I originally started with Meijer in 1998 left the company then came back....a total of almost 15 years now. I was a team leader for 8 years, and went back to being a team member so I could go back to college. Thanks to college, I am close to the end of my Meijer career. With every year that passes and every union contract that is re-written, the wages drop....paid time off drops.....cost of benefits increase, etc. Meijer restructured store management and general store labor in 2004, then again a few years later. Every time they cut down labor, they (Hank, Doug, and friends) saw how much more they could make by just not having as many employees....no wonder they're currently worth $8.39 BILLION. There are many cons. The work ethic of the general population is dropping. Compound that with the fact that starting pay in grocery in the Cincinnati market has gone up $1/hr in the last 15 years. How much was the cost of living 15 years ago compared to today? So 9 out of 10 hires have low work ethic and are barely paid above minimum wage. Then that 1 out of 10 guy that busts his hump every day for $7.75/hr wonders, "Why should I be killing myself for this money?" With ZERO chance for raises based on merit, it would take someone over 12 years to go from $7.75/hr to $12.30/hr I have worked at 4 stores in my almost 15 years and it's been the same everywhere. The people that kill themselves trying to work hard get more worked dumped on them while the lazy "team members" do next to nothing and never get reprimanded. Management used to almost always be promotions from within, but are rarely so anymore. It seems like 4 out of 5 new managers are from Wal-Mart or Sam's Club. When I originally left the company, I was a team leader. I was asked to train a management trainee.....from another company......who STARTED OUT making $4/hr more than me....after I had been in management for 8 YEARS!!!! Everything this company does, whether intentional or not, comes off as slighting the employees. I could go on forever, but I'll stop. I honestly think the company will continue to grow and get richer and richer, but at the price of having horribly down-trodden employees.
