Thread regarding Nordstrom layoffs

This is the email of a journalist who wrote an article on this latest rounds of layoffs and is looking to do a follow-up article talking about the separation for performance and what's really happening.

"If you know of anyone else is willing to share their story with me, please forward them my contact information. I’m not looking to use anyone’s name, just accumulate experiences to see if we can get a clear picture."
jthompson@bizjournals.com

I wonder what shareholders will think of the financial Outlook of a company that feels the need to sc--w over 200 loyal employees to save a few bucks on severance that they've given to every other laid off employee. I have a feeling in the long run this will be seen as a horrible decision on Nordstrom's part and will cost them way more in Share value and brand decimation

I have no indication of performance issues in any quarterly connect. In fact words like "valuable" and "mentor" are consisted. Yet in my 1:1 meeting I was told "this shouldn't be a surprise". When I said it was and questioned what he meant by performance he basically just repeated what he had said as if reading from paper. Of course it wasn't my actual manager because my manager is a good person who would know this was total bs.
Nordstrom values their brand above all else. They are hiding layoffs as performance separations. They have set a precedence for treatment of employees during layoffs in the past. I don't know if there's any winning to be had here but between an attorney and the court of public opinion I intend to be very loud. The public should know what kind of company Nordstrom is now in their brand should suffer the consequences for their immoral actions.

What’s the problem? Nordstrom has a formal severance plan, they filed it with the SEC:

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/72333/000007233320000078/jwn-212020x10kex1023.htm

Oh, you mean for wagies. Yeah, not so much. Very sorry to hear about this shoddy treatment for you guys — cash must be tight.

I know it stinks atm, but I was in the 2016 cycle, and it turns out to have been the best thing for me. Now I look at old friends who are 20+ years at Nordstrom and wonder if they were culled this week.

I can’t pay my mortgage. I don’t know what I’m going to do.

I want to know how they will “open” all these new racks store when critical teams were decimated

It's a shame that these 120 preformed so poorly. Luckily I was born with the last name Nordstrom so my position is safe.

So, 120 is the final number?

It's one thing to be up front about layoffs and handle them professionally, it's another to lie in the face of loyal employees. I believe they are trying to cover up what would normally be considered a layoff under the guise of performance issues solely to not give a severance package.

The terminations that I know of included very high performers for the most part and were all high level employees, some were even promoted within recent history. A handful of people I know of deserved it and had it coming, but the high performers with long tenure and track record of success do not make any sense to me.

From what I know, when employees asked for examples of poor performance, they were flat out lied to with nonsensical responses from higher ups who had little to no direct interaction with the employee and little to no direct knowledge of the employee performance. Absolutely deplorable.

mass-layoffs
your fault

With chutzpah like that, it looks like the buyout from that Cohen fellow went through after all, huh?

IMO the Nordstrom family will leave the C-suite for good once they run out of excuses for the Manhattan flagship failure. And it is that. Sales are the truth!

So a 10% cull, is it actually the layabouts, the dead wood, or is it a salary hunt like was posted earlier? Nasty.
How many total? All treated like this?
Any contractors cut? Still using infy?
Can the laid-off still file for UE?

Director met with us 1:1 over teams with watery eyes she was reading from her screen,
“We’re restructuring, your position has been eliminated, the reason for your termination is poor performance, for that reason you are not eligible for severance or rehire, let me pause here for any questions.”

She knew she was screwing us over as she was saying it.

Once I’m done with the lawyers, the social media posts will be awesome.

10% layoffs

A true Roman decimation! And no severance because the survivors beat the unfortunates to death with clubs.
This is how you start to fix the problem of the ridiculous, exorbitant salaries in tech. The survivors should ALL receive 20% pay cuts immediately and thank the company for keeping them at all.
It’s going to get very bad out there, much worse than you think.

10% HQ layoffs. More brutal than Nordstrom's style. No severance for any employee, even long term employees who were loyal for 10+ years. Very unusual.

Nordstrom burned the employee goodwill they built up over the pandemic for 100s of loyal employees today. Shame on you. Be better.

From one source, they laid off 2 members from each team again. Last time, it happened at September end. Also, this is specifically focused on Tech. They’re not asking any managers to pick unproductive employees. They’re laying off higher salaries folks, regardless of their contribution. A key member, extremely instrumental to one team got laid off from one of my source. Perhaps a new CTO and something to show investors. A publicity cost cutting stunt than something more calculated.

tech layoffs today

They are happening as we speak.

Yeah, 2500 Canadians.