Let us propose two layoffs at Nordstrom this year

The first one has already been planned and will be executed soon. The company is overstaffed in the Corporate Center with very expensive Seattle IT worker bees.

Does the NOC at Denver still exist? WTF for? This should have been shut down 5 years ago, fish in a barrel. But the real fat is in the Seattle crew with their bloated salaries. Here we are basing our opinion on that Blind post some time ago claiming 1,800+ "software engineers", some with total comp of $275K.

Plus the bonuses, as I have said here, examples of mid-five-figures. Technology is bleeding the company dry. So we have an initial layoff to try to rationalize and control the mess, cut costs, optimize teams, etc. This will cull a few. No fun.

It is the second layoff that is the doozy. This happens later in 2020 when FLS comps are blowing chimps at -20%, -30%, worse, as the economy implodes and brick-and-mortar high-end retail is a ghost town. The Manhattan experiment will be bleeding serious cash, and we will watch for indications in earnings and the 10-Qs that the liability from Nordstrom's stake in the Extell tower is starting to bite. Very interested to see what if any surprise risk this brings. The NYC hedge fund high-rise condo market is DEAD. Central Park Tower is three years too late.

A second layoff makes landfall in the context of a serious recession that is obvious to everyone. The IT labor market should shift yugely as startups die and corporate capital budgets are cut to the bone. Now projects get cancelled altogether. Platforms such as the web store are stabilized and cut to a skeleton maintenance crew.

It is at this point that Nordstrom will need to take the initiative to CUT WAGES severely, tell the $275K prima donnas to take $80K or GTFO and find food elsewhere.

The "software engineers" will have no choice.

There will be no other bids for their services. You take it or starve. The business is in the red at this point and fighting to survive.

You locusts had quite the party.

How many FLS will be closed in 2020? And ... will any Rack stores close? So much to watch here. 2020 will be exciting in all sectors.

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Would love to see the HR layoff before anyone else is laid off. Bye Felicia

When will the layoffs start? Looking forward to it,

Will Kaizen come to the rescue?

Start culling the fat cats

Why is Tech getting large bonuses? Huh? Cut that out. Tech should have hiring freeze

About time.

HR will have their own layoffs in 2020. Already in the works. The staff level in not sustainable and after the massive company layoffs wrap up by October they are next on the chopping block. expect to see a 35% reduction in HR staffing levels.

Boeing will experience a similar shake-up when the 737-MAX program is junked and the company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

One of the casualties of an 11 are the commitments and contracts – such as the collective bargaining agreement with the troublesome machinists' union. Oh my.

If Boeing can survive this transition, essentially sacrificing the single-aisle passenger jet business, and painfully restructuring and re-sorting the remaining healthy bits, then they will at last be free of this troublesome Puget Sound union beast and maybe have a chance to operate in rational ways, setting and achieving business goals without this burden.

I mention this as a good example of the degree of shake-up Nordstrom faces. Some here have suggested $JWN can operate solely as its web channel, but we all know that this kind of shift would be total and catastrophic and maybe not survivable at all (certainly not without its own Chapter 11 moment). Of course, Nordstrom has a longer time horizon compared to Boeing, whose back is up against the wall with the total 737-MAX catastrophe. Boeing is about to crash and bleed out like Marburg after two weeks.

Retail is sc-appy – e.g. zombies like $JCP, $SHLD, $M – Nordstrom's not going to die this year. But the overall picture will become more clear, the long-term trends that are in motion, the relative position of the BAM parts within the whole, hard choices that must be made if it is to survive.

I still think the main issue is that we as a society are not actually wealthy, we just leveraged the future to the nth degree and convinced ourselves that this was a great idea. Can Nordstrom survive that realization, waking up from this false dream into a Greater Depression?

The shoe store chain Nordstrom survived the 1930s by a hair, while it was not public, its book value went to zero, which allowed Lloyd to finish school and join his brothers as a full partner with sweat equity. Based Swedes.

If you like the company and want to stay, you must show that you are an essential player going forward. Not just that you are talented and smart, whatever, but that you are truly needed for the company to adapt, survive, and reach that future state.

The first round will s— for the unlucky ones, although it won't hit the broader mood there because you have all of the ex-Microsoft etc flunkies who enjoy culling on the curve each year. They stick together. The first round is needed housekeeping.

It will be the second round where Nordstrom faces core survival questions, how to make this work going forward, fundamental uncertainties about the structure of the business and the kind and number of people they actually need to make it work. This is where the existing standards and niceties go by the board, and anything becomes possible.

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Let us propose two layoffs at Nordstrom this year

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