Pros

When I first started with this company many years ago, there was a slogan in place. It was known as "A compelling place to work, shop and invest. These were happier times for the company and its employees as a whole. The executives in the company understood the simple relation that happy employees created happy customers which created an end product of profit.

There are still good long term employees in the company at all levels that are experienced and enjoyable to work with but they seem to be a quickly dwindling bunch these days with the new CEO and his desire to cut expenses.

Cons

The big downside of my company is our CEO, Steve Odland. The company was a lot better off when we had Bruce Nelson at the helm. Odland is only concerned with slashing expenses and has no long term vision on taking the company anywhere. All of the management at my store are hoping he leaves the company soon and that we can pick up the pieces and bring the company back to the glory that it was before he arrived.

I also have problems with some of the immediate management that I report to. They are very good at delegating but hardly ever do any work themselves. This is particularly annoying when most stores are running with only the most minimal of associates at any given time. In this kind of work environment I feel my management needs to roll up its sleeves and get busy working along side the rest of us. Because of their lax attitude on not helping, a lot of the store projects don't get done as they should. What I see a lot of is management socializing in a friendly with one another and then getting stressed when projects aren't done and they are under the gun.

Advice to Senior Management

The company needs to undergo a complete overhaul on its management in order to survive. Odland needs to step down along with other board members and fresh people with new ideas and long term vision need to be put in their place. The company needs to get back to its roots on creating a productive and happy environment for its employees. The company used to have a slogan written on the walls of every store: "Our customers mean everything, without them nothing else matters". Back then the leadership understood that happy customers are created with happy employees. The principles back then were simple and there was no confusion. Steve Odland doesn't understand that you sometimes need to spend money in order to make money. However he has had no difficulties in giving himself massive bonuses when no one else in the company is getting raises at all.