I work at corporate. You’d have to be stupid to not know we are heading towards bankruptcy very soon. Im riding it out for a number of reasons from retention bonuses to the lack of pressure to get results making the work week easy. When you work for a sinking company there is no need to push for results as everyone knows it’s pointless, people for years have come in late, they leave early, have two hour lunch breaks in the lunch room or the nearby strip, work from home multiple times a week (when it’s usually just an extra day off) it’s an easy life and I accept that attitude contributes to the downfall. I have always felt things would be fine, talk of bankruptcy has always been there but never materializes. This is different. The mood at Hoffman for all those that have been coasting has changed as we really can see that time is up. People here are anticipating a BK within the next month and are making preparations for it.
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@3gwj-- Exactly. Too many conference calls. I try to call someone to get an answer to a question--- their on a conference call. Next, I'm on a conference call. Last week we had a call every day and a few days there were two calls. Each call lasted at least and hour and a half. So during that time nothing got done. Seems like everyone at HE is just trying to justify their jobs by making things up to do that have nothing to do with the actual business.
To the Corp person below: If true, you need to let this go. What are they going to do? Fire you? Just claim you were laid off.
I’d like to know which groups are slacking off- I’m at corporate and we are doing the jobs of multiple people and don’t even get a lunch break. Constantly pressured for quick results with a huge backlog of work due to less people available to complete the task. Two hour lunches- I wish. I’d settle for time to eat at my desk-while NOT on a conference call.
@1pyz "They thought it was dropping so much the system must be down or something."
To be fair, that was a reasonable guess - it has happened multiple times this year, parts of the website and/or in-store checkout systems breaking badly enough to make it impossible for customers to buy stuff for hours at a time.
I got a friend who is working for Sears and he was supposed to show up after work for a game yesterday. We were counting on him on our team. He told us he had to stay late goose chasing an issue when someone opened a corporate alert because sales were down more than usual. I don't know what the heck that was but I knew for sure their stock dropped below $1 yesterday.
He said it was stupid for someone to open up a ticket and got everyone excited. They thought it was dropping so much the system must be down or something. I told him you guy have stupid people there. Don't you follow the news. Your stock dropped below $1 and customers won't be shopping there no more because they are thinking you are going bankrupt. Dude find a new and steady job so you can play sport like we should.
@1aav Our store manager called a storewide meeting about "fake news" and actually mentioned this site. She didn't want anybody to pay attention to the news or read/participate in any discussions on the layoff message board. She didn't want anybody discussing anything negative about Sears, even in the breakroom or outside of work (I did, however, agree that nobody should be talking about Sears' problems within earshot of a customer, but AFAIK, that was not the case, it was just talk in that she overheard in the breakroom which prompted this meeting). She then brushed off Sears' problems being bigger than they really are and that "these Wall Street people" were blowing everything out of proportion and didn't know what they were talking about. This was said by someone who only had a high school diploma.
She held a closed meeting with those of us who were managers under her and said that she was losing too many people so fast because of the "rumors" scaring people away. Well, she was only telling half the story, she didn't take into consideration that 1/2 the store was scheduled for less than 10 hours a week (hard to keep people on so few hours!). She didn't take into consideration that even though our consultative salespeople averaged 25-30 hours they had nobody to sell anything to (they were not making any commission at all!). She didn't think about the all the stores closing around us or all the different changes that were made in the stores, like simple store. She basically wanted us to do damage control, including writeups and pep talks. I refused.
I hate to agree but most of people who are now at HE are slacking off. We no longer in a hurry to do anything. The projects, if any, got late and project managers don't care. Time sheet we can put anything in to milk the time and manager no longer asking us why we spent time on that. It is just a waiting game for most folks and if we get a severance it would be nice. Half of my team already found new jobs and some are looking. Only crew from India will remain to turn off the light. Sad end of once a great company. Sorry American people, founders of this company, we let your iconic storied company going down in flame. Not a great thing to tell my children.
@1gdw would you like more money, bonuses to stay and have the option to work less? You sound high and mighty but im be sure you would do the same if you were here. If the company invested in all of us, including you, in anyway I might have changed my attitude. But, the company fired my friends, corporate and field, closed down our stores, lied to us daily, gave us no benefits (discount, 401Ks, expensive healthcare) treated us like filth, dictated to by a criminal, manipulated by countless yes men who took joy at store closings and hours cut (I know as I have watched them in the meetings doing it) I could go on. So yes, I will get my own back in my own little way by doing as little as I can and squeezing this sinking ship for as much as I can because that’s what is being done to us, you included. Thats why there are still people at corporate who have yet to leave, we are taking advantage of the retention bonuses and easy work week. Why else would any of us still be here? Career progression?
You people at Corporate should be a shamed of yourselves to act like that. Corporate has never been good with communication to the lower management, no one was never on the same page. People working at Corporate were always treated like royalty... free this free that and high wages... for what .. to milk the company. You all helped in the demise of the company.
Ha, Ha. So funny. The exact opposite of my SM who continues to tell us to not believe the lies and anyone caught talking about how bad it is will be fired. We had one person in out store who keeps up with the stock market (not just Sears) talking about how far the stock had dropped and the letter Eddie sent to the board about buying Kenmore and the last letter talking about restructuring debt.
Well, our manager walks in and hears the talk and calls a store wide meeting to yell and scream about "Fake News" and how there are websites out there that only want to destroy SHC. He tells us he doesnt read anything about the company or believe we are going down the tubes. The SM then proceeded to tell everyone who was taling about the Eddie letters that they were being written up for spreading false rumours and conduct detremental to the company.
So the guy that was talking about the letters pulls out his phone and shows the manager that the letters and news was from Eddie himself and it wasnt "fake news" or some website out to destroy SHC.
The manager still did not believe the guy and still continues to talk about the websites trying to destroy SHC. I dont think anyone was ever written up.
But it amazes me how you can be a SM and not read anything or know anything about the company you work for. OR how after all the closings and all the problems in the stores, and all the cut hours you can still believe it is 1992 and everything is going great.
When the leader of the company telecommutes 100% of the time doesn’t send a great message does it?
Nobody is to blame but Lampert himself. 100%. Clueless from day one. What a disgrace.
This may be the most accurate post I’ve ever read on this site.
I can't believe the posts on here. Too funny, but sad to see this old institution die. I don't work for Sears by the way.
I also worked at corporate and I noticed the same behaviors that OP xox talked about. Some employees on my team worked from home most of the time, in fact one person on my team I hadn't seen in months before I got laid off a few months ago. Managers also working from home... (supposed to be supervising/coaching people?). I suppose it could be done from home but I also noticed after 1 or 2 pm the office was a ghost town. Especially towards the end of the week. All the projects dried up and all we were working on were old requests that were previously on the back-burner. In retrospect it's probably best I got out a few months ago... but I probably should have left the company a year ago.
I had some laid back bosses as well when I worked for the District . Had some great times and. I wish all of you well .
I am a store manager as well. I walk around with a clipboard all day and "delegate" work to all those below me. I've been doing this for years.
I have done the same as a store manager for the last year. I watch nexflix in my office for most of my shift. I have a salary assistant and we have a deal. We both only work about 30 to 35 hours a week and schedule the hourly leads for 40+ and make them do most of our work. My Dm never looks at my schedule so he has no idea.
Thank you for your honesty