RGIS - The good, the bad, the ugly

I'll start...

The Good: Being able to find someone who will hire me for a winter break. During the summer I would not work for them because most of the time I would find a temp position related to the field I was studying in graduate school. In January this company is far from being short of work.

The Bad: Working with people that cannot speak English. I have never felt more like an outcast than working with RGIS over the years. They tend not to hire college students anymore looking for more uneducated people who don't know about their labor law violations.

The Ugly: Working 6+ hours at a time without going on break. I can handle waking up early to be at a store, but after about 4-5 hours of work you start to get hungry/thirsty and just start batching everything to get out of the store more quickly. If you say you are going to take a lunch break (after 6 hours they cannot refuse you), they either tell you that you'll only be there for a maximum of one hour, or they just sign you out and tell you to go home. I've called the Department of Labor a few times on them just for this reason. When jobs go over 6 hours though, now they FAKE a lunch break by giving you a gap in your sign in times, and then extending it to a half hour later.

Where do I even begin?

Good -
I can find very little good to say. The schedule is somewhat flexible but it is not a job that auditors can depend on for a steady income.

As a manager I was provided excellent benefits, better than what a lot of companies offer.

Bad -
As an auditor I was frequently lied to by managers about how long a store would take.

As a manager...
- I was worked to a near-death state, literally. Our district covered not only the entire state of North Dakota and a considerable portion of Minnesota but we also went into Montana and South Dakota. When travel (driving across the state) was factored into my work hours, my weeks would average 80+ hours a week. During year-end this would be closer to 100+ hours.

- There are countless ways in which I feel I was deceived by the company and by my own management (District Mgr and Operatrions Mgr)

- The company does not provide references...so I worked my butt off and left on good terms and cannot use the company for a good employee ref.

--- I'll keep going and in more details if anyone is interested.

Interested, bored before going out on a Saturday night.

My husband experienced the lunch problem too...They traveled an hour to do a site and he was not told to bring lunch or whatever..Thought that they would only work a few hours and be back...LOL...What a joke! He got up at 4 that morning and ate breakfast...Met the van at 5:30ish..They left at 6am...The van returned at around 3:30 or 4...All day with nothing to eat and only water from a water fountain in the store! They weren't allowed to buy drinks there because they were doing inventory and no one stopped on the way home...A total joke! Yes, I agree that it is WRONG!!!...They need to quit their slavery!!

Our travel is usually 2 to 4 hours to the job site . They always stop halfway at a gas station for a smoke/food break.

I've worked for RGIS in California since December 2006. I am by far...no dummy! I have a business background and started working for RGIS when I quit my administrative position of 8.5 years with Kaiser Permanente for reasons irrelative. Point being; Yes, it is true that the inventory world is seasonal so if you're the sole support of your family and/or yourself, being an inventory specialist is probably not the job for you. There are no guarentees as to how many hours one might work in any given week. However, if you have a decent work ethic and can count at a productive pace, more than likely you will be scheduled with more hours than someone who's a flake, unreliable and counts at their own leisure. The stores are big (i.e. Macy's; San Francisco, Target Stores, Grocery Stores, etc.) and you're literally counting 'everything' in the entire store, unless you want to be there not only all day but all night too, you would want to be a little speedy with your counting! Let's face it, you can't be a slough off, expecting others to pull your weight and than be lavished with hours...not very feasable or business savy! The draw back is the pay! Regardless if you're given 40 hours per week or not, you can't expect to receive a 'fat' check at the end of every two weeks when making $9.00 per hour, come on! On the positive side, you're able to preference your work hours (i.e. mornings, afternoon/evenings or all) and after receiving your bi-weekly schedule, you can accept, deny, or even request more work hours upon availability. It's your choice as well as being up to you as to what you want to make out of the position! If being a supervisor or team lead is something you're interested in doing, than work hard, show your enthusiasm and rise above the rest. Just like anything else, you can't expect it to happen over night but with a little time, effort and hard work anything is accomplishable! YOU make your own destiny...others don't make it for you! RGIS is no different!

Just a word to the wise, don't let your paychecks get above 200 dollars, then they wind up with all kinds of payroll problems. And when you try to find someone to help you, you wind up spending 2 days on the phone being told "they are out to lunch right now, no I do not know when they are going to be back", then later they tell you "they took the rest of the day off" when i asked to speak to anyone who can help me they told me "nobody is here right now, try this number XXX-XXX-XXXX" tried that number and they told me "try this number XXX-XXX-XXXX" i did this for about 6 different numbers over 2 days. I still have not recieved my money in a timely fashion. Pay day was the 1st, it is now the 8th and still no money.

Deanna in Great Falls, Montana said: Our travel is usually 2 to 4 hours to the job site . They always stop halfway at a gas station for a smoke/food break.

Deanna: I, too, live in MT; Billings to be exact. I am reading some horrific stories here and I'm wondering if maybe MT is an exception. I would greatly appreciate any more advice or information you may have.

i have contacted before but no results found..i think the job at RGIS will match my qualification and needs.