There are quite a few great posts on this page now... Some are thoughtful, some are emotional and some are a bit of both. The post directed to Jeff and Danielle is well written and I have no doubt it felt good to have a forum to share it. One thing that people need to keep in mind however is that it won’t make any difference. I do think that they have someone monitoring this page, particularly after the leak that was incredibly accurate a couple of years ago. But, the fact is, we just don’t have an opinion that counts. Shareholders’ opinions are what matter. That’s been clear for some time now. I’m not saying it as a jab at company leadership, I’m just trying to clarify what we’re all doing here... Venting. That’s it. No change will come of it nor will it even be acknowledged. I’m not trying to insult anyone who has posted here by the way.
There have been ample opportunities to consider the employees over the shareholders. Look at Q3 as an example. It’s the heaviest receipt flow into stores all year and we went to base staffing, were not allowed to fill open jobs and any open hours were pulled out of the schedule. It was basically a punishment to the people who did show up. By the way, the expectations weren’t changed, execution standards weren’t reduced to align with the lack of hands to do the job. Think senior leadership was unaware of the burden? No way, they didn’t get there because they were stupid. But at the end of the day Earnings Per Share were more important. That’s what shareholders care about. That’s why we do something that looks cool and cutting edge like Story. We can sell it as innovation to the shareholders. Meanwhile we throw millions of dollars at it, send Racheck Shechtman traveling the country showing up half drunk in stores and what did it generate? Sales from all the Story shops combined likely didn’t pay her salary. I wonder how many jobs that would have supported by the way...
I’ve had a good long run with Macy’s and I have appreciated it. I expect it to come to an end next week and I feel bad about that. I do wish that mine and everyone else’s service to the company was being treated with more dignity than what appears to be a bold move to coincide with a shareholders meeting. In the end it’s their vote that counts.