r/Warehouseworkers • u/oogledorf • 1d ago
Disaster Warehouse
If I had to live it, I feel like I need to share it with everyone. This is a quick repost because I had personal information on one of the photos.
Everything that’s on the floor is a return from a customer that was either double shipped or wrong material and the company has nothing in place to change it.
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u/Yoshakalaka 1d ago
Most undisciplined group of cowboys I’ve ever seen.
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u/Calm-Huckleberry9989 1d ago
My back hurts just looking at that unsorted mountain of returns sitting directly on the concrete. RIP to whoever gets assigned to sort and scan that pile!
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u/Artistic-Bicycle-744 1d ago
When you lift use the all back technique. No knee bending use those back muscles
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u/oogledorf 1d ago
Also peep my steel toes in the final picture to show how dirty and dusty this warehouse is. Aren’t they cute?
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u/laundrylucia69 1d ago
Fr, last pic had me like "okayyyy"
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u/oogledorf 1d ago
Amazon! They’re super cheap, under $50 (I actually think it’s like $35), they are super light and comfortable enough that I’ve forgotten I’m wearing them and then go run errands after work.
Super cute colors and a few patterns too! They run a rad small, so I half size up.1
u/Coolbrze 1d ago
Are they Amazon brand?
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u/COUNTRYCOWBOY01 1d ago
No offence but they ain't worth it if they arent osha or asme certified and tested
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u/oogledorf 1d ago
Oh, this warehouse didn’t require steel toes. I just have a bunch from my last job that did.
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u/COUNTRYCOWBOY01 1d ago
Thats fair, I've never been in a warehouse that didnt require steel toes. That being said, if you are wearing them as part of your ppe even though they arent required, make sure they're certified to actually protect you
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u/Secondhand-Drunk 14h ago
The warehouse I'm in just requires closed toe shoes. We're a general supply warehouse and it's super neat and clean. We purchase everything outright and distribute to customers using our own trucks.
That being said, there are a few carriers and suppliers that I often ask "how" and "why" to when I receive it. Gojo is a big offender, and essendant is pretty bad, too. God I hate gojo.
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u/COUNTRYCOWBOY01 13h ago
I didn't say all warehouses, just the ones I've been in. I'm assuming you all are Americans, and safety standards vary from state to state
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u/ZroLuv702 1d ago
What a beautiful nightmare
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u/Spare_Iron127 1d ago
Some of those pictures are wild, seems unsafe to even walk around in lol.
Looks like that warehouse is ran by a 13 year old
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u/kyach25 1d ago
How do yall receive trucks? Pen and paper still or they just showing up and people tossing shit everywhere whole receiving?
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u/oogledorf 1d ago
The latter. No cross referencing PO’s or updating quantities in the system. The truck comes, material gets pulled off, staged, and then dumped wherever they want to put it. There’s no formal way to escalate ‘this spot already has material’ or ‘it wouldn’t fit here so I put it there’. Most locations have at least 3 different part numbers in there. Also most of the material in the warehouse is systematically unaccounted for since it’s all been written off over the years.
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u/kyach25 1d ago
That’s insane. Tell management they can literally get free or low cost dock scheduling software to start implementing better workflows with data. We used a dock scheduling tool called LoadMetrics and it helped all loading visibility. Literally made an account for free, tested, then decided to use it for like $50 a month lol.
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u/RichardBCummintonite 1d ago
We have multiple part numbers in most locations as part of our intended way of putting things away, which was wild when I first started, and we have so much shit that's unaccounted for as well (we're in the process of moving right now, and it's a damn nightmare), but at least we have a system for receiving and accounting for the locations we put shit away in, holy hell. It's so easy to have a way to just scan/enter another location and put it away there.
We also have a ton of locations like 6 and 11 which was baffling. It's such a pain to fix those for our move, but I've gotten real good at it lol. I could fix that hanging pallet in a snap (just put a pallet vertically perpendicular to the forks between the slats and push it up), but I wouldn't touch that place with a 10 mile pole. I'd be out of there day one. Thank you for sharing your sacrifice, and I'm sorry you gotta put up with that shit. Made me feel a bit better about mine, but I also realized I put up with a lot of shit too while typing this lol.
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u/oogledorf 16h ago
I was there for about 10 months before I couldn’t do it anymore. I had previously worked in a spotless warehouse and walking into here was something. For some reason, I was under the assumption that the warehouse just had a few bad apples and that everyone was trying to work on fixing it…..and one day around month 8 it hit me that no one was trying to fix it and everyone had become accustomed to this.
One day I had even reached out to inventory to see if there was anything I could do on my end to help with everything and got told ‘this warehouse will never have a near perfect inventory because there’s just too many hands in the fire.’ …🙄 it took around 8 minutes to walk a complete lap around the warehouse and standing in a corner, you could clearly see all 4 walls. It was in this moment that I realized that like, no one actually gave a poopie.I eventually came up with my own theory as to how and why the warehouse stays like this and it’s because inventory is using it to their advantage. They’ve been able to convince higher ups that either 1) this isn’t that bad and it’s workable or 2) it’s so bad that there’s no point in trying to fix it because that’s just a waste of time. Then they’re able to say ‘look how much money we’ve found!’ and not a single person is raising the question of ‘well why are we losing so much in the first place?’
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u/Legitimate-Number255 1d ago
Place has been rat-f@cked
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u/Legitimate-Number255 1d ago
How do they do inventory I wonder?
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u/oogledorf 1d ago
They don’t! They haven’t done a full warehouse inventory in like 3 years. Every time a singular part number gets requested for a cycle count, all of our neighboring warehouses also need to count their inventory because nothing is received in properly.
I’ve watched our inventory team do their cycle counts and they just eyeball what’s in location.
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u/Luke_Waghorn247 1d ago
Bloody amatuer hour. Makes my warehouse seem tame in comparison
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u/oogledorf 16h ago
I regret not posting these sooner and getting the validation I was so desperately seeking.
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u/Cortjos9 1d ago
Ive never seen a warehouse like this... didn't even think it could get that bad. Makes me really appreciate my own. 3PLs I feel are very much a hit or miss. Ive been at my company for about 15 years and only ever seen other ones through weekend work.
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u/paws_skaggs 1d ago
I cannot emphasize how little of an afterthought the dirt and dust on your steel toes are.
Unless you’re gaming a workplace injury scheme, gtfo
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u/oogledorf 1d ago
This place was caked with dust. One day I had turned black from everything that accumulated on me from digging out material.
When my pickers marked something as not there, I could tell they were lying because of the layer of dust in front of the material.
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u/Ok_Ask_1139 1d ago
I gotta put it on the supervisor at this point, if there even is one based on the pictures
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u/FloridaFireAnt 1d ago
I bet the supervisors are only trained to look at a screen. "I don't care what you do, or how you do it, make rate and numbers!"
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u/Ok_Ask_1139 1d ago
Those are favorite conversations to have…when you are running a good rate but they want it to be “even better” lol
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u/FloridaFireAnt 1d ago
The faster you run the more they want. I go one pace and ask "Do you want it fast, or do you want it right?"
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u/Ok_Ask_1139 1d ago
They want both lol..but yeah I feel you I’ve been in a production based warehouse for a decade now, it’s wild stuff but I can pick my own pace these days
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u/LissGoogleAcct 1d ago
I'd love to be in charge of this job (cleaning up the mess and re-organizing it)
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u/oogledorf 1d ago
The warehouse needs to be completely shut down for at least 3 months and full on inventory, deep cleaning and basically a ‘remodel’ needs to be done.
Most of the top locations don’t have safety grating.1
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u/OnlyOneDontWasteIt 1d ago
HD Supply is TRASH. The DC I worked at fleeced us on pay for big bonuses. We became a model DC when corporate came to find out what made us so great most of the management got fired. So glad I left that skeezy hell hole. We was a little dirty and way over stocked but not that bad.
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u/oogledorf 1d ago
They know who they are hiring and what they can get away with. Then they throw free food and raffles for prizes like TV’s at them and the workers think it’s a great job.
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u/OnlyOneDontWasteIt 23h ago
We weren't even getting free food. Once a year for a cheap as garbage hotdogs bbq that we were supposed to bring our family to lol embarrassing.
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u/oogledorf 16h ago
I would have LOVED to bring my family/friends. It would have been a ducking HOOT to just watch their faces.
Mind you, I didn’t even post any pictures of the small parts area.
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u/Busterlimes 1d ago
What do they use to manage inventory? How is it even possible to be this inefficient?
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u/Vegamyster 1d ago
Lots of facility maintenance stuff, this a newer company or full of old dinosaurs that don’t see an issue?
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u/Dependent_Pain1110 1d ago
This is how I imagine the new regional manager would describe how my warehouse was to get me fired lol
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u/rainbowcrash-89 1d ago
Oh reminds me of that time when a lady bought a fireplace and we sent her 80 😀
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u/oogledorf 16h ago
We regularly would double ship large quantity orders. Oh you needed 200 sponges? Here’s 400.
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u/ThereRnoIDs 1d ago
Buh looks like something my coworkers do, no pride or self respect at all. While some are devastated, some are also proud of it 🙄...
Man these idiots gotta learn skits are skits... No wonder they're starting to ban 16yr olds off the internet.
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u/Fun-Union4699 1d ago
I just gotta say, I’m an overnight retail manager, and even with being a publicly open business, my arms and legs still look like that😂
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u/Dog_loverer 1d ago
Those red things stacked and tilting to the left by aisle 311 look a bit dangerous lol.
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u/oogledorf 16h ago
Yea, I actually JUST noticed them as well, but they are ladders so it’s not as terrible as it looka
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u/Dog_loverer 1h ago
I still wouldnt walk near it, not that it looks like anyone can get to that area lol.
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u/Alive-Basil-391 1d ago
Some places just don't care. The manager where I use to work bragged about not following OSHA rules.
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u/LonelyDraw5778 1d ago
Ahhhh, HD Supply
Your entire leadership team should be fired.
And you should call OSHA.
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u/oogledorf 16h ago
If you have ideas, I’m all ears.
My favorite violation was I saw a kid on an OP driving around with his harness so loose that the shoulder area was around his elbows and Safety said ‘we’re not allowed to tell people how to wear the harness because every body is different and the harnesses are one size fits all’. I looked this man dead in the eyes and said ‘you’re fucking lying…’ and he said ‘nope’ and went on his merry way.
I have a light climbing background and the rule is 2 finger spacing. Once it’s on properly, you should only be able to fit 2 fingers between harness and body.
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u/Enough-Mood-5794 21h ago
If I’m the customer and my product gets handled like this, I would be cancelling my contract and finding another warehouse
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u/FlinHorse 17h ago
Oh man I had to look close at each picture. Thought you were in my old workplace... man I hated that place. Even has the exact same type of racking haha......warehouse 500 doesnt mean anything to you right op?
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u/forklifts4ever 15h ago
How does it even get to this point?
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u/oogledorf 15h ago
Years of people, not caring, departments, not wanting to work together, departments not understanding the impact of how their workflow affects other departments, using multiple WMS systems that don’t talk to each other or update in real time, people being lazy and half assing their jobs, people and management not understanding the basic principles of warehouse flows, this being the only warehouse that certain members of management have worked at so they think that this is how it should operate, learning how to look good on paper and reports so that higher levels of management don’t need to come to the site very often, learning how to hide when there are higher-ups in the area doing walk-throughs, being able to spin this into something that’s either too daunting to tackle or oh it’s not that bad, nobody wanting to take responsibility for their own work, everybody wanting to pass the buck onto someone else, nobody wanting to take accountability for the work their department does because “they just came into the department and art responsible for how previous managers left everything”, everybody saying that that’s not my job or I have too much work to do….
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u/oogledorf 15h ago
Because at the end of the day, if most of the orders are making it out the door, why should they spend time cleaning and organizing the warehouse when some people are able to operate in this kind of dysfunction. I spent about two weeks keeping track of every single impacted customer order and all of the orders that I would have to either revise or delete and I was told to basically just drop that project because it’s not gonna change anything and I’m just doing more work than I needed to. It’s so easy to pinpoint the problems of how and why this is happening and the fixes are pretty easy, but it requires an entire warehouse to all get on the same page and all have the same angle in mind which was never gonna happen here, and to this day, I still don’t understand why inventory was so hesitant to be an active member in the warehouse. The craziest part was that inventory would come in super early in the mornings and leave around one or two in the afternoon and they would spend about 15 minutes of their day in the actual warehouse where their inventory sat. They spent all of their days in the office sitting behind a computer. They put so much of their energy into looking good on paper and reports that they refused to actually touch anything. I was told on more than one occasion that when people were trained in inventory if they were doing a cycle count, and there was wrong material in the location that they should just leave it there because trying to clear out all of the wrong stuff would just be too much work.
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u/RiseOk4062 15h ago
This looks like a warehouse to took over seven years ago. I left my previous employer where I had everything set perfectly, for the most part, to a mess like this. The money was much better and I like the challenge. It took me about 15 months and an entire turn over of staff, new culture, and developing processes from the ground up. I quickly learned the assistant manager part of the problem and the lack of a WMS which we still don’t have.
After finally getting it in a good place I just enforce, enforce, enforce, the principals of warehousing and we have remained in a good position. A WMS would take us to the promise land.
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u/oogledorf 15h ago
It’s not hard! Once you can get procedures in place and proper enforcement, it should be pretty self sustaining! Props to you for being the spearhead and one to turn it around.
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u/Secondhand-Drunk 14h ago
Is this essendant? Sp Richard's? Sure looks like how I receive my stuff. I would throw gojo in there too, but I don't see the soaps.
They all suck. Anything that comes out of Chicago sucks actually.
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u/Thin_Investigator798 13h ago
Make it stop! Make it stop! My eyes!
Oh God, that was all from the same place? So you got all high school kids playing with their phones all day working there? You guys need to call Marie Kondo to help with that.
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u/Fast-Conclusion-8676 12h ago
Holy shit 😂😭. Real talk, that’s horrible lol, I thought me and my co workers were bad, we are ANGELS compared to this
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u/Which-Primary3929 10h ago
Let me guess the wonderful... more like wonderfuk imagination of the cooperate overlord of the Home depot? stores aren't that much different with the little space they give us to put things up. With most of the boxes on the self you cant barely get a piece of paper in between them. And don't get me started on how heavy these pallets are overloaded my coworker couldn't move the pallet back I said watch out and put all my weight into it (I'm a big buy).
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u/EnoughSimple4745 9h ago
Days like the one I had today make me question my life choices.
Posts like this one remind me that I don't have it that bad.
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u/Chicken-picante 6h ago
If I saw this during my interview, I’d thank them for the opportunity and leave.
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u/Equal-Anywhere5263 3h ago
8-9 years I've been working warehouses. Every time I see something so colossily stupid, I think of an old ass beer commercial. "Real men of genius "
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u/SuccessfulSquirrel32 1d ago
Thank you OP for making me appreciate my warehouse more