Thread regarding Target Corp. layoffs

@js I’m on RS and it’s very bloated. Too many people who have never left the four walls of Target and rely on consultants to come up with all their strategies. I would expect cuts in RS.

@fs no it’s not. I’m in that team. Go look at all those under the ARG. Severe bloat. Those truly impacting sustainability are in other teams.

@cd you clearly don’t understand sustainably in the context of the consumer, product dev and industry as a whole. It is imperative to survival of any retailer. While I agree there is bloat, this comment is rooted in lack of knowledge.

In 2015 layoffs in Finance, I believe it was mostly managers and supervisors let go. Teams were then consolidated.

The comments in this thread are similar to the last large reduction. Déjà vu all over again. Wall Street likes large reductions as they show a cost cutting effort.
On a plus side, many who lose their job will eventually get hired back after six (?) months.

They are some teams that are ridiculously bloated. Look at the sustainability team. No other company has that many people in such a team. Whoever overhired is at fault. Layoffs don’t need to happen if you hire strategically.

@b5 Yup! They've been dropping this verbiage like breadcrumbs for months.

@bd Layoffs would have still happened at some point even if Target was supporting dei. If Target reinstated everything and guests came back in droves it would not fix how top heavy the organization has gotten in the last 5 years.

@b3 totally different type of bad pr. That was a strategic mistake, not a personal/political issue. This is the type of pr of a company that people dislike on a personal level. If target goes through with layoffs that only exemplifies that dislike. Rather than just support the dei they committed to they chose to fire their employees?

This language is from the Q2 earnings report. The second and third points are where the meat of this will come from.

Accelerating our progress
Our Enterprise Acceleration Office is taking early steps to remove barriers to speed and unwind complexities in how we work. Examples include:
​
Expanding the team’s access to more modern tech tools (including investing in 10,000+ new GenAI licenses) to get complex work done faster.

Assessing our HQ structure and ways of working to more effectively deliver for consumers.

Redesigning large, cross-functional processes (like how our teams create merchandising and inventory plans) to clarify roles and use the right data to drive decisions.

Does everyone remember the last time we did major layoffs? It was after pulling out of Canada and the data breech. No one sat in the board room and said "we can't do layoffs because it would just be too much more bad PR". Rising tides raise all ships, and when sale were high it was easy to hide the corporate bloat. Those who have been around a long time know that at some point there is no longer a ROI when you add headcount. If sales are high or low, does that change the number of people I need to do the majority of jobs at HQ? Sales impact stores and distribution hourly workers much more. Over the last several months, words like "streamlined" and "efficiency" have been peppered into ATMs.

Is it possible? Sure. Just like it's possible that Target will become a relevant retailer again and won't be Kmart 2.0. Doesn't mean it's likely.

Having openings on Indeed just means not every group is at risk. Some teams are staffed well, have defined goals, have deep skill sets, those teams are fine. Some teams are overstaffed, working in an inefficient model, can be outsourced, etc. Those team members are likely at risk.

We did hire Accenture for management consulting. We are not doing well with sales. There is bloat in HQ. It's not personal. The timing may be unfortunate but leadership has a duty to make the machine be as efficient. TGT is a public company and owes investors the best returns it can generate. Other companies are laying off including competitors. A large scale layoff sends a message to Wall Street that TGT is serious about the way forward.

@ad store product ops in SPI. Fingers crossed 🤞 are there groups more at risk?

@ac what area are you in? Some areas are more at risk than others, so don’t lose hope.

Fun times for an employee who started four weeks ago 🥲

@a2 normally I’d agree with you, but I don’t know if this will help Target on WS more than a few points.

Our performance is abysmal, and layoffs don’t change that.

Target has not proven that it can sustain a compelling EPS.

I hope a layoff doesn’t happen, but I’ve never seen so much speculation before and really believe that something will happen. It’s not uncommon for leadership to leak rumors like this to prepare people for what is coming.

@a2 firing people for target managements terrible decisions that pi---d off both political platforms would not be good pr.

@a5 I know this is stressful, but always keep in mind (took me a decade to learn this the hard way!) that you should always have one foot in the door, and one foot out; meaning don't ever forget Linkedin and your network connections. Keep them active throughout your career, always making new ones, and most importantly -- keeping the connections you already have "active" with the occasional "hi, hope all is well - checking in" because you may never know when that connection may come in handy. Nothing worse than reaching out ONLY when you need something (we can see right through it) and comes off as inauthentic.

I also wonder if the rumors could all just be false and not happen. I’ve been spiraling the last two weeks and I just need to know if it’s actually going to happen or not. Ugh.

I agree! Target is a business and layoffs me, and they are making changes to deliver profitability to investors. It is planning to be that people think they care about anything else.

@OP This would actually be GOOD PR on Wall Street - Target needs to do something here to show investors they are making changes.