Letter to supervisor regarding workplace concerns

Letter to Supervisor

Dear Supervisor:

have been working as a buyer for Sears for five years and during that time I have demonstrated dedication to the company by providing excellent service. Also, I honor the company and hope to preserve our integrity by continuing to provide the quality of product and service that our customers expect. It is with this attitude of respect that I am writing this letter. I would like to express some concern about one of our vendors, which I feel has violated our trust and can potentially undermine our respectability as a company. You as head buyer should know, therefore, that I have decided to cease making purchases from Acme Furniture Manufacturers.

One of our company's strengths is its dedication to employee diversity and cultural awareness. One look around the staff rooms or around any department floor will prove that diversity and tolerance are key words for Sears. In fact, it is one of the main reasons why I have chosen to remain with the company over the years: I felt that its hiring practices and its treatment of its employees and customers has been admirable.

In an increasingly pluralistic society, all our customers expect to be treated with dignity. All the staff with whom I work at Sears contributes to creating an amicable environment for all customers. However, the customers are not always aware of what transpires behind-the-scenes, so to speak. I am not referring to the ways supervisors or executives treat their employees. Rather, as a buyer by profession, I refer specifically to our choice of vendors. Which products we choose to place on the floor and in our catalogs is a powerful reflection of who we are as a company. The vendors we do business with are essentially extensions of ourselves, and we have a responsibility and an obligation to only do business with those vendors that contribute positively to our code of ethics.

When a customer walks in to our furniture department, where I have been employed for the past several years, I make every effort to accommodate their needs by presenting them with options in their price range and range of taste. As buyer, I have had a hand in making many of the purchases that grace our storefront. For example, I was singularly responsible for introducing the new line of sofas that are selling like hotcakes. Because I have demonstrated such dedication to the prosperity of our company, I hope you will understand why I have chosen to remove Acme from our list of vendors.

I want to feel good about each and every product Sears sells, whether it is a $1 glass tumbler to a $1,000 chair. Most of our vendors, to my awareness, have proven their honor, as we have conducted business with many of them for years, even decades. Acme, on the other hand, as recently demonstrated disrespect significant enough to warrant my attention and to advise that we cease to do business with them. Our customers might not always know much about our vendors; they might have heard from word-of-mouth or from a salesperson about the quality of their products or about their workmanship. However, customers are not always aware of other, equally important aspects of the vendor-client relationship.