https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/walmart-bay-area-tech-layoffs-20397721.php
2 replies (most recent on top)
Ok, so don’t be fooled here. Those tech guys in the Bay Area aren’t IT types that transferred from HO in Bentonville. Nope, most likely they are hold over departments and functions from the failed Mark Lore - Jet.com fiasco. Another royal sc--w-up by Walmart. Paid 3.3 billion dollars for a cr-ppy e-commerce company that it’s taken 9+ years to totally get rid of. It was a famously stupid deal that brought us the privileged Hoboken and Bay Area departments.
I’m sorry, but if you were stupid enough to work for Walmart when you lived in the Bay Area you probably qualify for the
Optical-analidis award. That’s when your head is so far up your backside you can’t even see what you’re doing.
Walmart’s new cuts to its staff of Bay Area tech workers go far deeper than they originally appeared.
In late May, when the retail giant filed two of the WARN documents generally required in the event of mass layoffs, California’s Employment Development Department processed them separately. The EDD published the first WARN quickly, revealing a 106-worker cut at Walmart’s San Bruno offices that SFGATE previously covered. The second WARN, processed later but public as of this week, has more brutal news: 405 workers are losing their jobs at Walmart’s Sunnyvale offices.
Similar to those in San Bruno, the Sunnyvale cuts stem from Walmart overhauling its ranks of tech workers. In a May 21 memo from global Chief Technology Officer Suresh Kumar and U.S. CEO John Furner to staff, the executives wrote, “Walmart is reshaping some teams in our Global Tech and Walmart U.S. organizations where we have identified opportunities to remove layers and complexity, speed up decision-making, and help associates innovate rapidly.”
Walmart’s executives targeted programmers, the new WARN shows. Among the 405 Sunnyvale layoffs, more than half had some version of “software engineer” in their title — the cuts hit both engineering directors and rank-and-file coders. Employees working in product management, data analysis, design, automation and cybersecurity were also included in the layoffs.
The WARN notice said the layoffs will be spread across July 25, Aug. 22 and Sept. 5 termination dates and that workers will be eligible for severance pay after a “paid transition period.” The Sunnyvale offices won’t be closing, according to the notice.
Walmart’s cuts come as workers grapple with a tumultuous moment in the tech industry and job market. The push for efficiency that led to sweeping layoffs at companies such as Meta and Microsoft is ongoing, President Donald Trump’s tariff policies have contributed to economic uncertainty, and artificial intelligence is now writing huge amounts of code.
Kumar and Furner, the Walmart executives, wrote in their May 21 memo, “The world of technology is evolving at an unprecedented pace, and reshaping our structure allows us to accelerate how we deliver and adapt to the changing environment around us.”