Publix Supermarkets cuts pay of successful worker until he is more successful.

[madfloridian]

Is the a new trend? Is it widespread? Does this guy who is speaking out have lots of company who are not speaking out?

Publix used to be THE special place to shop. Quality food, quality service, if you want it they would order it. Now they are not special. You take the brand they have, like it or not. Their bakeries often don't bake anymore, just have it shipped from the local warehouse.

Publix was special from the time it was established in our area. The owners and directors were good people who wanted their company to stand out from the crowd. Doesn't sound that way anymore.

Meet Ray O'Conner, a 75 year old part time bagger. He got good evaluations, was rated "successful". Then they cut his pay.

O'Connor, for instance, was rated "successful" the past two years with all his scores above average. Yet his seniority already put him at the top of the bagger pay range. So his pay was cut.

"Before this, I was rated successful at 107 points and got a raise," he recalled. "Then I got a 123 and a 114 my past two evaluations and lost money."

More on this at the link. It makes me wonder how many more in right to work states like Florida have had pay cuts but are too embarrassed to talk about it.

Publix Cuts Pay To Prod Workers

After bagging groceries at Publix for nine years, Ray O'Connor was stunned when his bosses called his work "successful," then cut his pay a quarter to $8 per hour.

"I think they just want to get rid of me," said the 75-year-old Spring Hill man who works part-time to supplement his police officer pension. "They said I wasn't improving. Improve what? I've never dealt with anything like this in my life."

Now he has trouble sleeping. He's embarrassed when peers talk about pay. Nobody mentioned it, but he wonders whether it's his age. He's talking of seeing a lawyer, but not quitting "until I get this blemish off my record."

O'Connor is among the first intended consequences of a new pay plan adopted by the nation's sixth-largest supermarket chain. Lakeland-based Publix Super Markets Inc. spent years creating a "Tie Pay To Performance" plan that offers penalties as well as rewards.

Maybe it is more common than I thought, but I have not noticed since we are retired.

It appears to be a matter of principle and pride for Mr. O'Connor, but it could mean disaster for many who don't have other resources like he does.

[madfloridian]

1. I just realized what this strategy made me think about.

I realized it is the same scenario as the way they grade schools in Florida. Once you get to be an A school, there is no way to go up....so you go down. Many A schools become C schools the next year because you can't improve on an A.

[Nikki Stone1]

2. This is why there are unions

And why the corporations are killing them

[HockeyMom]

11. The top two supermarkets

here in the NY area (Walbaums and Stop n Shop)are Union. They have signs in their windows saying they are such.

My daughter used to work at one. However, she was in Security and was considered "Management"(???). She could not join the Union.

[madfloridian]

16. That "management" trick is used widely in Florida.

They call you management, and you can not join a union.

[MonteLukast]

26. Anything to avoid properly compensating the employees (n/t)

[blondie58]

3. how very sad

They make no concessions for age?

Even my employer, the U.S.P.S. is supposed to make allowance for people who have gotten older and thus had their performance slow down. Now, that doesn't mean that our union doesn't have to step in to make management realize that fact.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Merit pay sucks as an idea because it is a subjective standard.

"Success" can be anything the mind imagines or withholding recognition can be based on petty griefs or prejudices.

Either you get paid for your labor or you don't.

[MonteLukast]

8. Especially...

... in customer-service oriented professions, where other people's emotional whims can literally make or break your job.

[no_hypocrisy]

15. *Sigh* Tell me about it.

When I was an operator at an answering service, a woman told me that she was going to call back, talk to my manager and get me fired. She almost did.

[MonteLukast]

21. The idiotic thing is...

You don't even really learn politeness. You can't really absorb the lessons of greater refinement in your customer-service skills, if you're worried about losing your livelihood all the time.

I used to get told all the time that suffering consequences is "a learning experience". Hello? I had a demotion years ago in one retail job, and god knows if that subjectivity is the real reason I didn't get a promotion in my next retail job... and I can tell you, I didn't learn anything constructive from suffering those consequences. I didn't learn how to improve my technique or manners... because I was removed from, or never was placed in, a situation where using those improved people skills would have done the most good!
The only thing I learned was what being spurned feels like.

[radfringe]

18. In my experience with "merit raises"

the raise or cut is predetermined, then they do the performance evaluation to match it

[MonteLukast]

19. So they do this evaluation to match the pay decision?

[Cronus Protagonist]

22. That's exactly how it works in my experience too

I used to be given a total amount I could increase in my department and I had to divvy it up based on "merit" - well, everyone needs more money, so how could I choose between several good and hard working employees? I basically had to decide who gets what share of the very small pie and then make their evaluations match how much I was able to hand out. The whole "merit" system is a fraud.

[madfloridian]

5. Publix responds, as well they should.

I have not yet forgiven them for buying out a wonderful local chain of sandwich and soup shops, cutting the quality at once, no more mouth watering freshly made carrot cake....just warehouse stuff made with warehouse quality junk.

But anyway here is their reply.

Publix Official: Pay Plan Is Meant to Boost Service

LAKELAND -It's all about customer service, said Publix's spokeswoman, Shannon Patten.

The "Tie Pay To Performance" program rewards workers who perform to the grocer's standards. And if the worker doesn't perform to that standard, other measures are taken, including a loss in pay.

Patten said only 1 percent to 4 percent of Publix employees evaluated between July and February had a pay reduction. It currently has 115,000 hourly retail employees. During that same time, between 68 percent and 78 percent of those employees received increases.

"If you are being paid for a certain performance, you need to maintain that. We pay you for that."

I grew up with the founders of this chain, and their children, and their grandchildren. They were quality themselves and demanded it of their company. Some of the founders would be rolling over in their graves to hear this kind of stuff from the company they founded. I know some of their family are still involved, but they are different in mindset.

[don954]

10. sounds familiar...

"I grew up with the founders of this chain, and their children, and their grandchildren. They were quality themselves and demanded it of their company. Some of the founders would be rolling over in their graves to hear this kind of stuff from the company they founded. I know some of their family are still involved, but they are different in mindset. "

Sounds like Sam's/Walmart....

[MonteLukast]

12. And what do they mean by "service"?

It can mean anything. It could mean if a single person has a negative subjective opinion about you, you could be called "lacking in customer service skills".

I don't trust what spokespeople say. Theire job is to say only shiny happy things about the company they work for... not give a mixed review that's partially positive and partially critical.

I can see EXACTLY why the Bush Administration does what it does. They simply ape corporations all across America.

[MonteLukast]

6. Are they just too cowardly...

... to admit it's age, and that they don't have enough money to pay for everybody?
Because doing so would ruin their positive spin, and expose them for being lousy budgeters, on shaky financial ground, or just plain liars.

As the number of older people swells in this country, expect a lot more of this screwing and weaseling. They have a handy-dandy excuse even without "pay for performance": the cost of health care.

Should we start putting it in terms this stark?-- quite literally, is the health insurance you mother used to have, paying for an executive's Aspen home? Is your father's pension now going towards a South Seas vacation, a swimming pool, or worse... a fat campaign contribution to some wingnut?

[kiahzero]

14. If it's because of age, they have a lot more to worry about than spin.

Namely, a costly lawsuit, because that'd be a clear violation of the ADEA.

[Donnachaidh]

7. isn't Publix a UNION company?

I thought it had a union for it's employees? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[madfloridian]

9. First I've heard.

Florida is not a good state for unions. I think Publix once was, but I don't know about now. I really don't.

They have changed so much lately. I remember their first store, and the 2nd one.

[Donnachaidh]

23. here in Georgia they are supposed to be.

I know because a couple of neighbors left jobs at Kroger BECAUSE of the union at Publix.

[MonteLukast]

29. And don't forget the most important thing in all of this:

These practices are not illegal. They're not even unacceptable.

In fact, they're widely regarded as good business.
Remember, that sorority at DePauw University framed the purge as a "business decision."

No matter that their idea of "good business" resulted in the sorority being wiped out of existence. Corporations do the same thing all the time... make decisions based on quarterly returns, no matter how bad for the foundation and existence of the company itself.
And blithely forget that no foundation, no company. No g**damn high quarterly earnings.

They eat themselves out of existence, don't even care... and tell themselves that they had no alternative but to pursue such self-destructive policies.

I thought the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over, and hoping to get a different result.
Our corporations engage in this insanity on a daily basis.

And the saddest part of all: this behavior may be a job requirement for those in that position. People with basically good hearts, cooperating in disenfranchisement, economic abuse and that aforementioned insanity, all because quite rightly, they're concerned about their livelihoods.

It's the most emotionally abusive kind of Darwinism I know.

[madfloridian]

13. "Publix Finishes '06 With $1.1 Billion in Annual Earnings"

The almighty dollar.

Publix Finishes '06 With $1.1 Billion in Annual Earnings
http://theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070302/NEWS/703020382

[MonteLukast]

17. Then it's true.

"Mr. Publix Executive got a two-month cruise to the South Seas and all I got was this lousy pay cut!"

[NorthernSpy]

20. nebulous and subjective criteria for "merit" = favoritism galore

Do everything you're told successfully and lose your pay anyway? Sheesh... How's that for coaxing a thousand revenge fantasies into bloom!

:dunce:


Let's start a pool. How long til someone goes postal in this joint?

[MonteLukast]

25. And that subjectivity could rest on ANYTHING.

A lot of public-oriented employers incorporate personal appearance into "customer service". How many people are passed over simply because somebody with clout thought they looked too old?

Saddest of all: are only people who think like this and judge people like this, allowed into leadership and power positions?

Personal appearance DOES matter. Where its importance goes wrong is, how much does it ask of people?
Basic good grooming, good dress and polish is essential, and need not cost anything. The problem is where people start to think that "more is more". Remember, we Americans have a nasty little habit of turning desirables into requirements pretty quickly.

I'm 30. I'm not especially good-looking, and even as a teenager I was never nubile. However, I *am* young-looking. Which is actually kind of a liability in a 30-year-old. But looking young NEVER lasts forever.

I've worried that if I'm in my 50s and I wish to keep it going as a doctor, lawyer or other professional (NON-entertainment-related, but still publicly-oriented fields) if I refuse a facelift or something else to make me look artificially young, I will find myself out of a career very quickly. Most people try to reassure me about this, but what if it isn't so far-fetched? I notice that a lot of young professionals are good-looking and stylish dressers; are they that way because, from here on out, they HAVE to be?

[DaveJ]

24. Age and sexual discrimination are par for the course

Sometimes I feel like nobody is listening to me when I try to point out that all corporately owned big box stores are behemoths with no regard for the community. Just one of many things they do, is discriminate based on age and sexual characteristics (ie. the good looks of young girls and boys). I guess some think that's just fine. But I for one am appalled by it.

[MonteLukast]

27. "Customer service skills" could mean anything...

How often goes "good social skills" really mean just good-looking?

People forget that at a certain point beyond common courtesy and polish, it costs too much time and money to keep up appearances.

Is this another way of keeping the working and middle classes down? Restricting advancement to those who can afford (or are willing to go into debt for) good looks?

[DaveJ]

28. Those places are just the bottom of the bucket

The only redeeming quality those kind of jobs have is making people feel fortunate that they don't work there. My wife recently got a job with a business that treats her like a human being and I have never seen her so relieved.

I'm not sure if there is any reason behind why they treat people so horribly. I think they would do even better business if they treated people well.

[MonteLukast]

30. Stingy of spirit

I'm not sure if there is any reason behind why they treat people so horribly. I think they would do even better business if they treated people well.

I imagine they tell themselves they can't afford to treat people well.

And if they're successful, other companies want to emulate their profitability, and so engage in the same practices. So the bottom-of-the-bucket companies pollute the entire pool, unless we do something about it.

So we must do whatever we can to make the companies that treat people well MORE profitable and solvent than the ones who are stingy of spirit.

[chaska]

31. KROGER! Cheap and UNIONIZED.