Nordstrom

After reading the article on Nordstrom, I was taken aback by their disrespectful behavior towards employees. Being a longtime dedicate shopper myself, it was difficult to accept the fact that I directly contributed to an organization that is discourteous and outright rude to their employees. Within the reading, the article stated that employees discovered subsequently that on Saturday’s the clock was always broken or the time cards were not assessable. When hours of overtime are hand written on the time cards, managers took the initiative to white out the hours (is that even legal? Can't the employees complain to the Union?) and accused them of “not being a team player.” I’m assuming by that they are referring to working overtime at the employees’ expenses rather than the company. Upper management lying to their workers and manipulating the situation in an unethical manner establishes the precedent that employees are allowed to do the same without facing the consequences.

Managers are always grilling employees about their sales quotas not meeting up to par. The constant badgering and nagging makes the employees feel as if their job is in jeopardy. This type of behaviors from management violates the esteem level of Maslow’s hierarchy of need and prevents employees from fully enjoying their job. Management also failed to realize their actions contributes to the downfall of employees. Their behavior is a factor to the fundamental attribution error. They might consider the cause of employee’s unwillingness to work as a sign of laziness, but what they fail to realize is that the system that assisted in their employees downfall has failed. The constant demands, grueling hours, and endless harassment will eventually deter employees from working at Nordstrom.

Nordstrom’s customer service is impeccable and one-of –kind, Sales reps or better referred to as ”Nordies” goes up an beyond the call of duty to ensure their customers gets everything they want, any time they want and anywhere every they want it delivered. Given the fact Nordstrom’s employees are expected to outperform within their responsibilities, and they do, should upper management do the same? After all, their sales reps are the standing in the front line all day, everyday assisting their customers with the utmost respect. It would seem unruly for management to treat them with such a deceitful manner with events like cutting employees hours or assigning them unfavorable working hours if they refuse to work off the clock. These negative reinforcements will work short term because they are executed for two main reasons: it’s an attempt to develop desirable behavior by issuing positive consequence, or strengthen negative behavior from arising by withholding negative consequence.