A store manager who recently stepped down, claims she was told to push certain associates and managers out by overworking them, giving them an undesirable schedule, favoritism, and discrimination. The manager says her regional vice president (who is no longer with the company) instructed her to eliminate certain associates, MTM’s and sales team managers based on age, length of time with company, pay rate, and supposedly their ability to complete tasks that were not originally in their job description at their original time of hire. While managers and associates were told that it’s now ‘one belk’ where everyone does everything, the RVP claims this was not true, and that the ‘one belk’ method (used primarily between 2019-2023) was actually a way to overwork certain people and get them to quit. The manager claims she warned RVP’S and GvPs about doing this claiming it was against labor laws and was a lawsuit waiting to happen.
19 replies (most recent on top)
You should believe it! It’s TRUE!!
They whining not opening Belk Cards. They need to be pushed out!
if this is true, belk will have another class action lawsuit to deal with.
Yelp, you may notice how some associates and managers are closing and then working an early morning shift the next morning, while other associates and managers are never closing, some are working long stretches, while others do not, some new hires appear to have as much or more pto as a long term associate or manager,
some people get more PTO time then others, some get their PTO declined so they can’t use it, others can be out on ‘medical leave’ or bereavement time’ with no proof while others are asked for a doctors note or orbituary, some managers were using bereavement pay to go on vacation when nobody in their family died. This is all very real, and is still going on. belk needs to get it together.
I’m a tight knit community smaller door Belk store. My team is like a family, if one got fired, laid off, or quit, it’s like a domino effect everyone else would follow. My regional knows this too.
the funny thing about it is the rvp's tell the managers to push out store associates, the gvp's tell the rvp's to push out store managers, Tom Harvey tell's the gvp's to push out rvp's, and eventually Harvey and Hendricks will be replaced, it's an endless cycle.
@mc Ooops, I Meant BOPIS
@bt It was a major problem. Coming back from Covid was a nightmare and things don't look any better. We told sales associates instead of being on the sales floor and doing what has made the company move on since being purchased, we'll just let you be a door greeter or BIPOC and cut out the rest of the help. And ......you need to be grateful. Oh yeah, get your credits. BTW none of the management from that time is still in place.
Belk is hiring store managers and telling them they can do whatever they want to as long as the store makes a profit, this is part of the problem.
@cv sad thing is it been done and still doing it.
@bt+1. You are so right. It has been going on in my store for a long time. One of our sales team managers that got phased out admitted to a friend. @d5+1. It is really sad that Belk has become so dysfunctional. Not to mention the discrimination. In our store certain people get away with things over and over while others are targeted and threatened. Not to mention that the people who lie and cheat to get the credit card apps are revered. Hopefully I will be able to get out of there soon.
{it’s sad some people are still working for this dis functional trash company} {I hope everyone has an epiphany and realizes they have to get out before it’s too late.
If my store wrote people up for not making credit goals they would have no associates left.
@ct.....
So, do you think a seasoned associate would actually sign that write up? I would hate to see what happened if you actually attempted this, some associates (especially one's that know the system) would loose their S**t. I would not suggested a manager even try to do this (for their own safety). LOL.
This issue has persisted over time. Belk has faced lawsuits in the past regarding similar practices, including the termination of employees who did not meet credit goals. Currently, management is instructing supervisors that if associates are unsuccessful in securing credit applications, they may document this as a behavioral issue. I raised a question to the Regional about how it is justifiable to write someone up for behavior when they are actively attempting to promote the credit card, but customers are unwilling to engage. It raises concerns about potential legal implications in the future.
This technique has been exposed and criticized and belk is apparently trying to stop it. Yes, most people are aware that store managers and RVP’S do this, but most of the managers and RVP’S that did this are now gone themselves, most of them, not all of them.
My former dept manager left Belk 2 years ago and they told me before they left that they were told to eavesdrop behind fixtures to listen for associates asking customers to apply for Belk card and if the associate didn’t ask twice then they were to report it to store mgr. They fired at least one associate for not asking twice. I was also told that managers were to target (harass or gaslight) certain associates that the store mgr didn’t like or that corporate wanted gone. As you can probably guess by now those people were long time associates of 20+ years.
This is a real thing , it happened and is still going on.
@bq at 0458 Crabtree this was a major problem. don't belive it? you must be living under a rock.
@OP I don’t really believe that.