Dear Team Members, We are writing to tell you directly that we have made the difficult decision to reduce a number of positions across the company over the next two months. This will happen primarily through both consolidating and eliminating certain store and regional positions. We do expect some of the affected Team Members will take other positions in the company, and together with vacant positions remaining unfilled, we anticipate that this decision will mean an overall reduction of approximately 1,500 Team Members (1.6% of our overall workforce). Regional leadership is making every effort to speak to all affected Team Members by Tuesday morning. We are committed to treating our Team Members in a caring and compassionate manner, so Team Members who are affected will be paid in full over the next eight weeks as they decide on what option works best for them. This may include transition pay plus a generous severance package above the industry norm, or the opportunity to choose to apply for jobs from the nearly 2,000 currently open positions. We hope many of these Team Members will choose to stay in the company in a new role. For those Team Members who choose to leave, we thank them for their service and contributions. So, why are we making these changes now? Over the last few years we’ve discussed ways to make Whole Foods Market an even stronger company in a rapidly changing marketplace. We agreed that we must invest in lowering our prices, marketing our value and standards, and upgrading our technology in order to better serve our customers. We know this is difficult news because it affects many hard working and dedicated Team Members in our Whole Foods Market family. We encourage you to reach out to your leadership with any questions directly or in upcoming meetings. You can also contact us both at XXXXXXXXX@wholefoods.com and we will respond. We’d like to express our deepest appreciation as we all work together through this time. John and Walter
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The way that this translates is that employees are disposable and replaceable. The simplification in saying that they are reducing 1500 jobs and that they hope they will all find a new job in one of Whole Food's other 2000 job openings is a complete disregard for autonomy, finance, and the importance of family. These are not all single 20 year olds losing jobs, but people with families and children. They will need to sell family homes or prematurely terminate leases, put children through the stress of changing schools mid-year, and spouses would have to find new jobs as well in order to move to one of these vacant positions with the blind faith that this new position will be stable, all without moving expenses paid. That being said, some may truly want to move to a different part of the country to continue working with WFM, but to say that you hope that someone who lives paycheck to paycheck will simply be able to pick up and move in 8 weeks, with no moving allowance proves the reckless lack of economic understanding, which is clearly part of the problem this company is having in the first place. If you don't understand the financial logistics of why that is impossible for someone making $400 per week, then you probably should not be making financial decisions for a corporation that holds this much responsibility to their employees and to the profits of stockholders. What Whole Foods should be compelled to do is sincerely apologize for the extreme hardships that many individuals and their families will be suffering due to poor decisions made by a few, and to terminate those responsible as a consequence and lesson to future executives.
It makes perfect sense to me to restructure in a much needed time , in order to remain on the top in the industry .
Pixelated, totally agree with everything you said. I miss the old store also. Lots of decisions being made that make no sense at all. You are right, even though the place is not a hit with our guests, guess what? The few that kept coming, came back for US. What now.. Those of us that haven't lost our jobs, how do they plan on attempting to even approach motivating us now?? As if things weren't bad enough. Also, my body count today was 30. Did I miss anyone? That's like almost 50% of the store, right?
I was laid off today (SW region) I have never had a write up in the 3 years I worked there. They called a guy in on his day off, just so they could lay him off. Another guy has a new baby and now no job. I'm getting surgery in a month. Cobra is $231. month. I haven't felt secure in my job for months. All they would tell me was "this was such a hard decision for us!" with fake concern in their faces and voices. Lots of nice people laid off today. I wish all of you well!
This company is run by clowns.
and here comes the whole foods propaganda...the shades are off and the juice isnt working anymore, guys.
This is a classic example of corporation economics were the litte guy who carries the heaviest load loses again! Why was this contingency plan so poorly executed if was a plan that you had created to help the company grow in the right directions? Why is it time after time that we American business icon's fail and only save the top 5% of the compa company while everyone is told that we are in this together, but trully they are alone. I now know what true betrayal feels like , but now I must reinvent a new way to support my family. WFM demands so much loyalty but could only trully offer an open half hearted apology for their misguided trust. I hope you read this and trully understand how you have ruined many American dreams.
I love the line " We know this is difficult news because it affects many hard working and dedicated Team Members in our Whole Foods Market family." I guess hard work and dedication isn't worth anything any more. If this is how they treat "family," I'd hate to see how they treat people they treat strangers. I wonder how many executive positions will be eliminated?
Maybe they should slow it down as far as opening new stores. having them within a few miles of eachother is not necessary. it costs millions of dollars to open these new stores. meanwhile people who have worked for the company since the beginning are losing their jobs. i dont see how anyone can be confident that this is who they will be retiring with. they fired people last year too. maybe it wasnt as talked about. this will obviously affect morale which is already lower than it ever has been. part of the delight of shopping at wholefoods is getting the feeling that people who work there are happy and seem to be happy to help the customers. people will be able to tell the difference and it will be just as awkward and uncomfortable to shop there as any other store where the people working there are angry and under appreciated. this makes me so sad.
This is a load of bullshit.
Oh and how can we "work together through this difficult time" if you are laying us off??? And why are you firing 1500+ TMs and still have 2000 job openings posted?
BULL SHIT
I'm scared :(
"why are we making these changes now?"
...AAAnd of course their answer is an entirely vague sidestep. Here's the answer: bad business decisions. The only problem is that the people who made them aren't the ones paying for it. The little guys are, the ones who do all the actual on the ground executing and who are depending on those above them to not drop the ball. Preservation of the few at the expense of the many, corporate, crony playbook bullshit 101.
What a load! All you re"tired" in place need to get off the payroll. Did the Ripe Banana program developer lose his job? Tons of bananas discarded through that one. What about consolodating meat/seafood soups with prepared food, program tanked and we are bleeding millions on that decision. Probably still employed. The team members ARE the corporation. WE are who the guests delight in seeing when they come to shop. In my partuclar situation WFMbought our small store in little rock which was originally very exciting. But they destroyed a community, a culture and we wound up with a garish crap hole that is a huge disappointment to our guests and team members. We are suffering due to their idiot bullshit decisions. What a disappointment.