How Circuit City Rewards Its Employees

The following is a quote from a press release dated March 28, 2007.

"The company has completed a wage management initiative that will result in the separation of approximately 3,400 store Associates. The separations, which are occurring today, focused on Associates who were paid well above the market-based salary range for their role. New Associates will be hired for these positions and compensated at the current market range for the job."

My mother who worked for this company for over 22 years was one of these associates. She stated with this company when they were still leasing story space from the Zody's department stores. She is from the old school days of working. Where people took priding in doing a good job and cared about working a full eight hours. What I mean by this is... She didn't take a ton of breaks, or take a ton of personal calls, or milk a job so she wouldn't be asked to do more. She didn't play on the computers while other people were cleaning and making the store look better. She went to work and she worked.

It wasn't a great job and as the years went by she watched the company go downhill. They company stopped valuing its employees and started to think of them as numbers. Back when my mother was hired the company was still family run and they would rent out the local amusement park, in Los Angles this was Knott's Berry Farm, once a year as an employee appreciation day. There were games, prizes, tons of food and tons of drinks and the whole park to play in. A few years down the road the day was scaled back. They no longer rented out the park, but they still offered games, prizes, food and drink. Five years later the day was completely canceled and would no longer be held. That was a perk and the company wasn't required to do it but it sure made the employees feel good about their employer

Then one day the company stopped offering a pension plan. My mother has one and they will be offering her early retirement, but she is only 57 and doesn't want to stop working yet. Luckily they cannot take away the pension she had already been vested in. At this point she had been working for Circuit City of over 10 years, had earned the right to have 4 weeks of vacation, was given stock at her 10 year anniversary for loyalty to the company.

The 15-year mark comes and she received more stock as a company thank you. This program was also recalled and is no longer offered. Soon after this they do away with all commission sales and employees that want to take a pay cut can stay. She worked a deal and ended up making a little less but not having to work as many hours and weekends off. Well one weekend day off, they went back on that deal too.

Around year eighteen Circuit City made a move to only hire part-time employees to avoid paying any benefits. More and more task and responsibility was placed on my mother because tasks/jobs could not be finished with the hours part-time people were working. The quality of the new employees was also slipping. Very young people with bad work ethics were give jobs only to be found playing solitaire instead of doing their jobs. Manager's hands were tired and firing these employees was difficult. The HR dept required 3 write up before they would think about terminating employment.

The last two years my mother was promoted to Lead and had a team of 5 people working for her. She was so good at what she did that she was often asked to go to other stores and set up their teams. She has only received excellent reviews and the max allow raises.

Her story is just one in a long list of employees treated badly by this company. My entire family has worked for this company and in the old days many families worked for this company together. It was a team it was a family. Until Rick Sharp left the top spot and anyone with good benefits were weeded out.

The way you treat your employees is the way your employees treat your customers. Circuit City out lived the Silo stores and Good Guys. I often thought this was because of the loyalty of their employees and the loyalties of their customers. As they changed their treatment of their biggest asset and the treatment of the customer changed.

From the Circuit City web site:

Respect

Engage

Maintain the highest integrity

Once again the little get gets hurt for their company loyalty and "the Man" gets more money in his bank account.

Join me in boycotting Circuit City for unethical treatment of its employees.We expect all of our associates to maintain the highest of ethical standards. Our integrity must never be compromised. Integrity is the foundation onto which all other values are placed.

Circuit City has no integrity and doesn't practice those values they preach. The day after they fired 3400 employees they announce in their stores that they will be purchasing all new uniforms. Now how is that for a slap in the face? Here is another thought. The CEO made 5.6 million last year with an addition $900,000 available in stock options. What's in it for you? We foster an environment of engagement where associates are invested and involved in the future of the company. What you do matters.Our Associates are our greatest assets. We expect every Associate to demonstrate that they respect and value others for their efforts, their knowledge, and the diversity that they bring.