Written by: Tara Moberly
(tmoberly@mscd.edu)
Photo by: Jamie Moore
(moorjami@mscd.edu)
Recent layoffs at the Auraria Campus Bookstore have current and former employees crying foul over the manner in which employees were let go. Four former employees, all of whom asked to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions, alleged that the store began cutting employees several weeks ago without any notice, pegging budget cuts as the reason so much of the staff was being cut.
“A lot of people were blindsided. People came in and their names were taken off the schedule,” a former bookstore employee said.
One of the employees said that after an upper-management meeting regarding budget constraints, employees were told that cuts would be made over and above the usual after-rush employee cuts to help offset the decrease in the budget.
Each semester, the bookstore hires temporary workers to staff the rush time the store experiences at the beginning of the semester, when hundreds of students pack the store to buy materials for their new classes. Those employees are then let go when the rush dies down and traffic at the store decreases.
“Initially, it looked like the typical cuts because rush was over,” one of the employees said. The employee soon began to think otherwise as additional staff continued to be cut — with many finding out they no longer had a job when they came in for a shift and found their name had been taken off the schedule.
Morale began to dip as students became aware of the cuts — including several firings that the employees allege were controversial and related to staff discussions about the wave of cuts.
“Now they’re to the point where people are quitting,” one employee said.
Bookstore director Michael Clarke said that the staff cuts this semester were not related to budget issues nor were they anything more than the regular end of rush decrease that happens every semester.
“I think some students want to believe that. “We’d love to keep them all, but the reality of it is, once the rush ends, we just can’t keep them. It’s unfortunate that a few students are upset,” said Clarke.
All students are hired as temporary employees, Clarke said, and made aware of their temporary status during new-hire orientation sessions.
This semester’s cuts were nothing out of the ordinary, Clarke said, sighting employment numbers from previous semesters as proof.
During the week of Jan. 16, the store had 190 employees. Last week, that number had dropped to 95 as the rush period had ended and traffic had dropped off significantly.
In comparison, after the end of the fall semester rush, the bookstore released it’s rush employees, and returned to working with a smaller staff, employing 98 students the week of Nov 21.
“We’re not being fiscally responsible to have over 200 students (employees) when we just don’t need them,” Clarke said.
Clarke said that the spring cuts can seem greater than previous layoffs as there is less time between the fall and spring rush, making it seem like fewer employees have been let go.
He also dismissed the allegations that employees were released without notice. “Their supervisor meets with them and says their assignment has been completed. The rush period itself, is notice. I would think that regardless of when you’re hired, it’s temporary.”
The students rebutted this claim, calling it false and talking of several instances when employees who had worked at the store for years where let go without notice, including a 5-year employee who left in tears after learning she no longer had a job.
“I just want to know why things were handled in such a disrespectful manner,” one of the employees said, citing the mishandling of the cuts and resulting negative environment as the reason she recently quit the bookstore. “I couldn’t justify working for these people who just mercilessly cut people.”
Clarke declined to discuss any individual employee release, but noted that Colorado is an at will state, meaning an employee can be fired for any reason and without notice.
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