Here we go.... get ready...
This company is disgusting at this point. They've emphasized profits over people... to the point that most of us are losing a CHUNK of our bonus because our Global parent (BAT) couldn't figure out how to handle their finances in other countries. Shareholders are lining their pockets with money from how well the US market has performed, but they can't put their money with their mouth is. We've been told 3 times by the new CEO that in 2020 we performed far better than would have been expected in a normal year much less a COVID year, but even that isn't enough for them.
They have repeatedly shown in 2020 that they don't care about the culture or the people of the company. Our president of Trade Marketing was practically forced out, because they created such an environment he didn't want to be here anymore... That man built the energy and enthusiasm trade marketing had for years. Reynolds Upper Leadership has gotten into literal shouting matches with British American/Reynolds Executives that claimed they couldn't see the value in Trade Marketing. Even though Reynolds has done multiple case studies that prove the more often we are in stores the better stores perform.
Do you like vacation? Well, you'll have plenty of it, but you're practically discouraged from using it this year. 70%+ of trade marketing took the first week of this 2021 off, and now we have 2.5 weeks to make up 4 weeks worth of work. OH... and if you don't make up those 4 weeks worth of work in those 2.5 weeks, you lose 25% of your bonus.
Leadership isn't diverse, even though we've had who knows how many Diversity town halls. Most people moving up in the company sip more Kool-Aid than water, and leadership is becoming full of Yes-Men(Women) with little not no ingenuity or innovation.
There is no accountability on anyone except Territory Managers, and Division Managers (now)... Account teams CONSTANTLY drop the ball and TMs have to stress and clean up their messes, this has happened consistently for years and has gotten progressively worse in this last year. Half of home office strategic accounts can’t even do their job properly, they don’t communicate consistently if at all. Nothing is consistent. Most of home office and leadership is so far removed from retail that they have no idea what’s actually happening in the field.
Home Office is struggling right now, half of the programs or initiatives we start, have to be edited and tweaked multiple times after we've started them or announced them because we've done so without Legal reviewing half of it. Decisions are being made without a thought of consequences it’ll have on more than 50% of the company.
Company morale is at an all-time low. In a time when companies are embracing their employees and understanding the overwhelming circumstances that have been put in front of us with covid, Reynolds (more specifically our global parent BAT) has shrugged their shoulders and cracked the whip even more often. Profits over people... this will be remembered. In a time where states are asking for minimal contact, BAT wants us hitting a minimum of 30 convenience stores in a week. Looking at over 120 COVID touchpoints in a month. During the month of September... we had over 200-250 touch points, hitting 12-13 stores a day. Their solution to this? Deli gloves, fabric masks, and care packages filled with snacks... which is nice because none of us have time to stop and eat, so I guess I can munch on crackers between calls. Our competitors were pulled out of the field after Thanksgiving due to Covid risks… Reynolds excuse? “We don’t know the underlying issues as to why Altria and ITG pulled their reps” I’ll tell you why, Altria and ITG saw the environment that their reps were working in as unsafe and not worth the risk. BAT saw our environments and decided to tell us we were worth the risk… or rather their sales were worth risking us. Numerous TM’s have come down with COVID and BAT claims that it’s from situations where social distancing and mask wearing wasn’t observed… Well news flash… we can’t social distance behind a point of sale… there are minimally 2-3 people in a tight space at all times. We ALL have stores who aren’t enforcing mask mandates, who aren’t using masks themselves, who create environments that aren’t safe for us.
We are constantly running around in circles, looking like we have no idea what we're doing. Making changes to fixtures and sets multiple times throughout the year because we can’t make up our mind. Our #1 competitor in the Vapor space has had the same packaging and signage for years… In that same time we’ve had over 5 packaging changes, and last year alone we did 5 signage change overs… during a freaking pandemic.
Goals have always been lofty in years past but this year is so much worse. We spent Oct, Nov, & Dec jamming product down the throats of our stores, to the point that most stores have MONTHS of inventory. BAT wants us to hit this absurd goal in Jan, in most cases 125% growth vs the avg of Q4, the issue? Most of our customers aren’t going to order product in January because they have so much inventory from Q4.
If you want to have a voice that is heard in the company you work for… avoid this one. We have been asking for MONTHS for vacation to not be held against us. For it not to be measured as a metric on our bonus, so what do they do? Tie our vacation to our coverage portion of the bonus… exactly opposite of what we’ve begged them not to do.
Our company motto has been (since 2006!) to reduce harm… and yet during 2020 we launched more Cigarette SKUs than any year prior (21 skus…). Reasoning? Oh we need to fund our vapor and modern oral initiatives… how much money did it cost us to rebrand, relaunch and repackage these skus? And how much of that are we cannibalizing from our own products? We repackaged PallMall which has been historically a dying brand, but we keep trying to give it a shot of morphine (in the form of package refreshes/money) like it isn’t going to die slowly anyways. We’ve done nothing to innovate for years… just following behind other competition and what they do… Blu launched their product years ago, we launch Solo… Logic launches their pen… we launch Vibe… Ciro was kind of innovative but volume is so minimal it doesn’t count. Juul takes the market by storm, and we quietly acquire a company and call it Vuse Alto. Are our products higher quality? Sure… innovative? Not at all. They don’t want to invest the money into being innovative, they’re comfortable with always following behind someone.
