Posted on 02/05/2018 2:42:34 PM PST by Red Badger
You think your job is a grind?
Try working at Whole Foods, which is apparently a pretty tough place to clock in every day.
“I wake up in the middle of the night from nightmares,” an anonymous staffer told Business Insider, which spoke to 27 current and former workers. “The stress has created such a tense working environment. Seeing someone cry at work is becoming normal.”
Crying? There’s no crying in supermarkets!
Seriously: What’s the problem?
Seems the Austin, Texas-based chain, which was bought by Amazon last summer, has initiated a new inventory system called order to shelf (OTS) that is pretty hardcore — and breaking down morale. Amazon’s founder is Jeff Bezos, who went to high school in Miami-Dade.
Business Insider ✔ @businessinsider
'Seeing someone cry at work is becoming normal': Employees say@WholeFoods uses "scorecards" to punish employees for failing to comply with its inventory management system http://read.bi/2DT1Ob6
According to Supermarket News, OTS is when distributors and suppliers deliver small batches of product to retailers, which helps stores keep back-room inventory down and, of course, saves money.
When asked by the Miami Herald to comment on employee complaints, a spokeswoman did not specifically address the issue.
“Whole Foods is committed to providing the best selection of high quality products and in-stock for our customers,” Whole Foods’ Brooke Buchanan said Monday in an email.
To keep shelves fully stocked, staffers have to hustle more than ever. To add insult to injury, managers walk around conducting pop quizzes, doing spot checks and checking off scorecards to determine how quickly the shelves are replenished.
Kurt EichenwaldVerified account @kurteichenwald
After @Amazon took over @WholeFoods, my wife said the place seemed like a place of misery with frantic employees wrapped up in so much make-work that customer service was gone. Now we know why. We go to central market and regular grocery store now.
“Do all items on sales floor have accurate signage?” reads one of the myriad questions on the scorecard for a produce staffer.
“Are all displays that are not pulled down at night maintaining 75 percent holding power or greater throughout the day?”
Some shoppers at the Coral Gables Whole Foods reacted with surprise to hear the news that Amazon had acquired the popular grocery chain Friday, June 16, 2017. Shoppers all said how much they loved the shopping experience of Whole Foods, but some liked the idea of using Amazon online as a possible alternative to shopping and traffic. Miami Herald
A scorecard grade below 89.9 percent is considered failing and the employee may be subject to termination, not to mention humiliation.
“The fear of chastisement, punishment, and retribution is very real and pervasive,” another worker told the site, which adds that the harsh working environment has caused many people to quit.
Ironically, OTS may not even be helping the bottom line. Business Insider reports that many Whole Foods are experiencing food shortages because of it.
I have noticed this if I look at the groceries in a CVS - they will have literally only one bag of each type of chips. Bizarre.
Conservatives are happy to work. I recall it was Jenna Marbles who commented that Hillary Clinton would lose the election because she was promising Democrats “More jobs”.
The smaller low cost brother. Designed to only grab half the paycheck of millenials who can't afford a whole paycheck. Yet.
That was not OTS. OTS did not exist before Bezos.
Disclosure: No relationship with WF or any other grocer; have not been in WF in over 2 years; and generally idgaf except Bezos -- and this is said constructively, even lovingly, under Amazon 'Leadership Principles' Rules 4,6,12,13 -- is a piece of living shit...
Maybe we’re both making valid observations. Crunchy people sweating under that which they’ve asked for but don’t like... statist rules... statist life.
Absolutely. A weird paradigm, indeed.
Trying not to defend any individual WF slacker, for certain, but any rational analysis of Bezos 14 Rules...well, the only thing that compares is the garbage that is Scientology, and the utter preying on fairly ordinary people with an aspiration complex, that Miscavige perfected to ensure a pathway for those who aspire to OTVIII; to the point of raking leaves at hq or scraping mollusks at SeaOrg, etc.
One of my uncles was pulled from school in 3rd grade to help support the family. Ten kids and a sick mom.
In the early 50’s he got married and went to work at a paper mill.
After a few years on the job the company updated their machinery, putting modern (at the time) gauges and controls.
He told his supervisor that he couldn’t read and couldn’t figure out the controls. They told him to learn or leave.
His wife worked with him every night starting with first grade level books. He learned to read.
He retired from that same company thirty years later.
I feel sorry for people who cut and run when things don’t go their way or they have to change.
They never know the power of overcoming an undesirable situation.
Sounds like it is AMAZON that is giving them nightmares. This is a recent turn of events.
And it was known last year that it was a hostile takeover and that there would be wideranging changes to the prior employee friendly corporate culture.
How many days do you work? 6? 7?
I was unfamiliar with the rules. Thanks for the enlightenment. Not a Bezos fan.
The older employees (10-20 years on-staff) probably are grandfathered in for good benefits and vesting.
Have to run them off for cheap cheap labor and “new” CHANGE.
Layoffs will continue until morale improves
>>This ruthless treatment of workers sounds like Amazon being Amazon, but its worth noting that the OTS system was actually announced by Whole Foods’ CEO John Mackey in February of last year. At the time, Whole Foods executive vice president of operations David Lannon told investors on an earnings call “the team members are really excited about.”
Implementation of an OTS stocking system and grading every single employee a minimum of twice a week locally and with additional regional and high up spot inspections are two different things.
It sounds in line with Amazon’s corporate culture, not Whole Foods’.
>>... this micro-managed approach to labor falls squarely in the pattern of treating humans like machines that has marked Amazon’s business practices for years. Undercover reports by journalists posing as warehouse workers have revealed long hours and aging workers desperately trying to hang on to their jobs by meeting absurd quotas that leave little time to breathe. Employees are encouraged to spy on one another and are rewarded with monetary bonuses for reporting any rule violations. A Mother Jones reporter was warned by a co-worker that she’d be fired if she cried after being mistreated. And a strict point system is used to keep workers hanging by a thread.
These guys get a sense of entitlement and think they are God’s gift to their employer. Unfortunately for them, they are the only ones with that opinion.
In the case of the BIL, they were going to PAY HIM while he learned. Almost nobody trains employees anymore. But, instead of grabbing this opportunity, he sticks his nose in the air, picks up his ball, and marches home. What he doesn’t realize is that at his age, this may very well have been his last time at bat.
And this guy thinks he and his ilk are entitled to run the world.
Sounds like a recent college graduate is attempting to look important and progressive.
I have never been in a whole foods or starbucks and have never eaten ben and jerrys ice cream or pennsy spices...
I hate progressive liberals and will never support them.
Dropped by our local Whole Foods the other day just to see what it was all about. The prices were OUTRAGEOUS! I couldn’t believe there were people in there buying stuff .. a Publix down the street was a much better bargain for anyone.
That was not OTS. OTS did not exist before Bezos.
Sorry, but it did exist before Bezos.
From Salon.com
We all blamed Amazon, that purveyor of the lowest common denominator run by the world’s first hundred billionaire, Jeff Bezos. As it turns out, we were only partly correct. An investigation by Business Insider found that a new supply-and-inventory management system called OTS (order-to-shelf) had been implemented by the grocer prior to the Amazon purchase.
From BusinessInsider.com
Many customers are blaming Amazon, which bought Whole Foods in August for $13.7 billion. Analysts have speculated that the shortages could be due to a spike in shopper traffic in the wake of the acquisition.
But Whole Foods employees say the problems began before the acquisition. They blame the shortages on a buying system called order-to-shelf that Whole Foods implemented across its stores early last year.
Google it for yourself.
“These guys get a sense of entitlement and think they are God’s gift to their employer. Unfortunately for them, they are the only ones with that opinion.”
I’ve seen that before. Usually they end up bouncing from job to job, never happy where they are.
In my experience they seem to think they can always do the job/run the company better than the people hired to run the outfit.
At one time there were a lot of laid off middle aged men who got into trucking because their jobs had been eliminated and the money in trucking looked good.
Too many of them had all the answers to questions that no one was asking. They were also sure of their intellectual prowess and moral superiority.
Most of them didn’t last a full year they either switched companies or went home.
A few learned the ropes, adapted to the life and had a good time and made money.
There was one guy, a FLAMING liberal in his early 50’s, that came to the company I was with.
A year later he had his equally liberal wife as his permanent rider.
Two years later they were converted to conservatism. Nothing like the real world to change peoples perspective.
Once you pass 50 the opportunities are few and far between.
If you are 50+ and have a job you should do whatever it takes to keep it.
At 60 just about every door is closed. Your application isn’t even considered.
People like your BIL can’t see opportunity because of the problems they create for themselves.
They are also the LEAST able people to run the country.
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