5/5/2020
Just a week ago, Belk CEO, Lisa Harper, and other executives offered an "inspirational" message of encouragement, from the comfort of their lavish homes, no less, cheering on Belk employees who were forced to face the front lines of a health and financial crisis. Store managers who had continued working the shuttered stores to fill online orders as essential employees (under a 50% pay reduction, no less), and a limited number of associates brought back to face the threat of infection were treated with scenes of privileged executives affording themselves a generous helping of lavish luxuries– lounging in multi-million-dollar homes, pensively sipping coffee, laughing, relaxing and bonding with their well-sheltered family members and pets and, unrealistically, suggesting that all is well and #belkstrong from their detached and pampered vantage.
Particularly disturbing is the silent kidnap-victim-style message from a painfully insincere Leslie Riggs, Chief Human Resources Officer. With a plastic smile barely pasted on, and a genuine look of utter disdain that must be seen to be believed, Riggs displays the alleged sentiment, "I..miss..seeing..all..of..you!..#Bestteam", with the message presented one word at a time on individual pages displayed in a Bob Dylan-esqe manner. She seems more concerned about something just out of view of the camera and, based on her expression, one wonders if there was some kind of physical threat imposed, forcing her to follow through with the phony charade.
But this week the real trouble begins as the stores open to dire sales and a dismal outlook for the business as a whole. Two seasons' worth of apparel have not sold, bills are piling up, rents are withheld, vendors aren't getting paid, and now employees are losing benefits one after the other.
Requests for earned paid time off, while heavily limited in the past and often denied for unspecified reasons, are now being deferred to HR closer to corporate, making it difficult, if not impossible, for associates to use the time that they had worked to accrue. Work days of 7 or 8 hours include one "generous" half-hour meal break and, due to inept scheduling and low staffing, there is rarely sufficient coverage to allow even that short rest period.
Erin Eklund, Director of Benefits, dispatched an email to Belk employees this week with more devastating news: that health savings accounts (HSA's) will no longer be "seeded" by the company– that is, as of the 2nd quarter of the fiscal year, Belk will no longer contribute money to those savings accounts originally created to promote wellness and foster a positive and healthy work environment. 3rd and 4th quarter contributions are up in the air, with the ultimate decision as to their fate yet to be determined. And there's more..
While Eklund's communique insists that Covid-19 testing and the cost of related appointments and tele-health visits will be free to employees (folks have to be at work, virus or no virus), there is a greater disadvantage..
In the email, Eklund further states, "In addition, we are suspending the wellness rewards program through BCBS for the remainder of the year. Rewards earned through March 31, 2020, due in April will be paid in May. You may continue using activities on the BCBS portal for your personal health and wellbeing, but will not receive reward dollars for activities April 1st forward." This means that those who took part in active initiatives to receive discounts on employee insurance are, going forward, simply out of luck.
While Belk isn't the only store in financial trouble in the crumbling retail landscape, it is particularly despicable that those in charge would, as illustrated in the video posted days ago, essentially thumb their noses at employees whose very lives, as well as their livelihood remain in jeopardy due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
But, then again, we have to feel sorry for the CEO's who have to endure this pandemic sequestered from the lowly employees, those #belkstrong "little people" that they so love and miss from a comfortable distance. And the Belk owners, Sycamore Partners, who might not be able to buy Victoria's Secret right now, since Belk isn't shipping out enough online orders (190,000 orders per day/per region) to pay for their astronomical salaries and mindless acquisitions. Forget that one store is in trouble, let's grab more garb!
Sad, too, that one only has to visit the Belk Facebook page to see what shape the stores are in, and just how badly packed those shipments are, how many orders are wrong or cancelled, and how customers are being forced to pay return shipping when things go wrong.
And things do keep going wrong. C'est la guerre!
#Bestteam #belkstrong #moneymattersmorethanlives #corporrnouhhateshield #watchyourback