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Job Cuts For Dell, Motorola, and Circuit City
maeveth writes "Talk about not a good time to be working in the tech sector. Layoffs all over the industry have been announced, in a variety of different areas. Last week Dell announced they were partnering with Wal-Mart; this week they are planning a ten-percent reduction in their global workforce. Motorola was already going to cut some 3500 jobs by the end of June; they're now adding another 4000 pink slips to that number (and hoping that next month's RAZR2 launch will boost profits). To top it all off Circuit City is acting in a decidedly schizophrenic manner. The are going to axe about 850 employees, on top of the 70 stores they closed last month ... while also planning to open 165 new stores."
One of these things is not like the others.
There are no karma whores, only moderation johns
printing presses -> inflation -> interest rates -> bad times.
HTH.
Deleted
Meanwhile, every tech place I know can't hire fast enough. The good candidates are getting soaked up by the market fast. Wasn't there a stat recently that computer people are in higher demand than during the tech boom? But maybe its just a localized phenomena where I live.
... where the cuts will occur. Obviously the Circuit City cuts will be in the US, but what about Dell & Moto? Any bets that they are not in the call centers of India? The Dell article mentions employees in England & Ireland but doesn't say where the cuts will be.
Nothing like making the employees pay for management's bad decisions.
What's so strange about closing 70 locations and opening 165? Anyone that has had anything to do with corporate retail planning can see that it can make perfect sense: The company wants to grow, so they add more stores, at the same time, some stores have been performing so badly that they think the location will never be profitable enough, so they are closed.
The only surprising part is that we are talking about all that many stores at the same time: It either means that the former management was ignoring all the indicators, or that the new management has just gone overboard to make a point.
Either way, it's something that seems perfectly healthy for a retail chain to do.
FTFA:
"This time around, the company [Circuit City] axed roughly one manager from each of its 654 stores along with nearly 200 positions at its Richmond, VA headquarters."
How does sacking a bunch of retail managers and back office support staff spell doom for tech sector employees? I understand that job cuts are bad things, but I don't think this one should be lumped in with the tech sector.
[sig]you really dont want the answers, trust me[/sig]
Circuit city and Dell are in the retail sector, and that article doesn't say who at Motorola is getting canned. It could be marketing for all we know.
The submission suggests the decision to open new stores while closing others is weird... but it is not.
BGI (Borders, Waldenbooks, Brentanos, Paperchse) announced they would be closing/spinning off all international operations a day before they announced the opening of several new international stores. The intertia behind the construction, planning, hiring, etc was too great to halt. Additionally, the purchasing departments negotiate deals based on volume and there was *years* of planning/analysis/spending that affected the entire chain and would need to be revisited if the stores did not open as planned.
The damage to the company would have been greatly compounded if the new stores had not opened.
Finally, while closing locations is common practice for companies that are in difficult times, it is not unusual to continue expanding in markets that show more promise than the failing ones that were cut. Shoring up existing markets does less to placate edgy shareholders than showing aggressive pursuit of new opportunities.
Regards.
Be nice if it was global, and not just USA.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Perhaps someone can inform me how people getting laid off at Circuit City is any indicator of the status of the tech sector. Now I have never bought anything from a Circuit City but they weren't the most technically adept people I have ever talked to...just a bunch of dullards spouting numbers off of a tag and having no clue what they actually mean. I can see Motorola and Dell, but lumping Circuit City in there is just grasping for straws
During growth cycles in the stock markets, like the record-breaking S&P 500, it's very typical for companies to shed employees. It has nothing to do with Tech as an industry segment, has nothing to do with outsourcing, has nothing to do with EducationInAmericaToday, has nothing to do with anything but pleasing Wall Street. This allows stockholders to fatten up the stock price, lower DE ratios, and at the end of the day, inject new blood.
Does it suck? Of course it does. Wall Street is a nasty bitch.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
At first, it was a great part time job for a guy working his way through college. Commission based computer sales, and the commission was more than fair. Then around late 2000 there was a huge shift.
First of all, our store's management staff was almost entirely changed no less than 9 times in 7 months. That's the store manager, assistant manager, and all the department managers. The only role that was relatively "safe" was the AV manager, who got demoted to a sales guy when they brought in someone else, then got promoted again after 3 guys went through that manager role.
Commissions were first cut, then to compound the problem they started flooding the sales floor. Where you used to only have maybe 2 guys in a department during the day and 3-4 at night (depending on the time of year and the department), it became literally 5 during the day and 8 at night. No one was making money on commission anymore, we were just drawing the minimum hourly pay.
Ironically, I think that last move is what really started the store's sales going downhill - no one wants to feel like there's 8 sharks circling for blood/a sale while they're looking at a printer or whatever. Even if the salespeople aren't trying to do so, with 8 of them in a small department, you can't really avoid that feeling.
From one of our assistant managers, I heard that there was some huge politics going on in the regional level in the company. Exactly what, he didn't have details on, but most of the Northeast was going through similar issues (although our store was the worst example he heard of).
Really, I think the problem is that Circuit City hasn't been aggressive enough in its adaptation to new marketplace conditions. It settled for "good enough" for too long, and lost it's momentum.
Disclaimer: I don't hold anything against them, like I said, it was a nice place to work for a while. And at least their problems stemmed from poor organizational practices rather than a crappy attitude toward the consumer. Customer service was at least given more than lip service while I worked there. Granted, it's been 5 years, so things may have changed there too, I'm not sure.
"decidedly schizophrenic manner"
Schizophrenia != Split Personality
I don't know if I'd really consider working for Circuit City to be part of the "tech industry". More like retail sales.
Dude! You're getting a pink slip.
Please see this article. According to Fortune, in some areas hiring in the tech sector has been increased by a substantial number. Companies are out on a hunt for college grads and overall the picture does not look bad at all. Of course, there is no such thing as job security, but I'd rather work in IT than for an American auto company. The glass is always half full :)
how many employees do they plan to hire in India and China in the next six months, and how many of said new employees were using L-1 and H1-B visas in the US prior to said "downsizing", when it's really outsourcing?
Do an online Yahoo Stock search and check the news and PR items and find the truth.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Dell inaugurated Thursday a new research and development (R&D) facility in Bangalore, India, that can house up to 1,000 staff. The new facility is in line with Dell's plans to make India a hub for the development of enterprise products such as servers, storage, and software. Coincidence? Surely not.
Oddly enough "the source" (what bought out Radioshack) in Canada tries the same shit. I recently bought a car kit for my ipod which was DOA. When I brought it back [with the ripped open blister package] they mentioned that they don't like giving refunds for packages that are destroyed like that (the kit itself wasn't damaged other than not working).
After pointing out, loudly I might add, that they can't restock broken gear and that they would have to return it anyways, they just gave me a "whatever" look and gave me the refund.
I knew a few computer stores in Ottawa (OEM Express and Targa Computing for those keeping track) who were bad at reselling broken gear. When I did buy from them [3-4 years ago] it would almost always involve a package that was previously open, or the tape seal broken, or small parts missing. The current shop I use [RB Computing] does resell returned goods, but they tell you upfront. And don't try to sneak it in the order. They're also zero hassle returns.
To me it seems like a stupid thing to fight the customer over. Usually when shit is broken the customer is already upset, trying to gouge them on a defective product is just adding salt to the wound.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.