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Employees say firm
is on a firing binge
Fortune Magazine says Capital One Financial Corp. is among the best 100 companies to work for in the country.
Some local employees beg to differ.
They say that since September the company has been firing workers over petty offenses at a lightning-fast speed and raising performance standards to levels that are almost impossible to meet.
"They make it so hard on you that you have to quit," said one employee who wished to remain anonymous. "That's what they want."
Several employees said that in order to weather the economic climate, the credit card issuer's office in Spotsylvania County is firing employees instead of laying them off so it won't have to pay severance.
Capital One spokesman Hamilton Holloway said the company is not laying off employees and the work force has remained at 1,100 at the Fredericksburg office. However, he could not comment on whether recently there had been more firings at a specific location than usual.
"It's been pretty level for the past year," Holloway said of the number of employees at the Fredericksburg office.
Capital One said last year that there were 1,200 employees working here.
An employee on long-term disability said hundreds have been fired or quit. One department that used to occupy four floors has been reduced to one, the employee said.
"When we were fully operating you couldn't find a place to park," the employee said. "Now you don't have to worry about trying to find a spot after lunch."
Angela Davis, a recruiter for Collegiate Funding Services, said many former and current Capital One employees visited her booth at the Fredericksburg Regional Job Fair earlier this month.
"The reason that stands out in my mind is because they would see each other and say 'Oh, you're here today, too," Davis said.
The employees ranged from sales representatives to trainers and managers. Some had been fired and others were afraid they would be, she said.
One of the area's largest private employers, Capital One announced earlier this year that it would consolidate its operations into one building but would not cut its work force.
The company is located in two buildings in Lee's Hill Commercial Center off U.S. 1. The number of workers never grew as high as the company anticipated, according to Holloway, who works in the Richmond office.
"We had never gotten to capacity in the buildings," he said "We're actually consolidating into one building very easily."
The move should be complete by the fall. Headquartered in Falls Church, the company moved into one building in Lee's Hill in 1998 and expanded to a second building in September 1999. At the time, Capital One said it could employ up to 2,400.
Spotsylvania officials considered it an economic boost when it lured the company away from Stafford, but employees worry that it will move out of the area all together in the near future.
Holloway denies that.
"No, we certainly are committed to the Fredericksburg area," he said.
Reports of massive firings run contrary to both its history in the area and its national reputation. Fortune Magazine has rated it among the top 100 places to work for four consecutive years.
It ranked 32 this year. The magazine gave high marks to companies who kept employees satisfied and offered generous severance packages to those they had to let go because of the recession.
This week the company announced its earnings per share for the first quarter rose 26 percent from the same period last year. It was its 19th consecutive quarter of record earnings.
Employees interviewed for this story--all of whom asked not to be identified for fear of losing their jobs--said the company offered great benefits in the past and they had enjoyed working for it. But lately it has been unsympathetic to employees' personal problems.
"We are a number, and we are replaceable," one employee said.
One former employee--who only wanted to be referred to as William--said he was not bitter with Capital One. He just wished managers and human resource representatives had been honest about the firings and called them what they were--layoffs, he said.
"They did it in a kind of sneaky way," William said.
He added that employees compare the atmosphere there to that of a witch hunt. People have been written up for actions as small as taking too many bathroom breaks during the course of the week, he said.
"They're basically finding what they can on people, any little thing," he said.
Employees working in the Richmond office have made similar complaints. Holloway said Capital One has 14 locations around the world and 20,000 employees.
A current employee in Spotsylvania said a co-worker was fired earlier this week after arriving late because her car had broken down. Performance standards have also become difficult to meet, the employee said.
A few months ago employees were supposed to put customers on hold for no more than an average of 30 seconds; that has been cut to 10 seconds, the employee said.
Holloway said for the past year the company's process for determining performance levels has been more disciplined but is the same system it's always used.
"It allowed us to recognize and award top performers, and it has allowed us to better identify low and nonperformers," Holloway said.
Low performers get training to help them become more productive, he said. If they don't improve, then they are terminated.
More employees have been at the top of the rating scale in the past year then ever before, Holloway said.
"More than 92 or 93 percent meet or exceed expectations, so it's a small percentage that falls below expectations," he said.
Nonetheless, employees worry that they will be the next to be shown the door, courtesy of a manager and two security guards, an employee said.
"We call it the walk of doom," she said. "We see it all the time."