Sounds Like Something She Would Say

On Monday Pittsburgh Paints eliminated operations managers from their paint stores division costing 75 people their job.  Predictable considering that division’s lack of profitability and the first of several rounds of layoffs Stores is likely to endure. 

Because while that move might allow Pittsburgh CEO Brian Carson to send American Industrial Partners a few more ducats next month it does little to address the division’s underlying problem; nearly half of all Pittsburgh stores nationwide are using red ink to report their results.    

And Carson won’t be done cutting until he fixes that affect.

With some overhead trimmed Carson’s next move will be to close any unprofitable stores, some of which may have been saved by yesterday’s action giving hope that fewer jobs might be lost. Those few heads saved remaining employees likely share the same fate as the operations managers. 

With those stores closed Carson will again look to right-size his overhead, likely making another round of cuts in overhead to accommodate Store’s new footprint.

And it seems I’m the only one who knows it. 

While Carson was cutting I continued my investigation into wrongdoing at the world’s largest paint maker Sherwin-Williams. My findings last week further deepened my belief that the culture at Sherwin-Williams not only allows for rampant wage theft but further allows classes of employees to be taken advantage of by those rank higher. 

According to many of the 60,000 employees of that firm who don’t work in Cleveland.

Most likely to fall victim to the wage theft schemes are the store and assistant store managers, most told by their own managers that they are salaried employees and therefore intelligible for overtime no matter how many hours they work. An absurdity Sherwin perpetuates which lays at the foundation of their scheme.  So engrained that canard that nearly every manager I’ve spoken with has complained of forced hours without pay, with most sharing it happens multiple times each week. 

Petz’s unwillingness to address that issue, which the federal government has already told Sherwin is wage theft, speaks to her ethical deficiencies which make her ineligible for her current position.

Employees also complain Petz’s company shows little regard for their health and safety, with a concerning number making credible accusations of unsafe working conditions in some stores.  Specifics are hard to share without the risk of exposing a source, but my findings comport with what OSHA has been saying all century. Because in those 26-years OSHA has sited Sherwin-Williams for dozens of health and safety violations including this one from 2016 when Sherwin “failed to protect its own employee” on a job site in Missouri according to OSHA, who levied a fine of just $12,500.

Leaving their victim to pay much more.

Having already cut employee’s 401(k) matching Petz turned her attention to other cost savings last week, suspending floor and window cleaning services at all locations for the remainder of the year.  Decisive action saving Sherwin hundreds of dollars, enough to keep Petz’s jet in the air an extra minute or two. 

An email to employees went on to explain that the floors and windows will still need to be cleaned on a “regular basis” using staff from the store and products from a “curated” list of cleaning supplies.

With employees I'm in touch already complaining of chronic understaffing in the stores this feels like another unfunded mandate from Cleveland. More work without pay for employees in stores.

Or maybe she just forgot to mention it?

Earlier this week I made a video for Sherwin-Williams employees and posted it on the sub-Reddit for that group.  A day later that video had garnered more than 700 views and I received dozens messages from employees seeking to inform these pages with their own experiences with the company.  Overwhelmingly they’ve been supportive of my effort with many reaching out just to say thank you.

Though not everybody has been impressed.

On the sub-Reddit my trolls can elicit responses with some trolling back and even defending Sherwin’s malfeasance, like one poster last week who after questioning my motives implored their brethren to ignore my entreaties; even if I’m right about the wage theft! 

Which sounds like something Heidi might say.