Thread regarding Walmart layoffs

@rr That has to be false. No one at Walmart is ever “quiet fired” with no severance without cause. Anyone who is terminated because their job was eliminated is ALWAYS offered severance. That’s hard and fast company policy. Severance packages can vary, but no one who is terminated due to job elimination is denied severance. You can check that out yourself.

@rv that is perhaps the most uninformed and unintelligent post in this thread.

@rv Ok, yup. Sure. You keep thinking all that. I’m sure there’s a Business 101 night class you could attend to help you grasp the basic concepts of the entire situation.

@rg you mean simple like they said "have a plan, be looking, get out on your own terms" in other words find a new employer?

"but you’re not going to have any impact on all that stuff you listed just because a union is in place." You don't know that, you assume a union would have no impact. What is known is, at the current time, there is no Associate Advocate.

You make another assumption that they are employed by Walmart, when many folks commenting here have been impacted by layoffs, RIFs, and chose to leave on their own and they can still want change.

As for your shareholder suggestion, Associates do run the layoffs, AES, the performance, ratings, budgets etc...since from the Cart Pusher to the CEO, they are all Associates, so looks to be happening in this universe....

Was "quiet fired" without severance. (Not related to performance or conduct issues - just told role was eliminated.)

@me wouldn’t it be easier, simpler and make more sense to just change your employer? Change jobs?

I mean, if you feel like your employment with Walmart is so distasteful I don’t get why you just don’t leave? Or, you could become majority share holder and force the board to do your bidding. Unfortunately, your focus is misdirected.

Im not saying change isn’t needed, but you’re not going to have any impact on all that stuff you listed just because a union is in place.

Oh, I forgot this…. If you’re a stockholder you can submit a stockholder resolution to demand associates run the layoffs, AES, performance, ratings, budget, and everything you listed. Honestly, in what universe does that ever happen?

Just now that they are going to weasel out of any real layoffs first because that requires severance. The bottom line is the bottom line. Quiet firing is a thing. They do not care about you. Take care of yourself.

@kq as opposed to coporate being self serving money mills for corpprate leadership? It's new times, a new company...what's that old saying about the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. Layoffs are the topic and there is no means for associates to have any say in layoffs, not performance, not grass roots, not open door, not AES, nothing. It's time for that to change, and if that means tolerating some of the bad that unions bring, for some of the good, that seems to be a far better associate benefit than it is now. No associate voice, no associate advocate, no associate representaion...this means the layoffs will be the norm as they have. Stop worrying about them, have a plan, be looking, get out on your own terms, or stay and wait for that time to come. Either way, you have have no voice, only actions to take in your best interest, just as the company does for it's best interest.

@kq there’s some very sketchy stuff happening at the stores. Maybe a union will help there. They seem to just make up policy and rules as they go to fit their own purposes. There’s a lot of favoritism.

Oh ge-z. Not another union thread. This is so worn out. Just stop. A union is not going to do anything productive at Walmart. They are literally set up to be self serving money mills for union leadership. The issue here is layoffs. And on that matter, no one expects wide spread manpower reductions until second quarter time frame.

@fe salaried pay does not prevent unionization, it is based on rank-and-file employment vs management. Rank-and-file salaried employees are able to unionize. So it is completely viable for Tech to unionize. I have been very anti-union, since it is often a self-serving organization that profits from workers, and for many years prior to now they were not needed. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case, there is no other recourse for the Individual Contributors (rank-and-file) in Walmart stores, clubs, or HO. As others have said those days are long gone, and with those changes comes the need for a unified, collective representation for the employees, and sadly that is what the unions offer, legal representation, collective bargaining, and power in the hands of workers, that current Walmart has taken away. Mr. Sam gave the power to the Associates, that is gone.

@ez

You're wrong. they do have a corporate affairs under Dan Bartlett: https://corporate.walmart.com/about/leadership/dan-bartlett

@f1 well I’ve been watching this and I’m in agreement with much of what you said until you mentioned the union. A union will not help the tech issues since the majority are salary. A union might serve as a wake up call for store and distribution center associates, but unions have such bad reputations now, I just don’t see it.

@ey Layoff have followed good and great company performance, it's not a indicator for layoffs.
You are correct as mentioned the old Tech leaders were, well, Leaders. The transplanted are just toxic, some might say Turner was toxic, but that's a whole other story.
As for "There’s no loyalty, camaraderie or pride. That stuff is gone now. It won’t be back." You are also correct, and gone as well are trust, integrity, open door, respect for the individual, strive for excellence, and service to the customer, and no need for a union...all gone the way of Sam. Maybe time for a unions to be a part of this "new company".
Allow associates to have a unified voice and representation that no longer exists in the company, Sam was for the associates, no one left is, so time for change. Everyone above the Individual Contributor from Manager to Board of Directors is for the company, they are all unified. During a lay off meeting you sit alone on your side of the table and on the other side is your leader backed by the company even HR. Times need to change.

@ev I’m confused. Can you tell me why any company’s corporate affairs would bring negative focus on any part of the company like that? Just doesn’t make sense. Besides, Walmart does not have a department named Corporate Affairs.

@d7 I disagree with some of your rant. It’s well known and generally accepted that the tech side has been riddled with leadership, execution and follow through problems, yes, going all the way back to KarenAnn when all the ISD folks were jammed into blue fabric cubes in DGTC. It’s been horrible to watch- a once fine and arguably bumbling but effective tech group keeping things together as they sink into confusion and chaos. After Rollin Ford left there has not (and still has not) been a real technical leader that could unite, motivate and inspire the troops. Everyone after Rollin has just been a joke and a failure. That is evident and everyone knows it.

That withstanding, the performance of the company and the financials are still good. The company is making money, stock price is up - even a stock split a while ago. Associates are making money in the 401k and with the associate stock plan. The website is bringing in revenue and the registers are selling goods. The performance of Walmart as a business is good and has been good. If holiday continues to be strong, 4th quarter will be good and we’ll end the year strong.

Sam is gone. The days of Sam bringing the dogs over to the transportation shack in the back of the truck to run around are over. It’s a different company. You can’t swim upstream anymore. There’s no loyalty, camaraderie or pride. That stuff is gone now. It won’t be back.

@OP I don’t see anything in your post that seems unlikely. Although, I do believe the new CEO is smarter than we think. He’s not going to sit idly by and let the tech side take down the rest of the company. We’re likely to see behinds kicked much quicker than second quarter.

@OP where are you getting this “intelligence”? This, again, feels like corporate affairs wrote it.

@OP While poor company performance does generate some reduction in workforce, it is well known that most recent layoffs happened during and following times of good company performance. Folks being laid off did not have poor evaluations and did receive bonuses. It is disingenuous to even lead folks to believe performance is good, so it may be clear. There is no stability, hasn't been for years. The goal is disruption, break from the past, eliminate legacy systems and people. The transplanted toxic leadership has no loyalty to anything or anyone proceeding them, from Suresh "eliminating mainframe" to Glick eliminating program management and EBS teams. The reorganizations, displacements and layoffs are the norm. While they think they bring fresh to the company, they actually bring old tired politics and petty fiefdoms, with low moral being the norm.

Product and Design will get hit .. they had big merge recently.. too much overlap across.. expect that to come out in next couple of months

One thing for sure there ought to be a thorough cleaning out of the current IT leadership. Morale is bad and no one has the ba--s to do anything to fix that mess. Maybe AI will help the bottom line but that whole organization is misled, misguided, misdirected and can’t get much done.