Nobody is safe, you goofs. Even in a well-managed, profitable company these days, nobody is safe. And, with BN, which is certainly not a well-managed, profitable company, everybody is doubly unsafe. We can talk for hours how many CEOs can dance on the head of a pin, but unless you're a stockholder, forget about safe. Start thinking of yourselves, and get into the mindset of an exit strategy.
Good point by @XrqZC0B-4yhj.
RE: "I was fortunate my manager had my back". Had your back--this used to be the rule, not the exception. Really, this is what managers used to do, and, somewhat surprisingly, many still do at BN. For every imbecile who is running a store, there seems to be two old school managers who, while they certainly don't agree with where the company is going, still go out of their way to take care of their booksellers. I've said this before here, but hopefully not to become tiresome, this is the way a SM should be.
A lazy or dumb manager won't do this. They will be worried about only their own job. They won't look out for their people. They play favorites, they care only about their metrics.
Also, "I was fortunate," you can't rely on this in the future. Start getting into the mindset that you are totally disposable, and start looking. It can be done, I did it, and so can you. The best of luck to you.
You’re lucky you had a GOOD manager that valued you. My POS Mgr just let me get canned and since, I’ve learned the 2 slowest people w/ the poorest productivity, that I didn’t want back there, are receiving now...boxes backed up, etc. They deserve what they get !
I was fortunate my manager had my back a year ago, and moved me to another
location that was "safe."
At the time, i was thinking, why are you sending me there, but then things transpired
in February.
I certainly appreciated her having my back, and buying me some time.
But inventory is Sunday, and what happens Monday....
Post ID: @Xvk4JvF-1wgr
It was a smart move , knowing you were losing valuable employees, moving their position to preserve them. I heard of many good managers doing this. Other non thinking managers just let it happen. Our store list hard,productive workers. Their jobs are now being done by people who called out several times a month, people who are slow and refuse to “ pick up the pace”, come in late all the time. These people were kept. Now, those stores, like ours, with unopened boxes delivered days ago, magazines sitting in boxes, not shelves, customers looking for books that are in boxes in the back. Can’t feel sorry for stupid decisions.smart managers tried to do the right thing and preserve the integrity of the store and helped GOOD employees. Others who just let good people get swept away, deserve what they get ( further cuts).
Well, @Xvk4JvF-1gvy, I'm not sure how to answer your question--assuming there's a question in there, or that you're a troll, or just a rare id--t. I certainly don't want to get into a whole capitalist dialectics thing here, but since you bring it up...
Nobody gets paid what they're worth; only a fool goes into the workforce thinking that they'll be paid what they're worth. One is paid their worth - X, X being the value they add to the company for their labor. Once X starts shrinking, for whatever reason (often out of the employee's control), they are no longer safe. So, if the employee is a single woman who has a child, and that child gets sick, and the woman takes too much time off to take care of the child, X drops in value. When it gets to a certain point, the company will fire the woman, provided that the firing doesn't leave it in a liability situation that might cost it more money.
BN is a company in profound distress. Imagine it as a dinosaur in its death throes, thrashing its gigantic tail around. If some booksellers are in the way of the tail, they will get taken out, because its a big tail indeed.
I knew a lot of people who were very talented, excellent booksellers, who got laid off on Black Monday. They didn't deserve to be taken out by the dinosaur's tail, but they did.
So please consider this before you post again with some dumb capitalism-is-great idea.
Regarding the “ Nobody is safe you goofs “ post .
At the end it is suggested to get an exit strategy . Question ....according to the poster , nobody is safe even in well managed companies . So where do you go ?
The thing I don’t get about this site is that EVERY company , this one and all the other ones talked about on THE LAY OFF.COM, are run by id--ts . The leadership teams are thrown under the bus 100% of the time by the people that come to this site and post. Of course the rank and file are always smarter than the CEO etc. How is this possible ? Clearly , somebody should see this dynamic and grasp the opportunity to throw out ALL leadership teams of all companies and replace them with the folks that post on this site. Then things would be great and everyone would be safe .
This makes sense. I recall that before lay offs, store manager was trying to move me into another department that was safe from the 'beheading' due to the sales in those departments. His persistence was daily. He knew.
“A reliable person told me the District and store mgrs knew BEFORE CHRISTMAS those firings were going to happen in February“
This came from inside corporate. District and store mgrs knew BEFORE Christmas. And yes they were told leaks would result in disciplinary action. The SM needed to know to prepare to keep the stores running. I hear they’re doing a poor job of it.Boxes unopened on time . Poor Cust svc.
I wouldn't be surprised that DMs knew about the Black Monday layoffs pretty far ahead of time--maybe not before Christmas last year, but probably not long afterwards. This particular Night of the Long Knives was a pretty big operation, and there were, no doubt, a lot of moving parts, as MBAs are fond of saying over their kale salads at lunch. I would assume that the number of people who knew beforehand was kept relatively small, with a rolling schedule of whom would know what, when.
There's an old Russian saying that says, two people can keep a secret, as long as one of them is dead. Letting SMs in on the deal too early would have resulted in the layoffs getting out--you simply can't trust six hundred people to keep a secret too long. Of course, never underestimate the power of fear; any SM who disclosed the layoffs beforehand who was discovered would be joining all those head cashiers and receiving managers, PDQ.
A reliable person told me the District and store mgrs knew BEFORE CHRISTMAS those firings were going to happen in February.
Someone in Corporate backed it up saying they had everything in place KNOWING the date !
And you better do it soon, Black Monday is nearly here and regardless of what you store manager and district manager are saying (or not saying) they know. They knew last time around and didn't have the decency to give anybody a heads up. S**t , my store manager didn't even have the balls to be in the store when last February happened .