Circuit City and the American Dream 835
An anonymous reader writes "Circuit City said yesterday that it had fired 3,400 of its highest-paid sales staff — 8% of its employees — and will replace them with lower-paid workers. Sign On San Diego called this 'a risky strategy to cut costs that goes beyond the layoffs, buyouts and hiring freezes commonly used by struggling companies.' The fired workers have a chance to apply for lower-paying positions after a 10-week wait, the company said. Quoting a Circuit City spokesman: 'This is no reflection on job performance... We deeply regret the negative impact. Retail is extremely competitive, and if we're going to thrive and operate a successful company... we just have to control costs.' So: work hard, become the best in your field, and get fired so they can offer you a new job 10 weeks later at a lower salary."
Jumping the logical gap. (Score:4, Interesting)
There is a huge logical gap between "We're not getting rid of these people for performance reasons" and "These people are the best in their field". I don't think you can read any of this and come away even with the idea that these people were any better than the other, lower paid employees in their same stores. If they think they can employ the *exact same people* for less money in 10 weeks, then clearly these salespeople were paid beyond what the market can bear.
Why do we need to make up negative stuff about this when we could simply point to the fact that the salary savings look pathetic in comparison to what they continue to pay their executives?
Re:You have *got* to be kidding me. (Score:3, Interesting)
The summary and TFA both have no mention of any "Dreams", American or otherwise.
Not that crappy old Circuit City doesn't deserve some bias the way they treat some of their customers, but bias none the less.
First boycott Best Buy, now Circuit City? (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyway, this reminds me of a friend of mine. He graduated from college with a degree in History. Yes, a rather un-saleable degree. So he lived on my couch for a few months after he graduated while he tried to find a job. The only job he could find was telephone credit card sales. Yes, he was *THAT* guy. Every day, he came home from his job, the first words out of his mouth were "I hate my job." What made it even worse is that he was *GOOD* at it. His second month there, he set a sales record. His third month, he broke that record. Then he got fired. Because he wasn't following the script to the letter.
Now, if someone comes in, and, by *NOT* following the script to the letter (he did say all the parts that the law requires creditors to say,) sets sales records two months in a row (he got a plastic slinky with the company name on it in thanks,) shouldn't you have the OTHER people follow his lead, rather than fire him?
Re:You have *got* to be kidding me. (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:I hope this fails miserably (Score:3, Interesting)
If I were a Circuit City shareholder, I'd be seriously considering dumping it now and not waiting a year for the full consequences of this moronic move to take effect. Actually, anyone with any common sense would have dumped Circuit City's stock a long time ago.
Re:UNIONIZE (Score:2, Interesting)
You are also correct in saying that a company's job is to make money. However, a company will not fare very well if it's employees aren't happy employees. Turn around is much higher, therefore raising training costs.
When a company treats its employees like dirt, expect the employees to treat the customers like dirt.
There is a delicate balance between employer and employee. One can't survive without the other. Sooner everyone realizes this, the better off society as a whole will be.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:UNIONIZE (Score:1, Interesting)
1) All employees would end up with less net pay because of union dues, resulting in
2) the top performers (who were just fired) would not come back, instead seeking other jobs
3) Employee satisfaction will split, with the slackers happy that they're getting paid the same as the top performers, and the top performers unhappy for getting paid the same as the slackers. This will consequently result in
4) Top performing employees will leave, and
5) Left with primarily slackers, who will only perform as much as required to not get fired (and no incentive to do better), customer service will fall.
CC, however, has a one step process they can take to avoid this.
1) Refuse to negotiate with those who wish to form a union
Worst case, they can always pull a Walmart at close down locations where workers want to unionize.
Re:First boycott Best Buy, now Circuit City? (Score:4, Interesting)
Simple truth? The highest paid slashdotter isn't magically worth more than that Wal-mart store greeter. We all should be making min. wage and min. wage should be enough to buy a house, car, food, pay monthly electric, cable, internet, cell phone bills, raise offspring on and then donate more money for boyscouts, girlscouts, schoolfund raisers, or other various charities, and let's not forget about Christmas were you are expected to buy tons of gifts for family and little gifts for special friends and family. (Pity you if you have a large family.) Oh, afford various insurances life, health, auto, home, and anything else that folks need.
You need to do all that on min. wage. Now, tell me what "min. wage" needs to be. It's been funny reading this. This article assumes that a college educated person can find a job that'll pay 4x5 times min. wage. Um, we aren't worth that much more than a highschool drop out though we'd like to think we deserve a lot more money than them because we made it through college.
Re:Stupid management never suffers, only employees (Score:3, Interesting)
The modern version of the good 'ol fashioned American Dream...
Re:You have *got* to be kidding me. (Score:5, Interesting)
Basically, someone should set up "stores" that don't make money on sales at all, but essentially just rent you access to the showroom so you can figure out what you need (and then perhaps rate the people there based on how informative they are -- like Slashdot) and then find the cheapest place online to get it (either using their computers there or just go home having a better idea of what you need). They would have no qualms about telling you, "ah, you don't need this stuff".
Depending on the money needed to make it work, you could either run them for-profit or as a co-op where your "membership fee" is all or partly your service of working there part-time in a department you're already knowledgeable about. You help people find what computer they should get, and in return, old folks there teach you what gardening equipment you should get (for example).
Re:You have *got* to be kidding me. (Score:2, Interesting)
The reality of America today is that the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle class finds the "middle" slowly drifting to the bottom.
Ok, back that up. Let's see something empirical... hell, even anecdotal will do, becuase I've got nothing.
Are you claiming that the poor of today are worse off than the poor of 25 years ago? 50 years ago? 100 years ago? What are you claiming? By what metric are the poor getting poorer?
Are you claiming that the middle class is worse off than 25 years ago?
I mean good lord, all you need to do is look at cable tv penetration rates to tell something weird is up.
So what if it is? (Score:4, Interesting)
That's like your plumber telling you "Hey, uh, you should really pay me twice as much, because if you don't, you're just going to keep the money for yourself."
If you want money, EARN it. Don't expect it to just be handed to you.
Re: The lowest of the low (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm a developer at my company and I make quite a lot of money. Without me, they wouldn't be able to sell any products, so I'm valuable. There are also janitors at my company. They clean stuff and pick up the trash that we, the developers, leave behind. They make much less money. Why? It can't be because we work harder (each of us spends at least one hour/day surfing), it can't be because what we do is more valuable (without the janitors this place would be so disgusting no one would be able to work). The only reason they get paid less is because the company can get away with it. And if the US is any example, they will try to force down the developers wages too.
There is really nothing immoral with that. All companies want to lower their costs to stay "competitive" (read: more money to the owners). But what is despicable is that the employees just lays downs and takes it. The solution is so simple. Just strike dammit. Unionize. If just a few thousand of Circuit City's employees decided to strike for a week or two, they would lose so much profit from lost business that it wouldn't be economical to fire them.
"Good to Great" Circuit City: what happened? (Score:4, Interesting)
So what happened?
I no longer shop at the local CC if I can avoid it. Black Friday last year they were a complete mess. It took several minutes to process a customer. Rebates were filled out by clerks, keeping the line waiting. Lines were randomly woven throughout the shopping aisles: you didn't know what aisle you were in and customers were kept from shopping by the congestion. Presently, during normal shopping, their checkout system is quite slow and cumbersome.
In contrast, Best Buy was very well organized and the checkout lines as fast as possible.
Where did the "great" Circuit City go?
Even during
Re:The lowest of the low (Score:3, Interesting)
Seriously, anyone who thinks the drug trade is a good place to make money is an idiot. There's room for a few score "distributors" who'll pull in $10K a month, but I guarantee you former salesmen from CC don't have the connections necessary to make that kind of money.
Re:You have *got* to be kidding me. (Score:2, Interesting)
If you are good, you deserve a good wage. As long as you continue to be good, you shouldn't have to keep checking the Help Wanted ads. If there are better employees to be had, that are willing to work for your same wage. You NEED to be gotten rid of. If you continually improve yourself and stay ahead of the game, then THAT is what should create your "stable employment environment." and All jobs should be like THAT.
Corporate greed can be a good thing. It forces a bottom line. Which in turn benefits consumers with cheaper products (cost). Now that has to be balanced with corporate greed cutting corners and customers getting cheaper products (quality).
Nope, productivity produces productivity. Hire productive people, keep productive people. Get rid of anyone that isn't.
Bottom line, workers are a commodity and should be treated as such. At the same time, workers are also human beings and should also be treated as such. A good corporation is one that knows how to balance the two.
FYI, I'm not yet a business owner (but I will be). That said, I have zero expectation or desire of being kept here at my job "just because." However, I fully believe that I am worth the wage that I am paid because I produce results. I wish others would adopt this mindset and stop feeling like they are entitled to a job despite their abilities/qualifications/whatever, or lack thereof. I'm not blaming government employees. If I could get money for nothing, I'd probably take it. However, I DO blame the government for allowing such entities to continue ineffectively using tax money (my tax money). So this isn't a personal attack against you. I just wish that you could be fired...that is only if you weren't as good as others competing for the same job. In fact, you should want that. Because then they could pay more for your position as they wouldn't have to continue to fund other non-productive employees that "will not be fired / layed off / downsized / whatever"
Re:Democracy? (Score:2, Interesting)
the fact of the matter is this: Each position in the company (at least salesstaff related position) has a begining hourly rate and a "cap" on how much you can get paid. what corporate did is they scoured teh databases & found everyone that was making $0.51 OVER the hourly wage cap, and fired them. plain and simple,
they chalk it up to saving the company money, this year they claim it will save them $20 million, next year it will be around $30 million. 4 or so years ago they stopped commision sales. why? the top sellers were making more money than the manager & the managers bitched (while depositing their bonus check for making budget, that only managers get, not sales staff.)
One thing that pisses me off is that we lost 5 guys in our store that is already short staffed, one of whom was John J. someone who has worked at the store for over 6 years in the TV department, and Tim V. who was a a warehouse guy for over 6.
John consistantly made budget, getting the attachments & extended service plans almost all the time (dude, the service plan is worth it on a projection tv, those bulbs COST!)
it just pisses me off to so many degrees you cant tell. the REASON John was making over 51Cents over the wage cap for his sales position is BECAUSE he was there when they stopped paying commision, and he was such a good saleman that they ended up matching his average bi-weekly commisions to his new only-hourly check, not to mention the 6-month performance reviews in which you can get up to a $0.50 raise (most get like a quarter or 15 cent.)
what they shoulda done is fire the fucking managers that gave them the raises that broke the hourly wage cap in the first place, since they are complaining about them getting paid to much to be the most experienced sales people there.
so i say fuck ccity as a company because they are shady when it comes to the employees, they want to fire the best people they have just because they make too much? then why the FUCK did you give them the raise in the first palce?!?! the idea is to clear out the highest paid, replace them with ignorant people that the rest of the already short handed sales staff have to train, not to mention all the up-and-coming customer service issues due to newbies promising one thing and only being able to actually do half of it.
i would fucking quit right now if i diddnt have a newborn & the fact that im leaving for the navy in a couple months anyways.
P.S. if any of you higher ups read this & can figure out who i am: go ahead, fire me, i'll burn the damn building down just for principal. lets see how much money that'll save ya when $1mil+ of merch goes up in flames... im not called violent.ed for nuffin y'know