Is this going to be an interesting year as it relates to Urban Outfitters layoffs? Any chatter, news or rumors?
123 replies (most recent on top)
Lots of layoffs happening in the industry right now. :( Has anyone heard whisperings if UO will make cuts, too?
@h3d there’s definitely HR I work there I only handle layoffs tho so you don’t really hear about them. It’s true that they didn’t have an HR department prior a few years back though.
Last comment, it is store closures?
More layoffs coming for the UO team
I’ve heard that they respond at the last minute to eliminate the opportunity for negotiation or back and forth- sign it or forego the severance package.
there are no HR
Anyone else who was laid off having issues with HR not completing paperwork properly?
anymore happening before / after annual reviews for HO?
Just curious, what department did you work in “previous commenter”
Same poster - adding to previous comment to clarify. “Do yourself a favor and don’t” ws the intention.
To the person thinking of applying there - do yourself and don’t. It’s single handedly the most toxic place I’ve ever worked and my biggest regret is the loyalty I gave them - I wish l’d left them a few years ago. The home office environment is built on a veneer of toxic positivity which ultimately shields the high-school, mean-girl, disorganized and unprofessional chaos which permeates every function. The new leadership are a joke - the least aspirational and inspirational combination to be encountered - and you should avoid.
I wouldn’t. Look into the financials deeper- it’s smoke and mirrors. Most of the executives sold off significant amounts of their personal stock in the company. It’s a sinking ship. Listen to your gut.
I was looking at applying for a position in the home office, working with legal/HR/finance. But these posts are giving me an uneasy feeling about the company's future. All the financial forecasts show positive futures. Any insight into what is happening at the home office??
Love that this organizations namesake is absolutely hemorrhaging money- if it were any other branch of the business they’d already have called it a day. I sincerely believe they’re slowly but surely letting every lease expire, whittling down every team and waiting for the day they can organically fade away rather than alarm investors by abruptly closing shops. Leadership at the UO brand has alienated and abandoned their customer- it’s past the point of redemption. Our customer has turned on us, is aware of the gimmicks we rely on to greenwash and simply aren’t shopping with us. Urban Outfitters has a stink that won’t go away. Leave before they lay you off this summer.
I love that a total NERD like BRAD is who the company thinks is going to make things better.
guess no one at HO is getting laid off today as commenters said below
Wait they fired all the display artists?? Now what are they going to do to distract from how ugly the clothes are? End of an era- once you cut that there’s no going back.
It is insane they fired half Display Artists that take care of the store. These places are going to look so bad in less than a year. They are also going to spend 3 times the money on a third party company to come fix all the up keep/problems. Complete id--ts.
FIRE THE HIGH UPS. FRIRE BRAD IMMEDIATELY. These new high ups are bland GEN X that have no idea what’s going on.
I mean, it’s not like the design team or buyers have their finger on the pulse. Everyone at this company seems second rate and like they’re dialing it in
My experience with all the URBN brands is that designers never get to design what they want, they have to do what the clueless executives tell them. Also, isn’t everything “designed” with Midjourney (ai) now?
I was laid off after years in the company with amazing LY sales just to be replaced the same day. Fu---d over is an understatement.
Wait there’s going to be more layoffs this week?
is HO still having layoffs this Monday / Tuesday or was that proven to be false?
Does anyone in the field just not care anymore? First it was no dimeouts, got a head start on laying fixture tags which was nice. Then we get smacked with dimeouts out of nowhere and the whole store going on markdown. Destroyed all head start progress. Increased PPS for the weekend, no payroll. Inventory in a week. No motivation, no recognition. For what ? Hope I’m just feeling negative and everyone doesn’t feel this way.
Hope execs realize they could find design and buying leadership who speak their language AND understand the customer as opposed to the dummies running their teams in circles now
Maybe the problem is design leadership AND execs. Hmmmm…
Re- to the person asking about closures.
When leases are up they’ll look at profitability to determine to close or not. They’ve resigned some leases. There’s only a small handful of stores current closing, which happens every year. They do have at least one opening on the books this year. Closing stores are Hawaii, Tallahassee and some Canada stores.
Chance the rapper actually makes sense cause his career is failing like this company.
I just can’t believe they paid chance the rapper to be on the holiday call… shows how ridiculously out of touch with the customer they are. Bunch of Karens
lol cool to see design leadership engaging with this discourse and trying to defend themselves… your inability to pull together cohesive messages is why the execs feel like they have to jump in. None of you have taste or an understanding of the customer. The only thing you’re skilled at doing is gaslighting and projecting insecurities. Why don’t you log off the layoff and lock in in your job…
The middle management “60% of time communicating” stuff is a narrative they’ve concocted
To the post relating to design leadership/clowns (lol)…you aren’t getting it. Execs are very involved in product decisions and force their view into the assortment…blaming buyers, irrespective of level for product, is off base. The problem stems from exec team
When Shea talked about actually showing the organization of leadership or whatever I thought it would include all these other teams and these decision makers I was disappointed to just see districts
Were the middle managers who got laid off actually useless? The comment she made in the huddle about “spending 60% of their time communicating with others rather than helping the field” to justify eliminating positions was weird to me, but we also have no idea what positions were eliminated or what goes on at HO
Idk what kind of district you are working in or if you just work in a high volume store but VMMs have taken a significantly more operational role (on TOP of the same visual expectations with way less time and help) AND work weekends AND closing shifts for years now. The only VMMs that got to maintain a M-F opening schedule were at like 6+ million dollar stores (not sure on the volume). If your store doesn’t make that then that is 10000% on your SBL and DBL for not enforcing company changes and policy. It’s literally been years that VMMs have essentially been acting as ASMs.
Any list of store closing this year? I heard if your lease is up your store is closing. Are there any relocations or openings on the books?
I know- design leadership is ridiculous. They dress themselves like clowns and the product reflects their own weird taste. Execs are so disconnected from reality that they have to rely on a bunch of criminally uncool 40-something’s to tell them what’s up… when they gonna realize it’s not working?
I know I should be thankful to still have a job but I’m kinda jealous of the people who no longer have to deal with this bs… trying to respect this organization and I literally can’t.
For those highlighting product: look at design and start asking questions there