So sorry to hear your experience, it is very similar to ours. My husband and I both worked for the company, and yes it does hurt to be thrown out like a piece of trash. I would recommend an attorney in Tigard by the name of "Crispin Employment Lawyers" who has had success at winning against Les Schwab. Get ready for the fight of your life, and if your view of them is tarnished now, wait until you see how dirty and underhanded they can get. It is a daunting task that most attorneys won't even consider. I also have names and numbers of others who have had similar stories.
By the way did you start out in Beaverton?, I am thinking the name J dub sounds familiar, just curious if we might know you.
We have voices and ex employees who have been put through the ringer by the company we all once loved "Les Schwab" should speak up. So yes you are right, a stop should be put to treating employees in such manners, and if they don't at least acknowledge their bad behavior, their customers should be made aware so that they can take that into consideration before patronizing their establishment.
So here is one of my older post:
First off I have to say I met the man, Les Schwab, and I absolutely loved him, he was an absolute genius, had incredible foresight, and knew what it took to build a successful company, with happy employees and happy customers. But as many customers with NO inside information have noticed.. SADLY something HAS changed.
Les built his company with some very rock solid Ideals. For instance he believed in "building people first", meaning that he cared about his employees, and wanted to create an environment that ensured not just his success, but theirs as well. He started many wonderful programs that made most employees very grateful to work for a man like him, and in turn those employees happily ran fast, worked long hours and weeks, sweating bullets, all with devotion uncommon, and wearing a genuine smile for him and the customers. WE WERE PROUD TO BE MEMBERS OF "LES SCHWAB FAMILY".
Where am I going with this rebuttal- well stop by the McMinnville store and look for the familiar always helpful bookkeeper who everyone in town recognizes as the gal at schwabs who is always the first one to help you, and you wont find her. Fired with NO reason after 17 years with the company, I am shocked!. Her son dressed in Les Schwab clothes since a baby, the family proudly sported Les Schwab gear on days off. She is one of many, the original, the true heart blood that made the company a success. And now is cutout in a way that Les would have never allowed.
Sure times are tough everywhere,
unemployment rates are at an all time high, I understand that, but Les had enough vision, and simplicity to him, a no frills kind of guy that we could all relate to. He was no typical million dollar mogul, he would have never spent the kind of money the new corporate heads did to move the main office to Bend so they could have a big fancy headquarters like they think they "deserve"(Les lived very happily all those years at the Prineville Main Office- Keeping the future and well being of his employees and company above all else) Les cared about his community too, and the company never could've made the move to Bend while Les was alive, I think Les knew the devastating impact that would have on the businesses in Prineville. Also corporate paid for many of its corporate employees moving expenses and closing costs to move them to Bend. Its a 75 Mile round trip commute from Prineville to Bend?? I made an 80mile commute (happily) for seven years while working for them, the gal at McMinnville Commuted to Tigard for over ten years, HAPPILY.
Les talked with a politician one time and told him that one of the biggest problems we face is that too many people have a sense of entitlement, this was many years ago. Amazing Insight huh? Perhaps a
prediction? the sense of entitlement at the corporate level is robbing those who built this company by the sweat of their brows and the time missed with their families all in hopes of a shared success in the company.
Let me pose this question "If the company cant afford to keep an employee that they know has been an asset, firing them with no reason, saying they know its not right, then how is it that company can afford to take the managers trip to Hawaii at the beginning of '09?" seems a bit extravagant during questionable profits. Instead they are chopping the heads off the people you and I want to see when we go into a Schwabs.
Let me tell you something that I experience now, and I think is pretty extraordinary. Our current employer, when profits are low, to get through lean business times, the managers take a temporary cut in
salary to compensate, not wanting to let valuable employees go, maybe the greedy hands at the top of Les Schwab could glean a bit from that idea, maybe?
There was a day when I was proud to say I worked for Les Schwab, because of its reputation for treating customers and employees right, but those days are gone. If the Les Schwab company still feels that its employees are the "Lifeblood" of its success then they had better realize they are committing corporate suicide by cutting the employees that are the ones who keep their customers coming back. Its the Customer Service that keeps them coming back, its common knowledge you can buy tires cheaper everywhere else. I hate to tell the customers this but wage cost is high, net profit is low and the first thing to get cut in the Post Les Schwab era is the one thing that set them apart, quality employees, which equaled good customer service.
I know this will receive HUGE comments back from faithful and devoted current employees, let me just say, even YOUR job isn't
secure, and YOU will look at things differently when you are wrongly kicked out of the company you devoted your life to being part of, to help build. I have sincere heartbreak when I think about this company becoming like every other corporation, where the only thing that matters is the bottom line, profits. Its not what Les envisioned for his company, sad to see all that he created go to waste.
Why file a report here? Ripoff Report is a permanent record! Other complaint sites copy our content then remove reports for money.
