The Unethical Treatment of the Working Class.

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."

In the old days, many families worked for this company together; it was encouraged, it was a team and a family. My family was behind Circuit City all the way, until now.

Back when my mother was hired, when it was still family owned and operated, they would rent out a local amusement park once a year, as an employee appreciation day. There were games, prizes, food and drinks, with the whole park to play in. A few years down the road, the employee appreciation day was scaled back. They no longer rented out the park, but they still offered games, prizes, food and drink. More time passed on, and the day was completely canceled and would no longer be held. This perk made the employees feel good, boosted morale and instilled a sense of loyalty.

My mother worked for them for over 22 years, and started with them when they were still leasing space from the Zody's department stores. She's old school when it comes to working. A time when people took pride 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, take lots of personal calls, or milk a job so she wouldn't be asked to do more. She didn't play on the computers while others cleaned. 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. Circuit City's top executives stopped valuing its employees and started to think of the employees as numbers.

Mom earned 4 weeks of vacation, gifts of stock and other benefits during her first 10 years. Things that were awarded to loyal and hardworking employees. Suddenly, they stopped offering pension plans; luckily, they couldn't revoke hers. Her 15-year mark comes and she is rewarded with more stock. Not too long after, they do away with all commission sales: Employees that want to take a pay cut are offered hourly positions. She worked a deal and ended up making a little less, but not having to work as many hours with weekends off. After a short amount of time, that was reversed as well.

Year eighteen: Circuit City made the decision to only hire part-time employees, ostensibly to avoid paying benefits. The quality of employees went down and people with bad work ethics were given jobs, only to be found playing solitaire instead. More tasks and responsibility was placed on people like my mother because the part-time people could not (or would not) finish them during their workday. Managers hands were tied, and firing sub-optimal employees was difficult because of the red tape from the human resources department.

In the last two years my mother was promoted to supervisor, with a team of 5 people working under her. She did such an admirable job, that she was often asked to go to other stores to set up their teams. She received excellent reviews and when raises came around, she usually ended up with the maximum allowed by the company.

Now, she's been "separated" from the company, and her story is just one in a long list of employees treated badly by Circuit City.

From the Circuit City web site:

Respect
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.

Engage
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.

Maintain the highest integrity
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.

Respect? Integrity? How about practicing the values that you preach? The day after they effectively showed the door to these 3400 employees, another announcement went out that there will be all new uniforms. Now, that's small potatoes compared to the fact that the CEO made 5.6 million last year; not including stock options. Once again, the loyal employees who have been living the mantra get trampled over, and the corporation gets more money in their bank account.

The way a company treats its employees is the way its employees treat the customers. Circuit City out-lived most of the competitors, the Silo stores and Good Guys. I often thought this was because of the loyalty of their employees and the loyalties of their customers. Until they started weeding out people based on the benefits they were receiving, and not for the work they were producing.

Join me in boycotting Circuit City for unethical treatment of its employees.