Thread regarding Walgreens layoffs

I was pulled into a similar meeting last Friday, I already assumed I would be cut next year just based off our department being over staffed. This pretty much verified that thought though.

Re: business continuity:
Consultant findings indicated that there were many teams with duplicate roles/no clear benefit to the business. These meetings are being held to see if these findings were just or if these roles/teams are needed within the new business alignment. On a personal note, if you find yourself being scheduled in a meeting like this attempt to justify your role in any way possible.

We just had a meeting with someone from Business Continuity...
what does this mean?

Didn't Walgreens already give most of IT to TCS a few years ago?

Re: process doc
I work in comms and my director asked for the same 😑

I work in IT and my director asked the same, SOPs for all our roles currently here in the US and also detailed doc of what is handled in India.

Re: Detailed docs of what our partners in India do... our manager asked us the same. Not good.

Today in finance, management asked for detailed docs of what our team in India is currently doing and in charge of. My director told me off the record that she was notified she has to build training guides for each of the roles she is responsible for and provide specific details of what they do and the process for doing it. she has until 12/13 to complete this. Coming from Takeda, I have seen this before and it doesn't end well.

Re: comms-
I was told Comms will be treated like finance, HR, IT and CS in streamlining its functions by consolidating subgroups and outsourcing any non-urgent work. Small teams will remain that will report up to a single manager/ director for urgent issues needed to be handled immediately. As it sits now we have multiple managers that have only 2-3 beneath them, it's not needed, and this was found during the consultant review (at least in HR where I am)

Question about comms... I know 3 directors were axed. Will they be totally streamlining all comms from here on out and axing managers next round?

IT outsourcing should start with outsourcing Neal

Hearing network, infrastructure, architecture, database and security teams are all being outsourced. Internal IT being minimized....mostly outsourced across the organization

Who in IT is being let go?

Anyone have any insight into when the next round of layoffs will take place? Next year can mean January or September. Hoping we have more than a few months before they ax another 20% of the company.

Currently watching Tracy in this 'All Hands' meeting. I hope someone asks about the rumors regarding the three major rounds of layoffs next year as well as our entire corporate office being transitioned to offshore teams.

I would love to hear Tracy dance around answering that one.

In regard to the rumors that multiple teams will be offshored. I have worked closely with Genpact. Does leadership truly believe this is a smart move? I understand the cost savings benefit, but Genpact employees are inept. Without an SOP they can't produce anything, they lack the critical thinking skills. You will see a significant decrease in the quality of the outputs. We can't save Walgreens if the reporting is inaccurate. The iceberg is directly ahead of us and leadership is intentionally colliding with it.

Brush off your resumes and hop into a lifeboat before this ship sinks.

No raise/bonus in two years despite double digit inflation. Yet, Tim along with the other executives did not take any cuts in their multi-million dollar bonus'. Tim received TWELVE MILLION dollars worth of Walgreens stock, unvested, within his first two weeks here. How pathetic is that? There is zero plan to fix the root cause of our financial performance issues. The executives will continue to milk Walgreens for all it's worth to prepare for bankruptcy or a sell off.

Additionally, can we stop coming into the office? Not only is it pointless as we can all work from home, it is also extremely discouraging. I've now sat at my desk on THREE different occasions, with increasing anxiety, waiting to get a call from HR to let me go. If you're going to turn my life upside down can I at least be at home when you do it?

1200+ store closures, did you think white collar would be exempt? My guess is yesterday was only a small glimpse of what next year has in store for this relic of yesteryear.

Are call centers expected to be outsourced as well?

Mid level HR director here. I can confirm additional rounds of layoffs are coming at turn of year to coincide with fiscal quarters and outsourcing to take place as needed.

Re: "I’m in HR..." If Walgreens plans to outsource and move divisions overseas, I would expect service quality, whether customer-facing or internal to decline even more than it has already. On another note, how does Walgreens expect to compete with Amazon and/or Walmart when we ask our customers to wait at least 2 days or more to pick up their medications from a brick and mortar store (where they wait in long lines due to under-staffing) when the competition plans to offer same-day delivery to your door? Regarding front-of-store items, most can be purchased cheaper at Walmart. Walgreens can cut now but it seems like a band-aid that will contribute to a downward trajectory. What are the plans for the future? As another post pointed out, Walgreens failed to take advantage of past opportunities when could.

I’m in HR and they brought in consultants late last year who have been going through every role to see what each person does. Anything and everything that they can move over seas or third party out to a management company they are doing. From what I was told most of HR, finance, IT, comms, legal will be moved with only a select few remaining for urgent work.

The company missed a lot of opportunities to modernize, this has been a long time coming. A re-org is the only thing that will save the company at this point and it needs to be done right.

It’s simple, look at our org charts. We have wayyyyyy too many managers/directors and no justifications. Some managers only have 1-2 under them??? They need to and will go

Also heard 3 larger rounds are coming next year with the consolidation of our Chicago area campuses. Also was told contractors will be taking many roles instead of FTE

why do you people stay at walgreens when its a sinking ship? Is that the best you can do...working at Walgreens?

What about all those opi--d settlements?

I wonder where 3 rounds of layoffs came from. Maybe the 3 rounds we had last fiscal. I guess we do hire statistical geniuses. And your morale level is what you make it. If you are miserable, move on. Grass might be greener over at Acme, but wait until they have layoffs. It’s the economy not the company. Pepsi laid off 200 on the south side today. They must be crumbling as well.

Interesting emails sent out this evening concerning our reorganization. Makes sense if the layoffs and we are going to hire some new leaders. Oh and rebuild the Deerfield office to make more room for employees.

The 200 building was built in the 1950s. No company would buy it just like the Lake Cook buildings. The village of Deerfield is too stringent on who can buy and what can be done this close to a residential neighborhood unless it’s more houses. And Pulte has its hands full on the 300 buildings for 3 years. And I think we learned our lesson hiring Gen Z employees. Look where it got us.

Who would buy us? We are too large for a public company to buy and pass the FTC. But maybe we can convince Elon to buy us? Yes, private equity could buy us, but we have had KKR on our board since 2008. I think it would have happened by now.

We have had layoffs since 2008. Every layoff was a doomsday scenario where the company would go under with massive layoffs. 16 years later some of the same people still work there and the company is still generating billions upon billions in sales.

Stop with world is ending nonsense. We have a new CMO. What did you expect? And they are investing millions into the Deerfield Office this year. It’s not for resale as the building is a year down do you know anything about commercial real estate. Stop the nonsense. You sound like MSNBC.

I'm gone already, but funny when Tim was brought on, he had a meeting with all of us and said that, laying off was something he doesn't do....they are all just looking out for themselves, as they still make millions

Which execs are gone?

They’re too far gone, there is no turnaround plan. This is the beginning of the end for WBA

I am in comms and the mood is that we are likely going to be hit hard next year. Several meetings today and “consolidation” was a common phrase.

I was in Deerfield today and also heard from multiple people there will be 3 rounds of layoffs next year. Kind of figured this was coming.

I worked there for 6 years, they pay way too well for the amount of work you do. Consultants were brought in and figured that out haha. Bye bye middle management

Update your resumes, folks