Glad I left when I did - Anonymous employee Discount Tire Employee Review

I started with Discount Tire (DTC henceforth) in 2003 where I was working at one of the retail stores. As a part time employee, understandably, I didn’t receive any of the benefits that were available to the full time employees. Though I did hear about all the great things that the company provided. I worked at this store for approximately 3 years then I transferred the corporate office. This is when I was able to receive all the great benefits. The benefits were really nice. We had many lunches, events, and other perks. When the recession hit in 2007, this is when all started to change. They started cutting the percentage raise that employees were able to receive from 5% 5o 3%, stating that this was temporary. During this recession, DTC had the best year they ever had year over year but the restriction on raises and promotions stayed. Every subsequent year, the same restrictions stayed in place. This was obviously disheartening as DTC was doing better than ever and not thanking the employees. Although some things stayed the same, such as: continued providing large sums for Assistant Vice-President vehicles every 3-5 years (this includes all regions in the company) and other frivolous spending practices for the upper management. All of this was being done while employees were told that the company was trying to be smart in their spending. With pay in general, it was not very good compared to market. I would attribute this to what DTC saw as the perks of the job. While they did have market adjustments, they are still significantly behind the market standard. With the aforementioned recession, these perks were now going away. Lunches were being reduced, managers were no longer able to pay for lunch, and all promotions were on hold. They did try to reduce the costs of the company though: They sold one of their airplanes, I hate when I have to sell one of my airplanes off. So now, what is the motivation to want to work there anymore? They’re behind market wage, they’ve reduced the perks, and make it difficult to get a promotion. But then, the employees were kicked while they were down. Without getting into any information that could be seen as a trade secret, things have changed there. Employees are scared for their positions and are unsure of what is to come. A large majority of the corporate employees are only in their position because they have been with the company forever. These managers and directors don’t necessarily have any experience other than what they’ve been taught at DTC. This type of employee has no where to go if they tried to get another job elsewhere, so really they’re stuck in their place and have to ride the wave. In other departments where this isn’t the case like I.T., the company wonders why they’re losing employees. Needless to say, moral is quite low and employees feel, rightly so, that they’re being taken advantage of. It seems that the employee is not longer valued at the company. Now, the original owner has retired and the upper echelons are being shaken up. The new owner and the CEO are at odds with one another in a power struggle and it is being disseminated throughout the company. DTC wonders why their corporate employees are unhappy, afraid, and resentful. Their practices of spending money frivolously have continued while the wage increases are being cut. They’ve cut a large number of perks to better manage expense, but they don’t know why moral is at an all time low. Now with large projects affecting the entire company, employees are fearful of the future, but are given little indication of what the future holds. Their antiquated view or running a business is causing rampant unrest throughout the ranks. They’re justification for the things they do hold no merit. The ends do not justify the means and this will be their downfall. [EDIT] Note that know Tom Englert and he is a good person. I think the biggest problem is that he just might be unaware of these issues as he is at the top. With him being pseudo replaced by Michael Z., the future of the company seems even more uncertain. They need to stop what they're doing, consult employees, and try to lay these issues to rest. It was a great company and have potential to get back there again.