Cost Plus World Market was once an employer that I could talk positively about to anyone, until a year ago when a new supervisor was placed at our store. Shortly after this new person was placed into our store, complaints of bullying, mistreatment and even age discrimination were being talked about by both employees and managers alike. Keep in mind that ALL of this happened in less than a year.

The trouble began with this new supervisor telling a manager that she needed to tell higher-ups that she thought a certain employee who had been with the company for a few years was "useless" so she could replace him. This manager who worked with this person since he was first hired refused to comply to this request, and became the next target of bullying. The alleged "useless" employee was tipped off to what was being done to him could not deal with the stress and bullying quit shortly after.

The next to go was the manager who refused to lie. This person worked for the company for around 6 years, worked her way up to management and was never written up in her life. After months of being bullied and mistreated by the supervisor, she went to Human Resources. HR refused to help, and would not look into the complaints. After a few write-ups, the person was asked to step down to a lower pay grade and position to which she refused and was "suspended indefinitely." She received a letter saying she was fired a few days later.

Next was a department-head who was with the company for 4 years, and also had never been written up at any job before. This person was called into the office by the supervisor one morning and was told that he could be trained to be management if he just changed his hair style. This person spoke to HR multiple times about the wrong doings at the store, and asked that they have someone do an investigation which HR refused to do because it would be "unfair to single out that store." He also spoke with each manager at one time or another, and none would speak up because they said they did not want to be the next person to go. This person was asked to do embarrassing things like walk around with a blown up picture of the toilet with red cleaning fluid in it and tell each employee that "this is not how you clean the toilets." This person was written multiple times with little evidence and sometimes for things that had nothing to do with him. He would be talked down to on the store floor often to the point that coworkers would ask him why the supervisor hated him so much. He was asked to step down or be "suspended indefinitely" like the person before, with the manager of another store (one he never worked for) as the witness.

Other things of note that happened:

One female co-worker asked not to have her wallet in her back pocket because for a woman to have something in her back pocket meant she might be stealing something. This was OK for men to have their wallet in their pocket.

An employee was fired on vacation as a no-call no-show, even though there was a paper with the supervisor's signature saying he could have those days off. She then said fine, but tried to fire him anyways. This employee had an open schedule but the boss only scheduled him one day a week for months, he often tried to get more hours but she refused. When he called to get his hours after vacation she said that since you were only working 1 day a week im firing you anyways.

Something of the same note happened to another worker...she received the "step down" speil and took it. This then lead to her getting only 5 hours a week instead of 38. Any attempts to get hours from other people were shot down even if the other person was interested. For 10 weeks this person only got 5 hours on Sundays, so she got another job, but told them she could work any day but Sunday so she could work her other job. When this woman put in a request for her new hours she was told it was unacceptable, even though the supervisor was only giving her 5 hours a week on that day.

Funnily enough, the person who complained of age discrimination to HR was never bothered again...