Thread regarding Sears layoffs

@1gxj You sound like you work in the OBU when you say a batch runs or pricing. I get it. I know what you are saying. You are right. Our jobs never end. How about checking pricing just after midnight to ensure something took correctly. I am always thankful for my job as I actually enjoy it, but it is a round the clock job for certain. I check emails in the morning while getting ready for work, check emails at night until I fall asleep and on the weekends. Have my computer at home on the weekend just in case an emergency comes up. I always chuckle, but better to be safe than sorry. Check emails during vacation time because otherwise the amount of emails I would have would be in the hundreds. If I am gone for a day, it is several hundred. I can't complain about my pay as I am fortunate, but you are right with our jobs never turn off. And yes we need to support one another.

There seems to be this automatic assumption that its not bad at HE... for most it is, aside from the ones at the top. I feel your pain at the store level, because I felt it at my level too. People get laid off or quit and they shift that work to others. I've worked at store level, typically at the end of the shift you are a bit pissed off but get to leave and forget about it until the next day. At HE if you are salary you don't get that option. I've been there until after 11pm trying to catch up, had directors breathing down my neck to fix problems they created, my only savior was that after a certain time the batch runs and nothing I could do would matter anymore anyways .... but I still had to stay an extra 2 hours after I couldn't do anything more to see how many of my changes went thru.. luckily that was only a 13 hour day. The running joke was always about the emergency at 4pm on a Friday, typically when the higher ups left early but would send an email causing chaos... all because of lack of planning and lack of accountability, who knew 4th of July was in the beginning of July this year, but we have to make these last minute changes.... that we could have done weeks ago.

I'm not saying things in the store are easy, I'm just saying HE s---s for most people as well. Fighting between Stores employees and HE Employees gets us nowhere and that's exactly what upper management wants.

We are all in the same boat, but what I think the OP is trying to get at is that there are policies and procedures that come down from HE that do not work at the store level. The reason they do not work is that 1. There are not enough people working and not enough hours to follow or implement the policy. 2. The equipment and computer systems are too old to do any job quickly and efficiently.

(try printing one thing on a printer in the office and having to print something else on another printer at the other end of the store because the office printer only prints certain things) 3. We spend way too much time filing out reports, printing reports that no one will ever read, answering emails and calls about things that have nothing to do with sales, customer satisfaction

afb: you are spot on what is expected from management from ONE person!! It's rediculous .. now how about those salaried managers come out from hiding and help out that one associate and be a team player!!

I would still like to see some one from corporate in HI in which there is no cashier, no MCAs and you are the only associate covering hardware, lawn and garden,sporting goods,plus be a cashier and put stock away. And by the way you are a commission associate trying to sell something to supplement you salary of $6.00an hour,while you take charge payments,land end returns,sears.com returns,sign up SYW members and sell PAs and SPP.

Work at a Sears store for a week and see how much your paycheck would be.

Try selling a tractor or treadmill while someone is yelling at the cash wrap about who is going to take their charge payment.

This is the reality in many of the smaller Sears stores,we live it everyday.

I wouldn't have ever said you weren't good at your job. I just think we all need to remember at HE that we make more than most of the store associates and should volunteer to help in the stores. It is the right thing to do at least in my mind. I think we are paid well, but I can only speak for what I see in my department.

I worked at corporate. .. and was not paid fairly. I thought I was only underpaid by about 10-15k... come to find out the actual number is closer to 30k

There were people in my position leaving the company for over 50% raises! And from my understanding I was even paid less then them!

Before any trolls try to throw out that I probably wasn't good at my job, I got great reviews and promotions, and the only real issue they had was that I was unhappy with my pay...well that I was vocal about it!

If you are a Sears Employee, at least get his name right. Lampert.

Lambert does not care about condition

of store, but we should volunteer.

Lambert has an end game and it

does take into account the well being

of the associated. piece of advice, easier

to find new job, when you have a job

@fwh If you work in HE, you are paid fairly, so it's not too much to ask an associate to take one of their work days and volunteer in a store. I am not asking the store associates to do this. No one in HE should be complaining about their salary.

@-kgo 'When was the last time you volunteered your time to go help out in the store?'

That has to be the ultimate dumbest statement ever made - talk about open mouth and insert foot

someone is going to work for a company that barely pays a decent wage AND THEN volunteer THEIR off time back to the company - That is the most extreme example of stupidity ever thought of - how are those classes in the college of ignorance & stupidity

woodfield is outdated, there is brown liquid

leaking from ceiling and the majority of

the remaining employees are dead enders

to stupid or lazy to improve their situation.

sometimes the truth is not pretty

Also how funny does it sound to say "to corporate." No Woodfield does not look bad at all. They do the best they can in that store given the challenges each store has. If you are part of corporate, and you think Woodfield looks bad, then try to do something to help them out. When was the last time you volunteered your time to go help out in the store? Make suggestions, stick up for the stores.

Nope there is a closer store. Dundee.

You seem to equate all 3900 of us at HE as "corporate" when the issues you are complaining about are largely coming from ESL himself. We execute or we are let go. We shop at Sears and Kmart - I am a platinum VIP SYW member, I spend so much at Kmart and Sears. I'm in stores every week. I worked in a store for five years before coming to corporate.

We are on the same team.

sears at woodfield mall is closest store

to corporate, it is dreary,outdated, and

understaffed. the employee morale is very

low and there is no attempt to provide a wow

experience.

Yep I shop our stores all the time. Kmart is trickier as the closest Kmart is about 20 miles away, so I try to shop online. I shop/help out in a store that is understaffed. There are stores very close to HE that also have been hit by the cut in hours.

I was at corporate for 2.5 years in pricing and our department encouraged us to shop at our stores. We went to couple of store visits to learn how pricing worked in the stores. I wish they did that to new hires and continue to check the stores. I went to few different Sears on the weekend to make sure that the prices we recommended are printed correctly on our products. I told my colleagues about it and they looked surprised. I wanted to make sure that I was making the price adjustments correctly so that the members would have the best experience.

I shopped at KMart/Sears every other week as I received SYWR points regularly to shop there. I prefer Sears to Kmart as the products looked better quality (I got my home cleaning from Kmart, good prices and it was close to way I lived). I bought my clothes and home decor from Sears as I get employee discount. I stopped shopping there because checkout took so long.

It was a good experience working in retail but I could not handle the office politics. I am at a better company now. I sometimes wished I worked at the stores for a week or month to see what it was like so that I can understand how my work impacted the stores and the store associates. Every corporate employee needs to work at the store to understand retail. Home Depot does it for new corporate hires.

gjp- I was just wondering, are you going out to stores that are truly understaffed, overworked, and under maintenanced, with old equipment and broken down computers and shelving. Or are you going to a store near HE which is probably a model store.

The vast majority who work at corporate don't even shop our stores. Like actually go into our stores as a customer, because my resources tell me that many are not even members.

Could you imagine the boom in business the three ridiculously awesome Kmarts (which they truly are) near Hoffman would get if everyone at corporate bought their toilet paper and paper towels there?

While the company cannot mandate corporate workers shop Sears or Kmart, these corporate workers are selfish in not supporting a company that gives them so much more than what the company's core retail workers get.

And it is true: If corporate people shopped our stores with their own money, they would have a drastically different view of our stores. The company culture would change for the better.

Not true in HE. Many of us worked in the stores years ago, and as the stores have changed, our department now is going out monthly and working a day in a store. So each month we work for a day in the store opening up boxes, putting out product, helping members, and seeing what members and associates see. You get a better sense of a store and the struggles when you work an eight hour day as opposed to a two hour visit.

It's about time.

This post is spot on. I recently left the corporate side of Sears in March of this past year. I started as an intern and worked in the stores in various positions (Lands' End sales, HIASM, OPs ASM), went on to do Market HR, then went to corporate in HE for a year, and finally worked in the SF office as a buyer. I can guarentee you that I met maybe 2 people my whole time at corporate who had ever worked in the store environment, let alone an actual sears store. The problem is that no one in corporate understands the struggles of the store team. They only see the b---s--- that they witness during a store visit when store management jumps through hoops to impress. Companies that want to thrive should be promoting from within, not hiring these grad school dreamers who don't understand retail, let alone the reality of Sears. Just my two cents...