Thread regarding Staples Inc. layoffs

I'm increaingly happy I invested little effort into Staples during my bruef stay. it was clear after 90 days that I was being deceived and I coasted for another 9 months until I found something better. It's great fun watching it go down in flames.

Oh, yes.... that verizon guy they were so keen to replace me with was fired for stealing phones taken in for the cell phone trade in / upgrade program

Watching has it all down and speaks the truth as usual. Very on point.

When they want you gone they will pick your worst statistic, and constantly harp on you, even if you are better than most. It's not about actual performance, it's all about payscale. I saw this with multitudes of great GMs. The R1 RVP came in and turned over entire districts of GMs in months. he turned over 90% of the DMs in a year. He went into a Hartford area store while the GM was on vacation and had a tempure tantrum. he cut the GMs pay by $20k and transfered her.

I was on the high end of the SM payscale when they moved some street punk that used to work for Verizon into my store as a second SM. Phones were my stores one weakness. He was constantly late, called out often and went out on cig breaks when he was the only keyholder. He sold very few phones.

I was moved to another store and made an OM, with very little help on the floor. Office supplies was the last priority and I was often called to cover tech and cpc while the SM sat in the office. The Ops sup and IS were also constantly covering other departments and there were several days straight with no one scheduled in O/S. I busted my a-- and with the help of the ops sup and IS we did get alot done. No write ups all year, and then suddenly a below expectations on my eval and a PIP.

The PIP had an impossible action plan to meet, with the lack of staffing and the constant need to cover every other dpeartment i could not possibily get what they wanted done , and they knew they were expecting the impossible. When I was fired I refused to sign the final write up, When I applied for unemployment the tried to contest it. The administrator for the state employment office said two things helped me win that....I did not sign the write up for "poor performance" and they all knew Staples reputation for harassment/terminations.

Tl:DR - they will cut salaries/bonuses. They will harass or fire long term managers regardless of perfomance. Staples is a toxic compnay - find a way out

Oh, and one more observation; Your BEST hope for a decent exit is that the WILL announce they are closing your store, whse. division, office etc. WHY ? Because once they do that they have many more restrictions on how they treat you in many states. You won't have the threat of them challenging Unemployment Insurance for instance, but there are other advantages too. Also they are actually locked in, to some degree, in needing your help to close up shop without undue additional costs.... they may even offer a "Stay to End" bonus package, but don't count on it... YOU SHOULD however ASK for it which will FORCE them to probably give you SOMETHING.

PS: Most of you probably were FORCED to sign a document (Electronic signature) that basically said "We can change your salary at any time". WELL folks if you didn't understand that there is no hope for you and you can stop reading this HERE. For the rest of you lets put this in context. If DON'T meet the criteria I listed above but are still "expensive" or someone in a really TOUGH to replace Store or area they won't CAN you, they will simply send you and email saying your new salary is "X" where X equals some significant percentage decrease from what you currently earn. It's likely that this was necessary for them to obtain prior to closing the BUYOUT deal...

I can't predict whether this will be individually or globally by position, but I can imagine a universal reduction which would look something like this, using GM's as an example.

STARTING SEPT 1ST THE NEW TOP SALARY RATE FOR ALL GM's WILL BE $69,000.

Similar reductions up and down the pay scale ranks would be included. Since you already have signed a document allowing them to due this presumably you would have no recourse (I doubt that is true by the way).