What is the hiring process like at Dollar General?

Due to the absence of guidance and leadership, I had to quickly adapt and take initiative, which accelerated my learning in the HR field. While I was significantly underpaid, I truly value the knowledge and experience I gained during this period.

Where do I start? Despite being a Fortune 200 company, the level of unprofessionalism I experienced was astonishing. In comparison, I now work at a midsize company that operates with far greater integrity and organization. Leadership at Dollar General demonstrated a disturbing lack of transparency and fairness. Promises of promotions were dangled for over a year only to be manipulated into believing I was not worthy of advancement. I was overqualified for my role, holding a master’s degree in organizational behavior, yet received minimal recognition or compensation. The hiring process was inconsistent, allowing bias and ego to influence decisions. My supervisor openly stated he prioritized personality over skills and work ethic, which is concerning. Upper management, especially the regional HR director, was ineffective. I raised serious concerns towards the end of my tenure, but they were dismissed with little follow-up. The communication and treatment I received did not align with the company’s stated values. This systemic disregard for employee well-being is reflected in the number of lawsuits filed against the company, stemming from how employees are treated. Despite significantly improving employee engagement metrics—by over 20% in various areas—I only received a total raise of $2,000 over nearly two years, amounting to an extra $30 biweekly. A promotion I was promised was never awarded, and I was manipulated into taking on more work without commensurate pay. The workload was excessive, and there was no work-life balance. Compensation was grossly inadequate given the demands. Workplace culture is marred by bias, discrimination, and harassment that are rarely addressed effectively. Employees have little to no real voice, as leadership tends to dismiss concerns regardless of their severity. From an HR perspective, the department operates in an insular environment, with little opportunity for growth or meaningful impact. The annual HR summit is poorly organized and unprofessional, reflecting the overall lack of investment in employee development. Executives often come across as pompous and insincere. Despite holding a master’s degree rooted in scientific principles, I observed that leadership training relies heavily on superficial methods—such as watching videos—rather than evidence-based, scientifically grounded approaches. This demonstrates a lack of genuine investment in leadership development. My direct supervisor was one of the most biased and judgmental managers I have encountered. Despite raising concerns, little was done. This highlights the absence of effective HR support—what I can only describe as a failure of the HR department to serve its employees. Overall, the negatives outweigh any positives. Working here took a toll on my mental health, and I felt like I was being blamed for issues beyond my control. I strongly advise against working at Dollar General. There are far better opportunities elsewhere. The company’s low Glassdoor rating of 2.5 stars is a reflection of the overall experience.

Fast hiring process, competitive pay

No training, expected to travel to different stores to work immediately after hiring, job different than job applied for or hired for

Easy and fast hiring process

Bad customer, bad pay, bad hours

Pros are Store Dependent 1. Good Store Manager I love him, he's fair, and can see the potential you can have. I just wish he had more time for himself outside of work 2. Small Store The Pros of the small store are the time it takes to clean and get around it when moving freight. 3. Small Store Team (~7-8 people max for the store size). The store team really feels like a work family, we all have our places in the machine, I get along with everyone. 4. A lot of hours if you want them. The hours come from everyone else being PT at the store. 5. Small town A good handful of regulars that actually care about that store and it's employees, makes with worth putting up with higher management sometimes.

The Cons are also Store Dependent 1. The New/Current District Manager I have a lot of issues with the new DM, it all stems from the disrespect she showed the store and team, completely blowing us off when they were supposed to meet with my SM and talk about the state of the store, and go over inventory procedures with him. On top of that, they just decided to not like me and want me fired or demoted for calling in sick the day after they decided to grace us with their presence. I've been working sick since and it's honestly killing me. 2. Small Team + DG's revolving door of employees This is gonna be a bit of a rant. The store may be small, but, with the state of DG stores in the surrounding areas, this store is one of the few that are constantly open everyday 8am-9pm. Meaning at least 5+ customers in the store at all times, with some dead time to get freight done if you have to work alone. Just hope it isn't when Fresh Truck comes in, giving you ~3 hours to put it all away, while helping and checking out customers. With only 3 people knowing how to close (The SM, one of the PTs and myself; The PT that knows how to close has had full time hours the past couple months), The revolving door of employees makes it worst, this is my second tenure at DG, and only one person I knew was still working there (The now SM who just gotten promoted to SM some time before I came back), along with 5 other people, three who left slowly after another not to long after. Leaving us with just 4 people to keep the store open 13hrs a day every day for almost a month (This will be explained a bit more in the Hiring Process). 3. One day off, even then I get called in. After I got promoted to ASM, during the time when people were leaving (When I came back to DG I had two different ASMs, the first moved away, the second accepted a promotion transferred to another store. A couple weeks after the second ASM left, I decided to accept the promotion to ASM. This is when there were 6 of us, then 5, then 4. This meant I had to come in on my day off to either open, close, or both. This wasn't worth the pay raise in my opinion. 4. Hiring Process for new applicants This is probably my biggest issue with DG, they use a third party to screen applicants for background checks. I don't know who they are, but, they sure as well take their sweet time. For over a month we had only 4 people, the old DM told us to just keep interviewing people and bringing them to the background check part of the application. We had over 5 people at one point get to Step 9 (The Background check). It took months to get ONE person hired. We got nothing back on the background checks, if anyone was passing or failing. Even calling HR gave us nothing. We were told to not put to many people through the hiring process, and were also told to just keep interviewing people. Other stores didn't have this issue though, This caused what team we had left to work ourselves to the bone, for a company that didn't give a single care about what was happening unless someone called and complained that the store opened "10 minutes late", or they noticed that the store was missing $3 by the end of the night.

employees are good if you know the hiring process

upper management is not good the disconnection between them and the warehouse is enormous products sent is supposed to be based on what you sell not whatever they want to send

It's a job, it might pay a couple bills.

Working alone and being expected to unload merchandise while also helping customers with no self checkout. Inadequate staffing and having to wait for a DM to *maybe* get around to progress the hiring process in a timely manner.

Pros are Store Dependent 1. Good Store Manager I love him, he's fair, and can see the potential you can have. I just wish he had more time for himself outside of work 2. Small Store The Pros of the small store are the time it takes to clean and get around it when moving freight. 3. Small Store Team (~7-8 people max for the store size). The store team really feels like a work family, we all have our places in the machine, I get along with everyone. 4. A lot of hours if you want them. The hours come from everyone else being PT at the store. 5. Small town A good handful of regulars that actually care about that store and it's employees, makes with worth putting up with higher management sometimes.

The Cons are also Store Dependent 1. The New/Current District Manager I have a lot of issues with the new DM, it all stems from the disrespect she showed the store and team, completely blowing us off when they were supposed to meet with my SM and talk about the state of the store, and go over inventory procedures with him. On top of that, they just decided to not like me and want me fired or demoted for calling in sick the day after they decided to grace us with their presence. I've been working sick since and it's honestly killing me. 2. Small Team + DG's revolving door of employees This is gonna be a bit of a rant. The store may be small, but, with the state of DG stores in the surrounding areas, this store is one of the few that are constantly open everyday 8am-9pm. Meaning at least 5+ customers in the store at all times, with some dead time to get freight done if you have to work alone. Just hope it isn't when Fresh Truck comes in, giving you ~3 hours to put it all away, while helping and checking out customers. With only 3 people knowing how to close (The SM, one of the PTs and myself; The PT that knows how to close has had full time hours the past couple months), The revolving door of employees makes it worst, this is my second tenure at DG, and only one person I knew was still working there (The now SM who just gotten promoted to SM some time before I came back), along with 5 other people, three who left slowly after another not to long after. Leaving us with just 4 people to keep the store open 13hrs a day every day for almost a month (This will be explained a bit more in the Hiring Process). 3. One day off, even then I get called in. After I got promoted to ASM, during the time when people were leaving (When I came back to DG I had two different ASMs, the first moved away, the second accepted a promotion transferred to another store. A couple weeks after the second ASM left, I decided to accept the promotion to ASM. This is when there were 6 of us, then 5, then 4. This meant I had to come in on my day off to either open, close, or both. This wasn't worth the pay raise in my opinion. 4. Hiring Process for new applicants This is probably my biggest issue with DG, they use a third party to screen applicants for background checks. I don't know who they are, but, they sure as well take their sweet time. For over a month we had only 4 people, the old DM told us to just keep interviewing people and bringing them to the background check part of the application. We had over 5 people at one point get to Step 9 (The Background check). It took months to get ONE person hired. We got nothing back on the background checks, if anyone was passing or failing. Even calling HR gave us nothing. We were told to not put to many people through the hiring process, and were also told to just keep interviewing people. Other stores didn't have this issue though, This caused what team we had left to work ourselves to the bone, for a company that didn't give a single care about what was happening unless someone called and complained that the store opened "10 minutes late", or they noticed that the store was missing $3 by the end of the night.

Easy work, simple interview process, nice coworkers

Company policies that aren't flexible. View employees as disposable.

Absolutely nothing unless u need quick money

No training, after the videos where nothing taught is implemented they throw you to the wolves. Management will constantly disappear and give zero direction. She got mad that a coworker wasn't watching us do the deposit on the new system but also never asked her to come out back just expected her to read her mind. I was put on a close told the boss I wasn't trained properly to close and be in charge of deposits, she didn't care. I had a question to make sure I was doing it right, she told me "I don't know your on your own" so I called another higher up who proceeds to tell me "it's not hard and if everyone would just take their r___d pills". Had ny schedule changed 3 times a week by their request cant figure out when to plan personal things, as far as they are concerned you are on call.

Flexibility, Great in-between-jobs job, Easy interview process

Micro-management from upper management and corporate offices, unnecessary repetitive work tasks