Thread regarding Whole Foods Market Inc. layoffs

This was a localized event that affected 9 STL's who all knew each other and benefited from sharing illegal ways to make the budget by cooking the books and siphoning off money from ANYWHERE possible, even the GAINSARE (guaranteed bonuses if you reach a certain level of sales/labor ratio) TM's were supposed to get. This is where these STL's got into murky territory because they attacked the financial stability of EVERY TEAM MEMBER TO EVERY WORK UNDER THEM. Whole foods investigated ALOT of stores but these acts of labor siphoning from labor-surplus teams, which hurt TEAM MEMBERS paychecks, only happened in these 9 stores THROUGHOUT THE NATION. I see people are trying to distract now by saying this is common practice, and admin budget b---s--- etc. But they are simply evading the truth. It really takes a lot to be fired from whole foods, especially such a senior position; these people should be ASHAMED of themselves by taking an opportunity to help the community and team members and simply abusing it'll by enriching themselves and their cronies. For these people saying the pressures were too high, you OBVIOUSLY HAVE NOT SEEN HOW MUCH THESE STLS HAVE BEEN STEALING FORM WHOLE FOODS AND ITS WORKERS. SHAME!! SHAME!! SHAME!!

I work at the same store!

Admin team doesn't do sh-- anyway so I don't care if they're being robbed. I watched out marketing person, graphic artist, and SSI d--k off at the holiday table for over a hour today while every other dept was scrambling. That's not to mention some teams like Spec and WB sitting on a sh-- ton of labor while other teams are bare bones. Thank god for one store labor.

A few = 9

Sure you did.

I'm surprised these STLs weren't caught and exposed sooner. Any TLs on top of their business should be tracking their labor down to the dollar and demanding explanations of inconsistencies.

The labor manipulation piece is fairly normal - I can assure you I've done it at least 6 of the 13 periods. Always with direction and approval from my EC.

Someone shifting the store isn't wrong. That isn't what went on here. I swear 85% of the post on here are either wrong or someone feeding people bs to get their rocks off. A few stl minuplated the labor and got caught. This isn't normal and I've never seen it go on in any store I've worked at.

If you are making over a hundred grand a year working at a grocery store that's ridiculous. STL make more then that even without there bonuses in some stores. The funny thing is the ones we refer to as good are the ones that are just doing there jobs correctly.

Weird because my understanding is there are other regions doing this shifty concept but I don't know which dept will pay for it. I thought upper leadership people should be shifty's instead of putting less experienced in charge of closing shifts as a practice. Customers want the real people in charge.

Assistant Store Team leaders who worked under these fired store team leaders were moved around to other stores. I don't know the exact number but it's a lot.

Great opportunity to advance? And then get fired?

Justin Moyers reads here!?? Lol. Whole foods is done. Moyers just go to any store after 5pm and ask for shifty. Bet you is not going to be the store team leader or the astl. Just make up some excuse you wanna talk to them. There is your answer to confirm what everyone talks here.

This has been happening to some degree in the South region for years. Hourly TM's cover the shifts of Salaried STL's & ASTL's (shifty shifts). That labor is either absorbed by the team or charged to Admin Team, essentially robbing those teams of potential gainshairing. In some stores, this "shifty" coverage happens multiple nights a week. Our STL is never scheduled to close. Our two ASTL's pull one closing shift each (but rarely ever stay until close).

The practice of using Admin labor to cover for teams who are missing labor is also common practice in this region.

No one in their right mind can really think that they barely do anything. They work their asses off like everyone else. Except marketing. Those guys don't do sh--.

You're right about them being overpaid though. Those bonuses are kinda ridiculous and they don't deserve them. Performance based bonuses are what led us to this bs in the first place.

STLs get paid wayyyyyyy too much for barely doing anything. Cut their bonuses!

Well said 2hba. That's pretty much how it is. I'd argue that much of that bloat is at the store level as well. They need to re-evaluate the quarterly bonuses that stls receive for making margin and labor each period. It's an incentive to just "make it work". Yeah we've seen them make it work alright.

Remember the weights and measures scandal- Team Leaders were trying to make margin so they stiffed the customers- and of course the RP was telling them not to worry about Weights and Measures- spending money irresponsibly as usual!!

WFM is the wells fargo of the grocery store world. Intense pressure to make sales goals without the labor to do it will lead to illegal practices to get the job done. For every 1 TL caught breaking the rules there are 20 others who didn't get caught.

I see corners cut every day by honest workers in falsifying temp and cleaning logs, poor food handling practices, no rotation and working off the clock by everyone on the team.

It is easy to blame these workers as being just some bad apples and not taking a look at the system in place they are working in. The pressure is too high, demands are too high and no labor is there to get the job done well. Regional and global leadership are rigging the system to make people work with standards that are beyond acceptable and then blaming those people for not following the rules.

Cut labor from bloated regional and global positions, give it back to the boots on the floor that need it or you will continue to see illegal practices happening at these stores.

But what's the real reason they got fired? To reduce payroll or is this the start of combined store STLs?

Not really sure how much more there is to talk about, basically store team leaders robbed peter within the store to pay paul within the store so that they looked better on paper and received bonuses or other accolades. Meanwhile peter was left with reduced gainsharing and paul who wasn't due gainsharing might have received some. Most, not all, of the managers at this level think they've reached the promised land and basically have forgotton their roots....combine that with little or no business acum or leadership skills and it's a recipe for disaster. It's pre holiday in stores right now, everyone is crazy busy and short staffed...our ASTL waltzs in today 10 minutes after store is open and proceeds to just walk around with his hands in his pockets yawning while team embers struggle to get product of the floor and departments set up. Mind you, this ASTL is in training and not very old...you'd think he'd want to step in and earn some respect from people. Nope...an hour later he was in the back of the house with breakfast....I ate mine before I got there like most employees. There is a serious dearth of leadership at that level, it's sad to watch ths company fall apart, but anyone with any real business mindset is running for the hills or being snatched up by competition. We have Aldi and Wegmans management in our store on a regular basi and they've picked off several mid level managers already, especially Aldi who is ramping up its presence on the east coast

Hey -- I'm a Washington Post reporter trying to learn more about this. Can you write me? justin.moyer@washpost.com. Can be anonymous. thanks.

I can assure you that is extremely common and usually my EC would encourage it if one of my teams missed labor. I'm calling BS on this.

But what are job openings not posted? I just don't trust this company which is addicted to been in the news like Kim K.

Good riddance bunch of over paid lazy pieces of sh-- probably anyway.

With morale horrible all over. This could lead to so much more. With labor being tightened this year it will be in the spotlight.

Something doesn't add up. Many have posted that manipulating labor has been common practice for years...so either there's more firings to come or there's more to this story.

But did they just manipulate this on their own or TMS was aware of such a scheme?

Which stores or store team leaders?

This is a great opportunity for others to advance!