time, causing them to cut the rest of our hours, sending us home early all the time. How about 2 mgrs per dept and give more hours to the lower paid people??? Hmm, that’s a thought to help out the payroll numbers. Sorry for rambling. No time to proofread what I just wrote, but it sure felt good to let it out here. Thanks for listening.