You folks might also consider feeling a little sadness for Whole Foods senior management. They have made a terrible blunder as will be revealed over the next days, weeks and months. In an effort to stay competitive and shore up falling stock prices they've made the short term decision to cut the jobs of many of their most loyal employees. These people are some of the best and the brightest in the company, having risen through the ranks to achieve their positions through great familiarity with Whole Foods products and philosophy. These were the people on the front line who knew the customer's preferences and earned their trust. They were what made Whole Foods great, as much or more than any product. This kind of employee loyalty has to be earned over time and once lost cannot be easily regained. Whole Foods had other options than to sacrifice their own people. When upper management realizes what a major error in judgement they've made it will be too late to restore the spirit of community, loyalty to their employer and pride in their work these people once had. Whether the employees' trust can ever be recovered is in doubt. It may well have been damaged irreparably. Senior management will be heartsick when they realize what they have done to their once exceptional company.
13 replies (most recent on top)
They don't care, and it's their funeral.
49 states are "at will" states meaning can fire you for no reason. Don't have the lay off, offer any severance pay, just a pink slip and see you later.
Unionize, now, by any means necessary
Hey Whole Foods, Gordon Gekko was wrong: greed is NOT good. Laying off vital people in our community is not a good call. Will start looking at other options to do my shopping.
I don't feel even remotely bad for them. They made this disgusting mess. It's their fault and they SHOULD feel bad.
I'd feel worse for store team leaders as who will bear the brunt of the grief, anger and tears from affected TMs as opposed to anyone higher than that...
(i understand some are incompetent...but its all trickledown blameshifting here as it were, so thats a moot point)
Yet at the same time, they could have said I'm going with them....
Scroll down the page to see how much money these folks have recently sold in stock. Still feel sorry for them? Still think they care about the TMs who built the business on their hard work, passion, and belief that we were all doing something good?
https://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=WFM+Insider+Transactions
Mark and Nona are definitely at fault. I was falsely terminated for calling out their bad ethics 6 yrs ago
Don't fool yourself upper management did this as a show to wall street that they have succumbed to their ways and save wfm fat cats jobs.
It all boils down to corporate overreach and simple greed
its over.... never to be regained, they just dug the grave that wfoods will fall into
In many communities, Whole Foods is no longer the only game in town. My store has very local feel to it. If they let go a lot of familiar faces, people I talk with many times a week, I can start shopping elsewhere. And I will! Penny wise and pound foolish!
I don't think they care