sears, and how they treat their employees. SAD!!

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bleacho

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today a 76 year old veteran employee of Sears, passed out at her post as a cashier.. she has an ailment, asthma, but really never gets in her way in performing her job.. the store knows of her asthma. the cooling system does not work properly in this store- never has- i know this, for i was a manager in this location. all cashiers at one time had fans for the circulation at their posts. they were taken away. this person, aalong with others asked for releif, fans, or just "A BIT COOLER" managements response was they were working on it. this womanasked for a fan, they said NO. today, she passed out.. sadly, as the ambulance was on its way, the cover over began. "well she has asthma" thats what happened, as she laid their unconscious.ambulance got her to the hospital, and it was discovered it was asthma, brought on by the heat.very low heartbeat. it took time to revive her...
her requests fell on to deaf ears- management told her NO FAN....
this is just the tip of the iceberg in this store on how they treat their associates..
there was a time that Sears proudly held on to their associates, and embraced their longevity. it was something the corporation was proud of. Now, its management by fear, and intimidation, and simply dont like it leave.
the mature,long term employees were always the most reliable, hard working, dedicated associates. in the snow, the rain, whatever conditions, they were there. they contributed. it was in their work ethic.
i simply do not understand what sears is trying to prove with their bullying tactics? i was in management- they tried to bully me, threaten me, try to make me feel inadequate. i had a choice, im young.. i got OUT. where do these people,who are healthy, viable, and need to work go? what choices do they have, but take it...so many sad stories out of this market area. and i know them first hand.. i feel so powerless- i would love to help out these people in some way.im passing this along to you out there i guess to get it off my chest.
SEARS!!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU... WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HUMAN SIDE OF YOU THAT CARED AND WAS CONCERNED ON DEVELOPMENT OF PEOPLE AND MAKING PEOPLE FEEL GOOD AABOUT THEMSELVES, WHILE SHOWING THEM THE WAY IN DOING A GOOD JOB. YOU HAVE PEOPLE OUT THERE THAT ARE WAITING FOR YOU ALL TO BECOME HUMAN AGAIN.. ... this is the north east. i just had to pass it along. im doing it for her one small voice , but one small voice that represents many people in the sears world...
as for me, not one more rat penny of my money will go to them!!

SHAME ON YOU SEARS!!!
 
The father in a family down the street from us in the mid 50s had worked at Sears all of his adult life. Just before he was due to retire, Sears decided to force out the employees nearing retirement age so that they would not have to pay them out of the profit-sharing plan that was one of the best in America. This man put together a class action suit and WON! His daughter told me it was one of his proudest accomplishments.
 
Not to defend Sears on this, but I wonder if this 76 year old was forced to work well into her golden years for financial reasons? What does this say about how our society in general treats seniors?
 
Not just SEARS

Its all the larger business.. They could care less about the employee its the bottom line that matters the most not a thing else matters. I am sure they will come out with something like.. We try to let veteran employes work as long as they wish with out making them reitire. I assure you they will be the Hero all careing sears when a statement is released.

not to side with anyone but I do feel if they knew she a asthma suffer and her age factor in they really should NOT have let her work..
 
When I lived back in Danville I had friends that worked at Sears part time. The store was alway very hot in the summer time. They suggested that I call Sears headquarters and make a complaint. I did as did a few other friends and they started keeping the store cooler at least for then. Now they are right back to it. It seems the only thing that makes a difference is when the buying customer makes a complaint. Sad, really sad!
 
I'm so glad I'm retired now. There is little to no loyalty left anymore in large corporations. It was certainly evident at my old employer. The more posters that went up about Mission Statements, Employment Equity, Values, etc the worse it got.. All for show and no substance. One thing to remember if you happen to be an employee of a middle to large corporation with a Human Resources dept.. They are there to protect the company interest not the employees so be very careful about what you say to their smiling faces because it cana come back and bite you. Many employees think that the HR dept is there to side with them or listen to confidential grumblings. WRONG
 
Whether or not the woman had asthma is irrelevant. There is such a thing as the "Americans with disabilites act" which guarantees this woman cannot be discriminated against because of her disability, which in this case was her asthma. Sears has gone done the toilet, especially since they were purchased by K(rap)-Mart! No salaries for veterans anymore, just commissions, no pensions, no 401k plans, just crap! Hot stores, Kenmore appliances now being manufactured by LG in Korea. I predict a very quick demise for Sears Holdings in the near future. There are much better places to shop, and there are much better places to work. This woman should have been treated with the dignity she deserved as a human being. To Hell with Sears. They have long since outlived their usefulness in the retail world. My mom was a Sears Roebuck and Co. employee back in the seventies when Sears was "Sears," and today's Sears Holdings is definitely not Sears Roebuck and Co.
"Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back."
Mike
 
Sears and others!

Today Sears is no different than most other major corporations. First off you are lucky if you deal with people that speak english. Most employees are subject to mistreatment today no matter where you work. The management is so piss poor everywhere not only at Sears. Sears used to be one of the best corporations. This is exactly why american business has fallen apart. Look at a coorporation like IBM at one time it was a great thing to work for them and they sent most of their work to India and China. Keep in mind the longer you work someplace the faster they want rid of you. Very soon all coorporations (whatever is left) will probably not even offer benefits. I don't think we will ever get america back.
Peter
 
K-Mart is just as bad

Of course, they are both part of the same company now.
My brother worked for K-Mart for 15 years as a manager. They moved him all over the place. His last move was in the Arm-pit of hell, Hays Kansas. They told him that they were going to leave management in place for five years so just settle down and enjoy the surroundings.

Because buying was easier than renting with three small kids in a college town they bought their first house. They closed on the house Nov. 21st. On Dec 31st he was informed that they decided to close that store. When he asked where he was being moved. The DM said "you just bought a house didn't you." BTW--his contract says that if he moves and has to take a loss on selling a house, K-Mart would pick up $5,000 of the loss.
"yes" he told the GM
"We don't have anything for you." and they left him siting without a job, a new mortgage and three kids to feed. That was his reward for being a company man.

Another story:
A co-worker used to work for K-Mart. She had been there since she graduated high school 32 years ago. As she was nearing retirement age K-Mart began their financial decline so they put out all full-time employees starting with those that would cost them the most, the vested retirees. Then they had the guts to tell her she could keep her employee discount as long as she put her purchases on a Sear's charge card.
 
That's exactly what Home depot did to me.When our economy went to hell,the first thing HD did was get rid of the ones making the most money so they could replace us with gum smacking,rude ass holes no older than 25 who don't know shit from Shine-O-La and rarely sell service contracts.
 
I worked at Sears also-HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE!

I went to work at Sears in April 2002 after being downed sized (laid off after 26 years) from my corporate job in customer service. I was hired part time in the Lawn and Garden department of Sears. I worked there from April~August 1, 2002. Luckily I was able to find another full time job.

Sears primary goal: MAKE MONEY FOR THEIR STOCK HOLDERS! They don't give a sh*t about their employees!

We were always told to sell Repair Agreements at all cost! Even though they did not cover anything. They told me "tell the customer anything to get them to buy them". I was threatened several times by management for not pushing/selling them. We always had a meeting every Saturday morning about repair agreements. The month of July 2002 I had over $150K in sales. But because I didn't have amount of repair agreement to mathc the sales I got chewed out! There were many Saturdays I left that meeting in tears because they talked to you like you were a piece of garbage!

The other thing was pushing "instant credit". I couldn't do it! I could stand the thought of pushing credit with 22% interest rates to people (expecially senior citizens)who looked like they could not afford it.

As far as the work enviroment goes the area of the store where I worked face the west so it got all the afternoon sun. The A/C did not work over there. When I came home and my clothes stank so bad from not working in all that heat my wife could not stand to wash them. I complained Sears management numerous times and the standard response was "we're working on it"!
 
I wasn't finished before I posted

We were not allowed to work over 40 hours a week. There were many Saturdays I came to work at 8:00am and was sent home by 10:00am for getting close to 40 hours. I left customers just standing there many times with no help.

If we were late for work for any reason we got written up! Didn't matter if you got sick, stuck in traffic, car died...etc. In one of our morning meetings someone ask the Store Manager what if traffic was an issue. His response was "find another way to work. I really don't care".

I was threatened by the Store Manager one Sunday for wearing my casual church clothes to work.

It was no doubt the worse working experience I ever had! I do not like Sears and never have shopped there after I left the company!

For what it's worth that my two cents worth for Sears.

As far as K-Mart is concerned here in GA Big Lots stores are a lot cleaner then the K-Marts!
 
They should take a lesson.....

from Montgomery Ward. I worked there as an associate and after my divorce, I went full time and was promoted to Sales Manager of the Men's department. We were constantly hounded about giving good service, but the department hours were constantly being cut. My department ran 100%+ of sales constantly, and I had a very high employee retention. I was looked down on for working too well for my people. I was given a blank schedule for my department, with a total number of hours I could use. This came from corporate, then our store manager would slice them even further. There were weeks that I had fewer hours to work with than the store was open and I had to leave the department unmanned and work the register myself. When I asked how was I going to get my stuff done, I was told that I was salaried and it didn't matter how many hours I worked.

Then, they decided to combine both the children's and men's departments under one manager. I was laid off and a manager that didn't have my sales or retention was given the department.

They are out of business now, it was due to poor service and cheap merchandise. Looks like Sears is going to follow the same pattern.
 
"All for show and no substance"

That statement couldn't be more true! These corporate fat asses wonder what happens to cause their companies to go belly up. They are getting what they deserve, and people like me to who shop at smaller local downtown shops are helping nail the coffin shut. I don't need what they have to offer any longer because I know how they treat their employees.

The same is true with banks. I got screwed by Bank Of America because they chose to hold my deposit for five days and let the overdrafts fly. It cost them plenty in the end when I and my parents moved their accounts -- mother had 3 accounts with them 2 of those at the 100k mark -- her last words to them "You SOB's aren't handling my money any more!"
 
Because of the high fee schedule and excessive holds on deposits, we switched from Chase bank to Compass Bank. They don't even put a hold on an out of state check. And our account is totally free!

You all are right about corporations being all for the stockholder these days. Oil companies were great about telling employees that they are losing money like mad. And then they have these huge group meetings telling the employees that there won't be any raises this year. Then a couple of days later in the newspaper they see a report where their company is reporting record breaking profits. These corporations just don't care anymore, and most of the time, the employees don't either due to the way they are treated.

Now Southwest Airlines is at least honest about it. Any employee with 10 years or more seniority may take an early out
with a large bonus to make room for cheaper employees. Southwest tells their employees just that too.

And for me, I am also tired of being treated the way my company treats me now after the merger. So I have decided to retire at the end of June of this year. I'll look for a nice comfy corporate jet job. At least they usually treat their pilots nice.
 
I worked for Sears

I worked there too... and it wad just as bad then,1997/98. The heat/ac is controlled by home office in chacago. We would call on sunday because it was 85 degrees in the store,in JANUARY by tuesday it as 40,it was all or nothing.
One day I went to one of the small stock rooms and picked up 3 boxes of stereo components, one of the stock ladies wes comming by with a hand-truck full of stuff and a moved over to let her by.Someone from the night before left a box in the middle of the isle and I went over sideways twisted my back and cut my back on the shelf, from the top of my butt to the bottom of my sholderblade.
The stock girl wnt to get help (not that I couldnt get up mysel lol) and the mgr said "thats what happens when you dont look where your goin". I told him to kiss my @ss that I couldnt see the floor with the boxes he told me to get. Even the stock girl said it wasn't my fault. He then told me I couldn't go to the hospital because he had noone to watch the department till 1:00 it was only 10. My shirt was soaked with blood so he told me to go over to mens and get a dark shirt for now. I said ok, put on the shirt, went to HR and told them I was in pain and had to go. They said no prob, I went to the hospital and got the week off. The fallowing week I was fired for being late even though I punched in 5min early!
I agree Sears and also other companies suck!
 
Speaking of being all about the stock holders. My previous company had a big meeting and told us that things were great and despite the economy we had excellent profits. The CFO pulled in front of the building for the meeting in a new Massarati(sp). Within two hours of getting back to our desks, we got an email from the same guy telling us that times were hard and all bonuses and raises were cancelled for the year.
 
When I worked for Sears, I was an accountant full time by day and sold major appliances for them at night. part-time. Commission was my only form of pay from them. Needless to say, many nights (and weekends) I made ZERO money.

Sears was "modernising." Their only interest at the time appeared to be making the stores and their credit card more Hispanic-firendly. All signs in the store in Spanish as well as English; Spanish language inserts to put over washing machines and dryers to make them more appealing to that group. Braille inserts? GOOD LUCK! Other languages. HA!

The area I worked in was heavily Chinese and Indian, among other groups; yet they got ZERO "special" consideration. The CEO at the time was of Hispanic origin and that is why such things as the Calypsso wash-action were named that way, I am told. Great. So many here speak a 2nd language and belong to an ethnic or religious subculture. But what about appealing to the long-time "Americans" that have been in this country for generations? How about doing better what made you great to begin with?

I have no use for Sears. Especially now that it appears that LG is now their No. 1 supplier over Whirlpool.

And please don't bother calling me a racist again. [I was with a hispanic for a decade-and-a-half.] It gets old. I told you, I hate EVERYBODY; it's much easier. :-)

My point is about out-of-whack priorities.
 
My all-time favorite is their DEBT RECOVERY UNIT, that was attempting to extort funds from customers who were LEGALLY & FEDERALLY declared bankrupt. These customers/consumers had their credit-card debts (including their SEARS card debt) eliminated/"forgiven".

How DARE they try to usurp the Federal government over such a small and simple thing.
 
HR aka human resouces

Seems pretty much the same over here, companies sucking out the last drop of life power from their employees, no matter what. A sad fact indeed.

But think of it: Language is what forms the mind: "Human Resources" was once called "personel office" or "employees desk" -
Today it is "human resources" (resources like oil or gas or anything that could be exploited at will), mind you: "human" like "2-legged animal work horse that can be exploited/done away with" (think of "Soylent Green", the old SF movie)

We are no longer "personel" but merely a "stuff", a living substance that can be drawn powers off - or read it this way: That can be exploited until useless, then discarded (as it is done with all that nature has to offer).

Language can be so revealing....
(Just my 2 ct to it).
Hopeless Joe
 
I fell at Sears also

The weedeaters displays they had were stacked up next to the roof per say. I alway had to a get a step stool to reach them. Considering I'm only 5'7" I had to reach a long way to get one of them down when a customer wanted one. Once while on the stool I stepped down, missed the bottom step and down I went. I fell backwards aboout 4 feet. The corner of the counter poked me in back. Lucikly I was not cut or injured. Scared the poor customer to death! One of my full time co-workers told me "if management saw me climbing I would get written up". They want you to sell it but how do you get it down if you can't climb up!

I have stories that I could on and on about!
 
a/c in sears,,, HA HA!!!

this store in particular, where the woman passed out has had an inoperable a/c for years.. never worked properly.. its all about ."where working on it" as they hold on for a break in the weather. its just about enough time to pass, talk bout what theyre doing to repair, nothing happens.POLITICS- theyre all concerned about pissing the "above them" bosses off.everyone walkes on eggs. get the president or big wigs in their stores, and see whats its like to make 7.25 an hour, and have no choice but to work and make the best of the beating up- the conditions. see how they would feel aafter a full day, or even by lunchtime. they are calculating, and simply do not care about their employees, LET ALONE THE CUSTOMERS COMFORT, and the sears enviornment..... they say they care about their customers? baloney.. they want their sign ups for 22% interest credit cards. theyre are collectively never enough customers that make enough of a tink about the heat.. they can leave at their free will and stop their shopping.. employees are left behind, earn their pay, and get berated for not doing enough..
DISGUSTING...

so Mr sears, you talk about the culture? CULTURE THIS!!!!! YOU MORON
 
Sears- like working for Hitler...

I grabbed a job at Smears back when Dennis and I first got to Maui. Same thing-didn't matter how much product you sold-you were browbeaten if you didn't sell the rip off service contracts with the machines. I was there from 11/03 to 05/04. A poorly run organization!
 
Service Contracts

I shop a fair amount (sometimes way too much) at Harbor Freight. I get tools for my job and also for the home and car projects there.

The staff there are mostly pretty young or very old. They all do their damnedest to try to sell silly extended warranties or whatever they call it. I always say no. One of them once mentioned that they had a contest and the one who sold the most contracts got a flat panel TV or something.

My current boss has a certain way of dealing with such sales pitches. He'd say, "You mean to tell me this product is so unreliable I need a service contract?" I don't have the heart to use that on the young workers at HF, but if one doesn't take no for an answer I just might give it a try, and turn around, leave the checkout line, and put the product back on the shelf, lol.

As for the way Sears treats its employees, it sounds like par for the course in the machine shop trade I now work in. Biotech and high tech were different, with much better employee relations, but not above laying off the most highly paid and experienced workers in favor of younger, lower paid workers. I learned early on that no matter how worker friendly the company, though, that Personnel or Human Resources were there for one primary reason: to serve the company's interests and avoid getting sued.
 
Ah, I have usedyour technique on salespersons who insist on selling you a service contract before.

"You really are pushing that service contract. Maybe you know something about the product that I don't know. Maybe I'll just go buy another product from a different store". That always shuts them up.
 
One thing that irritates me about service contracts are those ones that appear to do nothing but take my money to pad the store's pocket.

For example: I bought a cell phone a while back. They pushed a service contract. Which seemed pointless given how cheap the phone was (we're talking prepaid, the cheapest choice in the store, which was even cheaper thanks to a good sale).

Furthermore, as far as I could tell, the contract was apparently only good for a year. Which, interestingly enough, was the length of the phone's warranty. The contract didn't cover accidents, either, like falling into water. So, what did this $15 contract do? Apart from making some CEO a few dollars richer?
 
as newly divorced from WALMART, the king of corporate feeding you a line of BS I can tell you that what is right here in this forum should be sent to all CEOs. I doubt that it would make any difference But I am willing to concede that we the American worker are a big part of the problem. WE do not stand up for ourselves anymore. ...When I made complaints to other employees I heard either well what do you do with a company so big or I heard just be quiet and be thankful that you have a job in this economy. BS!!!! Our forefathers would have formed a union and striked thier asses.But nobody wants to cause waves now. Where are WE headed with this? Whats it gonna take to get us all together and say NO MORE. I dont know , when I spotted problems at walmart I couldnt get any support from anyone. Everyone thinks they are beat.
 
"I can tell you that what is right here in this forum should be sent to all CEOs. I doubt that it would make any difference"

I also doubt it would make any difference. Frankly, the only thing many large corporations care about is the bottom line. As long as sales are good, and the CEO is making his or her 20 million a year, they'll take the "who cares?" attitude.

I also think increasing union presence could help. Something Wal-Mart probably recognizes, based on what it says in this linked web page:

http://wakeupwalmart.com/facts/antiworker.html
 
I know I'm dreaming when I suggest this, but another thing that I keep thinking is that it would be nice if more people considered ethics as a part of their decision of which product to buy and whom to buy it from.

Or, in plain English--does it really serve our best interests in the long term to buy something Chinese from Wal Mart or KMart?
 

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