I have been praying for myself and everyone else. Even if I survive this layoff I know others will not and it saddens me. What a horrible way to do a layoff, we find out Thursday and have to go all the way to Tuesday to find out, it has been a miserable few days for all of us. I would say it is CRUEL in fact. I love Target and I wish they had handled this with more care.
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@ab Typically the company reducing staff wants to target (no pun intended) certain areas or performance levels. The people who volunteer are often the ones with in-demand skills or top performers, because they are the most marketable. As a result the company is paying the people they don’t want to lose so they can keep the ones they care less about.
A simple follow up message from the head of HR to let people know what to expect and when to expect it would have made the last couple of days far less stressful.
Why not ask for volunteers? With a fair severance package you could find people considering retirement, going to school, relocating, career switching, etc.
I know of at least one company that did this and hit their reduction goal(s). FFS I'd seriously consider it right about now.
@a1 I don’t like the “they released news the Thursday before because the layoff was leaked” speculation. That just puts Target in a good light. The people who leaked that the Thursday email was even going out stated the reason was because Target wanted people remote so news companies didn’t snap pictures of in office people leaving and crying.
Man, "cruelty" is the only word that comes to mind for how they handled this. If it really leaked, they could've just dropped the list on Friday. It might not have been on schedule, but at least it wouldn't have turned into this mess.
This is exactly how Cargill did their layoffs last December. A 15 min meeting in your calendar titled “Business Update.” Meeting on Tuesday done on Friday. Leader read from a script. Managers were told not to communicate with their people. You were just out. Corp American is horrible. It’s not just Target. Hang in there. This is a stepping stone to something great!
This was almost certainly not by design, unless the "leak" was engineered. Typically you'd see an announcement Monday and layoffs later that day or Tuesday/Wednesday. There's really no benefit for a company to do a layoff this way. This leak caused several days of zero productivity and high-stress/uncertainty for all employees over a weekend.
The only thing that looks like they are doing okay is the rumored separation terms. Paying through early January and then lump-summing a decent severance at the beginning of the tax year is probably above-average these days and should take some of the edge off the holidays.
@a2 probably the communications team.
@a1 this is it.
@OP It was very cruel of Target to do it this way. I was laid off a few years ago from a large corporation but it was handled quite differently. Personally I am very upset with Target. Some of the posts I saw this morning, especially for people who couldn’t sleep, saddened me. I am praying also.
I did love working for Target, but I don’t anymore. It continues to go downhill.
Cruel really is the best way to describe this. Who on earth decided that this was the right way to handle this??
I think they weren't planning on announcing anything until yesterday or this morning, but it got leaked so they had to make an announcement on Thursday