Dan Cavazos is heartbroken that his seven-year sales career at Circuit City ended abruptly Wednesday morning with his firing. "I liked what I was doing," said Cavazos, who worked at the Circuit City store at 1240 E. Golf Rd.
in Schaumburg. "The people there are just awesome. It is a great company.
For them to do this is really heart-breaking."
40 per hour and was told the highest pay for his job in the future will be $10 or $10.50. Cavazos, 48, was one of 3,400 hourly workers nationwide whom financially struggling Circuit City fired because it decided they were paid too much.
He was one of seven fired at the store in Schaumburg, and among 144 let go at 26 stores in the Chicago region. A Circuit City memo said employees whose pay rate "was 51 cents or more above the established pay range" would be terminated as a result of its "business decision." A Circuit City spokeswoman said Friday that the pay ranges vary by geography, and she couldn't disclose them.
She said she had no information about how the company had determined its new "established pay range." Rick Weinhart, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets Corp. in New York, said Circuit City pays about $10 to $11 an hour, on average, and that entry-level pay is about $8.
Bernard Baumohl, executive director of the Economic Outlook Group, said "This strategy strikes me as being quite cold. ..
. I don't think it's in the best interest of Circuit City as a whole."
40 an hour as a sales associate in the entertainment department, selling plasma TVs, DVD players, receivers and electronics. He was expecting a raise of 35 cents in April. Cavazos said the store manager told him that the highest pay in the future for Cavazos' job would be $10 or $10.
50 an hour. Cavazos was so shaken up, he can't remember the exact numb. Another employee fired at the Schaumburg store said he was making $18 an hour after six years as a salesman, but declined to be named or comment further.
The fired workers were given no option to take less pay, but they may reapply for jobs at Circuit City at the lesser pay after waiting 10 weeks. The Circuit City spokeswoman said the employees were asked to wait because they are being paid severance, but she didn't know why 10 weeks was the time limit. "I can't go back.
It was hard enough for me to make my bills," he said. "It left a bad feeling." As Cavazos cleaned out his locker on Wednesday, he found a letter from a customer, thanking him for his help with a purchase of a TV and DVD/VCR player.
"You went above and beyond the call of duty to back up your sale," the customer wrote. "It's good to know that there are still dedicated people in sales." The managers and some of the workers had tears in their eyes on the day of the firings, Cavazos said.
The employees were told to come to work early on Wednesday and were told in one-on-one meetings about the firings. Cavazos will receive eight weeks' severance pay, including four weeks he had accumulated in time off. Cavazos is divorced and is paying child-support, but he's grateful he can live with his parents in Wood Dale while he looks for a new job.
Circuit City, the second-largest electronics retailer behind Best Buy, was in the red in the final quarter of 2006 and has been struggling to meet its sales goals even though sales are increasing.
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