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Whole Foods employees striking over requirements to work Thanksgiving

Firing employees without a real cause (legal, illegal, just, whatever) is very expensive for an employer. Actually, it's the hiring and retraining of the replacement that is costly. Employers of any size do not to it casually and rarely at a whim.
Absolutely. I would not go on a firing spree on a whim, it would take something I considered to be gross insubordination to do something like that, and IMO trying to unionize the company I built fits the definition. Then again I haven't given my philosophy on employee treatment because there is always a fine line between what I want to do to retain quality employees and my available resources and market climate.

As I am not currently in business for myself I don't have any numbers to share but I do have my general philosophy which is that I will go the distance for loyal employees and do anything possible to retain my full rights as a business owner towards bad ones.
 
Pay them what he NFL players get and they will be happy to work on holidays.

Yeah, 'coz the only people who have to work the game are players.
 
well, good luck. i'm hoping to start a business, too, if i do stupid **** that causes my employees to unionize, i'll know that i ****ed up. honestly, on my deathbed, i doubt i'll mourn too much about it either way. hope that your business is successful.

How can you hope to open a business when you have the employee mentality?

You will fail 100% for sure if you let your employees tell you how to run your business, which you have posted 517 times in this thread that that is what you think is right.
 
Exactly right. My offense to labor trying to call the shots is that they have nothing but their labor to offer, I'm taking the risk, I've got the collateral up, I'm paying the checks, and only my ass is on the line. I shut down they look for work or draw unemployment while I could lose property, credit, and even credibility and reputation as a businessman. I took all the risk and expenditures, I signed the contracts, but they want and equal say? Bull****.

How can I like this 5 times?
 
That's not what he said. He said my rules or you walk. That gives no room for negotiation.

Why would you use the Word negotiation?

The employees have nothing to negotiate with. They are employees.
 
Wow. First off, it was you and your wife who chose careers in retail. I have no clue what BJ's is nor why I should care if they are open Christmas or not. However, most of the grocery stores around here have been open for at least a part of Christmas Day for decades now. I find it very hard to swallow that you've worked retail for years and not been asked to work a holiday shift. The possibility of working holidays in retail has always been a part of the job.

Now generally, the places I've worked and seen will ask for volunteers first and that generally takes care of it so the family folks who really, really don't want to work holidays don't have to. But if you're raising a kid on your own as I was, the time and a half was a welcome thing. Not to mention, even if you're not in a traditionally tip field, people tip on Christmas, big time.

And stow the nonsense about working your way up the ladder. Most of us from my generation have done that, more than once.

If you don't want to ever work a holiday and you're in retail, you do indeed need to change your career, or wise up and change your head.

Chose retail, lol? Hardly. My wife worked retail while getting her BFA, and I turned to retail after saying goodbye to food service. I was a restaurant GM for 8 years before turning to retail. The recession brought that on. The place I ran got to hurting for business, and the owner closed the doors. To be honest, I was tired of restaurant management by that time anyway. My wife never got a job in her major, and retail paid her loans.

BJs is a wholesale club, like Costco or Sams. A grocer. And while many grocers are open on the holidays, it's half days. But those are next on the chopping block. And the reason it's an issue is because, frankly, these jobs are gonna be all that's left in this country.

Only the pee ons have to work the holidays in retail. I am no longer a pee on. I make my argue meant for future generations, because I am concerned about more than just myself. Something people from YOUR generation failed epically at, if your over 40.
 
How can you hope to open a business when you have the employee mentality?

You will fail 100% for sure if you let your employees tell you how to run your business, which you have posted 517 times in this thread that that is what you think is right.

Or, I could just give them two ****ing days off a year so they won't get pissed off and form a union.

Back to work, Cratchit.
 
Yeah, your right. No one has the will to force people to leave because they have plans to travel for Thanksgiving and the employer decides at the last minute he needs that guy to work because someone else got fired or got sick.

Are you saying Whole Foods told their employees the day before Thanksgiving they had to work?

Can you post a link that says that please?
 
Why would you use the Word negotiation?

The employees have nothing to negotiate with. They are employees.

If they are valuable to the company they have plenty to negotiate with. The employer has a financial choice to make when employees strike. Are the costs of hiring and training new help all while losing sales in the process greater or lesser than the demands being made by those employees. If it's less, fire them all, start over. If not, time to haggle.

It should be that simple.
 
Are you saying Whole Foods told their employees the day before Thanksgiving they had to work?

Can you post a link that says that please?

No way. I would be shocked if it's not policy to have schedules posted two weeks out, and more shocked if they didn't tell at least the GM much sooner than that.
 
They can be fired for any reasons I can find. IOW, they've just lit the fuse on their termination papers. Let's say that their margin of error starts at 9/10, meaning I'm giving them as much latitude as possible and they would have to either murder a coworker or lie to me/steal from the company to be terminated. The second they try to unionize their margin of error drops to 0, they miss a dust bunny during cleanup and their ass is gone. I will do that until the entire offending crew is out of there, if I can't accomplish that, I'll fulfill the last orders and shut it down to write off for a loss and they can start all over again. I would be damned if my employees are going to take over my place.

If an employee does not want to be there, which is evidenced by the strike, then they should be immediately fired.

They will never do a good job for the employee and as a matter of fact can do a huge amount of damage to the company, so they must go.
 
Dont be silly, the policy is enforceable and the employees can see that it is. THey can do a number of things, including make anonymous calls to regulating agencies and videoing unsafe practices or conditions.

ANYONE, can break rules or laws, including employees. This does not mean that they do not have those rights, which is exactly what you wrote.

That is why you must remove a dangerous employee right away.
 
Or, I could just give them two ****ing days off a year so they won't get pissed off and form a union.

Back to work, Cratchit.

You think this is about holidays?

Once the employees know they have you over a barrel, they will demand many more things that hurt the business.

What will you do then?

Where will your red line be?

Most of us business owners have long ago crossed our red lines when we have been screwed over by employees that we have bent over backwards to help.

At some point you realize that an employee is the same as a desk or whatever else you have in the office. If you get involved in their personal lives, you lose.

You may think that is harsh, but you will learn that if you ever open your own business.

What you do for employees is never enough, so put away some cash to cover what the bad employees will cost you. It will happen.
 
No way. I would be shocked if it's not policy to have schedules posted two weeks out, and more shocked if they didn't tell at least the GM much sooner than that.

That is why I was asking the other poster. He said something about the employee having travel plans and the business springing this on the employee at the last minute.

If he thinks that is what happened here, I would like to see a link that states that, otherwise it was a silly question.
 
When I was working for my fathers company, he went on vacation leaving me in charge.

All of the front office girls would come in at 8:30 or 9:00 and sit at their desks and do their nails or pay bills, I was watching all this on the cameras, and about an hour later they would start working.

The company was paying them from the time they clocked in.

When I confronted them about it, they ignored me.

I fired the whole lot and brought in people that wanted to work and productivity went way up.

Once an employee is spoiled, they are no good and they must be fired. There is no bringing them back.
 
When I was working for my fathers company, he went on vacation leaving me in charge.

All of the front office girls would come in at 8:30 or 9:00 and sit at their desks and do their nails or pay bills, I was watching all this on the cameras, and about an hour later they would start working.

The company was paying them from the time they clocked in.

When I confronted them about it, they ignored me.

I fired the whole lot and brought in people that wanted to work and productivity went way up.

Once an employee is spoiled, they are no good and they must be fired. There is no bringing them back.

It's like a cancer, as well. Fail to do so, and they will corrupt any new hire within weeks.
 
Another story.

When I had my own business I was invited to one of my employees house for a party.

As I was sitting on the couch, the men of the family sat around the dining room table drinking beer and complaining about their bosses. Do I need to mention they were Mexican?

That is when I realized the difference between and employee and an employer. An employer can be an employee but an employee can never be an employer. The mindset is hugely different and it would just never work.

Employees do not know the work it takes to open a business and are not willing to put in that work to make a business successful.

They complain all day long, leave at 5 and collect their paycheck (welfare) at the end of the day while the owner works until 8 or 9 every night and takes home nothing, at least for the first couple years of a new business.

Employees will never understand that part of a business.
 
You think this is about holidays?

Once the employees know they have you over a barrel, they will demand many more things that hurt the business.

What will you do then?

Where will your red line be?

Most of us business owners have long ago crossed our red lines when we have been screwed over by employees that we have bent over backwards to help.

At some point you realize that an employee is the same as a desk or whatever else you have in the office. If you get involved in their personal lives, you lose.

You may think that is harsh, but you will learn that if you ever open your own business.

What you do for employees is never enough, so put away some cash to cover what the bad employees will cost you. It will happen.


Yeah, it is about the holidays.

Force your employees to miss holidays with their families if you want. I'm pretty sure I can keep one going and still close two days a year.

Oh, and lol @ the "employee is a desk" thing. Really? That is pretty awesome. :lol:
 
Yeah, it is about the holidays.

Force your employees to miss holidays with their families if you want. I'm pretty sure I can keep one going and still close two days a year.

Oh, and lol @ the "employee is a desk" thing. Really? That is pretty awesome. :lol:

You will see when you have your own business.
 
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