What's the company culture at Dollar General?

Here is another warning,beware of store #04792 .......

BOB in Mount Vernon, Ohio said: WARNING TO ALL WHO SEEK JOBS AT DOLLAR GENERAL!!!
First what I am about to see about Dollar General is probably not true about every DG store. So you should try to find information on the particular store, you are applying at. I just gave my 2-week notice at the store I work at and it could not have come sooner. I work both the unloading days and on the Mondays I unload everything by myself, while being the only cashier. So on Mondays I am running all over the store and the boss gets made at me when I do not move fast enough while unloading. There are about a dozen other issues with the story, but like I said these issues are not true about every store

True that1 I dont know how my manager and ASM figures it all out...mostly by sacrificing alot themselves...I am fortunate to be in a good store..

I worked for Dollar General for a year and it was all good at first till we got a new manager. This manager does NOT deserve her job. I was a 3rd key over there and put up with the crap for so long because I needed a job. This manager is a liar and a cheater. I got accused several times of stealing and when I told her to investigate it she didnt want to she asked me to put money in the bathroom and she would go find it. she has had me lie to the DM for her. She sits outside almost her entire shift and talks on the phone and has everyone else do her job. she clocks people out early not letting them get paid for their work. everytime i went to count down a drawer she had me clock out. she had me run to the bank on several occasions to drop a deposit and was told by her that is not my job and i better never tell anyone because she would lose her job. So so so much more to complain about and i will take this information wherever i need to to get some answers. oh not to mention she never gave me my raise for my promotion which caused me to quit. Now i cannot find a job anywhere because this woman is telling lies about me.this is a poor excuse of a manager and i hope one day she has to answer to a higher power and they are not going to be pleased.

ashley in Johnson City, Tennessee said: I worked for Dollar General for a year and it was all good at first till we got a new manager. This manager does NOT deserve her job. I was a 3rd key over there and put up with the crap for so long because I needed a job. This manager is a liar and a cheater. I got accused several times of stealing and when I told her to investigate it she didnt want to she asked me to put money in the bathroom and she would go find it. she has had me lie to the DM for her. She sits outside almost her entire shift and talks on the phone and has everyone else do her job. she clocks people out early not letting them get paid for their work. everytime i went to count down a drawer she had me clock out. she had me run to the bank on several occasions to drop a deposit and was told by her that is not my job and i better never tell anyone because she would lose her job. So so so much more to complain about and i will take this information wherever i need to to get some answers. oh not to mention she never gave me my raise for my promotion which caused me to quit. Now i cannot find a job anywhere because this woman is telling lies about me.this is a poor excuse of a manager and i hope one day she has to answer to a higher power and they are not going to be pleased.

Ashley,I also had a liar for a manager and was thrown under the bus.No one is going to care about your problem and no one is going to help you.It's your word against them,and guess who wins?I feel bad for you not having a job,but your better off being out of there.Been through that NIGHTMARE! Good Luck.

ashley in Johnson City, Tennessee said: I worked for Dollar General for a year and it was all good at first till we got a new manager. This manager does NOT deserve her job. I was a 3rd key over there and put up with the crap for so long because I needed a job. This manager is a liar and a cheater. I got accused several times of stealing and when I told her to investigate it she didnt want to she asked me to put money in the bathroom and she would go find it. she has had me lie to the DM for her. She sits outside almost her entire shift and talks on the phone and has everyone else do her job. she clocks people out early not letting them get paid for their work. everytime i went to count down a drawer she had me clock out. she had me run to the bank on several occasions to drop a deposit and was told by her that is not my job and i better never tell anyone because she would lose her job. So so so much more to complain about and i will take this information wherever i need to to get some answers. oh not to mention she never gave me my raise for my promotion which caused me to quit. Now i cannot find a job anywhere because this woman is telling lies about me.this is a poor excuse of a manager and i hope one day she has to answer to a higher power and they are not going to be pleased.

First off I would call DG's HR dept. The manager is not allowed to give out a reference, only HR can do that. Find out the number for perspective employers to call and get information from and only list it on your applications. Sorry you got treated this way. I no longer work for DG, but when I did I enjoyed it and it makes a big difference who you work under.

longtimemgr in smalltown said: First off I would call DG's HR dept. The manager is not allowed to give out a reference, only HR can do that. Find out the number for perspective employers to call and get information from and only list it on your applications. Sorry you got treated this way. I no longer work for DG, but when I did I enjoyed it and it makes a big difference who you work under.

True that is makes a big difference where the store is, and who works in it, and who it is you work under. While every store/company has its problems, I have not experienced anything like I am reading here! I almost can't believe it! What is it, do the employer laws vary from state-to-state? Have to go back to my reference book from school on business law...I know certain laws are universal and DG actually goes above many of them to try and improve and serve their employees...there are worse companies out there. I work in the east and I am beginning to wonder about these other states? What gives with them? The best thing any employee of any company can do is familiarize themselves with employee/employer rights and laws across the board, and what your specific company's policies are. I am fortunate to work with a good team, and anyone who causes dysfunction isn't well...there any more!

Sundown in Pennsylvania said: True that is makes a big difference where the store is, and who works in it, and who it is you work under. While every store/company has its problems, I have not experienced anything like I am reading here! I almost can't believe it! What is it, do the employer laws vary from state-to-state? Have to go back to my reference book from school on business law...I know certain laws are universal and DG actually goes above many of them to try and improve and serve their employees...there are worse companies out there. I work in the east and I am beginning to wonder about these other states? What gives with them? The best thing any employee of any company can do is familiarize themselves with employee/employer rights and laws across the board, and what your specific company's policies are. I am fortunate to work with a good team, and anyone who causes dysfunction isn't well...there any more!

DG follows individual state laws when they are different than those of the companies.

It is the people, once you get a bad DM or RM it can create problems. People tend to hire people like themselves and if a DM is a bad seed they hire bad managers and then they hire bad employees. Every now and then a good employee is treated like crap because the bad ones don't want anyone with morals and integrity. I have seen a DM completely ruin an entire district before by running off the good people. I stuck it out through the bad ones, had a couple over 16 years, and things went back to being great when they were gone.

If DG would listen when GOOD employees voice their concerns it would be nice. The problem is the open door policy sucks. But then again, so many bad employees will tell crap on the good ones to try to get them fired, so it's hard for them to tell when someone isn't being truthful.

It really isn't a bad company to work for if the right people are in place higher up.

I am currently employed with dollar general as store manager ,I was hired in as a store mgr, placed in a smaller volume store with the expectations of moving up to higher volume. my original dm that hired me was a great guy ,extremely helpful was always there if you needed him and just all around made all of his mgrs want to help him succeed as well as ourselves any of us that have been there over a year which are only a few of us still bring his name up to each other when we feel like were bieng dumped on.I will not say dg is terrible, and if you love hard work this is the company to work which I do. as my asst and keyholer of 7 years would say she has been through alot of sms and she knew I would make it as I am the hardest working sm she has had. I am not complaining that I have to work to hard, as old school I believe it is my job to work as hard as humanly possible and that I will work harder then my employees because I am setting the standards for what I expect,and I dont mean I do this on occasion ,I work like this everyday that I am in my store which would average 70 hrs weekly not because I am a poor mgr or that my employees are not trained well it is because with 130 hrs in a store that hit the million dollar mark last year in sales and the hours of operation are 91 hrs weekly .with a 1000 to 1300 piece truck to get out over a 2 day period of 6-11 am shifts to which every store mgr is allotted ,we work our toppers/totes on t day, I have a 4 hr cashier that morning as truck is there between 6 and 9 am,i have to use 4 of my precious hrs up because running register,cking in 3 vendors randomly and having only 5 u boats to use for toppers that have to be unloaded out on floor near paper product and rushed back to driver so he can reuse the u boats, this process continues for up to 2 hrs depending on truck size.while you are doing this you have a cashier running back and fourth to ring register,open up to 75 cases of paper product ,stock shelves,clean ,recover.

and yes i did not have room for my comments so this is continued,anyway with shelves stocked there is then cleaning,and taking over register as you need the hrs for your truck so you run register for a few hrs and put awy items from 35-40 totes in between customers as 5 totes per hr if you are ringing does not seem like alot until you find yourself running back and fourth in between ringing your customers up who with good reason are usally a little upset as having had to wait for you but then they remember its dg and were always by ourself so they would still need to wait,because if you have a bad inventory as i had you need to watch every customer and leave the register to give the best customer service you can to the people hiding in the pet food aisle and or the pillows to steal you blind even though some of us adore our stores and the few overworked employees we have ,heaven forbid you might have a bad inventory when you already no by keeping the empth packets that you will average 150.00 daily in lsses if you are in a not so great part of town ,and you are still limited to 3 cameras 1 in office to make sure we are careful with the stores assets,a 2nd facing the back door in your stockrooms to make sure you or your employees are not taking items out back door, which I agree with the amount of internal theft the stores should have those camers in place and it can help an employee that may be wrongly accused as well the problem is you have to find 1 hr daily to review your ctv for alot of reasons that are useful in reviewing a shoplifter that was there the day before must be visible in 3 specific aisles as thats the only camera monitering shoplifters. at least you will remember them the next time they steal from you. but i still love my store and my customers, it would take 30,000 words to give you our job description this only allows 2000.planograms,endcaps,cutins,ad sets,recovery.pias, daily tote process,exception stock cts,damages,tal log,dsd reconcilliations.

plus atlas schedules,payroll finals,uo to 10 emails daily,the daily store mail,basket coachings written up wkly,cash accountabilities 2.00 plus or minus.,ck in dsd vendors daily, set u boats for sidewalk sales daily,last chance moved and priced plus super tuesday with price changes. all signage in and out of store,coolers filled,shelves recovered and orderly at all times including when even a low volume store has that 10 am to 1pm consistent rush of customers and yes to stay within budgeted hrs no x help 4 of the 7 days of the week between 8 am and 4pm. yes the mod does it all during these hrs because you have to have at least 30 total hrs on t1 to make sure your truck is complete and t2 is manatory 6 am to finish your truck which i am proud to say with 1 other stocker 6-10 am and a 730-130 pm cashier on truck day 1 my team always completes 100% of truck. by sundays we have 2 at most 3 uboats of overstock in back room.
for anyone in mgmt you no this is hard to do. now 16 months into it and a bad inventory my dm puts me on whats called a pip program. milestone 1 never happened/milestone 2 is presented to me at the same time as milestone 1 pre dated to the correct dates, that the svs should have happened and explains he did not realize he needed my signature would i mind pre dating but i dont have to if not comfortable with that, the milestone 2 that he states the store has improved from needs improvement to near model,my emt reports sent by him weekly show my store as having 0 emts . but yet on the pip it states worst in the region because my refunds and voids are higher then the average. the policy is reciept gets you a refund. in my store we beg them to do an exchange or x shopping so refund is converted to exchange only problem is the customer is not interested and yes we have refund logs so we.dm,regional or anyone in company can call to confirm refunds. I understand that part and once again it does protect me so i am fine with the refund follow ups.

I can only imagine how frustrating it is for you, and like you, our SM and ASM as well as the keyholders work their tail off...I am a cashier, cannot take a key because of work/life balance limitations, I had originally wanted to when I started but when I saw all you all went through I knew I would not be able to do so. 5 totes in one hour if you're running register? Impossible...I am lucky in one shift if I get two totes and two carts done, however, we are a very busy store and there is only one cashier at a time except when the line gets long and we can beep for someone so the customers dont have to wait. I get frustrated myself when we have customers up until close and I don't get done everything that am suppsed to do or set out to do. We are given instructions sometimes, and we each know what our "givens" are...I think the cameras are a good idea because it will help prove or disprove any internal theft as well as catch other thieves on camera, as well as spot any employee just doggin' around. The mangers often work till close and then have to be back at 6 or 7n in the morning...I dont know how they do it..I love this store, and this is one of the best jobs I ever had in some ways, but there has to be changes made because they are so successful, and if they want to stay that way they have to give the managers more employee hours to get more work done because one or two people in a store is not gonna cut it...and give better pay to retain quality employees.

have i made copies of everything you bet I have already been told my dm will be in with rd and an hr person to finish this up which in reality means they plan to fire me so if you have valid similar expierences please send me your email, I have an appt with a very good attorney if you would care to be involved please speak up.

jlhredhead in Mansfield, Ohio said: Unfortunately, this company does not stand behind anything that it tells you. They are not out to protect you or reward you for your back breaking work. Give it 3 months and you will begin to see the back stabbing that goes on. Upper management will use you as their fall guy, especially if something goes wrong. Can't say I didn't warn you.
My lawyer is dealing with 9 fired store managers in this area alone, all wrongfully terminated.

is there a way for me to contact you i am at present with dg as a store mgr about to be terminated i believe

crabbypatty in Illinois said: can anyone tell me approximately how many hours the store manager is supposed to put in in a week and would it do any good to report them to ERC for never being there.

47.5 hrs is required i have been a store mgr 17 months and have never worked under 60 hrs min.

mgrontrack in Erlanger, Kentucky said: 47.5 hrs is required i have been a store mgr 17 months and have never worked under 60 hrs min.

Thats insane

to sundown

please contact me at tednjane@embarqmail.com. I was wrongfully terminated also. a few months before it happened, i had been in the hospital with pneumonia, took my week of vacation to cover it, was told i had to, not fmla. I got a phone call a little bit after i got back saying i needed to watch my back and my days were numbered. this was from another manager in the district that my dm had been venting to as she always did this at every store and she didnt care whom she was talking about or what she said. anyways, i ended up being fired for policy violations, trumped up by her and two of my employees whom she promised management positions. i really thought (stupid me) that my work ethics and my strong customer services skills were going to show and there could not be anything on me since i tried to do everything right. there was no investigation, just fired. i was two weeks ahead on all pogs and stuff, just had daily to do, because i worked a lot of 90 hour weeks to get ahead. just to keep above the water. i loved my job, i was totally commiteed. its been a year and i am as angry as the day it happened. i havent found a job cause of what they put on my record which by the way i had no warning, not progressive discipline no nothing, ranked high in yearly performance reviews. thanks for listening, hope this helps someone else.

what's the number to open door policy for dollar general im tired of getting hrass by my boss......

Go to the website, then on the bottom of the page go to DGme, type in you info, an dthere you can download the handbook or there might be a link to the number on the DGme page. If you are not registered, register with your employee ID and make a password.

I need advice! I went to a jobfair for Dollar General, passed the test, had a short interview and all. The store isn't built yet but will be by the end of January. When should i expect to hear from them? And also do they do a urine drug test or mouth swab drug test. I have prescribed medication but only for 1 month so I'd rather just stop taking my meds. Can anyone help with any of this? Thanks so much.

devidasi in Tompkinsville, Kentucky said: I need advice! I went to a jobfair for Dollar General, passed the test, had a short interview and all. The store isn't built yet but will be by the end of January. When should i expect to hear from them? And also do they do a urine drug test or mouth swab drug test. I have prescribed medication but only for 1 month so I'd rather just stop taking my meds. Can anyone help with any of this? Thanks so much.

only management takes the drug test. regular associates get random testing. you should be hearing from them with in two weeks. just one thing tho. as a former employee i feel it is my duty to ask you to read and do your research on dollar general before you make the decison to work there. just google dollar general complaints. you may not believe the stories but you can bet they are very true. the circumstances dont always happen in some stores. good luck best blessings. take your medication like the doc said there is no need to stop you are ok if they are prescribed to you.

Thanks so much foolnomore! You really saved me lots of worries.

mgrontrack in Erlanger, Kentucky said: 47.5 hrs is required i have been a store mgr 17 months and have never worked under 60 hrs min.

Honey, no Manager ever works less than 65 hours a week. They demand us to be there that much. Three lawsuits from employees, they continue to over work us like slaves. Warren Buffet now is a stakeholder in Dollar General, $ signs is all they worry about. There are alot of brainwashed managers in our company, slowly, they will make the jump from the hell we call Dollar General. The corporate monsters can sleep comfortably in their huge beds and sleep at night, wish we could. Karma, one day these people will get what they sowed.

areider in Lafayette, Louisiana said: Can someone please help me out and give me some advice please on what to do if you want to transfer? I asked a few people about it but no one seems to want to tell me. I think its because my store manager does not want to lose me. We have a store manager,assistant manager,and 2 3rd keys . I am a third key. You would not believe how many nights i have worked by my self from 2 to close while busting my butt to put out as much truck as i could and on top of that recovery and also running the register! It feels like im the only one that cares about the store.I guess you could also say that we really dont have a store manager because he/she is never there. I strongly agree that I should be getting the store managers salary because I do their job.Please help me someone. I need some advice asap . i really like this company but i want to work at a store with people that want to work and a store manager that shows up to work and does their job and cares about the store how they are suppost to.....thank you

You need to find a store to transfer to first.. The store manager then has to put the transfer papers in whether they want to or not.. They are suppost to have a open door policy.. But i think they have a push out out the door policy..

I am currently working for DG. I have been with the company for over a year.. I have been working full time hours for over 4 months now.. I hurt my back at work and now my manager cut my hours to 25 hours. I feel that she is retaliating against me.. Now mind you i was promoted to 3rd key while our other 3rd key was out for medical reasons.. I had to train myself but, then when you mess up they get on you about it. I am the only one who works on last chance and cleans the store.. I am to the point where i want to give up.. My store manager wont show me anything and i have asked several times. When i transferred to her store last march i was showing her 3rd key how to do planograms and i was just a cashier. I regret leaving the store i was hired at. The store manager in Maryland is awesome. I can still count on her for advice.. I still keep in touch with her. I don't see how people can beat their employees down so much that they feel like a piece of dirt.. They have been trying to push me out the door from day one. I was promised full time hours so my husband quit his job. so now she tries to mess me over.. It would be different if i was single. but i have 3 kids to support and there is no way to do that on 25 hours a week..

Laura in Fort Payne, Alabama said: I am currently working for DG. I have been with the company for over a year.. I have been working full time hours for over 4 months now.. I hurt my back at work and now my manager cut my hours to 25 hours. I feel that she is retaliating against me.. Now mind you i was promoted to 3rd key while our other 3rd key was out for medical reasons.. I had to train myself but, then when you mess up they get on you about it. I am the only one who works on last chance and cleans the store.. I am to the point where i want to give up.. My store manager wont show me anything and i have asked several times. When i transferred to her store last march i was showing her 3rd key how to do planograms and i was just a cashier. I regret leaving the store i was hired at. The store manager in Maryland is awesome. I can still count on her for advice.. I still keep in touch with her. I don't see how people can beat their employees down so much that they feel like a piece of dirt.. They have been trying to push me out the door from day one. I was promised full time hours so my husband quit his job. so now she tries to mess me over.. It would be different if i was single. but i have 3 kids to support and there is no way to do that on 25 hours a week..

ex store manager here. after six weeeks of working full time hours, you are supposed to be put in as full time. that is why store managers are required not to let anyone part time work any length of weeks at full time hours, because of this. call human resources. also i dont know which state you live in, but in va if your hours are dropped below what you have worked in the previous 30 working days, you can apply for part time unemployment. check wtih human resources and check with your local unemployment office.

I called ERC about the issue.. If i don't hear anything back in a few days. I will call HRIS..