Good things happen when Home Depot comes to town. At least, that’s what the company says. But here’s a story that came into Sprawl-Busters about a Home Depot associate who had little good to report: “My husband was employed by Home Depot. Due to an accident he was not able to work for a few weeks. He got his release to go back to work (with restrictions) and they had replaced him and told him they had no place for him to come back to “because you make too much.” Anyway, we hired an attorney and filed for unemployment. Unemployment contacted Home Depot, and they said he was on leave of absence. But they hired a very young, inexperienced female (who makes less). We supplied the Dept of labor and Unemployment with paperwork stating he was able to return to work fulltime as of July 4th. We got a nice letter from unemployment saying, “you are eligible for unemployment benefits” and the Dept of Labor will be “going in to Home Depot to investigate.” We told them about other people that were working with restraints. I know we are a long way off but I think it is great how we finally got someone to say Home Depot was “wrong” in replacing my husband at his position. So now he can collect unemployment until Home Depot gives him his job back. (He doesn’t necessarily want to work there its just the fact they were wrong, and we can’t lose our house, etc) He actually liked Home Depot until this. Feel free to pass this on if needed, maybe someone else is having Home Depot issues.”
Workers at big box stores are just a “cost center.” If one gets damaged, or costs too much, you get rid of him or her. It’s not personal, it’s just a business decision, like replacing a defective light bulb. Labor is necessary to sell product. If it could be done with robots that didn’t get sick, there would be no associates at places like Home Depot. For similar stories, search by Home Depot, or read “Home Towns, Not Home Depot.”