Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 25, 1992 TAG: 9202250042
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
VETERAN SALESWOMAN ONE OF TWO TO ACCEPT SEARS BUYOUT OFFER
"I think I took it," Joyce Bowles said Monday of the buyout offer she got from Sears Roebuck and Co. in Roanoke.The veteran salesperson who has worked 39 years for Sears said Friday will be her last day on the job. She said she informed a supervisor of her choice about 7:30 p.m. Saturday, just 90 minutes before the company-imposed deadline for her decision.
Last week she was one of nine employees at the company's Valley View Mall store given five days to decide whether to accept a job buyout or face a new pay plan that included a dramatic reduction in income from sales commissions.
Two employees accepted the offer. Joe Sears, manager of the Valley View Mall store, said he will decide whether to replace the two after he has finished an evaluation of other jobs at the store.
Sears said last week he was taking a look at the work done by the sales support staff to determine if some of the work could be centralized. If that eliminates any positions, he said, those people might be offered sales jobs.
Bowles, 60, sold electronics. She said she'll spend the first month or so of her unemployment growing her plants and completing training for volunteer work with TRUST, an emergency counseling service.
"After that, I'll get a part-time job," she said. "Probably one selling, because that's what I do. I have a daughter in college." Her daughter, Shannon, is in her third year at the University of Virginia.
Under the severance plan, Bowles is eligible for 26 weeks of pay, the maximum offered the employees. She said she'll get $13,882.96.
Chicago-based Sears Roebuck has cut or announced plans to cut 40,000 jobs from its retail operation since 1990.