TEWKSBURY -- As the corporate shakeup within Market Basket continues to unfold, some divisions are visible within the company's corporate offices as some employees report tension in the Tewksbury headquarters, and others report an improved company culture.
After May 28, when Market Basket CEO Arthur T. Demoulas and several other perceived allies of his were suspended by the company's board of directors, little information about morale within the offices had come out publicly from employees still working there. That changed when Store Operations Manager Valerie Polito, a 35-year employee of the chain, penned a letter on behalf of a group of Market Basket associates describing a new culture "defined by fear, hostility and a lack of direction."
On Aug. 8, a day after the letter became public, Polito was joined by other employees who spoke to the press at the Reading Market Basket, where they made similar claims about the state of morale in the corporate office.
"This supervisor said to me 'there are certain people in this office who would like to see cameras installed so they can see someone like me telling somebody like you, who's pregnant, to get the [expletive] out of this office," said Market Basket customer service employee Christine McCarthy to the media last week.
"It is no longer an atmosphere of safety, of confidence, of goodwill," said payroll manager Jillian Evans at the same press conference.
"It is constant surveillance, people walking by, looking into my office, looking at what I am doing, who I am speaking with," Evans added later.
Since that press conference, though, other employees within the Tewksbury office responded with their own letter on Aug. 11.
"For months now we have seen the media coverage and chose not to engage. Today that stops. We want to set the record straight," said the letter. "The actions that the board took in May were a surprise to all of us, and we all have our views about that. The point of this letter is not to take sides between the shareholders and the board. We expect that one way or another, those parties will come to a resolution."
The letter was initially given to The Sun with 11 signatures, but that figure has since risen to at least 71. The employees who signed it did so "to express our shock and dismay over statements our coworkers made to the press last week about our culture here."
"Allegations were made of hostile work environments, bullying, intimidation, fear and repression. It's not true," said the letter. "That is not the environment we work in. What they describe is not our experience. There is no 'culture of fear.'
"In fact, in many ways the culture is better today than it was before the suspensions in May," the letter continued. "The managers and supervisors running Market Basket today have been with the company for many decades, they are trusted mentors and friends. They are the same people today that they were before the suspensions. None of them have changed. We are thankful for that and their trust."
The letter claims that nearly all of those who spoke to the media in the Aug. 8 press conference "worked for Joe Schmidt who was recently terminated." Schmidt and fellow fired executive Tom Gordon were both ordered by a judge in Lowell Superior Court Thursday morning to stay away from all Market Basket property after a series of visits to stores and the headquarters after their firings.
"We appreciate that they would like to see Mr. Schmidt return, but lashing out with nasty posts, caricatures, and false statements, about the culture of our office angers us," the letter continued. "We do not know how these lies, horrible images and insults, about the owners and leaders of our company achieve anything. These people do not speak for us. From May 28, the day of the suspensions, the message in this building has been consistently the same; be your own person, believe whatever you want, just do your job.
"We love our jobs, enjoy coming to work every day, and remain loyal to our communities, customers and company," the letter concluded.
After that letter was made public, Polito told The Sun she has been on leave since her own initial letter came out.
"The board coming out and saying my letter was part of a PR stunt made me upset," Polito said in a phone call Wednesday. "These are true, real cases that these associates have come to me with in regard to a hostile work environment ... It isn't everyone in the workplace, but even one is too many."
Polito said the board has since informed her they will not meet with her Aug. 21 as previously planned to talk about the concerns she raised in the letter because she is on leave. She is currently out of state attending to a family matter, but said she told the board she was willing to return by Aug. 21 to have that meeting regardless of her being on leave.
"They are so reactive to an investigation into an alleged work stoppage that had no merit to it, and here we are with an actual incident and an actual issue, and they are letting it go by the wayside," said Polito.
In reacting to the new letter, Polito said the people who signed it "don't work closely with the senior executives who are causing the hostile work environment."
"They probably are not in a hostile work environment, because they do not deal with these senior executives on a daily basis," said Polito, who also raised the possibility of employees feeling intimidated into signing the letter.
At the time Polito spoke to The Sun Wednesday, there had been 45 reported signatures on the letter from employees who say they are happy with the company culture, but that number has since risen.
In the meantime, Polito said the associates she wrote her letter on behalf of are being "sidelined," and they still need to come into work every day.
In her initial letter, Polito alleged Grocery Supervisor Kevin Feole raised his voice, swore at and belittled four front end supervisors in the days following the May 28 suspensions after those supervisors requested that their districts not see any changes in the shakeup. Fellow Grocery Supervisor Steve Paulenka, Polito's letter said, was present for this encounter and physically holding the office door handle so the employees could not leave. In another incident, Polito said Paulenka left an open knife out on his desk, which she said "sends a disturbing message about what behaviors are tolerated in our professional workplace."