Every Employee at This Dollar General Store Quit; What Led to This Mass Resignation?

Recently, a surprising sight greeted customers entering a Wisconsin Dollar General shop. The store's front was decorated with signs announcing the simultaneous resignation of every employee, per 9News. On a Saturday morning, the store—which is about 54 miles from Madison in Mineral Point, Wisconsin—had a big green sign with this statement on it: "The store is CLOSED. The whole team has walked away due to a lack of appreciation, being overworked and being underpaid." There was another placard that read: "We QUIT! Thank you to our amazing customers. We love you and will miss you."

Letter of explanation

The signs that were put up outside the store were shared on the Iowa County Confessions Facebook group. Additionally, a handwritten letter on notebook paper was discovered near the store's entrance. This letter provided more details about why the staff chose to leave the store.

"Take this as a notice that we the team at store 20610 located in Mineral Point, WI all quit! We can not and will not work for a company that does not stand behind in true honest form of what they want the world to see them as. Although we love and adore our customers, we must take a stand for the community and not allow corporate greed to continue preventing people in need of the help they need and could receive. Policies, processes and procedures need to change! Don't make claims about supporting and helping communities when the reality is that it's all about the bottom line and not about support or help!"

According to KSDK, a news affiliate of NBC, Dollar General confirmed that the store remained closed for about three hours on Saturday morning before reopening.

Why is employee retention important? 

Retaining employees is essential to the health and success of your company. Hiring and training new hires requires a significant investment of time, money, and resources, and turnover can harm your company's performance. A high employee turnover rate causes several problems, such as higher expenses, knowledge loss, and lower production.

Turnover costs

Hiring new staff can be costly, sometimes amounting to 213% of an employee's base pay, per Recruitee. Organizations pay up to $1 trillion a year on turnover costs in the United States alone. This covers the costs of hiring new hires, conducting interviews, providing onboarding and training.

Knowledge loss

Skilled workers take their knowledge and experience with them when they depart. Important information can be lost forever if they haven't shared their knowledge with their peers. Reduced productivity and confusion among the remaining team members may arise from this loss.

Reduced productivity

As work hours are lost when a post is empty, productivity declines. It might be necessary for other workers to pick up the slack, which can result in burnout and a drop in output as a whole. Furthermore, it takes time for recent hires to catch up to more experienced staff members in terms of production. Studies show that it usually takes a new hire one to two years to reach the same production levels as an experienced worker.