Take the Week Off

One of my trolls on the sub-Reddit for Sherwin-Williams employees believes I’m a shill for the competition, only investigating wage theft at Sherwin to drive business to Benjamin Moore. 

But Dan Calkins would have to pay me to make that happen, because unlike Sherwin-Williams store managers I can’t be forced to work for free.

Still another believes that I quest for relevance, a conspiracy theory in the realm of belief had I not so recently been working to avoid exaxctly that.

But the point of this effort is not to gain status, more a quest to find relevence enough to end wage theft at Sherwin-Williams for the benefit of the thousands of employees who fall victim to that scam.

Work which may take a while so these two had better settle in.

In September of 2018 as Sherwin-Williams engaged in a years-long effort to end their relationship with independent retailers I questioned their wisdom in a column published in the now defunct Paint Dealer Magazine, where I was contributing editor and writer for most of my years behind the counter.

That crusade, to keep the resources of the world’s largest paint maker working for the benefit of independent retailers.

One of the few sources of income this writing produced over the years came from sponsorships. Manufactures who supported my message who perhaps also hoped that their logo on my page might get the attention of my readers, who at that time would have been predominantly independent paint retailers.

Among those sponsors was Pratt & Lambert Paints, once one of THE channel’s great brands until they were acquired by Sherwin-Williams in 1995. Still languishing in 2017, being a P&L dealer allowed me to meet former Sherwin-Williams chief executive John Morikis on a visit to New York. In my office he agreed to the one-year sponsorship, perhaps believing we shared the same ethic and that his money would buy him a more favorable commentary? 

And now it’s too late to ask for a refund!

I continue to receive messages from employees at Sherwin-Williams at a frequency unabated since the 401(k) debacle.  Most complain of wage theft with most of those accusations coming from store managers and assistant managers, a trend so apparent it could mean little beyond the obvious.

That Sherwin-Williams is guilty of their accusations. 

As the blunt force of Petz’s trauma many of the field managers I’m in touch complain of the stresses of their jobs. Like store managers, they must also keep working until Heidi says stop.

And remember to say thank you! 

I posted a video for Sherwin employees on the sub-Reddit for that group, imploring them to participate in my investigation into wage theft. The video has since been viewed more than 1,000 times and had the desired effect.  Because after posting that video I received a burst of inbound traffic, from employees who each had had their own experiences.

But the story was always the same.    

My LinkedIn profile and blog also continue to garner attention from amongst the Sherwin faithful, more than 1,500 of whom have followed or subscribed since Heidi shit in their retirement. On the Reddit my posts were viewed by more than 60% of that page’s 42k weekly visitors, that volume like my notebook bearing witness to Sherwin’s crimes.

We Interrupt this Program

Next week if you come here looking for coverage of Sherwin-Williams you’ll be in the right place but at the wrong time. On Friday my fiancéeic and I depart for an adventure in her native land; a self-guided food crawl through earth’s first gardens. 

After stops in Parma and Bologna we’ll eat our way north stopping in Vicenza and Verona. THE birthplace of all romance.

The pace won’t allow for a proper blog but since I make the rules here I plan to post pictures and repartee on the journey's best bites. I won’t post that to LinkedIn so if you want to follow along you will have to subscribe to THE blog.

Everyone else gets the week off!