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Circuit City and the American Dream
An anonymous reader writes "Circuit City said yesterday that it had fired 3,400 of its highest-paid sales staff — 8% of its employees — and will replace them with lower-paid workers. Sign On San Diego called this 'a risky strategy to cut costs that goes beyond the layoffs, buyouts and hiring freezes commonly used by struggling companies.' The fired workers have a chance to apply for lower-paying positions after a 10-week wait, the company said. Quoting a Circuit City spokesman: 'This is no reflection on job performance... We deeply regret the negative impact. Retail is extremely competitive, and if we're going to thrive and operate a successful company... we just have to control costs.' So: work hard, become the best in your field, and get fired so they can offer you a new job 10 weeks later at a lower salary."
"Work hard, become the best in your field..."
Yeah, sorry -- the folks working at Circuit City don't generally really qualify as being the "best in their field", unless you're defining the "field" as "people who work at Circuit City". Besides, Circuit City's not on commission anymore so you can't even argue that these folks were necessarily their top performers.
But let's accept for a moment the premise of this article. If these folks really are such great salesmen, this is opportunity knockin' at their door -- they can get better jobs at higher-end stores, they can start their own higher-end stores, they can get into selling something that has worthwhile commissions involved with it like software or cars or whatever. I mean, let's face it: Being the best sales associate at Circuit City is along the same lines as being the best cook at McDonald's. If that's where your vision ends, that's almost certainly where you belong.
That aside, what offends me most is that this thread is this horrific notion that we've devolved to a point where the meaning of the term "American dream" has mutated from 'boundless opportunity in the marketplace and the ability to move out of the economic class you were born into' to 'lifetime employment at Circuit City'.
Speaking only for myself, if that really were the case then I'd want no part of it.
The American Dream as I understand it is that when you get laid off from a shitty dead-end job you can go out and find or create something better if you have the drive and/or ability for it. And hey, if your lack the skills or the ambition to go out and work to better your situation, you can always reapply -- I'm sure that red shirt will fit just as well in ten weeks as it does now.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Boycott Circuit City!
Best Slashdot Co
what they want or what they deserve? I know if I worked there, I would hope I could find a better job before they could fire me and would be praying that hundreds of other employees would be doing the same. The next time you visit Circuit City just remember how they value their employees. If they can't be bothered to spend the money on quality help what does that imply about their attitude towards their cutomers.
My humor is probably your flamebait
There is a huge logical gap between "We're not getting rid of these people for performance reasons" and "These people are the best in their field". I don't think you can read any of this and come away even with the idea that these people were any better than the other, lower paid employees in their same stores. If they think they can employ the *exact same people* for less money in 10 weeks, then clearly these salespeople were paid beyond what the market can bear.
Why do we need to make up negative stuff about this when we could simply point to the fact that the salary savings look pathetic in comparison to what they continue to pay their executives?
Either that or they need the stock boost that comes from indiscriminately firing workers - Wall Street loves that.
--- There are two kinds of people, those who accept dogmas and know it, and those who accept dogmas and don't know it
The truth of the matter is that a Circuit City salesman performs a service to the public which is about on par with picking strawberries or washing cars. People who pick strawberries and wash cars make the minimum wage. These types of jobs are not intended to be long careers, they are supposed to put kids and part-timers to work. The stark truth of economics is that if you want a higher wage you have to do something more valuable. Try machining or engine repair.
Circuit City and the American Dream
Business savvy decision allows new employees a chance at sales fame.
Top business analysts have determined that a growing number of people have become "too wealthy for their own good", according to one high-ranking Wall Street spokesperson. "It is in the interest of the common good that we allow other, less priveleged folks, to have the opportunity to buy their own food and afford both rent and car payments."
The dismissed workers, having reached their allowed quota of wealth, were given peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on their way out the door and told that they could reapply after their savings had been reduced to zero. While the average lifespan of a salesman's savings is about ten weeks, according to financial analysts, it was widely agreed that dismissed employees would not truly be eligible for reassignment until they had accumulated enough debt to prevent them from ever owning a house or car again.
"These people were beginning to factor into systems that have long been the exclusive playgrounds of the rich and powerful. We simply could not allow them to tip the scales and upset the balance," said Circuit City spokesman Bill Cimino.
the NPG electrode was replaced with carbon blac
Circuit City is on it's last legs.
The CC stores I've been in have lots of empty shelves, especially in the home audio area. The center area is mostly CDs and DVDs. They had a decent selection of TVs, which, supposedly, are low margin items, so they're not going to be much help in keeping CC profitable.
This sort of nonsense will continue in retail jobs (and everywhere else) until workers UNITE. There is no sense in taking this sort of abuse. Circuit City employees: your company does not care about you, if you want to receive something like fair compensation for your labor then you have to unite with your fellow employees.
Poor employee morale and low pay create the a social petri dish for employee malaise and discontent. Customer service suffers. People stop shopping there. The company continues to lower prices and pay. A vicious cycle ensues. Soon they declare bankruptcy and blame on it everything except poor management decisions driven by short term bottom line numbers.
One ring to bind them - should probably have more fiber and less rings in their diet.
What other large electronics chains are left that I can buy at? I don't want to support businesses who either cheat their customers (Best Buy) or who mistreat their employees (Wal-Mart, Circuit City.) I'm going to be running out of vendors, soon.
Anyway, this reminds me of a friend of mine. He graduated from college with a degree in History. Yes, a rather un-saleable degree. So he lived on my couch for a few months after he graduated while he tried to find a job. The only job he could find was telephone credit card sales. Yes, he was *THAT* guy. Every day, he came home from his job, the first words out of his mouth were "I hate my job." What made it even worse is that he was *GOOD* at it. His second month there, he set a sales record. His third month, he broke that record. Then he got fired. Because he wasn't following the script to the letter.
Now, if someone comes in, and, by *NOT* following the script to the letter (he did say all the parts that the law requires creditors to say,) sets sales records two months in a row (he got a plastic slinky with the company name on it in thanks,) shouldn't you have the OTHER people follow his lead, rather than fire him?
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
You DO NOT want to be wearing the red shirt. Especially if you are on the away team.
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
"In the 1980s capitalism triumphed over communism. In the 1990s it triumphed over democracy."
--David Korten
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Circuit City: You make too much money. You're fired.
Dumbass Employee: What? Noooooooo! My PS3 comes in next week and I need the employee discount! I'll work for less!
CC: Not good enough. First you must go without a paycheck for 10 weeks to prove you are worthy.
DE: Aaaggghhhh! Okay, then what? I'll do anything.
CC: Then you must crawl back here, and I do mean crawl, and beg for your job back at half your previous salary!
DE: *sobbing* I'll do it!
CC: Oh, and bring me a shrubbery.
Life needs more saving throws.
A union just gives us the ability to say "if you fuck with one of us, you fuck with all of us". Do you have a problem with workers doing that?
I do when you don't have a choice about joining the union or not, which is generally what happens with unions - and they turn that same attitude back on fellow workers they do not like.
A workers union is a slippery slope to a whole other parallel layer of management above you, and that honestly does not do the company or you any good in the long run.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"Not that crappy old Circuit City..."
This is just another chapter in an old story. The top management of Circuit City doesn't know what they are doing, so the company has trouble making money, but it is only the employees who suffer.
--
Is U.S. government violence a good in the world, or does violence just cause more violence?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"In the 1980s capitalism triumphed over communism. In the 1990s it triumphed over democracy."
What do employee/employer relationships at Best Buy have to do with democracy? Nobody has subverted representative government here. One particular corporate entity has made a business decision to cut labor costs by getting rid of some of its more highly-paid employees. There's no violation of contract, no usurpation of rights. There is no right to employment in the United States, and never has been.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
During my time in college I worked for both Circuit City and Best Buy in the same town. Overall I think CC treated their employees better. Everyone wants to boycott CC for screwing their employees over but they're missing a few important bits of information on how things work there. I'll see if I can shed some light. When CC went from commission to non-commissoned sales they gave their old employees one HELL of a deal. They tallied up everything the employee had made in the previous year (including comissions) and made that their new hourly wage. We had people at our store making $19 dollars an hour because of this. $19 an hour........selling digital cameras. Compare this to the $9.50 an hour that someone who came in after the commission/non-commision switch, and you can easily see that there were a lot of SERIOUSLY overpaid sales staff. These people weren't necessarily the best salesman they were just the ones that had happened to have been around at the right time. So this is not a killer of the american dream. This is not a case of canning people who have worked their way up the sales ladder. This is merely cutting some bloat, getting the labor prices back down to reasonable levels. Having been an employee (one of the $9.50 ones) I can say: good for them! Some of the $19 an hour people were WORSE salesman than I was. Now they can possibly get to a situation where people get raises based on merit as opposed to not being able to afford to give ANYONE raises because you have emplyoees being paid twice what they're worth.
The bottom 90% is losing ground. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/business/29tax.h tml?ei=5065&en=f30aed8087a73065&ex=1175745600&part ner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print
That's the whole point. If they can make $30 million more by NOT paying you, then guess what? They should fire you! You're not worth the $30 million.
That's like your plumber telling you "Hey, uh, you should really pay me twice as much, because if you don't, you're just going to keep the money for yourself."
If you want money, EARN it. Don't expect it to just be handed to you.
paintball
I know you didn't major in Economics! The $30 million they "save" on wages will quickly have a major impact on lost sales and other losses. Those $30 million probably paid for their most experienced workers - and now they'll lose sales capacity, knowledge and experience in one fell swoop. And I am not referring to their technical knowledge alone - but the corporate business routines. The corporate machine will not run as smooth. I appreciate the need to save however this is literally cutting of your arms and legs.
They already did this in 2003 and like the article says: "At the time, the move hurt the company's sales, Whalin said."
It's more like the plumber not getting paid by his employers - they will loose sales and skills.
If you want to earn money - invest time and money.
Circuit City was identified as the best performing company in Jim Collins' book, Good to Great. Over about 15 years, Circuit City transitioned from a mediocre retailer to a phenomenally performing company, beating the market over 18-fold over 15 years (1982 - 1997)! (p7 of the book).
So what happened?
I no longer shop at the local CC if I can avoid it. Black Friday last year they were a complete mess. It took several minutes to process a customer. Rebates were filled out by clerks, keeping the line waiting. Lines were randomly woven throughout the shopping aisles: you didn't know what aisle you were in and customers were kept from shopping by the congestion. Presently, during normal shopping, their checkout system is quite slow and cumbersome.
In contrast, Best Buy was very well organized and the checkout lines as fast as possible.
Where did the "great" Circuit City go?
Even during
ShoutingMan.com
The fired workers have a chance to apply for lower-paying positions after a 10-week wait, the company said.
However, that circuit city feels that they can exercise their lack of loyalty so egregiously is disgusting.
Recently, my girlfriend dumped me but said I was encouraged to reapply for the position of "friend" instead. I told her that if she upgraded the offer to "friends with benefits" that we could consider that a severance package for my being so loyal to her. She told me rather sternly to take or leave her original offer.
Bitch.
GMD
watch this