Was Great Until Supervalu - Shareholders Squeeze Everything Out of Employees
Pros
I received wonderful feedback from management regarding my performance - I was given more off-counter tasks because I asked for them, and upper managerment treated me with a great deal of respect because I often asked for more work when I finished a project. If I asked for time off in advanced, I was often given my requested dates. I could talk to my managers and upper management easily and was never afraid to voice my concerns. I also enjoyed the time spent with my co-workers - it was a lot of fun.
Cons
It's important to realize that upper management and department managers are not responsible for these negative changes, but were told to implement them by corporate headquarters. Once Supervalu purchased Shaw's Supermarkets, it became more of a "corporation" in every negative connotation of the word - when the economy tanked, the shareholders had to be considered, and Supervalu decreased the maximum hours a part timer could get from 36 to 29. The average hours given to a part-time individual is now 25. Full timers with lower seniority were offered one of two options - be laid off or have their full time hours reduced from 40 to 20-something. Some employees with seniority whose hours could not be cut were moved to other stores because their home stores could not "afford" to schedule their hours. The hours for Shaw's supermarkets is based on a formula that implements the size of the store, projected sales, last weeks sales, etc. Each department "earns" hours based on these numbers, and must schedule at or below these hours. People are encouraged to go home early whenever possible, and often frowned upon for refusing to leave early (most employees live on a paycheck-to-paycheck basis). Because of the reduction in hours, there was hardly any overlap between employees, and oftentimes during the winter (when sales decreased the most, and therefore, hours decreased the most) those in busy departments were alone for six to eight hours without any help. Since fewer people were schedualed at any given time, the work load was divided among fewer people. So, because of this, employees were forced to do more work in addition to their decrease in hours, and therefore, decrease in pay.
