Six-Month Grievance Venting System

“Letting Off Steam Equally important was our practice of giving every full-time employee an interview every six months. At Stanford I’d been taught that employees never organize because of money: they organize because of un-listened-to grievances. We set up a program under which each employee (including some part-timers) was interviewed, not by the immediate superior, the store manager, but by the manager’s superior. The principal purpose of this program was to vent grievances and address them where possible. And I think this program was as important as pay in keeping employees with us.”

“From the beginning, thanks to Ortega y Gasset, I’ve been aware of the need to sell everybody. That’s why, throughout my career, my policy has been full disclosure to employees about the true state of our affairs, almost to the point of imprudence.”