Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 15, 1993 TAG: 9302160274
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
THEY STRIVE TO EXCEL RIGHT UP TO LOSS OF BELOVED JOBS
THEIR "BEAUTIFUL" corporate culture at Sears Telecatalog Center in Roanoke even gets mentioned in prayer meetings that some workers have held daily since they learned the center will close this year."The hardest habit we'll have to break is to stop hugging," said Susan Weade. "We hug so much."
Weade was with the Virginia Employment Commission in 1988 when she helped Sears, Roebuck & Co. open its telecatalog center in Roanoke.
"I liked the culture so well that I wanted to work here," she said recently. She became training manager at the center.
That culture has nurtured a family, workers say.
As "family," they "bought" the right to dress casually at $1 per day to raise $4,500 for storm victims in Wichita, Kan. More recently, a similar sale raised more than $1,000 for a Chicago telecatalog worker who is facing huge medical expenses.
But now the family is faced with a strange situation: It has to break up but stay strong until the end to serve catalog customers.
For days after the company announced Jan. 25 that it was quitting the catalog business, the Roanoke center had so many calls that it was on call-waiting status.
Customers wanted to commiserate with workers about their mutual loss. Sears' catalogs have been part of American life for 97 years.
Customers also ordered band-saw blades, several at a time, and as many as 20 pairs of shoes, all alike.
Orders flooded in for back-support undergarments and bras for women who have had mastectomies.
"A lot of our good customers are calling to buy things they're afraid they can't get anywhere else," said Dee Stokley.
Stokley has worked at the center four years to make extra money to help with her children's college expenses.
"I'm lucky," she said. "A lot work here to feed their children."
It's true, managers say, that some of the center's workers are dependent upon their income from Sears, even though that wasn't the intent of the center's hiring policy.
A qualification for employment was that the worker didn't need the job, but wanted it anyway.
Any person hired was told the job was not a career, said Charlsie Pafford, human resources manager.
Pafford and Weade and 12 others make up the center's total full-time staff.
About 500 of the 1,550 employees work 25 hours a week and get full benefits. Others work as little as 10 hours up to 25 hours.
A third of the workers are over 55 years old. A number of handicapped people are employed.
Wages range from $4.70 to $6.24 an hour.
"We targeted housewives or people who needed part-time jobs," said Pafford.
Pafford said she came to the center to earn money "to put her children through college."
She said she will have met that goal by the time the center closes.
There's one problem, though. Pafford said she has learned she likes to work, so she'll also be hunting a job.
Tom McVaney, center manager, came out of retirement from Sears to run the center. He is the only employee eligible for the company's buyout offer.
As the closing date nears - nothing official has been announced, but McVaney thinks it will be August - more concentrated efforts will be made to help workers find jobs. Workshops on resume preparation and interviewing techniques will be held.
In the meantime, though, everyone is trying to help each other keep an upbeat attitude.
A banner in the call room proclaims:
"Let's go out in a blaze of glory!"
There will be more "dress down" days, when workers can relax from the center's dress code. The code forbids slacks for women and requires shirts and ties for men.
There also will be a talent show and potluck meals.
In addition, workers get regular treats for being one of the best of the company's 11 centers.
Apples given out on a recent day were a reward for being tops in new credit applications, with 82,000 total.
McVaney said the center has also handled the highest volume of calls of all the centers.
He says he's "never done anything" as a manager except let the workers do their jobs.
McVaney says the secret of the center's "culture" is simple. Workers are given the right to make a mistake and therefore the go-ahead to make decisions.
When a Roanoke city administrator called him after the Sears announcement to ask if the city could help, McVaney said he told him:
"No, I can help you. There is a spirit of empowerment here that's incredible."
When the Sears workers are "unleashed" on the Roanoke Valley, everywhere they land will be improved, the manager said.