Circuit City confirms it: Merit doesn’t pay

Regarding “For Circuit City staff, good pay is a bad thing” (March 29):

Circuit City’s firing of employees who make the highest wages -- and who can reapply in 11 weeks for the same job at a lower rate -- had nothing to do with job performance, according to a company spokesman. It was just the fact that they made “well above the local market rate for the sort of jobs they held at its stores,” as your article put it.

What is wrong with this country anymore? God forbid that these people might be able to earn a living. And forget about being a good worker. It just doesn’t pay off these days; it gets you fired. The average worker is seeing any incentives for doing a good job disappear daily.

I hope the company applies its plan to Chief Executive Philip J. Schoonover, whose total compensation is $2.17 million, according to Forbes.com. But, of course, he is probably within the prevailing wage for CEOs so he won’t be affected.

Janet Hoover

Garden Grove

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I used to shop at Circuit City because the clerks at other stores laughed when I said I needed a new turntable or a cassette deck. At Circuit City, they were able to offer me a good deal on what I needed.

I can’t go there now; I couldn’t look at the clerks, knowing they might have had to beg for their jobs at a reduced rate of pay. Is there no conscience at all in corporate America?

Barry Wendell

West Hollywood

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Circuit City’s plan to cut 3,400 high earners is another corporate example of a farmer converting highly productive, fertile soil into a toxic waste dump in exchange for temporary profit.

By blindly taking orders from Wall Street, the farmer not only loses productivity, but he also loses his best field workers in the bargain.

One can only hope that Circuit City’s board has decided to fire the executives who led the company into its current condition to eliminate golden parachutes and high compensation for the surviving leadership team.

The devil isn’t in the details. It’s in the boardroom.

David Ohman

Irvine

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Thanks to The Times for reporting on the callous firing of 3,400 Circuit City employees for being too dependable, too loyal and too well paid.

It goes to prove that corporate America will always create profit for itself by taking away the benefits of work from employees.

And this news on the day the Senate opened debate on the Employee Free Choice Act, which would grant these same Circuit City employees the right to unionize and negotiate to protect their jobs.

Mark Gauthier

Los Angeles