Need to fire all the buyers for both Wal-mart and Sams. They could care less how much crap they send into clubs or stores. Very easy to buy all you want and load the clubs and stores down with all that merchandise. There bonuses should be decided by how much crap we have to mark down. At Sams part of our bonus is by profits and when we have to mark so much down that kills our profit end. If it effects us then it should effect them as well.
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Anyone know what areas are supposed to get hit?
Confirmed that most, if not all vendor rooms booked at HO by HR
Supposedly it's the 27th. Home office side rooms are booked I heard.
Another round of layoffs at Walmart HO in first half of August.
2pre,
What does leadership know about business processes? They had some consultants come in and tell them who to promote and (I assume) who to fire. And guess what? They got it wrong because they don't actually KNOW who does what at Walmart. Or how often it needs to be done. Now things are a mess.
The CEO says they're going to win with people. Judging by these layoffs what he really believes is that Walmart is going to win WITHOUT people.
Home Office and Total Loss are next.
I hate this ongoing RIF for my friends still at the WM HO. Leadership needs to do it once and be done with it for a few years. I'm so glad I decided to leave. If you're able, I recommend doing the same. It was a scary move to make, and I took a pay cut. But at the end of it all, my quality of life has increased significantly. I figure the pay cut was a small price to pay for all the extra quality time I now have to spend with family and friends.
I'm hearing 25% RIF across the board. That really doesn't sound accurate, but at this point, nothing surprises me.
@ WM Canada HO too?
I'm hearing the same for merchandising. Don't know if it's layoffs or just a shuffle.
Management does not know yet the changes...they only here the rumors also
Sad that they've made their employees feel this way at a time when they needed all the loyalty they could get.
Amazon bought Whole Foods. And Lidl is here. Aldi will build 900 more stores in the next couple of years.
This is a retail doomsday scenario. And the company is going into battle with soldiers that don't trust, admire, or are loyal to it. The soldiers are demoralized and scared.
You don't have to be a scholar of martial history to know this doesn't end well.
Having honest conversations with leadership and associates will get you fired !! In the environment we work today, is far different from just a few years ago .
Our CEOs message of going against the grain with all the politics is good advice but not healthy
The culture Sam created is nonexistent as the obvious politically correct align themselves and continue to climb.
Agree, play game and get out before you were a gold badge her penetrate your pay band above 70%
Our CEO wouldn't read this. I like him, but he lives in a bubble. Nobody tells him how the organization really works. They wouldn't dare. Too career limiting.
Here's the thing with layoffs. If you're going to do it, do it once. Cut deep. Get it over with. These constant layoffs have destroyed trust in the company. All for what? To manage public image? To avoid an age discrimination lawsuit? Associates know why it's being done this way. We think it's wrong. And we think it's cowardly. The lack of regard for the associates has eroded trust and loyalty. Walmart expects long hours and your best work WHILE the associate never knows if they're going to have a job the next day? While the associate is afraid that when they get older they are toast? Would Walmart leaders do their best work in such an environment? Doubt it.
They don't even send out the, "We had to make tough choices. We lost some good people" email anymore because the layoffs are constant and they're trying to be stealthy. But you can't stealth RIF in a community as tight knit as Bentonville.
By all means Walmart needs to lower costs. But RIFing people while executives get giant raises and there's so much other waste in the company is insulting.
How about having honest conversations with associates about the business and what we are facing from competitors? I promise they aren't too dumb to understand and could likely have some good ideas on ways to cut costs. Or maybe how to better re-deploy some of these areas you're trying to transform. Or maybe they'd warn you about which middle managers/VPs are real people trying to do what's right for the future versus political animals after status and a paycheck.
This is just how I feel though. Others may or may not agree.
Ok now it sounds like our wonderful CEO is on here.
That's all fine and well. I agree that we need to do some things to lower expenses. But let's be truthful: Walmart will NEVER be able to get its SG&A in line with Aldi and Lidl. Too many rough stores and those supercenters are too big. We've gotten away from our roots. In the old days we were so cheap we called suppliers collect. Now our shareholders meeting is an expensive entertainment showcase.
Speaking of truthful, does senior leadership know or even care to fact check ANYTHING that is sold to them in these meetings? It's become a thing now to get up and tell a good "story" and get accolades and promoted for it. But when you dig into it, you find out most of it is pure lies. Nobody ever checks these stories that I've ever heard of. And the merchants especially are becoming bold about the lying because they know this.
And then the biggest liars wind up getting promoted to leadership. And we wonder why the company has struggled since Mr Sam passed away.
This might just be how it feels to me though.
Walmart business model is changing to adapt to an omnichannel business environment. Walmart is not immune from having to made hard decisions, and that has nothing to do with having to face harsh realities and holding "Respect for the Individual" as a value, unless WMT should be run like the old General Motors before TARP, where words, not results counted.
Amazon, Aldi, Lidl, and other small and agile companies present emerging threats to the company. As such, profit margins may be lower, and with SG&A costs up 200 bps ($10B) over 5 years, WMT needs to demonstrate some productivity. How does a company with an EDLP/EDLC business model not leverage SG&A costs for over 25 years? WMT culture did not prevent that from happening. Cost savings can't just come from payroll though, so business processes will also have to be addressed.
Why the heck would you EVER put on a gold badge these days? May as well paint a bulls eye on yourself.
The continual layoffs are going to be the norm going forward. Our current EVP for the People Division came from Accenture before Walmart, and Accenture is known to do similar.
The job market is much better for job seekers than it has been over the last few years, and Walmart will continue to lose talented associates because of this layoff strategy. People aren't as "trapped" as they have been. The layoffs are also destroying what was left of the company's culture. The things that made Walmart different have quickly disappeared at the HO level. Without that sense of mutual respect, people will not feel compelled to stay with Walmart.
My advice: live below your means, pay off debt, reap the benefits of RSRs, bonus, etc., but keep your eyes peeled for better job opportunities outside the company. If something comes along, jump on it. The longer you've been with Walmart and the more money you make, the more likely it is you will be let go. With each round, those HO gold badges are getting fewer and farther between! But, I take comfort in the fact that almost every person I know who leaves the company or is laid off ends up much happier than they ever were here!
It'll never be over. There were a handful last week that went by with very little fanfare - a stealth RIF that I heard no rumors of. I know of 3 of the names.