Age and handicap discrimination, I don't blame the Store Managers...It's the CEOs at the top.
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just announced Mary Lee is out. New CEO in.
Sorry this happened to you Jill.
Hire the young and dumb,they have the world by the a$$.
I am not positive it is an age "thing". I venture to guess it is a paranoid "thing". When you have experienced employees who know the ins and outs of the business and have leadership with NO knowledge of the business , leadership gets scared and starts to change things so no one with experience will question their motive or actions.Think this through....Mary Lee is NO spring chicken herself, and I bet her cronies are not either, fortunately KARMA is biotch...
When it's a cost factor, why are they firing experienced personnel (read older), re-classifying jobs as part time and no benefits? They're padding bottom line results by cutting payroll on the backs of those who've invested a lot of sweat equity into this shithole. You need to cut costs to hold bottom line results when sales falter. That's not an automation thing, that's branding, marketing, purchasing, management failing on an epic scale. If this was purely cost, they'd quit hiring VPs. VPs don' sell a damned thing.
re; 90639, you're absolutely correct. It's a cost factor, pure and simple. They feel by automating as much as possible, the experience that demands a higher form of compensation becomes meaningless. Why pay salaried experienced employees when a temp staff with low pay can run it? The truly glib part is that they're likely to tell you it's because today's generation doesn't 'care' about stable jobs and expects to work less than four years at a place with no job security or benefits. As a 'millenial' I'll tell you right now I'd take a 9-5 job with benefits any day over something where you get time off to 'pursue philanthropic activities' on Fridays or hanging out in a Starbucks all day for nine dollars an hour.
If Follett has to be technical, they might as well shut the doors. Follett's IT has a tough job with so many distributed networks. That being said they've always sucked at integrating systems, updating client machines, updating networks and supporting their stores. Look at the retail websites. They're truly awful. They all look alike. They're antiseptic. They don't capture anything about the student experience at that institution. It is a marketing and IT failure. Follett Marketing and IT are terrible. Folks, that's today's retail- marketing and IT drive consumer choices. Follett is terrible at it.
I think you're being a bit glib when you say it's not age. Age and experience go hand-in-hand. When an experienced employee who has been capable at their job for 15 or more years is run out, you're naive to think age isn't part of the equation. Age discrimination has less to do with hating middle aged workers, it has more to do about running out capable workers because you can hire a younger person for less money. Make no mistake, that's what Follett has been doing. Picture a sign in the employee lounge saying you will be fired after 10 years of experience. That's what they're doing. It is age. If the employee has been with the company for over 20 years, they're not even laid off. That employee is subjected to emotional abuse until the employee quits or can be fired. No severance.
It's true that students have turned away from the bookstore for text books. However, text books are a terrible margin business. They still buy hats and tees and sweatshirts and other logo merchandise. That's where the money is. That Follett didn't adjust to a changing market is on Follett. I'm not seeing a lack of chiefs in the executive wash room. They've taken it out on the front line employee. Specifically, they've taken it out on the experienced front line employee. It's unfair labor practices.
It sounds like you were working at a book store and not in a management position. I am not surprised you were let go if that's the case. It wasn't because of age. It's because bookstores are becoming less profitable. More and more students are turning towards digital content. Follett doesn't want to be selling t-shirts and hoodies for schools either. We are in the book and education business. That is our focus and we've lost sight of that. We want to get back there, so it is natural that we will be focusing less on physical stores and turning towards digital. The entire industry is going that way, it isn't just us.
When they want you out, they will find a way to make it happen. Only it's "disturbing" they are more sloppy with their attempts to mask discrimination. Get an attorney and talk about your options, then file the necessary claims. No one deserves to be discriminated against.
There is life after Follett, keep your spirits up.
They are not stopping this year with the layoffs. You are correct, it is the CEO, President and other new leadership who are only focused on their bonuses and stock options. Our time will come too.