Big box Electronics retailer Circuit City found that approximately 8% of their workforce were working hard, getting good performance reviews, and thereby providing good service to their customers. This week, Circuit City gathered these outstanding employees at each store and advised them of the corporate policy to good employees. Each of these employees was advised that they were being FIRED in recognition of the fact that they worked so hard.
Yes, that’s right! Circuit City fired all the workers on staff that had worked hard for years in order to advance with the company. It seems that good performance reviews and pay raises are not acceptable at Circuit City. Circuit City terminates the employees that have the audacity to do a good job. Circuit City’s corporate policy is to reward mediocre employees with continuing employment at minimum wage, while firing anyone that had advanced to above average pay by actually performing their duties.
Just to add insult to injury, the fired employees were told that after the severance period was over, they could again be hired at a lower rate of pay. I suppose the time of unemployment is to ensure a submissive work force. Left unsaid was the fact that if rehired staff were found again to actually perform their jobs well, then they would again be subject to termination. Circuit City has now embarked on an aggressive recruitment mission to hire 3500 employees to replace the employees that did their job.
One can only imagine the screening process for hiring replacement workers. Some of the interviews might sound similar to:
“ I see at your last job you were fired for being lazy and unproductive! Welcome to Circuit City!â€
“Oh my, you have an impressive product knowledge and a reputation for happy customers. I am sorry; Circuit City only hires stupid people who hate customers.â€
“You want to sell the magic boxes with little people inside? Can you say ‘Service contract is good thing’? No, well then we have a position as a store manager for you.â€
Circuit City’s CEO Philip Schoonover was paid $8.52 million in fiscal 2006, including a $975,000 salary. Faced with dropping revenues due to lower margins on high end electronics such as flat panel TVs, Circuit City executive leadership has embarked on a slash and burn mission to ensure that they continue to receive their multimillion dollar compensation for screwing over customers and employees.
Yuma’s Circuit City located at 1232 S. Castle Dome Avenue. Having recently been opened, it can be expected that few employees had reached the level of competence that required termination. Yuma’s consumers can feel safe in knowing that any employee that actually provides good service will find their job at risk.
We all know how hard it is to get good customer service at the big box stores at Walmart, Best Buy, and Circuit City. The one saving grace was the ability to seek out the intelligent employees that had the knowledge and skills to provide good customer service. Circuit City slapped their customer in the face by ensuring that poor customer service is rewarded.
Perhaps Circuit City should embrace their staff policies in their advertising campaigns. A few of the new slogans could be:
CIRCUIT CITY, WE REWARD MEDIOCRITY!
CIRCUIT CITY, YOU ARE TOO STUPID FOR US TO CARE!
CIRCUIT CITY, SOME OF OUR EMPLOYEES CAN SPELL TV!
CIRCUIT CITY, MOST OUR STAFF DO NOT DROOL ON CUSTOMERS!
This is a load of crap. The layoffs by CCity were done on an administrative level. Employees were not selected based off of their performance. I know this for I am employed at the yuma Ccity and a very close friend and coworker of mine was one of the laid off employees.
Please remove this article, it is wrong, inaccurate and degrading, not to mention based off of little more than hearsay.
The fired employees were chosen based on their wages being above the average level. One could assume that raises to above average levels would require good performance reviews. Giving employees raises for poor performance would be self defeating. So the employees that were laid off must have been the most experienced and best performing as they were being paid more than the lesser employees that were retained. The facts surrounding the layoffs were national news and there is little room for dispute. The opinions are mine and I stand by them. If they offend you, my apologies but I blog them as I see them. I must say, that the opinions expressed are not particularly unshared by others. I have read many other blog entries that wonder at the wisdom of laying off employees based on above the average pay for position. I do wonder why some one would be happy to work for a company where your next pay raise could signal a pink slip.