Errol was the quintessential natural grocery guy- 1000% committed and probably the best person in the company. If he's gone there is no replacing him- probably got tired of the BS as we all did. FBI should investigate the "Cult" and how they continue to be allowed to run a company that would lose so many key people and keep the "Club" in tact at the top!!!
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Ohhhhh noooooo. The sky is falling!
Whole Foods Market will be nothing but embarrassment without Schweizer.
Does anyone know if he retired, or went to a competitor?
So very well said. So many good hard-working people lost their jobs because of the greed of this company. People who went out of their ways to make WFM a great place to work and have fun but now all that is gone. All you have left are workers who are bitter,angry and some who don't care about the company. I knew Errol and he was a kind soul to me when I started out in WFM many years ago. Always took a moment to answer my emails, etc. Will miss that. WFM isn't the same anymore. It's more like a high school whose in or out...backstabbing, camera spying, gossiping, etc. Wish you luck Errol and all those who lost their jobs because of WFM greed.
I knew Errol well and for many years. He was (and still is) a dedicated, competent, and talented team member. I saw and talk to him many times over the years and he seemed to be always working and lately a bit frustrated but never said a negative word. He will never be replaced. Walter Rob and his "handpicked" group of vultures and sharks will make sure to bring someone who also doesn't care and understand what the original concept of Whole Foods is about. Walter Rob and his new pet (CIO Jason Buechel) have manage to "push out" many of our great team members (leadership and otherwise). They may say that they didn't fire the good people who are already gone ( but there are many ways to fire someone. You can make the work environment so unbearable that one would just quit and the new leadership is doing just that. Whole Foods is now an environment where mistrust, backstabbing and unfairness prevail. Leadership only care about themselves and how to get more power and money. Jason (the CIO) was a contractor and that's all he knows. He has manage to load the company with contractors and the people who subscribe to his style of leadership which is cut-throat and ignorant about the business built by John Mackey. The make matter worse the company has also make Jason an Executive VP (so he gets more money and more power (to screw up something that used to be good). They have been eliminating the work force and replacing them with either contractors or more team leaders. Who do you think actually does the work and care about it? The new leadership under Walter Rob has manager to lose and get rid of one of Whole Foods most important assets over the years; the loyalty and respect of its core team members as well as the public. Lose your soldiers, lose the war.
I wonder what would happen if the Union tried to get into Whole Foods these days...
Errol is the latest of many great and fundamentally important people who were made to leave Whole Foods because the current leadership does not uphold its own core values.
RIP WFM
Besides being a highly respected person, Errol was the global grocery buyer for WFM. Grocery is a huge team at the company, and Errol oversaw the addition of thousands of unique items that gave WFM an edge. As a TM, I once emailed him one of those customer questions that crazy, only-a-wfm-shopper would ask, and he responded immediately-TWICE. For comparison, my regional team had about a 35% chance of EVER answering their teams' questions. I'm sure Errol is on to a great new chapter, and wish him well. I hope he writes a book about it all someday.
Where did he work? Was he an STL? Was he around since the beginning?
Errol hands down was the soul and conscience of WFM. He clearly was one to always speak his mind and made so many of us better partners. His loss will leave a huge void that will be hard to ever believe will be filled as it seems that the values he stood for don't matter any more. He will be sorely missed
Can someone tell me about this guy? I worked there for more than a decade and I never heard his name. He sounds like a great asset to any company, by the way people are mourning his absence. Thanks!
It's time for an exposé. There needs to be a rebuttal to the ongoing narrative that so-called journalists continue to fall back on -- that Rahodeb and his cronies are higher beings and that the company is based on employee empowerment and the best business practices. None of that is true.
wow.
I am speechless. This company is sad and blind. So many good people gone.
Errol leaving hit me really hard. He didn't just live the culture... He pioneered it.
About the most down to earth honest and inspiring man I've worked with.
It will last as long as its lasts, not a minute sooner, not a minute later... those at the top are just getting theirs until they pull the cord of the parachute ...we just need to be kind to each other at this point--and have our personal plan B lined up. take care of you and yours; forget this company--whatever was worth believing in has long since died. Don't chase ghosts
A lot of people at global support who were hardcore culture core values people have been leaving over the past 6 mos. How many canaries have to die before people realize that the coal mine has become utterly toxic?