I'm so mad I don't know what to say

This interview was so vile. And then the host just giving this dude a strokejob the whole interview. Our tax payers pay for this shit and this Kai-fuck's 200k(probably 300 now) salary.

Ken Langone is an investment banker and entrepreneur who's worked on many deals in his lifetime, but is perhaps best known for co-founding The Home Depot. Most recently, he's offered a strong defense of capitalism in his new book, "I Love Capitalism! An American Story." He talked to Kai Ryssdal about why he wrote this book now and how he thinks capitalism should work. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Kai Ryssdal: So this is about as full-throated a defense of capitalism as you are ever going to read. And I guess my first question is, why do you think capitalism needs defending right now?

Ken Langone: I don't think it needs defending. I think it needs understanding. In the 2016 campaign, as I watched Bernie Sanders campaign, it dawned on me the massive number of young people that were showing up for him. And the thing that frightened me was, these kids haven't even started yet and they've given up! Capitalism works. Admittedly there were winners and losers, but it works. Certainly, I think if you look at the history of our great nation, it's certainly made a massive contribution to where we are today vis-a-vis the the rest of the world for sure.

Ryssdal: So people who listen to this program regularly will know that I read the acknowledgements section of a book before I read anything else. And the thing about this book that you've written, “I Love Capitalism!” is that the acknowledgements come in the beginning. There are, I think, five pages where you just list people who have helped you out and assisted you through your career, and I think the thing that you didn't say when you were talking about the benefits of capitalism is that you need help along the way.

Langone: A whole lot. Kai, I am anything but a self-made man. You need to have a team of people, and you need to have them feel they are with you, not for you. And that list — I deliberately wanted that list, and I pray to God I haven't left anybody off the list. If I did, it's a mistake. But every one of those people on that list in one way or other contributed to my journey through life.

Ryssdal: So let me try the spirit of that question in a different way and let me ask it this way: You talk in the first chapter or two of this book about your freshman year of college at Bucknell, which in itself was sort of a miracle that had happened because you really weren't thinking about college and all of this. But you get to college you're having a good old time, probably too good a time, as you say —

Langone: You bet.

Ryssdal: But this professor sits you down as you're about to fail out and says, "I am going to help you. I am going to go around to all your professors and tell them basically that you're a diamond in the rough and to give you a chance." Where would you be if that guy hadn't helped you out that way?

Langone: Well, I wouldn't be where I am today. The fellow’s name was Russ Headley. He was professor of economics at Bucknell. Professor Headley is one name. But you pick a name that certainly was pivotal at that moment in time, and all the names I've listed in the book were pivotal to my career or my path at the point in time when they were in my life or were involved with me in some activity, whether it was a business or a charitable cause or whatever it was.

Ryssdal: So what do you do, Mr. Langone, if you're one of the people in this economy —

Langone: Call me Ken, please.

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Ryssdal: I will do that, Ken, I apologize for my formality. It's reflex. What do you do if you're somebody in this economy, and there are many of them, who don't have people to help them out?

Langone: I feel very sorry for them. What do I do? I think there couldn't be a more lonely existence to not have at least one person in your life, at any one point in time in your life, that you couldn't pick up the phone or you couldn't go see and say, "Hey, what do you think?" Or "I need your help." Or "Can you do this for me?" Or "Can you do me this favor?" So that description, you tell me about that person, that’s a very sad — I will tell you this though, and I don't mean this in a lecturing way: My father had a wonderful expression. He said if you want to have a friend, you got to be a friend. So maybe that fellow wants to take a step back and ask himself the question, what has he done to nurture those kinds of friendships and relationships?

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Ryssdal: I do want to say here, just to give the other side of the coin its due, that you have been extremely active in philanthropy, that you have taken the money you made at The Home Depot on Wall Street and many other places and you've given back to the community. Not all though in your position do that, and I wonder what your thoughts are on the high and rising level of inequality in this economy.

Langone: OK. I think anybody whose possessions are theirs, are theirs to do with what they want, for whatever reason. First, I would say to you I would rather be remembered as a philanthropist who gave up his time and his talent. All the money I've given back, I've made it all back and more. And I believe a driving force behind any kind of success is a faith and belief in yourself. So anything you can do that nurtures self-confidence or self-respect is to the good.

Ryssdal: Let me circle back to where we started, which is the defense of capitalism that this book is, how you came to write it, which is watching Bernie Sanders promise many, many things without explanation of how they were going to be paid for during the 2016 campaign. But then also the ultimate result of the 2016 election, which is Donald Trump as president of the United States, a man whose candidacy you supported, whose policies you support. Do you think the average American is going to be better off under Mr. Trump's economic policies?

Langone: Well, what objective measure do we want to use? Look at the unemployment rate in America today. I can tell you right now virtually every businessman I know says the environment in Washington is more constructive to business than it's been in a long, long time. Look, we have a shortage of qualified labor in America today, we have a shortage. Ten years ago people were worried about what they were going to do to feed their families. And the other part of that equation, Kai, is public education. We need to get these kids prepared to take advantage of these jobs. I think if we fix that problem, we'll go a long way toward solving an even bigger problem, which is income inequality. We can't afford to allow our income inequality grow. It's got to contract, and we've got to bring more people to the party. That's an obligation of capitalism. That's a responsibility we capitalists all have, and we've got to do better.

Well no fuck, no one wants to train anymore. "Entry level" positions require several years of experience. I keep hearing baby boomers bitch about how no one wants to go into trade jobs anymore despite paying real good. Okay, I apply to some "entry level" trade jobs and get denied because I didn't go to 2 years of expensive trade school. Literally laying fucking bricks requires some sort of training and certification now and if I've just spend the past 4 years getting in debt for a STEM field degree I can't exactly drop everything to go to brick-school for another few years and rack up even more debt for a job that starts at $10.

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Some interesting backlash against the book:

splinternews.com/home-depot-employees-are-broke-sick-and-disappointed-1826069697

As a supplement to Home Depot billionaire Ken Langone’s new book “I Love Capitalism!”, we are publishing emails from Home Depot employees discussing what it is like to work in the company that made Ken Langone rich. They seem less than thrilled.

We have received hundreds of emails from Home Depot employees across the nation since last week. We ran our first installment yesterday.

From a longtime Home Depot employee in California, who worked through the wildfires of 2017

Of course I jumped-in to pass-out smoke masks, ash sifters, sell generators, flashlights and gave a lot of hugs to our customers. Rhonert Park’s store manager was kind enough to authorize me to work as many hours as I wanted, as long as I did not go over-time. You see, my mother and I were evacuated from our home at the time and he understood my need to help our community and stay distracted, not knowing if we were going to have a home to return to or not. We did, by the way. Fast forward two months.

In Janurary, I made the mistake of incorrectly thinking I had a day off when I did not and did not call in. So, I did not know that until I came in the next day and was given a one and only final warning, which I thought I understood. What I apparently did not understand was that when I called in to let my manager know I became sick over-night six weeks later, that I would be let go, due to “not enough sick” time to cover my illness. Even this, I was not told for another two weeks and “then” I was let go after my shift. So, that is the “Hell” part of Home Depot for me.

This was a “full-filling job” in which I loved the physicality, fast-pace, and most of all pleasing my customers. As far as “respect” goes….half of the time… I was so shocked about my termination that I actually went back to my store to have my HR person try to explain it too me. Even with that, I still could not/do not get it. To the point that two days later I even called the main HR office in Georgia. How can I, an awesome employee, lose my position for not having enough sick time? It was unavoidable. I still do not get it.

More on sick time

I have been working at home depot for 9 months now. I make $11 an hour. On an average day I walk approximately 15 miles while I work. I was told when I was hired at part time, if I worked hard I would earn a full time position. So far that hasn’t happened and I work very hard every day. Because I am only part time ( I work 35-38 hours a week) I only earn 2 hours sick time a month. No vacation time. I realize that $11 is much more than many Home Depot employees make around the country, but I only clear $1000 a month. It is very hard to live on one thousand dollars a month. I have been told that Home Depot doesn’t hire full time. If a full time employee leaves they hire 2 part time people to fill that position. After I was sick with the flu, since I was out 7 days I had to go on food stamps in order to buy food that month. Had I had Health Insurance I would have been able to go to the Dr. and shortened the flu to a few days, but I wasn’t able to do so. I was recently “Coached” about my absences and told that I couldn’t be absent for the next 6 months or I will be in jeopardy of losing my job.

Staffing issues

Up until last September, I was a supervisor at Home Depot. It was one of the most stressful experiences of my life.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved the people I worked with, including some management. As far as capitalism goes, it was no secret that if the store was over the hours it was allowed to use for the half, people were given the option to leave early. Why, do you ask? Why would people be given the opportunity to leave early and make the lives of those who stayed that much harder and making the customers experience worse?

Big Bonuses. Not to the frontline associates or supervisors (we get a small to moderate bonus based on sales vs. plan), but to management and above. It was no secret. We all knew it. If we had a call-out in our respective departments, we weren’t allowed to call in other associates to fill in the gaps and departments sometimes had no associates for HOURS!

I personally did not give a F*** and called in associates until I got called out on it (which I rarely did) because running one of the biggest departments in the store (Hardware), I refused to leave the associates that were there to have to deal with the madness short-handed.

I encourage you to go to a home depot in a big market towards the end of each fiscal half and notice the amount of coverage the store will have.

Locked in

I ended up quitting the job, after I was written up by the same assistant manager for leaving after my shift each day after my area (lumber) was 100% cleaned up. The assistant manager wanted the employees that got their areas cleaned up at the end of the night 1st to help others clean up their areas before they would let us go home. I had an agreement with the main store manager when I was hired that I needed to leave within 30 min after the store closed night and there wasn’t a problem for the 1st year. Once this new assistant store manager started, he wanted to change that. He would lock everyone in the store and not allow anyone to leave until the store was 100% cleaned up. We already had to get ‘signed off’ in our areas before we could leave but now we were being held captive.

I threatened to go out the emergency door which sets off the fire alarm and dispatches the fire department if this assistant manager did not release me by 10:30pm when my area was cleaned up.

After talking to other former employees, and hearing similar stories, I am amazed anyone stays working there.

Paid in respect

I worked at Home Depot part time for about three years from 2010 to 2013. It was a breath of fresh air compared to working for ExxonMobil in terms of how I was treated as an employee… Of course, as an electrician at Exxon I made about $34 an hour back then and $13 per hr as an associate in the Electrical Department at Home Depot. Wages and benefits were obviously better at Exxon, but the treatment I received as an employee in terms of respect and feeling appreciated was by FAR better at Home Depot. I really loved working there ( my Exxon co workers used to tease me calling it my “happy place”) but eventually the low pay and always working weekends took its toll… I always look fondly back to my days at Home Depot however the pay does suck and it’s beyond me how people make it on the low wages paid by retailers in general.

From a cashier

My real plight with my job is the metrics. A.K.A. How many poor souls have been financially ruined by that 21.97% APR credit card I signed them up for because corporate told me to? How many of those people also took the survey for the chance at a $5,000 Home Depot gift card they will never have a chance in hell of winning? How many of them gave a rat’s arse enough to say a good thing about me? How many items am I painstakingly scanning one of, over and over, because the customer only got 9, and not 10? How fast are these customers checking out with me? And if I slip on one of those, or, god forbid, I have a bad day and don’t smile at someone and say I’m doing wonderful, I could wind up closely under supervision by my department head; who begs people to sign up for credit on her hands and knees and suggests we all do the same…

I feel, with my company, they do a lot of anti-union brainwashing. We don’t have the right to assemble or seek a union. We have some health benefits- even as part-timers, but nothing that will help you escape from the crippling back pain you will encounter for standing perfectly still and upright for hours on end on solid concrete warehouse floors.

Overworked managers

I have worked for Home Depot for 10 years now and have been a salaried assist manager for 8 of those 10 years. Over my time with Home Depot I have seen the company go through many changes… take Obama care, Home Depot had to change its business model to accommodate for this we are at a 60/40 split. 60% part-timers and 40% full time. As a salaried manager it’s extremely challenging to persuade that 60% to perform and care about their job, not to mention all of the red tape that’s involved, and to include the pressure that is put on us to make them perform. As a salaried manager your hours are horrible. There are three primary shifts 5am-4pm, 8am-7pm or 1pm-12am. So work life balance is out of the question, and your shift changes each day. You are supposed to get 8 hours off between each shift but that doesn’t always happen. For instance we have a corporate walk coming up and the salary staff is on a mandatory 20 days straight to get ready for this walk. To say the least I am losing faith in this company because its direction now is all about the bottom dollar and not about it people. I am currently seeking employment elsewhere.

Wages

The only real problem I had with Home Depot is the Low Low payscale.. If “The Man” is able to amass billions of dollars, then he is not paying his employees enough.. I am thankful that HD hired me, but a 54 year old man CANNOT support himself and his wife on $9.50 per hour working 40 hours (no over time allowed.. That’s $20,800 gross per year working the hardest physical job (I worked in the Garden Dept) I have ever worked.. More money for those people…

A message to Ken Langone

Hello, I am currently employed at home depot and I do have to say it has more downs than it has ups. I’ve been working there the past few years as a part timer just so i can get through college. Don’t get me wrong the scheduling is great but the pay sucks and the “success sharing” is a complete joke. Home depot is somewhere I can never imagine working long term or making a career out of. They make the full timers life hell and i honestly do feel sorry for them, because I have met some great people with my time at home depot. I can tell you a lot of home depot employees do not share this man’s optimism towards capitalism and they should definitely be compensated a lot better. It makes absolutely no sense for a man to say what he says when he never even worked an hour in the stores of a company he profited off of.

Values vs. reality

I’ve worked for HD for a little over 9 years now. I started working for HD right at the economic down turn when I lost my Job working for Dish Network. I had recently been separated from the military and my “Highly valued and much sought after skills” had yet to land me the high paying job that they try to sell all the soldiers on. Grass is always greener and all that. I felt a certain loyalty to Home Depot being one of the only company’s that returned my call for a interview and being a company that supported veterans also served to draw me in…

The sad truth behind HD is a grim and dark one. Like many companies HD has a set of core values. Principles that we are to use in dealing with customers each other and our leaders. We have guide lines and practices designed to help associates work toward the HD goal of being the number 1 customer service retail in the world. However these values are often overlooked or out right ignored. I’ve seen many toxic leaders come and go but mostly come and spread their toxicity like a cancer within the body of the company. In my market I see practices that don’t work constantly being implement at the expense of the every day associate. They are the ones that are generally performances out when things don’t work out. New leaders are not given the chance to grow and learn before being tossed into the deep end of the business. Growth with the company is treated as something that is obtainable through hard work and dedication. The truth is it’s all about who you fake it to and actual performance doesn’t matter… Our pay band is a joke compared to other retailers and does not keep in line with the actual work I’m required to do. Nor does HD work in the community as they claim to. I also don’t think of HD as a particular safe company to work for…

HD as a whole and especially my location talks constantly about how well we’re doing both as a store and as a company. I know that I am only a small slice of HD. One small market in one part of a much larger whole. I may work in one store but I routinely visit dozens of stores in the area. With as good as we claim to be…we could be so much better if we just took care of our associates and actually do the things we claim to value.

splinternews.com/true-stories-of-miserable-home-depot-employees-1826013344

Over the weekend I received well over 100 emails from current and former Home Depot employees. We will be running excerpts of these emails in several installments in coming days. These are meant, quite simply, to give the employees of Home Depot an opportunity to share their own experiences inside the company. Just like Ken Langone.

No tipping

I worked at Home Depot back in 2001 and my primary job was loading by the contractor checkout. This meant large quantities of cement, lumber, drywall, etc. They strictly prohibited me from accepting tips from the contractors I was helping. I was told if I got caught accepting a tip I would be fired on the spot. The pay absolutely sucked and they had a policy where if you had any work place accidents you would be immediately taken in for a drug screening which was all well and good except it was very selectively applied… I only worked there for a few months and I quit when my manager gave me a hard time for taking 10 bucks from a guy who needed help loading several thousands of pounds of landscaping stones into his truck on a sweltering July day in Virginia.

Fuck Home Depot.

A climate of success

The climate control for all Home Depots in the U.S. is controlled via one central location, and the only store thermostat is located by the GM’s office, so the air wouldn’t kick on in the store unless it got to over 80 in most areas. Central management wouldn’t do anything, so the manager would set up a heating lamp on the thermostat in the summer to get the A/C to turn on.

The only people I talked to who liked working there were guys who hid in backrooms and closets to watch movies any chance they could. No one cared enough to do their job. When I started, there was a quarter inch thick layer of dust over all of the shelves of tool rental, and there were a lot of tools that were “out of service” because no one felt like cleaning them…

It certainly didn’t feel like the great ideal of capitalism at work.

The positives

I totally agree with Home depots belief in their commitment that the customer always comes first. That and their leadership is why they are so successful. I’m going on my eleventh year there and even at 75 I have no desire to quit.

I work at the corporate office and it is far and away the best job I’ve ever had. I totally feel respected and empowered for my own career. In less than 5 months I’ve met countless people who started as a part time cashier or lot attendant and are now in high level positions… All store level retail sucks, but the associates in store I’ve engaged with seem as content as possible.

Anyone can find negative things about any business or corporation. From my eyes and Living the Orange Home Depot is a good company to be employed.

Demeaning

I worked part time at Home Depot [in Tennessee] on and off in 2013 and 2014. During our onboarding and training, we were shown several videos that I would characterize as anti-union in nature, explaining that management cared about employees and that we should go to them if we ever had any concerns about the workplace. My takeaway from that whole experience is that they wanted us to report dissent or dissatisfaction among our fellow “associates.”

The job itself was pretty terrible. I was paid $8.25 to bring shopping carts off the lot and to load customer cars. I’d do just that rain or shine, hot or cold. The managers also had a weird thing about employees sitting on the job. If they caught anyone sitting, that person would quickly find themselves on management’s shit list. Coming home with sore, blistered feat was a regular occurrence while working there. Sometimes I could barely walk after a longer shift. I’m not in great shape, but I really feel for the older or overweight associates. I heard many employees sharing strategies for dealing with chronic pain. Most would take large amounts of over the counter painkillers, but I wouldn’t be surprised if others resorted to more extreme methods of pain management. The store was perpetually understaffed and employee turnover was very high (I can’t imagine why!) which really added to the burden on the associates that were there.

In general, I found work there to be an exceptionally demeaning experience.

Baptism by fire

I’ve worked at home depot for a year and a half and I am 19. Here’s my story at home depot: I started at age 18 having just graduated from high school. I had been working at Zaxbys for 6 months and was looking for something that could give me more hours. I got the job and they assigned me to the flooring department which also includes moving boxes, storage totes, blinds and shades. After a week and a half of online training, which hardly helped to teach me anything, I went out onto the floor for sales and stocking. Being only 18, I did not have any flooring experience and I was wrong to believe that management would teach me how it’s done. Baptism by fire is how they do it at home depot. Eventually I just started researching how to install flooring and tile by myself so that I wouldn’t look like an idiot when the customer is expecting an answer and I am the guy that is supposed to know it. Customers are expecting an experts advice but the pay that home depot offers is insufficient to attract the experts. The only experts in the building are the retired contractors that just want something to do in their spare time…

6 months in to being a specialist I was told I was moving to appliances. So I did. Our appliance delivery company honestly blows. They often deliver broken appliances, the wrong appliances, and sometimes they’ll refuse to install. So when a furious customer calls, I’m the one to answer. Hearing phone calls at work stresses me out now. I told the management team that I wanted to go back to flooring and I did after a few weeks. For kicks I decided to look around at what kind of jobs I could get as a biology major. I noticed most jobs required lab experience so I looked for entry level lab jobs. I asked my ASM for a recommendation and he gave me his info. I was then approached by management asking if i intended on staying with home depot and moving up, or pursuing biology, I kid you not…

Oh yeah, that tax plan that supposedly gave home depot associates $1000? Only associates that had been working there for 20 years recieved $1000, which was taxed. I recieved “$200" which was really $120 after taxes.

Hell

Don’t know if you have read Dante inferno but I am convinced home depot is one of the levels of hell!! I have worked for them 10 years it is a horrible place!! I have a 401k that I have put money into for 9 years all I have in it is just principle! Fees to manage account eating away at my hard earned savings. Been there so long I am so beat up I feel like an abused wife. I have no confidence to go find another job. Tried to get promoted worked so hard interviewed over 15 times never was promoted and never told why!! Picked the person that had no experience and was lazy ever time. Hard work gets you know where at the depot.

The garden of Eden

Yes I work at home depot garden dept… I like my job in some ways it is the best I have ever had. In others it is the job from hell I water in the parking lot in 90-100 degree heat everyday for eight hours.

I like my co-workers very much and do my best to work with them. Our values policy is very strong at home depot. I will never be rich working here. I will never have a career I am too old there is little time left. I do not have a 401k but had I started younger I would have.

I do feel some days like a corporate slave but that is true of most today. Most people do not go places and get rich like langone however in any company. So does capitalism work? No. Not like it used to in his day or my father’s.

However I am grateful to have a job in the hardest department at home depot the garden center.

lol

If you like your back to ache your feet to hurt have ASMs (assistant store manager) pretend to care about you and enjoy working for $11.00 dollars an hour, than we have a job for you. lol. HomeDepot is a revolving door of employees. I’ve seen every single employee that comes to HD with great enthusiasm, excitement and friendliness that at their one year anniversary, when they receive there first raise of literally .25 cents realize that this is a horrible place to work. Half the people I work with give plasma every week so they can afford food. It’s heartbreaking. On the plus side, if you’re a retiree that doesn’t really need much money and only works 16 hours a week than this is the place for you.