I started to work for Sears in March, 1996 and by late that year had begun to display symptoms similar to adult onset asthma. Over the ensuing six years I continued to be treated for asthma symptoms as the condition steadily worsened.
I was finally referred to specialists who determined that it was not asthma but a reaction tosomething in my environment. I took all the usual allergy tests and they were negative.
I then took a hypersensitivity blood test to determine what it was I was being exposed to and it turned out to be 1) a common mold that grows in poorly maintained air conditioning ducts and 2) toxins deriving from, of all things, pigeons.
The entire mall is infested with pigeons and a certain store employees who had been on the roof said that the birds nest in the openings for the air conditioning intakes. The also defecate, die and rot there as well as all over the upper portions of the store.
As near as we can determine, my chronic lung condition for which I have been treated for over five years now May have originated as a result of a known unsafe working condition and was most certainly severely aggravated by the conditions at that store.
This came at a time when Sears was attempting to rid itself of all of its full time employees who receive employee benefits such as retirement and health insurance.
Over the past six years commissions have been reduced by as much as 50-60% in many areas. Sears works on a draw versus commission basis wherein you are guaranteed the federal/state minimum wage.
If your commission for a pay period is less than the minimum, Sears "lends or advances" you the minimum wage. Then, when and if your commission exceeds the minimum wagee they take out the amount above minimum to repay the previous "loan". It is not uncommon for an employee to work full time and actually owe the store money for up to five weeks running.
Also, if a customer returns anything they have bought from you, for any reason including the 95% that are totally beyond your control, the store deducts the commission on that item from your next check. Given Bob Vila's TV commercials this happens pretty often.
Last November, Sears hired it's usual quota of seasonal sales associates, flooding the floors with people, including the appliance floor with new part time people. This is spite of the fact that the holidays have traditionally been a slow time in appliances.
In addition, sales had been down since 9/11, especially in large ticket items. There was no justification for a large increase in the number of part time help hired. Not on the basis of customer service.
Sears did it anyway, diluting the associate/customer ratio to the point that full timers were loinbg as much as 15-25% of their income. Then in January, when seasonal part time help has traditionally been let go and things get back to normal, the oher shoe came down hard.
Not only were the part timers kept on, but the full timers all had their hours reduced by 25% in order to pay for their retention. This again impacted the income of loyal, long time employees by basically depriving them of another 15-20% of their income.
One 27 year store veteran was fired because he supposedly faked an authorization number for a credit sale. When the credit department itself refuted the management contention, they changed the cahrge to calling the credit department in the first place.
Young part time employees have stated that they have been called on the carpet as many as three times for this same offense and they're still employed. Many of us believe that since most of the full timers in our area are in the 40-50 age bracket this type of treatment amounts to age discrimination on the part of Sears.
A few years ago Sears did this big promotional thing whereby they made Sears shares available to general employees at a 15% discount. Within a couple of months after this big stock sale to employees, the stock dropped from $67 to $24. Fifteen percent discount and an immediate 60 percent drop???
This was when the company was losing another one of those massive lawsuits it keeps getting involved in. Can't remember if it was the wheel balancing scam or the bullying of former customers who had filed bankruptcy.
One employee tracking stocks on the internet found that one of the VPs had used his own shares to supply this big discount sale to employees.
This could go on but it's too long already. I would hope that, if yu're an ordinary working stiff and you have some "discretionary" funds to spend, you'd do it somewhere other than Sears.
Tom
Visalia, Connecticut
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