https://www.phillymag.com/news/2019/03/20/whole-foods-racial-discrimination-lawsuit/
23 replies (most recent on top)
By whatever means necessary they historically only promote white men, at least at the Madison WI store. PoC are lucky to get their foot in the door to begin with, and the only shot I've seen women have for any leadership roll is in the health and wellness department, and bakery. iDK if Amazon is having any difference, but without cleaning leadership house from STL down in this store, nothing will change. The misinformation and lies they feed at store level to Amazon about store moral and success is a wonder to behold.
I have personally sat in on STL panel interviews before, and the comments about a person being selected before the interview ever begins are true. They sometimes let people interview for developmental purposes - basically a trial run for a future interview - but in most cases they've discussed who they plan to hire for a new store or a vacancy before the job is even posted.
LOL
The policy that you need your boss' recommendation to go for a promotion is racist? No, it's common f---ing sense. Maybe his boss is racist--or maybe he isn't as good at his job as he thinks he is.
$15 an hour was a genius move for shutting down union talk: for the majority who are PT? Awesome payrate and attracts multitudes of recent hs grads who don't care because they aren't planning to stay with wfm any longer than necessary.
Yeah! All those $15 an hour chip on their shoulders.
They'd just hire a bunch more people to replace AND it would please Corporate very much. Just move their agenda along that much faster.
What would happen if everyone over 35 up and quit?
Yes, people in leadership are over 35 but they don't want regular rank and file TMs to be older and wiser aka more likely to question hiring practices, know their rights, etc. So the solution? Fire them for "performance" or harrass them by giving them more work than someone in their position should be expected to do or if they won't quit? refuse to pay them according to their position knowing it will be more difficult for an older tm to find employment...
Truth to his story, they try to place people here and there to make it seem like they are equal opportunity company. When they find out they having pending investigations that was supposed to be anonymous they quickly target the handful of PoC they employ.
Yeah, jury is still out whether that is a good thing or not. Years ago 35 yr olds had much more experience and common sense. People now , not so much.
Aren't alot of leadership over 35😝😝😝😝
Those stl and tl must be in the south Florida region.
Absolutely STLs and TLs target those they want to quit. I can think of at least four who were over 35 and were harrassed by leadership until they finally quit.
Yes, it is age discrimination. I mentioned it one day and was told that's why Whole Foods has a large team of lawyers. They fight all the lawsuits and they win. Store leaders also make it miserable for team members they want to quit so the store doesn't have to pay unemployment. If they can make you quit it saves them money.
Isn't it true that Amazon likes hiring young people over older people? And isn't that age discrimination?
Ha, I don't know about racial discrimination but a few years ago we started joking that wfm was engaging in "hipsterwashing" because everyone getting promoted had loads of tattoos and a few fashionable piercings. Oh and the flip side of that, coincidentally, was the headhunting of tms of a certain age. This all was around the time Obamacare went into effect. Couldn't have the old people driving up the insurance premiums, could we? So not saying there isn't racism, just wondering if this guy isn't over the whole foods hill.
The positions are filled before the interview even happens. At least they told this guy don’t bother so he didn’t waste his time. Friends first needs of the store and who would be better for TMs is always going to be a far second and third.
Too bad the guy who ended up with the North Wales job is awful and doesn't even pretend to care about his store or it's team members
I can't speak to the racial discrimination, being a white woman, but having experienced the wildly unfair interview and promotion system, it's no surprise! Panel interviews are a sham, usually made up of TM's who have already decided on a candidate. I've been told by TL's/ATL's that they went with the person who had a significantly worse interview because they thought that canidate"deserved" the position. Sounds like this could easily reflect TL'S biases. And even if you are qualified, your TL can shut down your attempt to apply to a new position. So it turns into a kiss a-- competition because if you have a bad team leader and they don't like you, you're screwed. Even if you are doing most of your ATL/TL's responsibilities because they are failing to do their jobs, you have no course of action because you need them to like you if you even want to APPLY for anything. The system is broken
Hardworking veterans being overlooked in favor of unqualified lackeys? At Whole Foods? It can’t be.
To add to both of these comments, I know in mid Atlantic with cases like the ones mentioned in the article they've completely neutered the panel process by only allowing one candidate for STL jobs. That way you either vote for their guy or are marked as not supporting their hand picked candidate which doesn't really help anyone. The disproportionately affects qualified PoC and women but I've seen it used against other qualified white male candidates that just weren't part of their nepotism tree enough. It's disappointing but at least people have to acknowledge it now!!
The panel interview format has long been problematic. Panels are often structured with the explicit purpose of producing the results that a TL or other manager desires. In my 10+ years with this company, I have seen countless highly qualified team members lose out on a promotion because the panel was stacked to favor another particular candidate. And, yes, I've seen it often favor white candidates over PoC.
Whole Foods has a serious culture problem. A huge part of that problem stems from people watching undeserving and unqualified co-workers get promoted into leadership positions due to favoritism and nepotism. It's frustrating to see so many be rewarded while hard working people are consistently overlooked simply for not playing the Whole Foods promotion game or being a minority.
It's obvious at this point that things won't improve. With no accountability on the regional or global level, there is no path forward to address the many issues of non-existent morale. And with egos run amok in Austin and the numerous regional offices, team members in stores feel like this company no longer offers opportunities to grow unless you're white and male.
I'm proud that someone is calling Whole Foods out on all their shady promotional and racist practices. I have never worked for a more inherently racist organization than I do now. Shame on Whole Foods. Shame on John Mackey for letting things get this bad.
I work in MA North and Jaleel has been a well loved and well respected ASTL and now STL for a long, long time. I'm saddened and frustrated that this "long long time" was not a choice he made, but a situation he was put in.
If you don't work up here, let me be clear: there are multiple ASTLs outside of the white male club who are and have been hugely deserving of many jobs that have gone to candidates like the ones described in the article, and this is definitely not an issue just facing him. Our regional teams are also mostly white and largely male. This is not reflective of our diverse TM group and diverse buyer/supervisor/ATL groups either, though it skews back to mostly white mostly male at the TL level.
I obviously can't speak for everyone, but I at least have seen positions at team and store leadership go to candidates of lesser quality time and time again over their female and PoC peers, and you can always feel the boys club vibe when regional comes to visit.
Good on Jaleel for speaking up, and I hope he feels the support I've heard from around the area. I wouldn't have guessed leadership was so actively discouraging him for pursuing opportunities, but it is not at all surprising or unbelievable. I hope the region, company, and Amazon take this seriously enough to challenge our company culture for the better.