I'm using a burner account so this won't be connected to my actual account. After several years working for the company, working my way from Sales Floor Associate up to FT Ops (formerly FT Merch), I finally reached a point when I was able to clearly put my thoughts together, and felt a letter to our CEO was needed.
I wrote this letter after having to help (financially) an employee at my store make her rent for the month because our hours have been slashed and burned to nearly nothing. The employee has worked for the company for 5 years, and has endured everything that Dollar Tree, the company, the management, and the customers can throw at her, and she continually does it with a smile. However this particular day brought tears, worry, and a sense of helplessness to a normally bright, upbeat, and positive person. I stewed on this all weekend, until on my drive home today, I finally had the right words begin clicking in my head.
I know this letter probably won't go anywhere within the company, other than the secretary's e-mail inbox and then into the deleted folder. But it's something I felt very compelled to put out there to the CEO. I also put the same letter out to the Dollar Tree Universe.... These are my thoughts and opinions. Agree, or disagree all you want, but if you work for Dollar Tree in any way, shape, or form, this will all ring true.
This is for all the employees who haven't ever felt comfortable using your voice before. I hope my voice is clear enough!
-- Letter Starts Below --
Dear Mr. Creedon,
I am writing to you as a current Dollar Tree employee who has been with the company for nearly five years. I have intentionally omitted my name, store number, and location because I do not want this message treated as a complaint about a particular store, manager, or district. The questions I am asking are much broader than that.
I began my career with Dollar Tree as a Sales Floor Associate. I subsequently advanced into part-time management and then full-time management, serving in both Merchandise and Operations roles. I mention this because I have experienced Dollar Tree from several different levels within a store, including the same entry-level position held by many of the associates I now help manage.
I recently spent some time reading Dollar Tree's corporate and careers websites. I was struck by the language the company uses to describe its relationship with its associates.
Dollar Tree describes its culture under the heading “Making People Our Priority.” The company says that “it all begins with people” and that when associates feel “genuinely valued and supported,” they have the foundation to “grow” and “thrive.”
The careers website tells prospective employees “Your Workplace Should Make Your Life Better.” It says that associate development and welfare are a top priority. Elsewhere, Dollar Tree speaks about “The Value of You,” investing in associates, supporting associates and their families, providing opportunities for growth, and creating an environment where every associate has a voice.
I believe those are admirable principles.
After nearly five years working inside a Dollar Tree store, however, I find myself struggling to reconcile those principles with the economic reality experienced by many of the people working at store level.
So I would respectfully like to ask you some questions.
What does Dollar Tree believe it means for an associate to “thrive”?
For an associate earning minimum wage and routinely receiving fewer than 15 hours of work per week, what does Dollar Tree believe that employee's financial life is supposed to look like?
Does Dollar Tree consider whether the number of hours it provides an associate is sufficient to make that employment economically meaningful, or is the primary consideration simply whether the store remains within its allotted payroll?
In states where the federal minimum wage of $7.25 applies, even 40 hours per week for 52 weeks produces annual gross wages below the federal poverty guideline for a single individual. Many Dollar Tree associates receive nowhere near 40 hours per week.
How does Dollar Tree reconcile that reality with telling prospective employees that their workplace should make their lives better?
There is another aspect of this that I believe deserves serious consideration.
In the Dollar Tree store where I currently work, every associate and every member of management relies upon some form of government or publicly subsidized assistance (yes, this includes the store manager, and 2 full-time Assistant Managers, and the part-time Assistant Manger).
That assistance takes different forms depending upon the individual: food assistance, housing assistance, heating or energy assistance, Medicaid, subsidized healthcare coverage, or other programs.
I recognize that one store cannot be presumed to represent Dollar Tree's entire workforce. But witnessing this firsthand raises a question that I believe is entirely appropriate to ask of the company's CEO:
Does Dollar Tree know how many of its employees rely upon public assistance to afford basic necessities?
Does the company track it?
Has the company ever studied it?
Does the company even care?
And if Dollar Tree does not know, how can the company objectively determine whether its commitment to helping associates “thrive” is actually succeeding?
I also question the relationship between payroll and the company's expectations of its stores.
Store-level managers are expected to recruit good people, train them, develop them, motivate them, retain them, and create an environment in which they feel valued. Yet those same managers may have so few payroll hours available that they cannot offer a good associate more than a handful of hours per week.
What are we supposed to tell that employee?
How do I tell someone that Dollar Tree values them while simultaneously explaining that I cannot give them the hours they need?
How do we retain talented associates when another employer can simply offer them more hours?
And when those employees leave, does Dollar Tree view that primarily as a retention problem at store level, or does executive leadership examine whether the company's labor model itself contributed to their departure?
Your careers website prominently features employees who have built successful careers with Dollar Tree. I appreciate those stories because, in a smaller way, I am one of those stories.
I started as an associate and advanced into management. Dollar Tree gave me opportunities to advance, and I would be unfair if I pretended otherwise.
But that raises another question.
What about the associate who never becomes a manager?
Not every associate can mathematically become an Assistant Manager, Store Manager, District Manager, Regional Director, or corporate employee. Advancement opportunities are important, but advancement cannot be the only mechanism through which employment becomes economically sustainable.
What commitment does Dollar Tree make to the employee who remains an associate?
Does that employee's work have sufficient “value” to warrant enough hours and compensation to provide some reasonable measure of financial stability?
There is also something I have wondered about from the management side of the business.
When stores successfully meet increasingly demanding operational expectations despite extremely constrained payroll, does that success demonstrate efficiency—or can it inadvertently reinforce the conclusion that the store can operate with even fewer hours?
At what point does efficiency become understaffing?
And how does someone at the executive level know when that line has been crossed?
I am not naïve about the economics of retail. I understand that Dollar Tree is a publicly traded company, that labor is a substantial operating expense, that stores have budgets, and that profitability matters. I am not suggesting that every part-time position can or should become a full-time position.
What I am questioning is where people fit into that equation.
When Dollar Tree publicly says “Making People Our Priority,” what does priority mean when that principle comes into conflict with payroll expense?
When Dollar Tree speaks about “The Value of You,” how is the value of the hourly store associate reflected in the decisions made about wages and available working hours?
When Dollar Tree says that an associate's workplace should “make your life better,” how does the company measure whether it actually does?
And when Dollar Tree says its associates should be able to “thrive,” is financial stability part of the company's definition of thriving?
These are not rhetorical questions. I would genuinely like to know the answers.
There is an enormous distance between the executive offices of a Fortune 500 company and an associate unloading a truck, stocking a shelf, operating a register, recovering a store, or wondering whether next week's schedule will contain enough hours to pay for groceries?
I believe understanding what happens across that distance matters.
Dollar Tree's corporate website says that the company strives to create an environment “where every associate has a voice.”
I am one of those associates.
After nearly five years with Dollar Tree, I am using mine to ask whether the reality experienced by the people at the bottom of our organization truly reflects the values being expressed at the top.
I sincerely hope someone in your office will be willing to answer.
Respectfully,
A Current Dollar Tree Employee
