Where do I begin? After reading all of these and talking to fellow employees who I have known for 20 years, I have lost faith that we are capable of being a company that cares about its employees and customers. I have been here long enough to know people in all departments so I have been talking to them to see if what is written here is true. Time after time they were able to show me proof of….well…everything. I cannot believe we have arrived here after all of the things we had gone through years ago. I thought we learned that doing things right and doing so by doing the right things for our employees and customers mattered. How can we keep secrets about mold and hackers instead of being honest and simply telling them what we are doing about it. Bad things happen. They do in every company but bad companies lie and try to manipulate the masses and their customers. Is that reallly who we want to be?
I have also gotten to know many leaders here and that includes the new security VP. Isn’t it clear that he doesn’t have the ethical and moral compass to lead one of the positions that require ethics the most. And I am not even bringing up the lack of experience. And you wonder why he isn’t getting things done fast enough and rather throws shade and excuses on others? Do not those articles and what he has already spoken about to many of us even trigger that he is not the right fit for our beloved company, or any other Fortune 500? He is already causing problems with his rethoric and loose lips and I know many of you talk about how you don’t like or trust him. A couple of you have done it when I am around. What else is left? There are over 3000 employees on one of the posts that are screaming for help as one poster so eloquently mentioned on her post. One section below has over 70 thousand hits. That seems to be more than any other company in layoffs.com so take a bow at the damage you are causing to our company name. Especially since you all know customers read these and so will the decision makers who will select the leadership once we merge. Yes we know about that too. His very existence has already caused division and spread rumors that are all turning out to be true and hurts US Foods deeply. For Pete’s sake ELT, do what you know is right. There was a time we knew what great looked like and made the difficult choices easily. Give our coworkers a voice again to report situations that may be dangerous or wrong. The fact that they aren’t able to do that should give you pause and at least 3 and a half thousand employees already have spoken up. Actually, my friends in HR said their own leaders up to the top know the verdict is already out. For Pete sake, put the needs of the employees first.
And these decisions to lie or deceive. Who are we kidding here. Have you forgotten how clear you used to see poor leaders trying to minimize harm and doing so by lying rather than confronting the issues. Be bold and ethical. When all of you weren’t in your current executive positions, do you remember how you felt when things were kept in silent and evasive or hidden actions would happen from your leaders or executives you really wanted to believe in? Do you really want to treat us as blind id--ts? We see and know it all because we are a large yet small company with friends in every department. The IT exec needs to tell the truth of what happened and how you are addressing it and care enough about our employees to tell them enough about the breach to let them know they should not be fearful. Let them know all is well and that all you are doing to try to prevent another attack. The password leaks are scary and we don’t know what that means. Some of us do because we have friends in IT security who tell us but most employees don’t. We understand it is difficult to prevent a hack and won’t lose faith when it happens. Some of the most secure and powerful companies and governments have been hacked. It is not surprising or scary but your lack of honesty and treating us like id--ts is. That same thing goes for the mold and the violence and threat incidents. Do I need to really tell our leaders that transparency brings trust and that harsh consequences for those types of bad employees, create safer work places?
I lie awake at night next to my husband wondering when we will have leaders remember who they were when they were rising and who once said “I will be different when I have that job. I will lead my teams with dignity and honesty”. When and how did that change? But it’s not too late to listen to your heart and us employees and simply do what’s right and take the actions you need to take. We may be merging in the future and who do you think those holding the most stocks and power will want to retain as the new company’s leaders. The executives from one company that dont even get the trust or respect from their employees? Those that lie and deceive rather than speak up boldly and address how problems will be overcome? Those that make bigger profits the right way and with compassion for your employees? Is how you are acting the way you want to teach your children to be?
Please be who I know most of you to be and start to lead and take the necessary moves you need to make. I have seen the comments of lies, cheating to hire some employees, inequality in hiring for positions, taking people who had a proven poor past and were caught lying in articles and admitted to lying, handling work place violence poorly, badly managed safery incidents, etc etc etc. Read these articles and rather than do damage control and trying to find out who the 4000 employees are that are revealing everything, why not just fix the problems themselves . It is a noble idea and actions of true leaders. Your employees are reaching to you for help. Led them and win their trust and respect us again. It is all we are asking for from our executives and friends for which we cheered for to climb that ladder because we believed in them and a vision of true leadership. Be who we all hoped and believed you would be.