Jeff, it was good to see us taking action in response to the corona virus, closing stores and taking care of our customers, hourly leaders and colleagues, directing corporate, regional, and divisional executives and staff to office from home so that almost everyone in our Macy's family can protect themselves and their loved ones and reduce the risk of catching and spreading the virus. So why are we requiring salaried store level executives to work together in their buildings every day when we are closed due to the virus? Do you know that region and division leaders are requiring us to work on projects like organizing clearance and Last Act racks, remerchandising, unloading trucks, and otherwise exposing ourselves to potential infection? None of the tasks we are doing are remotely business critical in nature. Do you know we are expected to take "before" and "after" pictures of the trivial work we are doing and post them to Yammer or Teams sites to "show" that we are being productive?
Regional and Divisional executives who are safely in their homes don't know what to do with themselves. In light of these new circumstances, they have instead adopted the role of micro managing store managers and their few leaders who are forced to work together with hourly phone calls, text messages, and requests for Yammer, and Teams postings as proof that we are staying productive. Look at the pictures Jeff, see how many of our store leaders are working in close proximity to their teams, even giving high fives and posting snaps of themselves standing in tight groups with fake smiles. We are worried about the company and our families; we have new leaders we don't know well enough to tell how we feel. We don't want to lose our jobs, but we also don't want to die or have people in our family die because for some reason the company and leaders we know and respect seem to value the health and well-being of everyone in the organization above ours.
It is estimated that at least 50,000 people in the US now have the virus and as you know, we already have several locations with confirmed cases. We need a little help here Jeff. How about showing the same level of concern for store leaders that we are showing for everyone else? If not, how about you and the other senior executives leave the safety of your homes and come out to the stores and work side by side with us to complete this less than crucial workload? If you and the other senior leaders choose to come out and work with us, you won’t have to ask for pictures and postings with fake smiles showing minor accomplishments, pictures that fail to depict the internal struggle of having to weigh the risk that we, our teams, and our familiar face in regards to contracting the virus against the risk of losing our jobs, we can instead all face the same risks and live or die together.