Home Depot Settles Waste Dumping Suit

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Home Depot agreed Friday to pay nearly $10 million in penalties and investigation costs to settle a lawsuit alleging it mishandled hazardous waste from its California stores, officials said.

The world's largest home improvement store chain came under investigation after a hazardous waste container exploded at Home Depot's store in Marina Del Rey in May 2004, the lawsuit said.

The fire forced the evacuation of store employees and customers. Investigators later found that chemicals were mixed together in the 55-gallon drum.

After the explosion, a waste hauler contracted by Home Depot was stopped by the California Highway Patrol. The truck was not licensed by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.

Read more: http://money.excite.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt_top.jsp?news_id=ap-d8r3divg0&

[Quantess]

1. I recently worked at Home Depot.

There is a gaping disconnect between what the corporate officials say is the HD policy, and what actually happens in the HD stores. It's because, in my opinion, the corporate headquarters just pay lip service and promote meaningless propaganda. Deep down they must know that nothing is going to change unless they make real accomodations, such as hiring more workers. Anyone who has shopped at a Home Depot store can see that "no one" works there, figuratively. The corporate expectations for what is supposed to happen at each HD store, given the limited resources and dire lack of workers, is very unrealistic. Deep down, I think the corporate headquarters knows it. Corporate turns a blind eye to HD stores that cut corners.

[jody]

2. Do you really mean "'no one' works there, figuratively". My experience is that HD employees do work

although the number of employees may be small based on competitive forces.

Consumers expect low prices and that means a minimum work force at low wages as well as low cost items from overseas factories.

[Quantess]

3. We worked our asses off.

I added the "figuratively" part, meaning that the stores don't have enough "associates". I guess that was ambiguous of me.

We always had more work demands that we were able to meet, because there were not enough workers. Especially in my department, Garden.

[jody]

4. Your experience supports what I've observed. Thanks, :hi:

:hi:

[Quantess]

5. Competetive forces...like Lowe's.

I'm not sure how Lowes does it, but they're a bit more together than HD. Lowe's seems to have slightly more workers in the stores, Lowe's workers seem less frazzled, Lowe's looks neater and less chaotic, yet both Home Depot and Lowe's have about equal prices.

The reason for the difference? My guess is that Corporate Lowe's is a little less greedy than Corporate Home Depot. Home Depot is a fat hog at the trough, and Lowe's appears to be the leaner and meaner underdog. Good for the underdog, I say. They are both corporate giants, but, Lowe's seems a bit less obscene than the other.

Home Depot is really good at motivating their workers. However, there aren't enough of us to do the job, on most days, no matter how hard we try. It was a matter of priorities. Helping customers is the biggest priority, but, when I worked there, there were SO MANY customers who needed assistance and so few Garden associates, there was no way that every customer who wanted assistance would get it. I got tired of customers accusing me of ignoring them....I wish I could tell them "take a number, honey".

And then we got top-down reminders to "pay attention to your customers". Training videos that demonstrated how crappy it feels to a customer when you're "acting" too busy to help them. Well, I bet that sure would feel crappy to a customer! But that isn't how a day in the life at Home Depot goes, and I refuse to believe that Corporate HD doesn't know it. They DO know, they MUST know, but they just don't tell the shareholders. It's insulting that Corporate HD responds to customer complaints about spotty customer service by giving patronizing advice to the workers that we should help the customers first. (Which customer, on which aisle?)

But what is the worker supposed to do, when they have 3 customers waiting impatiently to get their retaining wall blocks loaded, and nobody in Garden department is forklift trained, so you're trying to find somebody in Lumber Dept. to help you, since you are a woman, and was passed over for the forklift training. Meanwhile, you get calls on the phone that somebody wants a propane tank exchange, a cashier wants a price check on an ant trap (right now!!!), and a lonely person calls from their home asking if you have a specific cultivar of Spirea, and if you do, how much?
Then you tell the caller, "Sorry, it's hard to keep track of the plants when they get moved around all the time. I think we used to have that plant, but, we may have sold out. Can I get your number and call you back?"

Then you get a call from a frustrated cashier saying those 3 customers are still waiting for their blocks. You feel frustrated because you can't get down the blocks to the angry customers, because you don't have forklift training yet, after 3 months. It's because you are a woman who is probably too feminine looking to drive a forklift, and that fat weirdo D**g doesn't like to train women to drive a forklift. Probably because he's dumpy, unattractive, and being a great forklift operator is about all he's got going in life, maybe. Well if that's all he's got, I guess I shouldn't threaten his bubble by insisting that I get the forklift training I need to do my job. He was an unfriendly oaf, who seemed to resent me for being a good looking woman. (Or maybe just for being a woman.?)

I did ask the senior Dept. Head, and also, the Human Resources about getting my forklift training. "Oh, yeah...,meh." which was fine with me because I wasn't dying to get on the forklift. I just wanted to be able to get things down, such as retaining wall blocks, for customers who were unhappy and impatient. But, it never happened. The day I put in my 2 weeks notice was the day I saw the brand-new Garden guy, and, the 10-day-old (total jerk) Garden guy getting their forklift training, while I had been working there for 2 1/2 months. Yes, I was insulted, and yes, sexism was definitely involved, but I can't be sure if it was just that gross guy D**g to blame, or whether the sexism was a larger issue.

Guys: Forget whether you think a pretty woman should be trained to drive a forklift at the Home Depot. Just consider whether you would want to wait an extra 30+ minutes to get your items, just to have a man drive that forklift for you.

Home Depot seemed like a good place to work because: #1, I didn't want to go back to Speech Pathology, #2, it was 2 blocks away from my new home, #3,I love gardening, and I enjoy being in good physical shape, and I enjoy lifting slightly heavy items, because that's how a person stays in shape.

I'm a 36 year old woman who has always been physically active. But, the best attribute I brought to Home Depot was my knowledge of plants. HD customers got their money's worth having me share my gardening knowledge. The HD Returns Department assuredly got fewer dead plants returned, thanks to me. I quit Home Depot because they are kind of a ridiculous place to work.

I have great knowledge of plants and trees, and I love gardening, and I enjoy helping customers with plants, (and I am fairly strong). I have a M.S. college degree, but I didn't like my profession, and I didn't know where to go next. I thought that a job that incorporated my love of gardening would be good for me. And it was, sort of. But this job was a lot more stressful than people imagine.

[jody]

6. Excellent points from experience. Thanks for sharing. n/t

[Quantess]

7. Writing all this was very rewarding and cathartic.

Thanks for reading!

This was the first time I actually poured out my experiences and emotions after working at the Federal Way, WA 98003, Home Depot, in type. I have told many people partial stories but this is definitely the first time I've written it for others to read.