Working with Personal Touch Department

Nordstrom discriminates against their employees. They have been doing
it for two decades. For the most part they keep it secret through
Binding Arbitration Agreements when they are sued. My son-in-law was
fired this past Christmas, after 17 years of outstanding work, because
he didn't pay his Nordstrom credit card that is part of his bankruptcy
filing. He had a bicycle accident and hit his head after which he was
forgetful and depressed. I am preparing multiple actions against
Nordstrom and I would appreciate your help. If you know of anyone
else who has worked for Nordstrom and was fired for any reason, please
pass this message on or let me know. Also, if you know of any people
with disabilities, please let me know that also. I have never seen a
Nordstrom employee with a disability. In my family we have seen two
Nordstrom piano players with disabilities, one blind and another who
used oxygen. I am preparing a case to go to the U.S. Department of
Justice to bring criminal charges against Nordstrom for their
systematic discrimination of Nordstrom employees for the past 20
years. Nordstrom screens out people in the hiring process and then
fires those who have health problems or any type of problem that keeps
the employee from smiling cheerfully at all times. Nordstrom
management shows no comprehension of employee problems, no concern for
them when they aren't happy and smiling and, most bizarrely, no mercy.
My name is Guy Hammer, II and my e-mail is GuyHammer@aol.com. My
home telephone number is (301)493-4159. Work cell: (703)408-8209. I
am 65 years old and live with my wife at 8902 Ewing Drive, Bethesda,
MD 20817

Several have asked and I'm not sure I've seen an answer.

So, I checked it out.

It's a personal shopper service.

Think back to Rachel's job (post coffee shop) on Friends. That sort
of thing.

One one imagine that a professional image would be big part of the
job.

This isn't the right venue for this letter at all.
With the letter that you wrote I can see why you didn't get hired. All
the book smarts in the world won't help you if you can't do things as
basic as reading and writting.

I work in the fashion industry and I certainly would not hire someone
who writes in this manner. Accusing Nordstrom of discrimination only
hurts your chances of ever working with them in the future.

If you plan on working in the fashion industry and developing
relationships with various vendors, communication is *extremely*
important and I'd highly suggest taking some English and
writing/grammar courses while you're in school.

P.S. Nordstrom legally does not have to give you a reason as to why
you were not hired.

My husband was offered a job, they said they would call him in 3 days
with his hours. They didn't call, so he called. They said they would
call him in a few days, so i put my notice in at my job because I
wouldn't need it any longer. They called him. On my last day of work
and told him that they gave the job to someone else.
It happens. At least you have your parents to rely on, be grateful.

Why should you have written this letter better? For the same reason
they didn't hire you, according to you. If you can't be bothered to
write a better composed letter to a potential employer, then why
should they bother to hire you?

Yes, doing well in school is important. But a company has to know the
person they hire is professional, and your letter to them (and the one
above) was not.

I'm not trying to be mean, but if you are the future of the workplace,
I'm sincerely frightened of what is to come. What next? Newspapers
written in "leet speak" because we're too busy to write out
full sentences?

We understand that human beings read and respond to consumer feedback.
We also understand that part of their job is to effectively deal with
feedback that spans the spectrum of expression including well written,
poorly written, polite, rude etc.

Any customer service representative who routinely dumps poorly written
letters without considering the issue at hand simply because it is
poorly written is doing their company a grave disservice. It's highly
likely such behavior would NOT be tolerated by higher level
management.

We are routinely cc'd by customer relation departments when they
respond to letters sent through PFB. We have seen absolutely no
evidence that the response as well as the resolution has anything to
do with how the letter was written.

...is exactly to remove the human element.

We see so many complaints about form letters and letters that don't
address the issue... that it's hard to believe that many (larger)
companies really do a good job at addressing concerns.

A poorly written letter, I maintain, is more likely to get a short
"We're sorry you had a bad experience," than a letter which
clearly spells out the issue, including a reasonable remedy.

Take the PlanetFeedback team (including Pete's recent posts). The
tone you all take is very much in line with the quality and tone of
the letter.

Not saying this as a complaint... but as a recognition that even you
all treat people very differently based on how the letter was
written.

As for dumping letters... I think we all know that a non-trivial
number of companies don't respond. At all. I can say that the
majority of letters I've written via PlanetFeedback (and other means)
has received no response at all. These companies do a disservice...
but, hey, they are also big and "successful" companies.

On a side note... "personal touch dept" ? I'm not sure if I
want to know..

But getting to the serious side of things, I'd suggest getting a
proper resume written up. You don't need to hire anyone to do it,
just go online and look up what they're looking for. This also
includes using a spellchecker, and perhaps a quick course of grammar.
Having a lot of drive is good, but you also have to be able to present
it in a package they want to look at, which includes a professional
appearance both physically and on paper.

Lastly, having the final degree will help. I just attended a seminar
about job hunting and most companies are looking for a degree. It
doesn't even have to be related to your job - though it helps if it
is.

Lastly, if they lie and say "She left 30 minutes ago," then
don't hold any hope for the job. A good boss will not lie to you like
that, nor allow the subordinates to do the same... unless they didn't
really plan on hiring you in the first place.

Your work ethic, resume', and desire to succeed in this field are
apparent, and qualities that are admirable in any candidate for the
positions you applied for. Your letter doesn't convey the potential
asset you hope to be with this company. Everyone else pointed out the
things that need attention.

My 16 year old niece has the same drive, aspirations, ambitions,
hopes, dreams, and fire in her gut that you have about fashion,
merchandising, and making her way in life. She doesn't yet have the
qualifications and sufficient education, but she knows how important
it is to present herself in a poised, professional manner, to the
correct places. She may not get the answer she wants, but she knows
for sure, it's not because of how she presents herself.

This letter just sounds like a teenager going off on a rant to one of
her friends.

I'm sure others have already pointed this out.....but the grammar,
structure, and well, just about everything about your letter is pretty
terrible And you said you had a high GPA? From where? I find that
hard to believe. And I don't think you'll get a break for being 19
years old and don't know any better. Of course you do.

Listen, I've worked in the Fashion Industry for over 30 years. It
appears glamorous. It's not. It's tough. The people are tough. And
the Nordstrom chicks are some of the toughest. It will only get
harder. Not easier. It's not too late to change your major. I used
to work for FIDM, and I know they teach English comp. Please pay
attention in that class. You need it!

Please re-write and use paragraphs, proper grammar and punctuation and
do not abbreviate common words like because and also I is capitalized
no matter where it occurs in a sentence. When you do re-write this
letter do not post it here, this is not the proper forum. Type your
letter in a word processor (like Microsoft Word) run your spell check
and grammar check there, then print it out and mail it to Nordstrom
HR.

Good luck to you!

I see a bunch of words on the page, in one huge, ugly paragraph. Then
I see a sentence at the bottom that reveals this letter clearly has no
business being posted through PlanetFeedback. No need to try to read
that blob. Whew!

The OP may know how to work with vendors, but they don't know how to
write a business letter or how to send it.

I'm not going to repeat what the others have posted although I
wholeheartedly agree with them. Instead I will clue you into how
retail managers think.
If you had a family emergency please go to but don't be surprised if
once your boss realized they really didn't miss you in your absence
that they decide they don't need you anymore.
Also if I called you in for an interview and you told me 6am was too
early I'd assume that would be your attitude if you got the job and I
needed you to come to work early.

Granted this is a poorly written letter and PFB is not the proper site
for employment issues - - however;

You state that you "ended up flying back home for a week and my
manager was really nice about it and said call when I get back for my
schedule". Large companies like Nordstrom have Human Resources
Departments and Human Resources Policies and Procedures that dictate
precisely how situations such as this are to be handled by both
associates and management. You had only been employed by Nordstrom
for 30 days so I'm assuming you were still considered to be within
your probationary period. According to their website, one of their
employee benefits is a Leave of Absence Program. You obviously had
not accrued any Paid Time Off after only 30 days, so if Nordstrom runs
their company like everyone else, in order to be gone for a week you
would have to complete and submit a written request for unpaid time
off under one of their categories and have it approved in order for
your absence to not be considered job abandonment. So my question is
did you follow the HR policies for time off that were most likely
provided to you when you were hired or not? If you didn't then you
have no one to blame but yourself.

This note was too long and had too many grammar/abbreviation problems.
I read at least half of it and it never seemed to get to a point
either.

Good Day

While the other posters have valid points about how difficult it was
to read your letter, please remember that there are plenty of people
searching for great jobs. The company just may have found someone who
was better qualified. I'm sure most of us have been disappointed by
missing out on a position that we thought was our "dream
job". Suggesting to the company that discrimination is why they
didn't hire you isn't likely to make them think fondly of you if/when
you reapply. Rather, you come across as a potential problem employee.

While this isn't the forum for employment issues, I urge you to take a
long hard look at this letter and ask yourself it, perhaps, the reason
you didn't get the job is your communication skills or should I say
lack thereof.

There are many issues with this letter. You used abbreviations
instead of spelling out the words, you lack sentence structure, you
failed to proofread and correct any spelling errors and you did not
break the letter up into paragraphs.

I, like the others, suggest to take a course in English. It can only
help you in the future.

You were let go. Presumably, from the details you give here, for not
showing up when they expected you to. That would be my first guess as
to why you weren't rehired. If you wait long enough and do well at
other jobs in the interim they may take you back, but they will hold
poor performance against you for awhile.

My second would have to do with communication skills. This letter is
pretty badly written, and something happened in between when your boss
was very nice and told you to go home to be with your father (which of
course you should have done) and when she called you irresponsible and
told you you weren't going to keep getting shifts. While it is
possible that the boss is unreasonable or did not communicate
effectively to you, I think there's a decent chance that you
misunderstood what was expected of you.

If this business letter demonstrates your skill as a writer you need
to take some writing classes. (If your school doesn't offer them, I
suggest finding a school at which to take summer classes.) If it
doesn't you need to think about why you don't think communicating with
someone you want a job from merits professional behavior.

I can tell you in all honesty that your lisp had nothing to do with
why you weren't hired.

This really isn't the place for employment issues, and in most if not
all cases, the company doesn't have to tell you why you weren't hired.

You really don't have a clue why you weren't hired? Just from this
letter, I can tell you have horrible grammar, you don't understand
capitalization or punctuation, you aren't professional enough to want
to give a hoot about sending a professional letter, you exhibit poor
judgment by dealing with an employment issue via a consumer-oriented
third-party website, you have a lousy attitude, and worst of all, you
apparently are completely clueless about all of it.

I wrote better than this in the fifth grade. You need to take some
remedial English courses at your local community college, or you won't
get far in life.