L
."•MILL
Issued Every Two Weeks By
and For the Employees
Volume Four
W HIS T L E
MARSHALL FIELD & COMPANY, INC
Manufacturing Division, Spray, North CaroHm
Monday, September 24, 1945
MARSHALL FIELD & COMPANY
Chicago, 111.
September 20, 1945
IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING RETIREMENT PROGRAM
When the Retirement Program of Marshall Field & Company was announced
late in 1943 it was expected that, with extremely few exceptions, each employe would
retire on his or her Normal Retirement Date, which ig the December 1st nearest the
sixty-fifth birthday. It is our belief, supported by the views of pension specialists
and the experience of many large companies, that effective and impartial aommis-
tration of any retirement program requires that this policy be followed as soon as
conditions permit.
For reasons beyond our control, of which one of the most important was the
fact that the Company’s Retirement Program had not then been approved by the
Treasury Department, an exception to this normal practice - was permitted a year
ago with respect to employes whose Normal Retirement Date was December 1, 1944.
Other compelling reasons prompted that decision, such as the general manpower
shortage and the continued absence of many of our employes in the Armed Forces.
The war is now over but the abnormal conditions which it created, both for the
Company and its employes, have not yet disappeared. Manpower in many fields is
still in short supply, there are unavoidable delays in the demobilization of our em
ployes in the Services, and the scarcity in certain skilled occupations still prevails.
For these reasons, and because we believe that each employe is entitled to enough
notice of retirement to be able to prepare for it, the Board of Directors and the Re
tirement Committee have decided once more to deviate from the normal practice of
retiring each employe on his or her Normal Retirement Date.'
Employes who would normally be expected to retire on December 1, 1945, and
those who would normally have retired last year, are consequently offered the
choice of retiring on December 1, 1945 or of continuing their active service with
Marshall Field & Company until July 1, 1946, provided health permits. Those elect
ing to remain until July 1 we plan to retire on that date. Exceptions,, if any, will be
made only if the employe’s special skill is then necessary to the business and no
adequate replacement can be found.
It is our intention, starting December 1, 1946, to retire all employes when they
reach their Normal Retirement Dates. While the Retirement Program provides that
the Retirement Committee may make exceptions to this policy, we expect the num
ber of such exceptions to be very few. They will be only of the type previously des
cribed, and in each such case the Company will notify employes whom it would
like to retain beyond Normal Retirement Date well in advance of that date.
In brief, the temporary policy of the war years has been followed to enable the
Company to meet abnormal conditions and to give our older employes time to pre
pare as fully as possible for retirement from the service of the Company. Only
through the application of the permanent policy herein defined can the fundamental
purposes of the Retirement Program be realized. In no other way can the Program
be administered in businesslike fashion and in fairness to all.
H. M. McBAIN,
President.
Number Six