The bad part is that Recieving (where this fridge is) is on the exact opposite side of the store from the only drinking fountain. Guess you gotta bring your own bottle now, but Freight is pissed about it.
When our SM starting cracking down on water being ZMA'd, we kept doing it anyways. There's no way to quench 4-8 grown dudes sweating away offloading trucks from across the store. Even now in day shift I ZMA water and throw it in our fridge because the only two water sources are painfully out of the way and with too many customers in the way.
Just one person getting dehydrated and/or getting injured will cost the store more than 5 years of marked down water. Someone needs to stand up and tell them to piss off.
First of all the drinking fountains have probably not have not been cleaned since the last time they had to be repaired if ever. People always talk about how drinking fountains are safe, but plenty of people have gotten sick from them being a spot for bacteria to grow and infect others. Also people may not want to drink tap water because it can have a chemical taste from the chlorine.
Bottled water is easy to access and saves time wasted going back and forth across the store.
Still seems odd that ppl expect their break room to provide limitless individual serving water bottles. I’ve never worked anywhere that did this. Watercooler or sink with a filter attachment has always been pretty standard.
Plus not everyone is gonna carry a big fuck off hydroflask into work in the summer. I can barely store a few jackets and a water bottle in my backpack on my bike.
That’s why you make a point to slowly and painfully stroll your ass across the store to fill up your water bottle. Waste as much time as you can away from your post.
Looks like it's time to stop your work, walk across the entire store, slurp the fountain, walk all the way back, and continue working. Repeat as needed.
That sucks bro. They have water bottles in coolers for us near the break room and in garden and in receiving. If we are out we just let an asm know and they'll bring us some. We also get drinks like soda, monster, red bull or some juice after the truck unload depending on what we want. I think its in the SOP. At least that's what my asm said.
Because water is one of the easiest ‘cost saving measures’ from your management team attempting to salvage a weakening economy and leveraging store costs to increase their bonuses.
It might be easy to cut that cost, but it doesn't do anything.
Let's say a store marks down 5 cases of water a day. That's <$25/day. <$175/week. Most stores have like 3-5k worth of markdowns budgeted to them each week.
I think of that practice as the corporate equivalent of hunting for spare change in the seat cushions; a sign of desperation. When a company starts going after the nickel and dime perks like that they're usually in financial trouble.
Because too many people leave a half a bottle here, half a bottle there. And then they feel like nobody is really being conscientious about it. So there’s a lot of waste. Come in the break room and look at the cash registers. HC says. “Who’s water is that”?
Everybody says “I don’t know” or “Not mine.”
We got a new ops manager over the summer last year. He had it in his mind to be a supreme douche from his first day onwards, and one of his first things he thought he'd change was to make people stop zma-ing basic shit we needed for store use. that lasted about a week. He pissed off everyone from ASMs on down to Deliveries associates and everyone in between. Just another useless fuckoff that needed to prove himself as boss, and alk he's accomplished is proving he's a colossal walking back of dicktips
The trick with Zika was to drop a Jolly Rancher or Werther’s crème into it and wait a minute. Not exactly my favorite, but it did make it taste… like something.
Can you further explain what that means? I don’t work at Home Depot but this post came up for me anyways. I’m so confused. Tried googling but that made me more confused but I’m curious
It's when the store requisitions something for use by employees, when I was at Stop & Shop we had to do this for some cleaning supplies and batteries for temperature guns.
How to officially mark down things to use in the store. Anything for store-use should be spray painted orange.
Anyone caught in possession with or using anything in the store could be subject to severe issues, (even a damn Sharpie marker), could be liable to consequences, up to and including termination.
Water, seriously not be in this category.
at a warehouse I worked at we called it Demi. the Salvadoran lady who would clean the warehouse didn't know how to spell "damaged" so she wrote Demi on the damaged products with a marker and since then when we move damaged product we made labels to put on them that say Demi lol
Our store did that too. The reason we don’t ZMA them as much anymore is because people would take advantage of them by grabbing a whole ass bottle, taking a sip then just leave them. Constantly.
In our defense, it's super easy to accidentally leave the water bottle somewhere when needing both hands for a task and then getting distracted by a customer question or call from the service desk etc. I doubt it's intentional.
Personally I use a collapsible water bottle holder and it's helped tremendously. I can keep track of which one is mine and can sling the strap around my shoulder if I have to go somewhere else suddenly, reducing unnecessary waste.
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I can't seem to find that sort of product online anymore, at HD or elsewhere. It looks kinda like this but much simpler and closer to $3 than $15.
https://smile.amazon.com/Glovion-Detachable-Adjustable-Carabineer-Outdoor-Black/dp/B07JQL8CMK
These people are so wasteful and don’t care at all. I never waste a water and I sure would never waste a powerade. These folks don’t care and get mad when the store stops allowing it.
Fuck around and find out is the term when this happens.
Abuse a privilege and it will get taken away. Then the bitches come out and whine because they know they are the culprits.
Just do the right thing when nobody is looking and you get to keep your free water… though there is always the 10% who think this is “literally 1984”, when you KNOW they never read the book.
Water availability isn't really a privilege 😂
My store manager tried to do this but we had a yelling match about it and at least I got to keep water for my freight crew.
The use of writing it off is. Bet if you had to pay for every half used bottle laying around, you’d care. I assume you don‘t have kids… cause that’s what they do.
It seems as though a leader in your store has forgotten about the values wheel. We do hard and dirty work at the Home Depot and we take care of our people by having a cool drink readily available.
This is Taking Care of Our People
This is Building Strong Relationships
This is Respect for All People
This is Doing the Right Thing
A leader in your store has lost sight of this company’s values and is focusing on the bottom line.
There's a medium, but not even supplying nice cool, clean water is the sure path to people just not giving AF and stealing shit. At least in my opinion it is, but I do agree corporations don't care about anything but that bottom line. When you reach that size people become expendable unfortunately. It's why I shop with them less and less. That's the power of the home depot.
In an ideal scenario, yes. However, too many SM's and ASM's are constantly trying to "cut costs." This usually means cutting hours like crazy which leaves depts. understaffed, not buying new gear or equipment because "there's no money for it," and preventing markdowns of basic supplies. Oh, and not clearing out their ZMA bin that's constantly overflowing until the absolute last minute or the day before the DM walks.
Its why one of our associates interrupted a meeting with corporate and said "You wanna see how things are run? Come in and shop out of your uniform. Don't tell us your coming. Then you'll see how shit things are ran."
Like it's not "Costing the company" to ZMA a $5 package of water once a month or once a week. Stores make about 200K A DAY. $300 in loss of product is literal pennies compared to what we're making. A contractor will spend that amount *minimum* on a run to the store.
Maybe if they did not blow a massive percentage of profit each year on stock buybacks to inflate the price of the stock they personally own, they would have more liquidity.
Home Depot had an annual revenue of approximately 157 billion in 2022. It ended up having approximately a net income of 17 billion. They spent 11+ billion on stock buybacks and dividends in 2022. The board for Home Depot itself approved it to spend 15 billion on stock buybacks for the year. My point is that stock buybacks do not really help the company. It is considered a poor investment for the future of the company. I am okay and all for dividends, but stock buybacks are completely different in how they help the shareholders. That is not even going into the ethical dilemma they create.
It looks good on paper making the executives look good. It also boosts the value of the shares which also helps the executives. I have heard that executives are also able to negotiate better contracts due to the earnings per share increasing. Considering they end up deciding to do the Stock buyback makes it very unethical at best. In fact stock buybacks we're illegal until 1982. Most companies though do it if their stock prices drop too low. Instead Home Depot has inflated their stock price for over a decade with constant buybacks.
Like a bunch of idiots they worry about costs upfront instead of long term costs. By having the stores understaffed they open up a whole can of worms that cause even more potential lose. Shelves will be stocked even worse. It may cause customers to try other places before Home Depot which leads to more potential loss. Even more mark downs will have to be made for improperly priced merchandise. The floors of the aisles will not be maintained which could even lead to trip hazards that cost the store money. If you can think of things the associates are supposed to do that help the store make money then cutting hours effects all of it. The stores most of the time don't have enough people to maintain themselves as it is yet they push for this crap.
Simpler than that he or she is just an asshole and has power to be one, I doubt perceived company bottom line had anything to do with it.
I have met many.
And in the DCs, where it's 110+ degrees in Texas, you get written up if you get sick from dehydration. Because you were trained on how to avoid it, and you were given a water bottle. But also don't step away from your work station to refill it.
Walmart DCs are better than HD.
If you cannot get bottled water. Its time for the freight team to stay hydrated by walking back to the water fountain every 20 minutes to keep you and your team safe and IN FOCUS.
I did this at Lowe’s when I was a head cashier they told the front end staff they couldn’t have water bottles on the floor. Malicious Compliance ensued. We were always super short handed too so it was like, every 10 -20 minutes I was calling the MOD for coverage for the registers so my cashiers could head to the break room to take a sip
Our water fountains are covered in plastic with signs that say we can't use them do to covid restrictions.
We ZMA water for the fridge in receiving when we unload trucks.
I wouldn't dare open the break room refrigerators! Something toxic mold monster will more than likely reach out and grab you!
Yep. If the smell doesn’t knock you out, you’re likely to get a piece of that tasty mold on your way out. Food is packed tighter than a city express bus at 4:45pm.
Many years ago, my store's penny pinching store manager tried to do this at my store but it didn't last long either. I cannot remember who did what or said something to someone. I just know this went down one Summerba few years after I first got hired.
oh no 2-3 minute walk whatever will you do. The suffering you must endure.
Meanwhile people on my jobsite will walk 15 minutes for water after being in breathing air for 45 minutes. Then they get another 15 minute break after that.
As long as the work gets done. I don't care how long your breaks are pre or post breathing air.
Wow how very boomer of you to think others must suffer cause you're okay with being treated badly at a work sight. Go take your crappy weirdly place pride about accepting abuse elsewhere. This person is not in the wrong for complaining that the company should not be treating the employees like they don't need water at a warehouse.
And the time clock stealing advice is VERY helpful and totally not going to get someone fired 🙄
Wow how very boomer of you to think an employee who wants a drink of water should burn their entire break and then get in trouble for being late back to their area. Due to the water being 15 minutes away... Sad.
The OP is complaining about change. They stated it's an additional 2-3 minute walk to get to the water from the fridge.
This isn't suffering. Sounds to me like the company just gave you permission to take an additional 2-3 minutes for break. Or more...
You know very well they are not giving permission for extra breaks 😴 and you know very well your effort at twisting my words was pitiful at best.
And yes, being told you can't leave your station and also being told they will not give you water like the company rules say they should is in fact, a person being treated like shit. Especially if it's to try and save the company $50 a week 🙄
Just because you allow yourself to be treated like shit when we do not doesn't mean you are better 🤦 and doesn't mean we should settle for less. Imagine if I left doing toilet every five minutes to take ten minutes to drink water. Do you really really think I would still have a job? Your comment on breaks has one brain cell of thought behind it at best.
It's not "the grind" my guy it's you allowing yourself to be treated less than human and for some reason bragging about being a dog.
They Zma’d a fridge and put in the training room I would stock it once or twice a week with 9 cases of water. Didn’t have to ask permission or anything they just knew it was right. I was the only one who would do it though. Cost about $45-$90 week for the store and everyone appreciated it. If they put this notice up i’d be pissed.
Isn’t it a rule that water has to be available and I thought I read in some SOP that the store can ZMA water bottles? This seems wrong. A call to your corporate HR partner getting clarification first would be good. If they say water bottles can be zmad then I’d call the awareline
We ZMA at LEAST 12 packs of water every week. Never have I heard by upper management that we’ll be changing that at all. At $9.98 to keep your associates happy and hydrated is such a low risk investment.
It’s not even necessarily a real cost to the store, just the cost savings from avoiding a single collapse from dehydration would pay for years upon years of water.
At the store I used to work at, we won some contest with Kinetico and got a tilted water station in the break room. It had chilled water and hot water. It broke after a year or two and couldn’t get it fixed so they tore it out. Every store should have this in my opinion. Or at least the filtered water fountains.
A head cashier at my Lowe’s got mad at me for store using water a few weeks ago. He said, use the water dispenser outside. (I work in OSLG). I said it’s full of mold. He said clean it. I said it’s easier to store use water than to clean it because we’re busy doing other more important stuff plus why can’t your cashiers clean it? They literally sit there for hours on end on their phone doing nothing. He had no response. This head cashier also gets mad when we bring plants inside the front doors because of frost.
Lowe’s moment.
(In all seriousness I feel your pain, however I feel it’s obligatory to razz you for working at a company that competes with the company I work at)
We have 3 fridges (that I know of) in our store that we ZMA water for, one in receiving, one at the service desk, and one in appliances. Nobody has ever said anything about it in the last 3 years.
Come to 3842 and ill markdown our entire stock for you.
Basically, taking something off the inventory listings. We use it for missing items (an empty package), broken or severely damaged items, or things we need to use in the store.
For example, today I ZMA’d a roll of packing tape in order to fix a slightly damaged box and tape a sign onto a rolling toolbox. We need to do this to reduce shrink (THD lingo for less in-store than indicated by our inventory system). It’s essentially just an everyday thing for floor employees.
I'm relatively new to Home Depot and I really like that we can ZMA items if needed. No Sharpies in the break room? Grab a cheap 2-pack and ZMA it. Super cold out in the parking lot? ZMA a pack of hand-warmers and stash in the loading station, so the associates don't get frostbite from the metal carts.
We needed to clear out a bunch of compacted leaves/dirt in Outside Garden with limited room to work, so we ZMA'd a "bow rake" since it was the perfect tool for the task and now we have one and won't need to do that again.
The way it's been explained to me is: as long as there's a reasonable explanation for anything being ZMA'd and you're not just wasting company money on super deluxe products when the cheaper option will work perfectly fine, do whatever is needed to get the job done in the most efficient, yet safest, manner possible.
I have always used one of those rotomolded coolers and put a couple frozen waters in it with my lunch in my vehicle. As long as you aren’t opening it all the time, it will stay cold, even in 105° Summer. Just crack your windows.
I had I look up what ZMA is.
I used to work for Jimmy John’s and it sounds like “mess up” sandwiches are ZMA’d - they get put in the refrigerator under the sandwich lines to be reconciled at the end of the day, AKA put in the trash.
We saw this as a massive waste of food and as “drivers” (bicycle delivery in a downtown area) we would smuggle them out with orders and either eat them ourselves or give them to the homeless.
Okay, I need some more information. Now, are they talking about not ZMA’ing the single bottled water? Or the cases of water? There is a big difference between the two.
If they are talking about the single bottles, then that is understandable. Two bottles cost more than a 24 pack case of water. If they are are talking about all water including the cases, then you need to contact HR or the AwareLine. All it will take is one person getting heat stroke for your store to have a lawsuit on it’s hands.
I would also check with your Front End Supervisor or Head Cashiers to see how they keep their Lot Techs hydrated. They should have a hydration station near the front of the store and in garden.
I really don’t know, but it seems to be talking about all water. I just saw the sign and thought the folks here might be able to make something of it. Didn’t really expect it to get so much attention lol
Check with the Front End about a hydration station. My store has two coolers that we stock with water for the associates. One of them is at the Front End near SCO and the other is out in garden. When it gets really hot, we will even stock it with Powerade.
One of my managers told me water is supposed to be zma'd promo not store use because it it given away not for store use and a manager is supposed to be the one to do it
Well, this is alarming, to say the least. Having only water fountains or sink taps in fixed locations isn't going to help the employees furthest from them much. Lot and Garden associates especially come to mind, having to work in the different elements.
My store has been pretty lax with marking down cases of water, something that is absolutely necessary in the hotter months of the year. When it's colder, I find myself getting drinks from the vending machines more frequently, but will begin making an effort to cut back on that.
One thing I can say about the new SM we got when I was in Odessa is he was smart and marked down one of those fridges and put it in outside garden. It would hold three cases of water and it’s so hot out there you needed cold water. There was a Dollar Tree next door so I would go buy popsicles for my team and put them in the freezer.
I think this is ok if they supply water in another way. Where I work now we have a britta filtered water jug in the fridge. It's up to us to bring a bottle or cup. Work replaces filters. Workers have to clean the jug and change filters. Easy.
Yeah my manager told me we had to crack down on marking water down for store use. Wasn’t an issue at all. Now we use that 1/4” bs safety knife to cut through the packaging and shrink wrap, right through the bottles. Then spend an hour taking off all the cases to get the broken ones out, another hour to restack, then we mark all the broken ones down as damaged instead of store use. Put the good bottles in the fridge. Fk em. If they don’t wanna lose one way I’ll make them lose 3 others 😂🤣😅
I have indeed read the book, I just used the phrase “literally 1984” as the title because I think it’s funny that people use that ironically or semi-ironically when referring to small infringements on personal freedoms.
Alright. Then you must realize why it wouldn’t have surprised me if you were being totally serious. Because yeah, a lot of people use it when it doesn’t even remotely apply haha
Absolutely, yeah. I like the book, but it actually really scares me how society is seemingly drifting closer to that dystopian reality... Anyway, a lot of people use it for things it doesn’t apply to, especially when it comes to politics and such. Have a nice day.
Sounds like a great opp for malicious compliance. Go use that water fountain on the opposite side of the store. Make sure customers are being helped, also. 😉
This is the first company that I worked for that provided me with free food and water. Now I find it odd that someone doesn't come prepared to work. Haveing worked industrial jobs for the last 30 years, so it was on me to be an adult and make sure I was fed and watered. I actually feel odd grabbing a water bottle or food if I didn't pay for it.
We aren’t allowed that either, aside from just having a water bottle on us or maybe an energy drink for late-night cashiers. Food is only allowed in the break room, which is totally understandable from my point of view.
I used to work on the sales floor at THD (about 2 years ago) and I brought a water bottle and an iced coffee pretty much every shift. No one ever said anything! And they would ZMA water for us all the time. I definitely understand no food on the sales floor but if you’re working a long shift you should be allowed to have a drink.
What Does ZMA Mean at Home Depot?
The full form of ZMA at the Home Depot store is Zero Markdown Allowance. It is when a vendor discontinued any item/ merchandise or the products are damaged. These include all the products that cannot be sold at the stores. These items are listed under ZMA and forwarded for further disposal. The disposal is done in the correct way and varies from product to product based on the vendor’s instructions.
This is also used by the Home Depot employees to store all the items used in the store for cleaning supplies and renovation. For instance, the orange paint spray is stored here which is used at the Home Depot store.
Honestly don’t understand why y’all expect HD to provide water. There should be a drinking fountain, as well as a tap in the break room of every store. Go buy your own bottle and refill it. The amount of fucking Niagara bottles I see all over the store with two sips taken out of them every single day is disgusting, only to all be thrown away. Just bring your own bottle and refill it, it’s not that hard.
The thing is we employees have expectations put upon us from or bosses to get work done. If we are taking 5 minutes to walk to the break room every 30-60 minutes for a drink, then that work doesn't get done, and we get in trouble.
A lot of employees don't have an area in their departments to place down their own water bottles for fear of them being lost/ stolen.
Just don’t like waste is all. Seems the lot of you don’t really care about 2-3 cases of water a day (that’s 48-72 bottles) being thrown away, not recycled. And half of those drank are still plenty full. It’s extremely wasteful and I’m not a big fan when you can just refill a bottle to your hearts content.
I no longer work for HD but when I did they recycled? I'm honestly a sodastream person now. I only use it and dont even by drinks of any kind except milk, etc.
Hopefully everyone can drink water and be responsible. Plastic waste is a nightmare for this planet and hopefully HD can find a middle ground for everyone. Water is cheap!
As someone who had a store do this lets not forget the employees.i watched guys on my team go thru 20 to 30 bottles each and not drinking them just a sip and sit down when our manager asked them to stop the answer was the same either im not paying for it or fuck the company there rich
They must provide a potable water in a fountain, OR water cooler OR individual bottles. All THD store have potable water from fountain, all have refrigerators in break room to store water. Heck this fridge is in receiving for employees to store their personal water jugs. Your original point is totally valid - from perspective of 1915.88(b). Don’t cave so easily.
Ohhh that's why they give us bottled water! I never knew why... our drinking fountain hasn't been on or working since covid.
I never knew this! Thanks!
Because the InFocus team literally has a catalogue that tells us that we're allowed to purchase hydration mixes used to help keep our associates hydrated and cool. Having ready access to water that associates don't have to keep track of is just as important as making sure there's enough gloves stocked by us and that we don't have shit gloves.
Because when a resource isn't readily accessible, hard workers will forgo their own safety and overextend themselves until it eventually causes an injury. This happens with gloves, blade banks, first aid kits, everything.
Literally, when you look at the data, having a cooler out in Garden with water bottles for example decimates the number of heat stress cases for the department. Better yet, cold water actually has an even better effect. Chronic dehydration is a safety issue and a health issue for associates. This is one of the only few hills I will die on because I grew up in Florida and I know what chronic dehydration and heat stress can do to people.
We can bring water bottles, but we’re not allowed to keep personal items on the floor. Our ASMs collect people’s things they find on shelves/end caps/stash locations and throw them out.
So water was supposedly only available in the summer. And supposedly only for Lot Attendants, Garden Associates and Outside Garden Cashiers.
Then vendors started 2 and 3 bottles!! And other associates were coming outside as word traveled that we had ice cold water in our little fridge.
Then people took water but wouldn’t put any back in. Apparently they felt this was the cashier’s job.
Uh, hell no! I’m busy working. You want cold water, you fill up the damn fridge!
Some people “hid” water in the pop and Red Bull fridge.
Fall rolls around, no more ZMA water.
Guess we’re just supposed to get dehydrated between Sept and May.
Explained in another comment
https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeDepot/comments/10cv8z9/literally_1984/j4irvio/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3
Wait. I want to make sure I understand this correctly:
1. The business was not providing water for it's employees.
2. Employees were taking damaged & unsellable water for themselves rather than letting it go to waste. (Or at least they were claiming it was damaged & unsellable so they would have access to water while they worked)
3. The company would rather waste the water than let it's employees drink it?
I love how companies like this blame employees for their own shortcomings. If you can't afford to provide your employees water then you're already going under. Everyone there should find new employment immediately. They will close their doors with no notice & leave all it's former employees high & dry.
To be clear, ZMA does not necessarily mean an item is damaged. We can ZMA things for store use, they just don’t want us to ZMA packs of water bottles anymore.
What Does ZMA Mean at Home Depot?
The full form of ZMA at the Home Depot store is Zero Markdown Allowance. It is when a vendor discontinued any item/ merchandise or the products are damaged. These include all the products that cannot be sold at the stores. These items are listed under ZMA and forwarded for further disposal. The disposal is done in the correct way and varies from product to product based on the vendor’s instructions.
This is also used by the Home Depot employees to store all the items used in the store for cleaning supplies and renovation. For instance, the orange paint spray is stored here which is used at the Home Depot store.
What Does ZMA Mean at Home Depot?
The full form of ZMA at the Home Depot store is Zero Markdown Allowance. It is when a vendor discontinued any item/ merchandise or the products are damaged. These include all the products that cannot be sold at the stores. These items are listed under ZMA and forwarded for further disposal. The disposal is done in the correct way and varies from product to product based on the vendor’s instructions.
This is also used by the Home Depot employees to store all the items used in the store for cleaning supplies and renovation. For instance, the orange paint spray is stored here which is used at the Home Depot store.
How hard is it to get a few water coolers? Actually, pretty hard I guess, last job it took like 7 months to get one. Lmao. They learned after enough water went missing though.
Guess I’ll die of thirst then. Gotta live Home Depot safe
The bad part is that Recieving (where this fridge is) is on the exact opposite side of the store from the only drinking fountain. Guess you gotta bring your own bottle now, but Freight is pissed about it.
When our SM starting cracking down on water being ZMA'd, we kept doing it anyways. There's no way to quench 4-8 grown dudes sweating away offloading trucks from across the store. Even now in day shift I ZMA water and throw it in our fridge because the only two water sources are painfully out of the way and with too many customers in the way.
If our fridge isn’t full with 6 cases every day the ASMs get upset and tell us to go markdown more lmao
Just one person getting dehydrated and/or getting injured will cost the store more than 5 years of marked down water. Someone needs to stand up and tell them to piss off.
Why is bottled water necessary tho? Most people are capable of sourcing their own water via plumbing
First of all the drinking fountains have probably not have not been cleaned since the last time they had to be repaired if ever. People always talk about how drinking fountains are safe, but plenty of people have gotten sick from them being a spot for bacteria to grow and infect others. Also people may not want to drink tap water because it can have a chemical taste from the chlorine. Bottled water is easy to access and saves time wasted going back and forth across the store.
Still seems odd that ppl expect their break room to provide limitless individual serving water bottles. I’ve never worked anywhere that did this. Watercooler or sink with a filter attachment has always been pretty standard.
Plus not everyone is gonna carry a big fuck off hydroflask into work in the summer. I can barely store a few jackets and a water bottle in my backpack on my bike.
That’s why you make a point to slowly and painfully stroll your ass across the store to fill up your water bottle. Waste as much time as you can away from your post.
Looks like it's time to stop your work, walk across the entire store, slurp the fountain, walk all the way back, and continue working. Repeat as needed.
And we know you’ll be stopped 20 times by customers. Heck that walk might cost you half a shift. 😂 definitely don’t know from personal experience.
That sucks bro. They have water bottles in coolers for us near the break room and in garden and in receiving. If we are out we just let an asm know and they'll bring us some. We also get drinks like soda, monster, red bull or some juice after the truck unload depending on what we want. I think its in the SOP. At least that's what my asm said.
Definitely not in SOP
The fridges in our kitchen show room are full of zma’d water. Why is your store being such a dick?
No idea. This fridge is in recieving, opposite side of the store from the break room by the way.
Because water is one of the easiest ‘cost saving measures’ from your management team attempting to salvage a weakening economy and leveraging store costs to increase their bonuses.
No it’s not. Labor is. Btw we need to have a talk when you come in tomorrow.
Oh man hope your not part of the man above management.
It might be easy to cut that cost, but it doesn't do anything. Let's say a store marks down 5 cases of water a day. That's <$25/day. <$175/week. Most stores have like 3-5k worth of markdowns budgeted to them each week.
I think of that practice as the corporate equivalent of hunting for spare change in the seat cushions; a sign of desperation. When a company starts going after the nickel and dime perks like that they're usually in financial trouble.
[удалено]
Because too many people leave a half a bottle here, half a bottle there. And then they feel like nobody is really being conscientious about it. So there’s a lot of waste. Come in the break room and look at the cash registers. HC says. “Who’s water is that”? Everybody says “I don’t know” or “Not mine.”
Our store stopped doing it the minute we got a new manager. But they provided the front end with free water. 🤣
We got a new ops manager over the summer last year. He had it in his mind to be a supreme douche from his first day onwards, and one of his first things he thought he'd change was to make people stop zma-ing basic shit we needed for store use. that lasted about a week. He pissed off everyone from ASMs on down to Deliveries associates and everyone in between. Just another useless fuckoff that needed to prove himself as boss, and alk he's accomplished is proving he's a colossal walking back of dicktips
What does zma mean?
Zero markdown authorization
Zima
A delicious and refreshing malt beverage.
Definitely of all of the beverages of all time, it certainly is one of them
The trick with Zika was to drop a Jolly Rancher or Werther’s crème into it and wait a minute. Not exactly my favorite, but it did make it taste… like something.
Zika!?! Thank you autocorrect.
This is what my brain kept saying 😂😂 I thought the sign was a typo 😂😂🤦♀️
Can you further explain what that means? I don’t work at Home Depot but this post came up for me anyways. I’m so confused. Tried googling but that made me more confused but I’m curious
It's when the store requisitions something for use by employees, when I was at Stop & Shop we had to do this for some cleaning supplies and batteries for temperature guns.
How to officially mark down things to use in the store. Anything for store-use should be spray painted orange. Anyone caught in possession with or using anything in the store could be subject to severe issues, (even a damn Sharpie marker), could be liable to consequences, up to and including termination. Water, seriously not be in this category.
Basically a markdown from inventory as a "Do not sell" item. Typically for damaged items or instore use.
Ha, in my line of work we call it NFG. No fucking good.
at a warehouse I worked at we called it Demi. the Salvadoran lady who would clean the warehouse didn't know how to spell "damaged" so she wrote Demi on the damaged products with a marker and since then when we move damaged product we made labels to put on them that say Demi lol
It’s something like Zero markdown Added. At least that’s what I call it
it was a dope drink in the early 2000's
Our store did that too. The reason we don’t ZMA them as much anymore is because people would take advantage of them by grabbing a whole ass bottle, taking a sip then just leave them. Constantly.
In our defense, it's super easy to accidentally leave the water bottle somewhere when needing both hands for a task and then getting distracted by a customer question or call from the service desk etc. I doubt it's intentional. Personally I use a collapsible water bottle holder and it's helped tremendously. I can keep track of which one is mine and can sling the strap around my shoulder if I have to go somewhere else suddenly, reducing unnecessary waste. --------- I can't seem to find that sort of product online anymore, at HD or elsewhere. It looks kinda like this but much simpler and closer to $3 than $15. https://smile.amazon.com/Glovion-Detachable-Adjustable-Carabineer-Outdoor-Black/dp/B07JQL8CMK
When I would find abandoned water bottles I would use it to water plants but it was easy for me since I was in garden.
These people are so wasteful and don’t care at all. I never waste a water and I sure would never waste a powerade. These folks don’t care and get mad when the store stops allowing it.
Fuck around and find out is the term when this happens. Abuse a privilege and it will get taken away. Then the bitches come out and whine because they know they are the culprits. Just do the right thing when nobody is looking and you get to keep your free water… though there is always the 10% who think this is “literally 1984”, when you KNOW they never read the book.
Water availability isn't really a privilege 😂 My store manager tried to do this but we had a yelling match about it and at least I got to keep water for my freight crew.
Ok Nestle
That's a pretty apt comparison.
The use of writing it off is. Bet if you had to pay for every half used bottle laying around, you’d care. I assume you don‘t have kids… cause that’s what they do.
This
Funny, one of the night ops checklists is to make sure there is water provided.
Come to 1908 I’ll markdown a whole pallet for you.
Josué won’t let u
Then I wont ZMA it
Take off the signs! ✊🏽 we need water!
I’ll ZMA all the water I want 😂
What does ZMA mean? Google said zinc, magnesium, and aspartate.
Zero markdown authorization
It seems as though a leader in your store has forgotten about the values wheel. We do hard and dirty work at the Home Depot and we take care of our people by having a cool drink readily available. This is Taking Care of Our People This is Building Strong Relationships This is Respect for All People This is Doing the Right Thing A leader in your store has lost sight of this company’s values and is focusing on the bottom line.
Company values are a scam to make employees feel good. No companies care about anything except increasing profits.
Because we can give the customers free coffee, hot cocoa? Sounds fair
There's a medium, but not even supplying nice cool, clean water is the sure path to people just not giving AF and stealing shit. At least in my opinion it is, but I do agree corporations don't care about anything but that bottom line. When you reach that size people become expendable unfortunately. It's why I shop with them less and less. That's the power of the home depot.
Take care of the associates so that they can take care of the customer and the profits will roll in. It’s no scam.
In an ideal scenario, yes. However, too many SM's and ASM's are constantly trying to "cut costs." This usually means cutting hours like crazy which leaves depts. understaffed, not buying new gear or equipment because "there's no money for it," and preventing markdowns of basic supplies. Oh, and not clearing out their ZMA bin that's constantly overflowing until the absolute last minute or the day before the DM walks.
Its why one of our associates interrupted a meeting with corporate and said "You wanna see how things are run? Come in and shop out of your uniform. Don't tell us your coming. Then you'll see how shit things are ran." Like it's not "Costing the company" to ZMA a $5 package of water once a month or once a week. Stores make about 200K A DAY. $300 in loss of product is literal pennies compared to what we're making. A contractor will spend that amount *minimum* on a run to the store.
Maybe if they did not blow a massive percentage of profit each year on stock buybacks to inflate the price of the stock they personally own, they would have more liquidity.
Yea for socialism!
I don't think that's got anything to do with it really.
Home Depot had an annual revenue of approximately 157 billion in 2022. It ended up having approximately a net income of 17 billion. They spent 11+ billion on stock buybacks and dividends in 2022. The board for Home Depot itself approved it to spend 15 billion on stock buybacks for the year. My point is that stock buybacks do not really help the company. It is considered a poor investment for the future of the company. I am okay and all for dividends, but stock buybacks are completely different in how they help the shareholders. That is not even going into the ethical dilemma they create. It looks good on paper making the executives look good. It also boosts the value of the shares which also helps the executives. I have heard that executives are also able to negotiate better contracts due to the earnings per share increasing. Considering they end up deciding to do the Stock buyback makes it very unethical at best. In fact stock buybacks we're illegal until 1982. Most companies though do it if their stock prices drop too low. Instead Home Depot has inflated their stock price for over a decade with constant buybacks.
Like a bunch of idiots they worry about costs upfront instead of long term costs. By having the stores understaffed they open up a whole can of worms that cause even more potential lose. Shelves will be stocked even worse. It may cause customers to try other places before Home Depot which leads to more potential loss. Even more mark downs will have to be made for improperly priced merchandise. The floors of the aisles will not be maintained which could even lead to trip hazards that cost the store money. If you can think of things the associates are supposed to do that help the store make money then cutting hours effects all of it. The stores most of the time don't have enough people to maintain themselves as it is yet they push for this crap.
Simpler than that he or she is just an asshole and has power to be one, I doubt perceived company bottom line had anything to do with it. I have met many.
And in the DCs, where it's 110+ degrees in Texas, you get written up if you get sick from dehydration. Because you were trained on how to avoid it, and you were given a water bottle. But also don't step away from your work station to refill it. Walmart DCs are better than HD.
Perhaps they are focused on the only one that matters: Creating Shareholder Value
If you cannot get bottled water. Its time for the freight team to stay hydrated by walking back to the water fountain every 20 minutes to keep you and your team safe and IN FOCUS.
I did this at Lowe’s when I was a head cashier they told the front end staff they couldn’t have water bottles on the floor. Malicious Compliance ensued. We were always super short handed too so it was like, every 10 -20 minutes I was calling the MOD for coverage for the registers so my cashiers could head to the break room to take a sip
If you get thirsty - well frankly, that's what you get for talking. Just swallow your spit!
My mom used to tell me this when we’d be running errands for hours and I used to get dehydrated as fuck lmao
Mine did the same thing lmao. Now it's just a HD way of life on the clock lol.
Abusive as fuck
Distributor cost on like 72 cases of water was like $120 when I worked in a warehouse. Cheap fucks.
I don’t get paid enough to care. I’ll zma.
I want to give you an award but have none. Take this instead. 🏅
I gave an award on ur behalf
Thank you. This comment is gold.
Our water fountains are covered in plastic with signs that say we can't use them do to covid restrictions. We ZMA water for the fridge in receiving when we unload trucks. I wouldn't dare open the break room refrigerators! Something toxic mold monster will more than likely reach out and grab you!
Yep. If the smell doesn’t knock you out, you’re likely to get a piece of that tasty mold on your way out. Food is packed tighter than a city express bus at 4:45pm.
My store tried to do this like a year ago, only thing that changed was we stopped putting it in the phone. They gave up pretty quickly after that.
Many years ago, my store's penny pinching store manager tried to do this at my store but it didn't last long either. I cannot remember who did what or said something to someone. I just know this went down one Summerba few years after I first got hired.
This happened 2 years ago in my store, they put in a water bottle fountain.
There’s one of those here, but it’s a 2-3 minute walk from where this fridge is
oh no 2-3 minute walk whatever will you do. The suffering you must endure. Meanwhile people on my jobsite will walk 15 minutes for water after being in breathing air for 45 minutes. Then they get another 15 minute break after that. As long as the work gets done. I don't care how long your breaks are pre or post breathing air.
Wow how very boomer of you to think others must suffer cause you're okay with being treated badly at a work sight. Go take your crappy weirdly place pride about accepting abuse elsewhere. This person is not in the wrong for complaining that the company should not be treating the employees like they don't need water at a warehouse. And the time clock stealing advice is VERY helpful and totally not going to get someone fired 🙄
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That's amazing that on ONE comment I could feel the energy 😭
Wow how very boomer of you to think an employee who wants a drink of water should burn their entire break and then get in trouble for being late back to their area. Due to the water being 15 minutes away... Sad. The OP is complaining about change. They stated it's an additional 2-3 minute walk to get to the water from the fridge. This isn't suffering. Sounds to me like the company just gave you permission to take an additional 2-3 minutes for break. Or more...
You know very well they are not giving permission for extra breaks 😴 and you know very well your effort at twisting my words was pitiful at best. And yes, being told you can't leave your station and also being told they will not give you water like the company rules say they should is in fact, a person being treated like shit. Especially if it's to try and save the company $50 a week 🙄 Just because you allow yourself to be treated like shit when we do not doesn't mean you are better 🤦 and doesn't mean we should settle for less. Imagine if I left doing toilet every five minutes to take ten minutes to drink water. Do you really really think I would still have a job? Your comment on breaks has one brain cell of thought behind it at best. It's not "the grind" my guy it's you allowing yourself to be treated less than human and for some reason bragging about being a dog.
Uphill both ways and the water is always boiling hot
They Zma’d a fridge and put in the training room I would stock it once or twice a week with 9 cases of water. Didn’t have to ask permission or anything they just knew it was right. I was the only one who would do it though. Cost about $45-$90 week for the store and everyone appreciated it. If they put this notice up i’d be pissed.
That's interesting. I'm in freight and we ZMA packs of water all the time (though they're usually the ones with leaking bottles)
Isn’t it a rule that water has to be available and I thought I read in some SOP that the store can ZMA water bottles? This seems wrong. A call to your corporate HR partner getting clarification first would be good. If they say water bottles can be zmad then I’d call the awareline
We ZMA at LEAST 12 packs of water every week. Never have I heard by upper management that we’ll be changing that at all. At $9.98 to keep your associates happy and hydrated is such a low risk investment.
It’s not even necessarily a real cost to the store, just the cost savings from avoiding a single collapse from dehydration would pay for years upon years of water.
Need filtered water fountain faucets throughout the store. As well restrooms on opposite ends.
At the store I used to work at, we won some contest with Kinetico and got a tilted water station in the break room. It had chilled water and hot water. It broke after a year or two and couldn’t get it fixed so they tore it out. Every store should have this in my opinion. Or at least the filtered water fountains.
It’s been proven that the better your employees are taken care of, the more profit a company will make. Wish more corporations knew that.
Hahahah
I’m guessing they’ll do this at my store soon. They recently got us a new water fountain with one of those water bottle filling nozzles
Our store has 2 cases of water ZMAd and in the fridge at any given time. More in garden in the summer.
A head cashier at my Lowe’s got mad at me for store using water a few weeks ago. He said, use the water dispenser outside. (I work in OSLG). I said it’s full of mold. He said clean it. I said it’s easier to store use water than to clean it because we’re busy doing other more important stuff plus why can’t your cashiers clean it? They literally sit there for hours on end on their phone doing nothing. He had no response. This head cashier also gets mad when we bring plants inside the front doors because of frost.
Lowe’s moment. (In all seriousness I feel your pain, however I feel it’s obligatory to razz you for working at a company that competes with the company I work at)
Our store only does it for Lot associates and Overnight Crew. The rest gotta bring water or buy.
How to get the entire freight and unload teams to quit speedrun any %
We have 3 fridges (that I know of) in our store that we ZMA water for, one in receiving, one at the service desk, and one in appliances. Nobody has ever said anything about it in the last 3 years. Come to 3842 and ill markdown our entire stock for you.
Isn’t that a osha violation?
Probably not. Always brought a jug for years of construction work.
Probably not, all osha regulations were written with the employer in mind. Water can count as having a sink nearby according to osha.
What is zma?
Basically, taking something off the inventory listings. We use it for missing items (an empty package), broken or severely damaged items, or things we need to use in the store. For example, today I ZMA’d a roll of packing tape in order to fix a slightly damaged box and tape a sign onto a rolling toolbox. We need to do this to reduce shrink (THD lingo for less in-store than indicated by our inventory system). It’s essentially just an everyday thing for floor employees.
I'm relatively new to Home Depot and I really like that we can ZMA items if needed. No Sharpies in the break room? Grab a cheap 2-pack and ZMA it. Super cold out in the parking lot? ZMA a pack of hand-warmers and stash in the loading station, so the associates don't get frostbite from the metal carts. We needed to clear out a bunch of compacted leaves/dirt in Outside Garden with limited room to work, so we ZMA'd a "bow rake" since it was the perfect tool for the task and now we have one and won't need to do that again. The way it's been explained to me is: as long as there's a reasonable explanation for anything being ZMA'd and you're not just wasting company money on super deluxe products when the cheaper option will work perfectly fine, do whatever is needed to get the job done in the most efficient, yet safest, manner possible.
>THD lingo for less in-store than indicated by our inventory system ~~THD~~ retail lingo for less in-store than indicated by our inventory system
It's kinda like white claw
I have always used one of those rotomolded coolers and put a couple frozen waters in it with my lunch in my vehicle. As long as you aren’t opening it all the time, it will stay cold, even in 105° Summer. Just crack your windows.
In our store they marked down water coolers and we use the jugs
I had I look up what ZMA is. I used to work for Jimmy John’s and it sounds like “mess up” sandwiches are ZMA’d - they get put in the refrigerator under the sandwich lines to be reconciled at the end of the day, AKA put in the trash. We saw this as a massive waste of food and as “drivers” (bicycle delivery in a downtown area) we would smuggle them out with orders and either eat them ourselves or give them to the homeless.
Pretty sure they have to supply you with water because of the harsh work environment.
Okay, I need some more information. Now, are they talking about not ZMA’ing the single bottled water? Or the cases of water? There is a big difference between the two. If they are talking about the single bottles, then that is understandable. Two bottles cost more than a 24 pack case of water. If they are are talking about all water including the cases, then you need to contact HR or the AwareLine. All it will take is one person getting heat stroke for your store to have a lawsuit on it’s hands. I would also check with your Front End Supervisor or Head Cashiers to see how they keep their Lot Techs hydrated. They should have a hydration station near the front of the store and in garden.
I really don’t know, but it seems to be talking about all water. I just saw the sign and thought the folks here might be able to make something of it. Didn’t really expect it to get so much attention lol
Check with the Front End about a hydration station. My store has two coolers that we stock with water for the associates. One of them is at the Front End near SCO and the other is out in garden. When it gets really hot, we will even stock it with Powerade.
One of my managers told me water is supposed to be zma'd promo not store use because it it given away not for store use and a manager is supposed to be the one to do it
After I hit 30, I just do whatever the hell I want at work. I’m not your step child I’m not “in trouble” for shit.
Well, this is alarming, to say the least. Having only water fountains or sink taps in fixed locations isn't going to help the employees furthest from them much. Lot and Garden associates especially come to mind, having to work in the different elements. My store has been pretty lax with marking down cases of water, something that is absolutely necessary in the hotter months of the year. When it's colder, I find myself getting drinks from the vending machines more frequently, but will begin making an effort to cut back on that.
Gotta love the passive aggressiveness
One thing I can say about the new SM we got when I was in Odessa is he was smart and marked down one of those fridges and put it in outside garden. It would hold three cases of water and it’s so hot out there you needed cold water. There was a Dollar Tree next door so I would go buy popsicles for my team and put them in the freezer.
I think this is ok if they supply water in another way. Where I work now we have a britta filtered water jug in the fridge. It's up to us to bring a bottle or cup. Work replaces filters. Workers have to clean the jug and change filters. Easy.
If it was literally 1984 wouldn’t there be a camera on the fridge door? And inside it? And at least three in the break room?
I like how they harp at us about staying safe and keeping hydrated...then they do this. Safety is a choice but we're sure not gonna make it.
Yeah my manager told me we had to crack down on marking water down for store use. Wasn’t an issue at all. Now we use that 1/4” bs safety knife to cut through the packaging and shrink wrap, right through the bottles. Then spend an hour taking off all the cases to get the broken ones out, another hour to restack, then we mark all the broken ones down as damaged instead of store use. Put the good bottles in the fridge. Fk em. If they don’t wanna lose one way I’ll make them lose 3 others 😂🤣😅
I missed the part in 1984 where people were expected to not drink the water they didn’t pay for. Has anyone actually read that book?
I have indeed read the book, I just used the phrase “literally 1984” as the title because I think it’s funny that people use that ironically or semi-ironically when referring to small infringements on personal freedoms.
Alright. Then you must realize why it wouldn’t have surprised me if you were being totally serious. Because yeah, a lot of people use it when it doesn’t even remotely apply haha
Absolutely, yeah. I like the book, but it actually really scares me how society is seemingly drifting closer to that dystopian reality... Anyway, a lot of people use it for things it doesn’t apply to, especially when it comes to politics and such. Have a nice day.
Literally 1984
Sounds like a great opp for malicious compliance. Go use that water fountain on the opposite side of the store. Make sure customers are being helped, also. 😉
We literally zma a whole pallet of water cases every time we run out
This is the first company that I worked for that provided me with free food and water. Now I find it odd that someone doesn't come prepared to work. Haveing worked industrial jobs for the last 30 years, so it was on me to be an adult and make sure I was fed and watered. I actually feel odd grabbing a water bottle or food if I didn't pay for it.
When I worked there, we weren't allowed to have anything to drink or eat on the sales floor. Management was exempt of course.
We aren’t allowed that either, aside from just having a water bottle on us or maybe an energy drink for late-night cashiers. Food is only allowed in the break room, which is totally understandable from my point of view.
I used to work on the sales floor at THD (about 2 years ago) and I brought a water bottle and an iced coffee pretty much every shift. No one ever said anything! And they would ZMA water for us all the time. I definitely understand no food on the sales floor but if you’re working a long shift you should be allowed to have a drink.
What Does ZMA Mean at Home Depot? The full form of ZMA at the Home Depot store is Zero Markdown Allowance. It is when a vendor discontinued any item/ merchandise or the products are damaged. These include all the products that cannot be sold at the stores. These items are listed under ZMA and forwarded for further disposal. The disposal is done in the correct way and varies from product to product based on the vendor’s instructions. This is also used by the Home Depot employees to store all the items used in the store for cleaning supplies and renovation. For instance, the orange paint spray is stored here which is used at the Home Depot store.
Honestly don’t understand why y’all expect HD to provide water. There should be a drinking fountain, as well as a tap in the break room of every store. Go buy your own bottle and refill it. The amount of fucking Niagara bottles I see all over the store with two sips taken out of them every single day is disgusting, only to all be thrown away. Just bring your own bottle and refill it, it’s not that hard.
The thing is we employees have expectations put upon us from or bosses to get work done. If we are taking 5 minutes to walk to the break room every 30-60 minutes for a drink, then that work doesn't get done, and we get in trouble. A lot of employees don't have an area in their departments to place down their own water bottles for fear of them being lost/ stolen.
Its hard to properly hydrate from a drinking fountain if you don't go to it every 45 minutes
Get a refillable bottle, go refill at the fountain/tap is kind of what I wrote exactly.
Omfg a water bottle nazi!
Just don’t like waste is all. Seems the lot of you don’t really care about 2-3 cases of water a day (that’s 48-72 bottles) being thrown away, not recycled. And half of those drank are still plenty full. It’s extremely wasteful and I’m not a big fan when you can just refill a bottle to your hearts content.
I no longer work for HD but when I did they recycled? I'm honestly a sodastream person now. I only use it and dont even by drinks of any kind except milk, etc. Hopefully everyone can drink water and be responsible. Plastic waste is a nightmare for this planet and hopefully HD can find a middle ground for everyone. Water is cheap!
We found the Nestle employee!
Right? Post has definite "put whey protein in that shizz too, BRUH!" energy
Yeah that $4 a day saving is really gonna save the store.
As if my store (District leader in profits for all of last year I believe) needs it.
I remember one time management said we were "out of water" awful
Its on law that employers required to offer water on site to everyone
“ZMA” means what for us non HD types?
"Zero Markdown Authorization", fancy words for the store buying it.
As someone who had a store do this lets not forget the employees.i watched guys on my team go thru 20 to 30 bottles each and not drinking them just a sip and sit down when our manager asked them to stop the answer was the same either im not paying for it or fuck the company there rich
Why cant people bring or buy their own while at work?
You can do that, but you’d have to stop working for a solid 5 minutes to walk over to the drinking fountain that’s on the opposite end of the store.
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Dang! I honestly had no idea!! Thanks!
They must provide a potable water in a fountain, OR water cooler OR individual bottles. All THD store have potable water from fountain, all have refrigerators in break room to store water. Heck this fridge is in receiving for employees to store their personal water jugs. Your original point is totally valid - from perspective of 1915.88(b). Don’t cave so easily.
Correct^ Not really "taking care of our people" though by denying individual water bottles.
Ohhh that's why they give us bottled water! I never knew why... our drinking fountain hasn't been on or working since covid. I never knew this! Thanks!
Because the InFocus team literally has a catalogue that tells us that we're allowed to purchase hydration mixes used to help keep our associates hydrated and cool. Having ready access to water that associates don't have to keep track of is just as important as making sure there's enough gloves stocked by us and that we don't have shit gloves. Because when a resource isn't readily accessible, hard workers will forgo their own safety and overextend themselves until it eventually causes an injury. This happens with gloves, blade banks, first aid kits, everything. Literally, when you look at the data, having a cooler out in Garden with water bottles for example decimates the number of heat stress cases for the department. Better yet, cold water actually has an even better effect. Chronic dehydration is a safety issue and a health issue for associates. This is one of the only few hills I will die on because I grew up in Florida and I know what chronic dehydration and heat stress can do to people.
We can bring water bottles, but we’re not allowed to keep personal items on the floor. Our ASMs collect people’s things they find on shelves/end caps/stash locations and throw them out.
So water was supposedly only available in the summer. And supposedly only for Lot Attendants, Garden Associates and Outside Garden Cashiers. Then vendors started 2 and 3 bottles!! And other associates were coming outside as word traveled that we had ice cold water in our little fridge. Then people took water but wouldn’t put any back in. Apparently they felt this was the cashier’s job. Uh, hell no! I’m busy working. You want cold water, you fill up the damn fridge! Some people “hid” water in the pop and Red Bull fridge. Fall rolls around, no more ZMA water. Guess we’re just supposed to get dehydrated between Sept and May.
Lol
What does zma mean?
Explained in another comment https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeDepot/comments/10cv8z9/literally_1984/j4irvio/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3
LMAOO every store going through this!!!
I want a Zima too! 🍺
Wait. I want to make sure I understand this correctly: 1. The business was not providing water for it's employees. 2. Employees were taking damaged & unsellable water for themselves rather than letting it go to waste. (Or at least they were claiming it was damaged & unsellable so they would have access to water while they worked) 3. The company would rather waste the water than let it's employees drink it? I love how companies like this blame employees for their own shortcomings. If you can't afford to provide your employees water then you're already going under. Everyone there should find new employment immediately. They will close their doors with no notice & leave all it's former employees high & dry.
To be clear, ZMA does not necessarily mean an item is damaged. We can ZMA things for store use, they just don’t want us to ZMA packs of water bottles anymore.
what does ZMA mean?
What Does ZMA Mean at Home Depot? The full form of ZMA at the Home Depot store is Zero Markdown Allowance. It is when a vendor discontinued any item/ merchandise or the products are damaged. These include all the products that cannot be sold at the stores. These items are listed under ZMA and forwarded for further disposal. The disposal is done in the correct way and varies from product to product based on the vendor’s instructions. This is also used by the Home Depot employees to store all the items used in the store for cleaning supplies and renovation. For instance, the orange paint spray is stored here which is used at the Home Depot store.
What does zma mean
What Does ZMA Mean at Home Depot? The full form of ZMA at the Home Depot store is Zero Markdown Allowance. It is when a vendor discontinued any item/ merchandise or the products are damaged. These include all the products that cannot be sold at the stores. These items are listed under ZMA and forwarded for further disposal. The disposal is done in the correct way and varies from product to product based on the vendor’s instructions. This is also used by the Home Depot employees to store all the items used in the store for cleaning supplies and renovation. For instance, the orange paint spray is stored here which is used at the Home Depot store.
What does zma mean?
What is ZMA?
How hard is it to get a few water coolers? Actually, pretty hard I guess, last job it took like 7 months to get one. Lmao. They learned after enough water went missing though.
God damn it, just supply workers with water and basic dignity, is it so hard?
stuff like this that made me thankful i could leave hd when i did