The member comment portion of the Greenbelt Co-op’s December 11 board meeting raised concerns about employee working conditions, which also had been raised by several employees at the August board meeting. Board Vice Chair Steven Bernheisel led the meeting.
Concerns of current and former employees who spoke at the August meeting, after General Manager Dan Gillotte was asked to leave the room, included reported lack of raises for most employees for four years, lack of job descriptions, annual reviews or transparency around raises and assignments, as well as poor fiscal decisions in other areas (such as accruing late fees on bills). Employees also complained in August of being unable to chat with customers, even when not busy, and lack of support for employees during incidents of harassment by customers, which have included threats and being spat on.
A lot of employees are leaving the Co-op, unhappy with the management, and morale is low, reported former and current employees in August. At the December meeting, Audrey Dixon and former employee Jessica Silver spoke on behalf of friends who are Co-op employees, who Dixon and Silver say have been afraid to speak since that August meeting, to which, they said, there’s been no response from the board. Bernheisel said the board has discussed the topic since the last board meeting and doesn’t discuss personnel policies publicly.
Employee Concerns
“Very few people … enjoy any aspect of how they’re managed and in fact, feel it [is] hostile and are afraid to come here. Everyone that I asked to come [to this meeting] and give their true sense so this place can grow, has been afraid to lose their jobs,” stated Dixon last week. She would love for the board to take action, have regulations and make employees a higher priority, said Dixon. “Customer-to-employee misconduct … [is] a huge issue especially when employees have gotten death threats, harm threats and harassment and nothing has been done about that,” complained Dixon, echoing complaints heard by the board in August.
Dixon expressed what she said were employees’ concerns about the treatment of a longtime colleague who was demoted from being a front-end supervisor and replaced by a new front-store manager, who was brought back from the New Deal Café following the dissolution of the store’s partnership as vendor there.
“There’s just no sense of community here. Every employee I talk to says [the manager] has no compassion for any of them. No one has gotten a raise. I just don’t know what else I can do. I can’t go to you all,” Silver said to the board, citing a lack of response to previous comments and emails. Silver recently resorted to posting on social media about employee dissatisfaction at the Co-op.
Board member Leonard Wallace asked Silver and Dixon to suggest first steps for board interactions with them, members and employees, which Wallace himself and Silver answered together: helping employees speak without feeling uncomfortable. Dixon asked “Are there any policies if an employee has a complaint about working conditions, even about the way that [General Manager] Dan [Gillotte] manages, are there policies in place to protect them from demotion and employment termination?” Silver followed with “Because that’s the biggest thing I’m getting. I can’t get any of the employees to come here,” she said. Such policies “would be a wonderful start if there aren’t any already,” said Dixon. Silver emphasized the importance of making such policies known, because employees fear retaliation, she said. Bernheisel noted the question.
Customer Concerns
Customer and Generous Joe’s owner Aaron Mengel asked via Zoom if policies prevent customers talking with staff. He described talking about his mother’s memorial with a cashier who was his mother’s friend. He said they were talking between her other customers for whom he stood aside, when Gillotte asked him to let her do her job, which Mengel found rude. “Given what the Co-op is – these are our community members we communicate with, and it seems a little off from what the Co-op is supposed to be,” said Mengel. He said he experienced this more than once and heard similar experiences from others. “It doesn’t feel like we have that community aspect of the Co-op anymore, and we should be able to speak to our fellow community members and the employees at the Co-op themselves. … I didn’t know if that was common practice or normal, but it’s concerning.” James Thompson on Zoom wrote “The lack of speaking with cashiers lately is upsetting, [with] fears of reprimands and retribution.” Dixon said, “… this is a repeated issue for people including us.” Bernheisel said board members would discuss the topic.
Communication Challenges
The board wasn’t receiving email for over a year, during which emailed concerns from employees went astray. The problem was recently corrected, the board reported. Wallace encouraged people who have not received a response to email the board again. Silver and Dixon appreciated the email fix and a new meeting sign-in sheet for non-board member attendees, with a space for email addresses if attendees want the board to contact them.
The member comment period was at the meeting start, when some remote attendees could not join due to an initially broken link on the Co-op website, which was shared by Silver earlier that day on Facebook. The board reopened the comment period, though Zoom attendees hadn’t heard Dixon’s and Silver’s earlier comments.
Hopes for Next Steps
Dixon requested assurance of another meeting to discuss solutions that can be made public, to show progress and that “comments and concerns are not just going in one ear and out the other.” Wallace reiterated, “I think they’re looking for a response from us.” Bernheisel said, “I think we’ll respond. I think we’ll discuss and try to be deliberate and earnest but cautious in answering for [the Co-op] … I feel like we’d speak differently when answering for ourselves [as board members]; that seems like a consideration. I think we’ll address the issues.”
Silver later told the News Review she resigned in 2023 after workload-caused panic attacks which were disregarded with “a lack of care” and expectations to continue at the same pace. She said though hired for part-time work, she worked full-time hours without full-time benefits like insurance and even so, “loved working here until it became so much that I couldn’t.”
Talking with the News Review after the meeting, Silver and Dixon said they intended to share information and seek board acknowledgement of their concerns. Dixon hoped the board can make decisions that are best for the Co-op and best for the community, employees and customers. Silver worries about high employee turnover and wants “everyone to feel better about coming here.” Dixon “would love to see what I hear about, the community that was once vibrant, to have that vibrance and joyful community back, to see worker rights and the environment improve.”
The Co-op Responds
No current employees identified themselves or spoke on December 11, which Silver and Dixon attributed to their being afraid to speak. In a recent social media post, the board said they took seriously the concerns raised in August and investigated every allegation. The News Review contacted Co-op Board Chair Kim Kash, who said the store’s departmental managers are taking on greater responsibility, meeting weekly with their teams and instituting innovations like creating relationships to source fresh produce from local farmers market vendors, and that current employees are excited about changes across the store and happy in their workplace.
The News Review also contacted Gillotte, who responded that departmental managers told him this week that current staff do not share the concerns raised by the staff in August, and that issues were addressed when they occurred, not ignored. Kash wrote “the board has assessed and monitored Dan’s approach to staff. We are satisfied that he is responsive to staff concerns and complaints, and that he is continuously working on improving the Co-op for staff and customers. Decisions involving personnel will not be discussed publicly in accordance with privacy laws. But we know that Dan acts in a reasonable and responsible way toward issues of all stripe[s] that affect the Co-op.”