Unemployment insurance goes by your income for the last 4 quarters. Sears pays
taxes, based on how much employees pay into the fund. If you lose your cool and storm out
of Sears, they have a reason not to give you the insurance.
11 replies (most recent on top)
Our Market Leader actually told us that the two-week payroll cut is exactly that...a last-ditch attempt to bolster Q1 numbers.
Someone claimed they might be cutting hours in a desperate attempt to make the fiscal quarter (ending in 2 weeks) look good. Details are hard to figure out, but the big picture is clear. This company is going down the drain. I stopped in a Kmart a few days ago. It appears they are trying to run this business with about 5 employees. Everything is self service, including appliances. There were only a few customers in the store, and still they end up with a line at one open cash register, as the customers get pestered to open SYW accounts. And this used to be one of the better Kmart stores.
I have been with Sears for nearly 20 years, and yes, hours do fluctuate based on sales. However, this recent cut is the most severe I've ever seen. Today was a great example. We were extremely busy all over the store. We had 2 salespeople in tools/lawn and garden/fitness. 3 in appliances/mattresses/electronics. 1 in jewelry. 1 in a cashwrap in apparel. 1 MOD. That's it. Mind you, we have our clearance advertised at $3.99. We have customers come up with filled carts, 30 or more items. That's not a fast checkout and there's 10 more people in line with full carts. It's literally insane.
The last post about it being a catch 22 is exactly right. For many years I've called it a "death spiral". I'm an ex-manager with this company and my experience goes back to the 1970's. There isn't a hidden scheme or master plan to screw people out of unemployment. They aren't smart enough to come up with something like this. As sales and profits drop, they try to compensate by cutting expense. And payroll is the single biggest component of expense. They believe cutting expenses will result in improved profit. It's an incredibly stupid way to look at the process, but it's been going on for decades. And it's typical in the US corporate system.
Sounds like a catch 22. You don't have sales because the customer service stinks. You don't have sales because there are not enough cashiers to check someone out in a timely manner. You don't have sales because there are not enough people to stock shelves. So you cut hours because you don't have sales. Viscious circle or rinse and repeat.
For the peoplw that have eyes its truth. My manager told me hours are low because sales are low. Guess what sales were up yet hours were cut what BS is that. Managers will feed you lies they cut to protect the top guys.
Oh my! Once again why is there such a feeling that there is a "master plan" to all of this. It sounds like to me the sales aren't as strong in the stores as they would like so they are cutting hours. It is awful when anyone's hours are cut, but it isn't anything devious I am sure.
I don't know, but I would think each store's hours flex up or down depending on their current sales.
Hopefully some upper management is still out there to comment on this. My understanding when I was with the company was that payroll wasn't operated at 13% to sales which means that as your sales go down (which stores continue to miss sales) your payroll goes down regardless of tasks or anything like that. The more sales you have the more hours you get unfortunately this isn't happening. There is a game on report that will show you your trend and what hours you can schedule as a store to come within that 13%
The "alledged fund is ..................
What is the unemployment insurance trust fund, and how is it financed ...
www.taxpolicycenter.org/.../what-unemployment-insurance-trust-fund-and-how-it-fin...
The federal unemployment insurance (UI) trust fund finances the costs of administering unemployment insurance ... Key Elements of the U.S. Tax System.
"based on how much employees pay into the fund"
And just what is this "alleged" fund that employees "allegedly" pay into ???
There could be multiple reasons. The easiest for them o justify is lack of traffic. I think it os a combination of low foot traffic, minimizing what they have to pay into unemployment and part of their cost reduction. They delay in paying vendors, work out arrangements for paying taxes and depending on the loaner even loans but the paychecks must clear. It is a regular expense they cannot be late in paying. If the funds are low they may be trying to buy more time by cutting expenses but don't want to announce to the public that they cutting hours to everyone while increasing duties and skyrocketing goals.