Long time ASM demoted from ASM50 to ASM45. Lost about $9K. That’s about 5-7 years of raises to get back to the original salary. Now, in a poor retail economy, I think most of us understand that everyone may have to “bite the bullet for the good of the company”. The problem is that if we turns things around, and we produce record earnings for our shareholders, we employees will never be financially rewarded. Go back to the raises before the recession of 2008 (5%), and compare them to any year after(1.5%). We had some good years, but never reaped the rewards at store level.
Secondly, while workforce reductions hurt, the separated associates are no longer affecting the morale of the organization. In most cases they recover to bigger and better opportunities, even if in the short term they struggle economically and emotionally. On the other hand, when you reduce the pay for active associates, and ask them to do the same job, the natural inclination is to slack off.
Either MT did not think through the affects on organizational morale, or there are future plans to replace all managers in the not too near future.