sales associate

overnight associate

merchandising associate

sales

lot attendant

The Home Depot

I'm overall pretty satisfied with my job. I'm 23 and I've been working as a lot associate for 3 years now. I currently get paid $16.90 CAD. Started at $14, which was min wage in Ontario March 2019 at the time of hire. I think for this stage of my life as a part time job, my current wage is pretty fair, especially with my current store manager (who's sadly leaving soon) is pretty generous when it comes to starting wages and raises (yearly 3-6%).

The job is pretty simple and doesn't require a lot of skill or brainpower to be honest. Main duties are helping customers load items into their vehicles and maintaining carts in the lot and customer areas. Loading calls tend to fluctuate as there are times where you barely get any and there's nothing to do and others when you're getting multiple at once while still trying to keep tabs on carts.

You will occasionally get called to help out in other parts of the store but for the most part it's up to you whether you wanna help. Sometimes we clean up garbage in the lot and in the winter it's salting and shoveling the entrances as needed. Be warned, pushing carts in the cold Canadian winter is BRUTAL.

Busy in the Spring/Summer (April-September), but starts to slow down during Autumn/Winter (October-March).

I learned a lot of customer service and general problem solving skills during my time so that's a plus. 

During both busy and quiet periods there often is a lot of downtime when there's nothing to do. You just need to find your own way to pass the time. Some people just hide in the cart corrals or somewhere else. Others go help out on cash or another department. Others go and socialize with other associates. Compared to other departments, there's actually not much else to the job other than carts and loading customers.

One thing I will warn about is that some people will take advantage of your freedom and free time. This could be from asking to spot for lift equipment, helping out away returns, organizing the aisles or picking orders and delivering curbsides (which is technically the responsibility of the Service Desk)

Of course everything changed when we had to shut down due to Ontario government COVID restrictions and this happened 3 times. 1st was April 2020-May 2020. 2nd was December 2020-March 2021. 3rd time was April 2021-June 2021. We were curbside only and we were either picking orders or running them out to customers. It was a nice change to have no customers in the store and since there were no departments and all hands on deck, we got to know each other better. Between March 2020 and November 2020 part timers got a $50 weekly Covid bonus and full timers $100 weekly Covid bonus.

Managers at my store are super chill and cool and don't micromanage. Co-workers are very nice and supportive. Everyone, managers and associates are so helpful and love to put smiles on people's faces (even with masks).

My current store manager was the absolute best. He was super nice and funny and made coming to work so fun and enjoyable and always put a smile on our faces. I could go to Him with anything, work related or personal. He was always supportive and promoted a lot of people to department supervisor. He never asked anything that he himself wasn't willing to do and even actually helps. He led the store really we and we were killing it in sales. He's retiring soon (he's in his mid 40s) and I'm really sad to see him go. There won't be anyone like Him.

Overall, it depends on who you're working with, but for me, the experience was enjoyable and there's lots of freedom and room for growth.

I'd recommend this for any able bodied person, especially young (18-30) for a part time job. However, I'd NEVER recommend this as a full time job. Full timers in lot never lasted more than a month and the current full-timer we have is very burnt out and is often in a rage since going full time and is ready to leave in a few months.

As a cashier, THD makes it so that your first (and depending on the time of day, only) priority is taking care of customers and running their transactions through and keeping you focused on that. It's a refreshing change from jobs that not only want you to wait on customers but also to clean and do this and that and the next thing. It's nice to be able to focus on people and not have to worry about everything else going on in the store. This is a very busy location and the job is very fast paced. Working mid-morning through early afternoon is the busiest time. These shifts go by pretty quickly, especially on weekends but, when it is slow, because your duties are limited as a cashier, the time can really drag and it can be very boring just standing around waiting for someone to check out. Evening shifts are generally slower, customer-wise, and they require you to do a bit of light cleaning but nothing too demanding - mostly sweeping floors, changing garbages, dusting and general tidying up. The staff and management are very helpful and friendly. Almost everyone is willing to help you if you have a question or if you don't know how to do something without making you feel bad for not knowing. I have a lot of cashier experience so I didn't necessarily learn any new skills and adjusting to THD's way of doing things and how their tills work was very easy. They have touch screen POS and they have nice large, clear screens and are very easy to use, even if you've never used a register before. Management was okay, as an associate on the front end most of the higher up managers stay out of the way and are usually busy with the various departments. For the most part, the front end basically runs itself. There are head cashiers that act as supervisors for the front end and then a front end manager. Head cashiers are almost all very helpful and friendly and great people to work alongside with. They do things like tend to most issues that come up, get you change if you run out, and such. Front end manager was also good to work with. The hardest part about working at THD is how demanding it is. Although I was a part time employee and worked 25 hours a week I still had to be at the store five days a week. I believe this is an issue about breaks. They don't like to give cashiers anything longer than a five hour shift because at six hours you require a half hour lunch and anything over that it's an hour lunch and they simply don't want to bring in extra people just to cover breaks...Because of this it forces part time employees to work five days a week in order to get their minimum hours. As a full time university student I found this very frustrating. THD boasts that it is student friendly but my university recommends working 10-15 hours a week with a full time schedule and THD refused to let me work anything less than 20 hours/week. Managing both of my school and work responsibilities quickly became very stressful and tiresome. Scheduling is done weeks in advance so it is hard to have your schedule adjusted if a mistake has been made such as being scheduled to work when you're supposed to be in class. Scheduling issues and errors are basically left up to you to sort out on your own. When October rolled around cashiers were told that THD was no longer accepting requests off for December, which was a huge issue for me as December is when my exam period takes place and exams are not scheduled at the same time you have regular classes. I spoke to a member of management about the issue and they basically shrugged it off. This is when I decided to leave THD, as school and work were at odds... I was paying thousands of dollars and living in Peterborough to be in class, not to work at a hardware store. If I didn't have commitments to my university and my education, my experience with THD would probably have been a very different story. This is a company I wouldn't mind working for again, when I have the time and energy to take on the amount of commitment required.

Worked in the Flooring department for 4 years, under 4 different department managers.

Typical day was assisting customers to find the best products for their needs, in your downtime between cutting and preparing custom lengths of carpet/wire shelving/blinds/electrical wire/wood or any other machine you have proven to know how to operate safely.

You will be paged approximately once every 3 minutes, because after 4pm you are the only one in the department until the store closes at 9 or 10 (you know, the time when the majority of people get off work and come do their shopping) unless it's a weekend.  If it's a weekend there could be up to 2 (two!) others to help you, although the experience will be nearly identical.

This is because HD still uses forecast-based "just-in-time" scheduling methods in the year 2023, painstakingly minimizing the amount spent on customer-facing labour every week, despite championing themselves as being customer service specialists.

Promising superior customer service, while leaving stores inadequately staffed to deliver it, makes HD a breeding ground for dissatisfaction of both customers and staff.  It essentially sets associates up to fail, while forcing them to deal with the abusive behaviour from customers whose expectations have been set significantly higher than what the company is able (willing) to provide.

There are some small upsides to working there.  Work-Life Balance is "OK" if you are part-time and make your availability known from Day 1.  
If you are full-time you can forget about it and will need to be available from 6AM-10PM seven days a week for whatever shift times they need.
Requests for a specific date off, vacation time, etc. will usually be approved if you submit them 3-4 weeks in advance, but full-time employees will do this for 15-20 weekends or more right at the beginning of the year. This often precludes any part-timers from being able to get a Saturday off, because the full-timers have already booked them all.  And you can forget about getting away for a weekend in the summer,  most of the full-time staff have accrued 3-4 weeks of vacation per year... and guess when they take it?

The only other saving grace is they offer their health care and other benefits to part-time employees as well.  So if have expensive prescriptions or other eligible healthcare treatments, you get a decent portion of them covered up front and you pay a small percentage of the cost as your co-pay.  
This is probably the main reason I stayed there as long as I did, as it's not common for low-wage jobs to offer any benefits to their "part-time" employees. With the cost of my medication, having that coverage was equivalent of earning an extra $1 - $1.50 per hour.

Sadly compensation did not scale with the cost of living or adjust for inflation in any way. Annual reviews were often delayed for months, and when they were completed your wage adjustment would be 20 cents... sometimes a whole quarter if your performance was deemed "exceptional".  Their starting wage is always $0.25 higher than minimum wage.  But after you're hired, the provincial minimum wage will actually increase at a higher rate than your salary does organically.
So HD will have to "top you off" to the new mandated minimum wage, even though you started higher than minimum wage 4 years ago, and have had raises every year since, because it's all still less than the new minimum wage.  In reality (because inflation increases at a rate higher than your wage) this means you are effectively taking a salary REDUCTION compared to the total purchasing power you had the previous year, until you reach a year when the government adjusts the minimum wage again.

Overall I would not recommend working there unless you have a retirement pension/investment income or otherwise don't need the money, just want a place to spend your days staying busy, and don't care about being a scapegoat for frugal management staffing policies.
If you need to be able to support your own existence and pay your rent and bills... the orange apron is rarely going to cut it.

The Home Depot was the only place that would hire me in the middle of a pandemic, otherwise working for such a large corporation is something I would try to avoid. It was everything i feared it would be and more.
There are so many organisational rules and protocols that are clearly produced by a team of suited men in a boardroom somewhere, which make the job on the floor so unnecessarily complicated for both employee and customer. I will include an example at the end of my review in case that isn't clear.
I worked as a cashier for about 3 months, the job can be pretty stressful when the place gets busy, which it did during the peak of coronavirus as we were one of the few stores that stayed open. When I started out I worked full time hours for about 3 weeks, and then when we got less busy they were cut right down to about 15 hours a week. on top of the fact I was payed the legal bare minimum this obviously was not enough to live off.
When you first start at the company you have to slog through hours of useless web based training where the company tries to promote its 'core values', where it says that the most important people to the company are its customers, closely followed by front line employees. You would have to truly be an idiot to believe this. This is one of the biggest companies in the world and pays its front line workers as little as it can get away with. I have no doubt if the minimum wage was lowered, the pay would be lowered to match it. Profit is truly the only thing that matters. I recognize that this is capitalism and this is how all major corporations are run, but when i see gullible colleagues believing the schlock the company promotes in its in house propaganda it makes me unbelievably frustrated.
All in all it just isn't a good place to work, if you have other options, take them. I met good people working at The Home Depot, and now I'm left feeling a bit sad for them that they don't try and find something better for themselves.

(EXAMPLE)
There are so many examples of the insane protocols in this place i could think of but they would make this the longest review on indeed. Maybe i'll make them into a book one day but for now here is just one:
So when a product has been discounted the usual way this is advertised is that they slap a yellow sticker on it (they are usually white) with the new improved price and the caption 'Discount to be taken at register', or in other words 'Cashiers problem now'. When it makes its way to the cashier, if the discount is over 50 dollars (which it usually is) it then requires a manager approval. After you call over a manager and they have taken their sweet time approving the discount, you then must (in your own time) complete a markdown sheet. You must write down the SKU number of every discounted product, a product description, the discount amount, the difference from original price, select a reason code and provide a department number and sign it. Finally you need a signature from the manager, oh wait though, because if the total discount is over 150 dollars, their signature actually wont do, it needs to be from the department supervisor, and who knows where he is! He might not even be in today! At this point you have been driven to the point of insanity and simply left to wonder why on earth they don't just produce a new bar-code for discounted products.

Home Depot in Ottawa offers a variety of locations, with stores having individual identities and character. 

Pay at Home Depot used to be above average, but recent changes to the Minimum Wage Act caused the company to use fiscal restraint to accommodate these increases. In other words, fewer people are working on the floor and in support roles with higher expectations placed upon them. 

Home Depot offers quality benefits for full and part-time workers -- benefits that are industry leading in their scope and value. You might start here with rough teeth and bad glasses, but you won't leave in that condition if you learn to use the value of the benefits offered. 

Managers are often promoted from within or hired from the community with previous retail experience. It is rare to find a senior management team member with a university education in business, economics or another related field. It is important to understand that if you are going to work at Home Depot and are coming to it from a professional background -- you are likely going to have some challenges working with managers in the stores. 

This is not to suggest these people are not quality people, it is just important to understand that Home Depot management is comprised of people who say yes and follow company dictates without adjustment. Overall, the company's policies are actually very good, but in the hands of less-educated management, interpretation of some policy can stray from intent. 

The challenge, then, is that there is no way to get the word out if your store's management team needs some direction.

Advancement is limited to younger people and begins with taking on responsibility before getting compensated for the added work. It is not uncommon for department supervisors to have extended periods of running two departments instead of one, and constant reorganization is common in most stores. So, if you are looking for advancement opportunities, and you are either an older worker (over 45) or a recent university graduate, I would argue that Home Depot is not a good choice.

Part-time workers get erratic schedules and are seldom off on any weekend days. Full-time workers are off every third weekend, even though it would be possible for them to be off every second weekend if the company cared more about work/life balance. 

With new minimum wages and Home Depot's unwillingness to manage labour according to actual needs, instead opting for labour being a percentage of gross sales, it might be that there are better options for job seekers in the retail market. 

Home Depot has been through its peak years. They have not opened new stores in Canada for a very long time, and with online marketing and other challenges it might turn out that they close stores in the years to come. 

Ultimately, Home Depot works for people who want to be there. Coworkers are usually great people as friendliness is a high score on the intake process. Typically, coworkers are friendly and helpful people who present with issues typical of retail workers, but with benefits to help mitigate their circumstances. 

Overall, it can be a perfectly acceptable place to work, but you have to make it work for you and be willing to suck it up fairly often and stay the course.

I've spent almost a year at this location and look forward to going in to work, seeing the staff, and meeting and helping customers even though many require a lot of handholding. That's the nature of retail. 

It's been a pleasure to share my life experience in what I hope is the last career/job I will have. And yes, to many who have been there 5, 10, 15... years, it is a career. But they also accept that for some it is just a job on the way to something else and you are positioned accordingly. For those wanting to pursue more, just ask and training is there -- in other departments, for licensed operation of forklifts, etc. And when full-time opportunities arise, they are posted in-house for part-timers to access as well.  

You get what you give so if you're enthusiastic and willing to learn and cover sick calls, you'll move on with more hours or opportunities. I have taken it upon myself to organize certain areas to make everyone's life easier and help in other depts. and am encouraged to do so. How boring would it be if I just stood there when times were slow, rooted in my dept, or expected someone else to solve a problem when I can see a solution in front of me? I love the physical aspects of the job and problem-solving with customers and other dept staff. There are whiners everywhere so if you accept that and do what you can to create a positive experience you will enjoy Home Depot. 

Management is encouraging and supportive and shares appreciation willingly. The CEO lives locally and is a frequent visitor to the store and always acknowledges staff members and thanks them. There is a built-in awards system for customer service and while the monetary reward is minor, it's a positive step to recognize good work.

It is a very open and accepting operation with all ages (from 18 to 80+), physical abilities and cultures represented. There are opportunities for time off when needed and booked in advance but if you are a student working for the summer -- guess what -- you may be working a lot of weekends. I opt for weekends as I enjoy weekdays off and when I need a weekend, I'm usually able to trade or obtain time off. I enjoy the flexible shifts which can free up mornings or evenings. It's not for everyone but it's perfect for me as I don't like a regular 9-5 or 8-4 or..... 

I enjoy working for one of the 25 best places to work in Canada and look forward to Year #2!

In the Home Depot it's really up to the managers if it'll be a good experience to work there. The co-workers 95% of the time are awesome, driven and the reason I stayed there for 3 years. We help eachother, however some of the management will not do that. A couple years ago they changed their management system as well to have 1 manager to 3 departments, instead of 1 for 1 which makes it basically impossible for you to get to know them or for them to see what kind of work you do, which in turn makes it really weird when they give you your review as they barely see how you work on the floor. Another negative thing is, I've been told by managers that I am replaceable. I did cross training in 7 departments and got my licenses for every machine in the building, including becoming a trainer for them. I worked so hard and took every opportunity to learn more but there were no real incentives or raises for doing so. You just take more responsibility for no extra pay. Most likely, they will not recognize what you do, as your managers won't see it, as I mentioned before. The training online is tedious and long and there were times that somebody completely new was scheduled on the floor by themselves with nobody to train or help them. Also after 3 years of working there part time and continuously expressing that I am looking for full time employment, applying to any full time position that may have come up (which was extremely rare), I was unable to get those positions, somehow they always hired someone external who is unqualified or they'd just close the positions. They had older associates that could not perform basic duties (like lifting more that 25 pounds or climbing a ladder) that kept the full time positions and benefits. Speaking of, I'd work full time hours a majority of the time except did not receive full time benefits of course. I was also a part if the safety team (of course that gained me no extra pay just more work) and I'd mention safety hazards like mold in the paint mixers that people take home to put on their walls, or untrained new associates on the floor, or younger guys who work there driving machinery while under the influence during store hours and all my suggestions were shut down, swept under the rug and as far as I know, never dealt with cause it continued to happen. In the end, I believe people just work there cause they have nowhere else or they like their co-workers. Eventually working there wears you down, especially if they never give you raises for doing more work or learning more and becoming more valuable in the company. Oh also, if you quit, most likely they will not re-hire you even if you continue to work hard on your last 2 weeks there. It's okay as an entry level job, and somehow still better than other home improvement stores but was not worth it for me after 3 years. The only part that felt really good about this job is helping other people.

It was very simple. I filled out an application and within a week I was sitting in an office typing at a computer filling out the training courses. It is incredibly easy to start working here, even if you’re new to Canada and have very little experience. I did note one or two employees with disabilities. 

Right away I started noticing faults in the workplace, part time employees are constantly required to have their breaks (even if it’s a two minute bathroon break) documented by head cashiers. Covering shifts for fellow employees is either frowned upon or discouraged as many needed their shifts covered due to illness or personal issues, if you must cover a shift, you 100% have to make sure every supervisor is aware or it might turn into an issue for you. Some employees disappear for hours without notice, mostly on their phones in the washrooms, which of course are mostly covered in various amounts of human waste.

If you work outside, they give you a free water bottle, but of course it’ll break within a week and they’ll treat it as a huge burden if you ask for another water bottle.

 The vending machine was constantly broken, even if it was fully stocked, 90% of the time the machine wouldn’t fully push out your purchase, resulting in wasted time and your wasted $2. 

Once a week the break room is filled with freezies and similar snacks. Thoughtful.

I noticed a very conniving dynamic between the manager and the supervisors/assistant managers, including one very bizarre conversation at a pizza party wherein the manager seemed boastful about firing someone. Communication between higher ups and part time employees is nil. Attempting to change your schedule is treated like sacrilege. I heard rumors of associates being wrongfully accused of stealing products from the store and ultimately being dismissed, suspiciously right after asking for a raise. Even the HR constantly complains about the work dynamic on their social media, talking about how difficult it is for them, and then two weeks later suddenly proclaiming that the HD to be the best place to work at. Stockholm syndrome much?

The warning system is awkward, while it is usually determined that an employee is to be fired after three warnings, the employer can fire you at any time. That means if you make one little mistake, you are probably simply SOL. But then again you’d have to be SOL working at the depot of homes.

The HD Awareline is also horrific, and totally biased. If you ever want to talk to the rudest human being alive, the number for the HD Awareline is given to you within your first few weeks.

I was an order picker, despite the name it is quite a bit more physically tolling than expected. You are on a daily basis picking large orders including massive amounts of lumber, vanities, toilets showers etc. you will be bruised and exhausted doing this job on a daily basis. Personally with the amount of certifications you need to do this job (forklift, order picker, etc) and the amount of physical labour involved the pay should be quite a bit higher for this specific position in my experience. Not to mention once you have the certification for all the equipment you will be bombarded day in and day out with requests from other employees for your help due to having the licenses as no one else other than order pickers actually want to use the equipment despite being licensed. I worked for 5 months as an order picker and was absolutely physically exhausted and mentally tapped out. It is high stress job in the summer months especially, also having to on top of your already exhausting job deal with delivery drivers, poor schedule management and poor understanding of the job from management. No matter how busy you are in the position management always is on top of you as they do not understand the job whatsoever nor how exhausting and busy it is, you will have to continually justify yourself in what you are doing as they don’t believe it is ‘hard’. On top of all of this you are still stopped constantly by customers even when hands are full and looking extremely busy and are expected to drop everything to help them. All and all this job is not worth the pay, which yes is still above minimum wage but still needs to be more to supplement the amount of hassle the job entails. Also expect to work with alot of people who do absolutely nothing on the job but complain, while you run around like a crazy person and are still expected to bend over backwards due to management having absolutely no understanding of the job. To top it all off when giving my resignation i offered the usual final 2 weeks but needed it to be worked around my new jobs schedule (which is the career force I wanted to go into all along) and was left without a single answer from HR after 3 emails and 4 days of waiting told them due to their lack of response to consider me quit effective immediately.

Hours. Its all over the place. If you are part time, there is zero consistency in regards to hours. One week is full time, then no hours for a month. It does get busier during the spring-fall seasons so you can usually get 15+ hours a week depending on the department, but don't expect that to last into the Christmas season. 

People.The people you work with are usually great. They really do promote the "if you don't know, ask" mentality. Just don't expect to get the answer that you want. Most of the other associates will help, but there are always the one or two that won't. It's part of the working world.

Management.My experience with management has been hit and miss. Some have been very hands on and straight forward (which I like) and others have been all smiles to your face then do the opposite. It all depends on the store you get. It's safe to say they get paid very well for their role in the store so they do anything to protect that.

Pay. Unless you have a certificate in some trade, don't expect to make much more than min wage. 

Scheduling. Released every week so you always have a 2 week notice on what you will be working. Usually pretty easy to get shifts covered depending on department and available workers, but usually always someone willing to grab the hours. 

Training. Practically non existent. They do give you 2 days training to cover the legal stuff then you are on the floor. Everything is pretty well learn on the go. They do provide a great amount of online and product information, and you do get paid for doing it, if you can find time away from the sales floor to get behind a computer for a bit. 

Advancement. It is possible if you stay with the company for years or have some schooling to add to the job. Otherwise I wouldn't count on flying through the ranks. Being liked my management and the other Department Supervisors helps...a lot.

Credit. They are all about the credit card and expect everyone to get cards. They always talk about doing it in the best interest of the customers. Its not hard to do but at 28.8% interest, that's not in the best interest in my customers.

In the end, its a job. It pays the bills and if you work at it, it could become a career for some. All I can say is don't expect to be handed anything in that company. You have to work for it.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Sales associate 107 salaries reported	$19.27 per hour
Overnight associate 125 salaries reported	$20.96 per hour
Merchandising associate 77 salaries reported	$19.40 per hour
Sales 86 salaries reported	$19.38 per hour
Lot attendant 57 salaries reported	$19.11 per hour

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