Thread regarding Macy's Inc. layoffs

Unpopular opinion

Some of you guys were bitter beyond belief wayyyy before covid, and now? Don't even get me started. What is it about Macy's employees that makes them so BITTER?! If all you're going to do is complain why not resign on askHR and go work for one of the retailers that is thriving right now. Oh that's right, you have no enjoyment in life if there's nothing to complain about.

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Post ID: @OP+14JOguNp

32 replies (most recent on top)

Amen! Sometimes they have no formal training in the company or out. They go with gut which does not work. Its like running a car into a ditch. As you said, they become set in their ways, stubborn, bullies, and my way or the high way. These folks sometimes become tyrants. After all that, here they are, in a ditch!!!

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Post ID: @6kcc+14JOguNp

'Macy's toxic – agree. This happened because a company man (34 years with company in 2017) was promoted instead of talented outsider to be the chief executive officer.'

Macy's doesn't hire enough people from outside in upper positions or even management. I get it, they want to promote from within. That's super. But sometimes it's good to bring in an fresh perspective if you want to move forward. For too many people, Macy's was their first job after college and 20 years later, they are still here. They have been stuck inside the company bubble and have no idea what is going on at other retailers. Many are stubborn and stuck in their ways and don't want to change, which is why, in so many ways, Macy's is behind the times.

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Post ID: @6cbj+14JOguNp

Typically a Vice President of Product Management of Macy's Digital only gets a Product Manager job in Facebook or Google. That shows the level Macy's operates or promotes or attracts talents.

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Post ID: @6xza+14JOguNp

Everyone can see the organization was not utilizing key performance indicators (KPIs) because it would have highlighted the rate at which customers were jumping ship, how effectively the company was achieving success, and then not wait until review time to have a conversation about it. All this must happen in real time and wait till the end to find out if success was achieved. WOW, management who knows what they are doing are critical to an organization's success. Not those who talk and walk a good game.

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Post ID: @6pob+14JOguNp

Macy's did not have an Architect elevator
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In the past, IT decisions were fairly far removed from the business strategy: IT was pretty “vanilla,” and the main parameter, or key performance indicator (KPI), was cost. Therefore, riding the Architect elevator wasn’t as critical as new information was rare. Nowadays, though, the linkage between business goals and technology choices has become much more direct, even for “traditional” businesses. For example, the desire for faster time-to-market to meet competitive pressures translates into the need for an elastic cloud approach to computing, which in turn requires applications that scale horizontally and thus should be designed to be stateless. Targeted content on customer channels necessitates analytical models, which are tuned by churning through large amounts of data via a Hadoop cluster, which in turn favors local hard-drive storage over shared-network storage. The fact that in one or two sentences a business need has turned into application or infrastructure design highlights the need for architects to ride the elevator. Increasingly they need to take the express elevator, though, to keep up with the pace at which business and IT are intertwined.

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Post ID: @6doc+14JOguNp

I actually like working for Macys. My biggest issue is management inside the stores. They have no backbone to themselves anymore, and are afraid to make someone do their actual job. If your management let's employees run around on their phones all day, and managers stay hidden away, then honestly your store does deserve to close, because you did it. I believe in a honest day work for honest day pay.

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Post ID: @6gny+14JOguNp

Macy;s is dead and would not bounce ...

DEADBEEF, the hexadecimal representation of the 32-bit number 3735928559, used in Hexspeak and as a magic debug value.

M is DEADBEEF is hexspeak ...

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Post ID: @4xbd+14JOguNp

Well, at least the OP admitted that Macy’s isn’t thriving.

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Post ID: @3inl+14JOguNp

@2ffl+14JOguNp—> I didn't need to QUIT as another person pointed out it was a severance, and I took it. If you honestly believe its a positive environment, perhaps it is in your location. Perhaps it's a small volume store that works very well together, or a department in a high volume store. There isn't anything wrong with that.

As a retailer M isn't in the best of shape for a variety of reasons. Will they close up everything and drop of the planet in the future? No, they will survive but be a shell of what they once were.

I was only answering the question as to why Macy*s associate's are bitter, and it's just my view point along with some facts about where they are at currently are in the in the market. Prior to the Covid Crisis the stock was dropping and cuts were made, as well as the neighbor store plans. There are still really positive teams and people working there too, but the culture of the stores wears very thin.

As a retailer M isn't in the best of shape for a variety of reasons. Will they close up everything and drop of the planet in the future? No, they will survive but be a shell of what they once were. This is plain to see with were mall's and retailers are heading. Even there own plan counts are closing 'neighborhood' stores in 1-3 years, this crisis may accelerate that process.

Even T.Lungren was betting on Home Depot and Target for stock buys in 2020. Not supporting the empire he put together?

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Post ID: @3jbk+14JOguNp

I'll ask again – who is the simpleton posting about "personal accountability" here? Does the simpleton not realize that people detailing their bad experiences here may have already left the company?

This poster needs disclose how many shares of M stock they own and whether they are LONG on the stock. And they need to do it NOW.

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Post ID: @3ear+14JOguNp

Paying severance is not required . I hate to be the bearer of bad news M isn’t exactly in the financial position to pay severance this time around.

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Post ID: @2xrx+14JOguNp

"I have 1 word for you, Q U I T."

Did you miss the part about @2wzy+14JOguNp getting SEVERANCE?

Macy's laid me off too, and I went on to a much better opportunity, which let's me see how a viable functioning company that values its employees really runs. You can call that bitter if you want. I call it truth telling.

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Post ID: @2hvj+14JOguNp

"Macys has been struggling for some time now" post—

I think this is a really accurate summary of things, at least from my own experience. I remember the pressure starting to ramp up in 2013 or so. But it's all the way you describe in my particular store.

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Post ID: @2ekm+14JOguNp

@2wzy+14JOguNp I have 1 word for you, Q U I T.

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Post ID: @2ffl+14JOguNp

Macy's has been struggling for some time now, look at the recent history (last 5 years alone). Each year the company has closed stores, re-organized regions, districts and stores, quota balanced associates from department to department. Yes, this is part of the Retail Apocalypse and the department stores haven taken the biggest hit. Being attached to malls doesn't help and not being built (physical layouts) to meet customer demands in the current market sure isn't helping.

Yes I have worked for the big M for 10 years before my severance, I wasn't bitter about as you could see from the P/L statements that expense (payroll is the biggest) still needs to be cut to reduce over all costs as sales continue to decline. Hell just this year the district teams were let go, and there will be more to come next year.

As staffing levels from store managers (VPSM) all the way down to flex associates get reduced, but the work is moved to those who are left, well pressure builds. Take the everyday associate in a RTW department. Recovery rods, re-ticket's, fitting room's to be cleaned out, credit and sales goals. Some will drive the business end (day shift) and not the recovery end. Then the 'closing' shift person comes in and needs to recover the entire department. Happens everyday in every store and yes it's part of the business and teams. Then store 'leadership' address's the issue of the area with the poor soul who happen's to be working. They didn't hire on to be a maid for a department store.This is one example of where trouble starts, the pay simply isn't worth it so they leave. For others the schedule or commute is worth it so they stay but moral declines to zero and they vent or make poor choices.

Now with the 'customer service' standards associates are rarely if ever backed up on transactions. If they decline a return per 'policy' and the leadership team isn't truly empowered to back them either how does that feel? Leadership are caught between a rock and a hard place as the customers have learned (M taught them) to keep going up the ladder, of even worse if they fill out a TUWUT and nobody wants that to happen.

All retail is driven by objective numbers (sales/credit/service scores /shortage etc etc) but how you lead through that pressure and change is the critical key. M has a culture of never being happy, or accepting great results. This isn't to say you shouldn't strive to reach stretch goals, or being better than LY but they have a tendency (IMO) not to smile and say 'thanks for some great results today!'
With M there is always a 'BUT', leadership (again I was part of the that team) is instructed to maintain the objective number and 'drive the business'. I agree with that totally, but celebrate some wins without the ' see I knew we could do it, and we can do this everyday, and lets reach for 100 accounts tomorrow!' The reality is you can't and won't. You have a huge day in sales, the store will be blown up. Don't bark out orders like the sky is falling, and we will all going to die. Work through the problem and be realistic.

The M culture breeds the negativity towards the company. Iv'e seen VPSM's break down with the amount of pressure they are under, witnessed some go with cake and other''s without. Entire leadership teams moved out, and new teams moved in. Everyone has answers, but with in a year or two the same issues surface. Why? Because the as much as M loves the phrase 'root cause' it can not be addressed as its the nature of today's department store and one that is struggling in particular. M will continue to ask more of any associate that is currently working, and more of all salary workers each day. Remember the 'store visit's'? Go over budget, close up shop and stay in the store to clean, run the numbers, organize all the stock rooms for the tour. Everyone know's that isn't the way looks, but yet directors would say 'you really need to work on keeping it this way now'. Then when its all done, you cut hours to pull expenses back in-line and one week later it's all gone back the way it was.

Look at Costco and Home Depot, there culture is completely different, we all know they are not a competitor and face different issue's but it's how they lead the stores and work with associates that the M can learn from.

There are really strong leaders and associates in all stores, and some well not so much. Some will leave for better grounds, other will stay to the end and I wish them all the best of luck. The pressure M places you under (work/life balance) is a losing battle.

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Post ID: @2wzy+14JOguNp

If you want to go back on all the comments the pro propaganda jg stops on furlough. Welcome back.

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Post ID: @1nel+14JOguNp

It’s truly pathetic that some would rather blame a corporation for their issues rather than be introspective and coming to terms with the decisions they’ve made in life.

It’s stereotypical and boorish.

BuT bUt BuT Jg AnD mACys aRe iNCoMPetEnt they’ve RuInED eVeRyThIng.

Some people might have fair grievances, but most are just losers and trolls desperate to blame everyone else.

Have a nice life, people.

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Post ID: @1ywn+14JOguNp

Just look at the stock from 2016 up to present....downhill. JG took over 2017- down still

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Post ID: @1gah+14JOguNp

Macy's toxic – agree. This happened because a company man (34 years with company in 2017) was promoted instead of talented outsider to be the chief executive officer.

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Post ID: @1xpn+14JOguNp

Macy’s became a toxic and hostile work environment when Jeff took over.

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Post ID: @1bgo+14JOguNp

Go read Macy's twitter replies and tell me that we are the bitter ones... hahahahahahah

Macy's is beyond salvageable.

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Post ID: @1joz+14JOguNp

My my, all very good points! Yeah that would bother me too. Hey, but like I said, theres a very simple solution: QUIT!!!!!! But like I said, misery loves company.

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Post ID: @1jxg+14JOguNp

Well. Let’s see. You have sales managers who don’t do anything who then tell their sales supervisor to do their job who then tells the a—breaking associates to do their job all for $10hr if you’re lucky . Then you have the above playing politics and Favoritism but never really looking at hard workers or people who hit sales / Macy’s cards numbers out of the park. Here is a example : I was most in sales and cards that I blanket the entire dept in both for the score card. Once I took a leave cause I was running myself into the ground the whole dept sank. My immediate sales manager and supervisor got demoted within 3 months. Why ? Cause the company figures out they wasn’t working but hiding behind a associate who could do both their job 10000x fast and better then both of them. This scenario happened twice within one year ! Two sets of “ managers” gone via cuts for lack of leadership. All sets of “ managers “ lied, made up stories of fake customers service issues just to get me fire. But it didn’t work. Cause they got caught.! So bitterness and wanting to see the company fail comes from the top. If you want my opinion you should wipe out all the managers in the store and give the associates the power to actually be something more than just a little pon in the game. Let them take control ! It would save tons of money as well and you can pay the associates a little bit more an hour to make it worth it !

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Post ID: @1epo+14JOguNp

"Like most retail, or most jobs really, the "bitterness" of employees stems from their employment experience."

Thank you!?

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Post ID: @1uwg+14JOguNp

Don't a lot of people leave Macy's as it is? The turnover rate in some of these stores is wicked. How much b—s— could 9 bucks an hours be worth?

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Post ID: @1xmk+14JOguNp

Like most retail, or most jobs really, the "bitterness" of employees stems from their employment experience.

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Post ID: @1jdw+14JOguNp

How do you know it’s a “her” ... because Macy’s talks to “her” and “she” all the time. The company forgot they men shop there too.

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Post ID: @1mlo+14JOguNp

Exactly!!! (Reply to OP)

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Post ID: @1cyt+14JOguNp

We are happy that you are excited about going back. Some of us have been lied to, lied about, treated badly, devalued, been used as political pawns and been back-stabbed numerous times often by supervisors we worked our hardest for. Left Macy's 2 1/2 years for better place. Be happy but watch your back.

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Post ID: @1xcc+14JOguNp

How do you know its a "her"

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Post ID: @1rbu+14JOguNp

We love the pain sorry

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Post ID: @cbh+14JOguNp

Bravo, Bravo !!!
Another smart post
I agree totally. I love my Macy's and will help her fight to survive
Some people live to complain

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Post ID: @nyz+14JOguNp

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