Pros
Home Depot still offers such benefits as paid sick time, paid vacation, and health insurance. Opportunities to move up exist, though are limited. Pay for longtime associates is above industry standard. Schedules are somewhat flexible for students.
Cons
The last few years have seen steady declines in health benefit choices, schedule flexibility, starting pay, the size of annual wage increases, opportunities to move from part time to full time, and advancement opportunities, while job responsibilities and accountability for hourly employees continue to increase every year. Recent implementation of a new computer-based scheduling system has been used as an excuse to end flexibility in scheduling for full time associates in many stores, regardless of family obligations that have always been respected in the past. Planned implementation of a new "zone" system for associate placement instead of the current department system threatens to obliterate associate expertise in their assigned specialty and destroy customer confidence. Associates will be expected to know several departments instead of specializing in one or two, causing a "jack of all trades, master of none" effect. Associates will be spread too thin and will be unable to gain enough knowledge about any one department to effectively offer customers useful advice. I believe this will be a disastrous move for the company, will severely effect working conditions and morale among employees, and result in a rapid decline in customer satisfaction. As a customer-facing associate, I feel it is an ill-advised and potentially catastrophic move, and that this is not a good time to join this company if other options are available.
