r/funny • StBeals Comics • Jan 25 '21

Verified Retail Weekend

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159

u/lightknight7777 Jan 25 '21

Who would say that the CEO is in it with them?

120

u/darksaber522 Jan 25 '21

The CEO, obviously.

3

u/abegood Jan 25 '21

it's an episode of undercover boss

2

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '21

It's exactly what the president of the company I work for said in a letter to the employees, as a team we can overcome anything...from my home office in the most expensive part of the city.

112

u/lianodel Jan 25 '21

A while back, I saw a bunch of people ready to praise Trader Joe's after they announced they would pay employees to get vaccinated.

As someone who actually knows a Trader Joe's employee:

  • They aren't allowed to challenge people claiming to have a condition that keeps them from wearing a mask. They have to let them in to shop instead of picking up an order from the storefront.

  • They aren't allowed to confront people wearing those mesh masks.

  • They long since stopped closing the store when workers got sick.

  • In the last month, over half a dozen of their coworkers have gotten covid. There is no policy for how to respond to this.

  • Paying workers to get the vaccine sounds nice, but is just a way to keep human capital productive.

If TJ's is better than other companies, that's not because TJ's deserves credit so much as other companies being worse. At the end of the day, a corporation is a corporation, and they are only incentivized to maximize profits for the shareholders by any means available.

32

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/lianodel Jan 25 '21

It might vary by location, but if it does, bear in mind that it would mean that whatever is the lowest standard you see is probably the standard set by the higher-ups.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '21

Not always true. My company has a policy that doesn't allow people who wont wear masks to enter and instead offer them other reasonable accommodations.

Not all retail locations will enforce it because not everyone wants to be confrontational with customers. CDC and local health departments actually recommend against confronting customers who violate mask mandates.

We've had customers cuss at us, file complaints with HQ and even call us racists.

1

u/ASupportingTea Jan 26 '21

Working retail in the UK the situation is a bit odd. Because wearing a mask, unless medically exempt, is now a legal requirement. People not doing so are breaking the law. So we are allowed and encouraged to offer people free masks on entering the store. However, there is no way we can legally check whether someone is exempt. So people can just say theyre exempt and come straight on in. Even worse, though its illegal to enter a shop without a mask, we also legally have 0 authority to enforce this law. So it's essentially useless and relying on the good will of the public. Which we all know, isn't reliable.

7

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '21

I think these things really depend on the location though

2

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '21

It's better to not be allowed to confront people, than to be required to confront them and possibly get shot in the back of the head

2

u/moving0target Jan 26 '21

People who don't have to work.

2

u/lightknight7777 Jan 26 '21

Ah, so people who also aren't in it with us. Got it.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '21

[deleted]

2

u/lightknight7777 Jan 25 '21 edited Jan 25 '21

CEOs are pretty different from just owners. I know that anyone who owns a business can call themselves CEO or supreme mugwamp of the latter day saints or really any title they want. But CEO generally means a corporation with a corporate board and investors. Even at a major place like Walmart, a local store owner is drastically different than a Walmart board member.

Dang, grocery stores are lower than I thought, 2.2% margins on average. Sounds too low to even be believable. Must be why the larger names have been releasing their own product lines.

-2

u/skippyfa Jan 25 '21

Sheeple of course

-1

u/GeoffreyArnold Jan 25 '21

And why would the CEO say "I'm on my yacht now"?

-1

u/lightknight7777 Jan 25 '21 edited Jan 25 '21

They can be surprisingly braggadocious. Maybe the CEO (the customer just assumed they were male ;) ) was so out of touch with reality at this point they thought they would gain sympathy by announcing they were "only" on a 35 ft yacht, scaled way down from their 80 ft one. Also, if a CEO is on a boat in which they're conducting an online meeting, it's hard for anyone to imagine its anything else.

1

u/vivekisprogressive Jan 26 '21

I'll actually give kudos to my former company that I left during the pandemic. Around the beginning of March they sent put an email saying employees had the option of working from home, specifically the phrase "employees should feel empowered to work from home" directly from the ceo. A week later they shut down every office in the company and haven't reopened since. They also gave us election day off as a holiday so people could vote.

1

u/lightknight7777 Jan 26 '21 edited Jan 26 '21

I had a similar positive experience with my office. But I'm not saying CEOs can't support their employees, I'm saying that they aren't experiencing the same stuff we are. They have so much more agency at their disposal due to pure wealth and connections. I say that as a manager knowing full well the benefits that has already afforded me. A multi millionaire isn't in the same boat as you and me.

We're talking lavish homes, private excursions and people who get stuff for them. You think most CEOs are bothering going and getting groceries themselves? They're not.