Drew Lawson wrote:


I used to work on the warehouse control system for a major US grocery
chain. One of the important aspects of several of the components
was collecting and deriving data used as "performance indicators"
-- stuff that decides how much the workers get paid. They'd track
anything they could think of that gave them an excuse to save a
buck.

Sure - that's what they do, but they have to stay within the confines of
fair labor practices - which admitedly has no real definition. Because
these things do end up in court and when they do the company almost always
loses, most HR departments will not condone practices that will ultimately
cost the company money. It is after all, their job to protect the company
from lawsuits, etc. and not to represent the employee. Performance
indicators would fall into the realm of acceptable, but punative practices
against an employee for the actions of a customer completely unrelated to a
customer encounter would be something completely different.


A major lawn-care company down the road will fire you if you smoke
at home. And they test you to see if you are lying.

Someone is pulling your leg. If they really are doing this, they will end
up in court and will lose. Who is the major lawn care company? They could
fire you for smoking if you attested to being a non-smoker on your company
insurance application and received favorable rates for being a non-smoker,
but that is a completely different matter. In that case you would not be
fired for smoking at home, but for lying on your application.



No, both are evaluating the employee based on what the customer
decides to do.


Incorrect Drew. The original assertion was that a Home Depot employee
reported that if a customer did not complete a survey, the employee was
subject to disciplinary action. That is completely different from anything
you've suggested.

For what it's worth, I did check and this is not a Home Depot policy. There
may be some local derivative of what was originally posted here, but what
was posted here is not HD policy.

--

-Mike-