Thread regarding Walmart layoffs

At my pharmacy in a busy super center, hours are 9a - 7pm Mon-Sat and from 10a - 7pm Sundays effective March 11th. The reason, when asked, is that it makes for long shifts for our pharmacists when they only get a thirty minute lunch. It appears that we just have limited coverage, now. Maybe the company shouldn't have let all those folks go in 2019.

Absolutely agree. Putting pharmacists in charge of optical was STUPID. Just an absolute disaster. You’re 100% correct. Optical is a nuisance to them. It’s so evident in the way optical is treated. Here’s a little metaphor that highlights EXACTLY how these elitist MHWDs feel about optical vs pharmacy. Ready? Around thanksgiving, our MHWD sent food to both optical and pharmacy. Pharmacy got Chipotle. Optical got Dunkin Donuts.

Need I say more? That encapsulates it all.

Pharmacist managing the VC was the second bighest mistake of HO. The first was getting rid of dept managers. A "department store" needs people accountable for a department. Optical has been an annoyance ever since they invented Health and Wellness. Opticians have suffered and patients suffered. Sam Walton would not have opted for the H&W merger or the scraping the dept managers. Yes people are payroll, but people are a member of a community; they live, work and spend money in that community. Walmart gobbled up all the jobs 25 years ago putting lots of small business out. They promised good paying jobs with benefits as a trade off and tax incentives were given to boot. Fast forward the jobs are dwindling, tax revenues have kept up and people are less well off then they were. This decreases sales and creates a vicious cycle.

Yea it’s been a thing for 12 months here too. But it has gotten to a ridiculous level the last six months or so.

The second pair thing has been going on in our entire Region for the last 12 months. Region 51 is a nightmare to work in. Everyone from the MHWM down the food chain is total stressed out. Terrible morale and staffing issues virtually everywhere

*to avoid being on the hook for massive amounts of unemployment payout and or severance.

Vision folks. How are you dealing with the incredibly militant yet narrow focus on multiple pairs? Our MHWD has been borderline harassing us about it for months and suddenly this week it appears they’re amping up the pressure even further.

No discussion on sales. No discussion on remakes. No discussion on lens material mix. No discussion on avg sale.

Just one narrow metric that has little to no impact on overall profitability.

Is anybody else experiencing this?

(Side note. We ended our year above 24% at our location. But this harassment is a weekly matter. Demanding conference calls at 730am each week if your location didn’t make the mark the week prior. Demanding written action plans if you have an off week etc.)

Is this behavior normal? Is this company sanctioned and directed behavior?

It’s almost as if they’re TRYING to cause attrition in D49 before impending layoffs launch to avoid being on the hook for massive layoffs.

If this behavior is NOT happening company wide…..what do we do about it?

I’ve not seen this type of behavior since ten years ago when I worked at another business, just before they announced the closure of the entire company.

Following.....

@1dvx+1kUJejDe: mailing out flyers? Sure.

Yes, it was about 4 years ago they fired some pharmacists. Based on what we heard, they were all low performers who had been on improvement plans and never seemed to quite get it together.

Most of this is bunk, as usual. I think I see one item in here that might be true.

The only part of that I remember is a bunch of pharmacists were let go for performance reasons some years back. No big deal, probably from those schools in Florida that sold their diplomas.

It appears Mr. “no, none of this is true, don’t believe a word of it” deleted their comment after checking the news and discovering yes, Rx hours are being decreased.

They "displaced" 40% of their senior pharmacy staff about 4 years ago to save money. Now they are short of help and mailing out flyers to pharmacists in my area with sign-on bonuses. Nobody wants to work for them now because everybody knows how this company treats its employees. They did it to themselves. Yet they are claiming that they are cutting hours to allow for better work/life balance. When was the last time Walmart was worried about anybody's work/life balance. Total BS. Typical.

Our MHWD visited stores this week, and everyone said they had never seen them in such a good mood.

We all think it’s because they found out they won’t be in charge of Vision much longer.

Are you serious? “Don’t believe a word of it?”

The reduction in pharmacy hours is all over the news.

My sister is training a lady who is a new hire VCM, and she is making the starting LDO rate.

Pay compression is a major problem. Experience and tenure means nothing anymore.

Reduction in pharmacy hours. They would be smart to do the same thing in Optical. As far as optical leadership, we are totally lost as an organization.

FYI, we learned that market HR has been bringing in new VCMs with no optical background, licenses or certifications, not even Walmart experience, at the Licensed Dispensing Optician start rate.

How is that ok?

Any raises they give anybody across the store will be offset by a 20-30% cut in hours. Just watch.

That’s why they brag about a supposed $17 avg wage, and not overall earnings.…at 20 hours a week, who cares about $17?

pharmacy is closing at 7 pm versus 9 pm due to staffing shortages.

Buckle up buttercups! Going to be a bumpy ride for sure..

Whatever happens we will be last to know, we’ll see it on insights a week after the changes are implemented. If Walmart wasn’t as big as it is they would be failing right now. The current leaders in health and wellness are completely out of touch, optical regionals have done what for the business? Waste of payroll.