I was terminated today from my full time lead position at Kmart, as was every other lead in the building, citing "restructuring." This is apparently happening company wide right now.
Bottom line Sears Holding, you can't fix the bleed by trying to push out higher paid, knowledgeable staff for minimum wage, inexperienced workers and expect it to fix your money woes. You get what you pay for and you're only driving consumers further away from your brand as a whole.
@92cqv If you hadn't posted I wouldn't have noticed the date of the original post. Because you are correct. It's ongoing liquidation. Coming to a KMart or Sears near you.
@92gga I wonder which one of you they'll keep. I'd say you because the other person is on vacation so at least you know what's going on. But this company can be pretty diabolical & it might be a trick to get some final push of extra work out of you. Either way it s#cks for you both. I wish you both well.
Kind of telling that a thread started 2 years ago is still relevant today. Still restructuring, still transforming. If you don't get the hint that this is a slow, drawn out liquidation from this then you aren't paying attention.
Why did you resurrect a thread from two years ago?
A sears Home improvement ASM. Was called into the office right after my vacation. Was told myself and my Brand central managers.positions are eliminated. And she was still on vacation to boot.
Was told only 1 will stay 1 will go. S---s when you get immediate notice and 1 week to shoot for hope. But either way it goes, i hope a silver ligning is found. For those not yet in that situation, keep this in mind. "In times of Peace, prepare for War." Get those resumes sent out now.
Are these stores 7 million $ stores or higher or lower that are restructuring ?
Lost my position as a lead after 35 years of hard work and little pay. Hadn't had a raise in 8 years. Was in the middle of a planogram when I was called to the office. I was told I no longer had a job and had to leave and go home. Quite a shock. We all worried about our store closing but we never saw this coming. Wondering if everyone got the same severance deal. Not sure why we had to not get other jobs to get our severance. Benefited the company somehow I'm sure. Will be hard for awhile but the pressure of wondering every day if your store will be the next one closing was hard too. Starting to almost feel like a blessing in some ways. Life goes on. Was a good place to work years ago but changed so much over the years. Sorry to everyone who finds themselves out of a job. Hope things work out for you. I'm struggling but have faith things will get better.
I m at a Kmart in Northern California. A few weeks ago about the same time as the others posted here 3 leads were eliminated from my store as well.
One of them had been with the company for over 40 years. They let them go all on the same day. and actually waited until each went to lunch and then let them go. They have been hiring a lot of part timers that have no idea what they are doing for the last 3 months and now leads are gone. the store is a mess. For the past few weeks corporate has been sending people to the store. There was a visit this past week and right after the visit we found out that our store manager was leaving and had a job at another company. Everyone is sure the store is closing soon.
Our store has a new opening for a supervisor, newly created through SHC. Though its not strictly going to require just days. Pay and hours are less then the leads are receiving. Where they are pulling the money for this when they have hours cut is a mystery. Smells.
Those in stores where they are eliminating leads, have they created a new position at your store? Daytime supervisor?
I'm glad I left when I did, after 15 years (2000), but my wife continued to work there (until yesterday). After 31 years, she was notified of the "restructure" and that her position was no longer available. If she would like, she could apply for the Footwear Lead Position (at Minimum Wage). 4 leads were terminated yesterday, but the "list" that was given to her showed that ALL lead positions were being eliminated, but as of today, no one else has been let go. They make sure they put the lead position and the AGE (instead of name) on the "Termination List". They continue to mention age through out the paperwork... I guess we are going to get a legal opinion before she signs the paperwork...also she still has a workman's comp claim still open (from November of 2014). Kmart has traditionally tried to save money and get stores to improve from the bottom up, when in fact the corporate buyers have not a clue of what the customers are wanting. Has anyone in the corporate office even shopped in a Kmart store? We give the company less than a year before all stores are shut down. It is the same as our Government telling us they know what is best for us and what we really want (without asking us)...divine inspiration maybe???
While other retailers are raising wages to try to meet cost of living increase for their workers, this joke is rewarding loyalty with termination in order to hire on more disposable people at absolute minimum wage. Meanwhile people who make big bucks are corporate are doing things like coding wrong and losing hundreds of layaway contracts at xmas time, making errors that drop tens of thousands of items online for a penny and are making choices to remove things like gaming from sale. If they spend half the money they use for things like graphics, maybe they could actually reward some store level employees-you know, the ones who actually make you money.
I started at 9 on the 27th and department lead after lead went in the office. The managers knew a long time when they had that huge meeting a few weeks ago. Haven't seen any on the news. Best of luck to all that were affected by this.
They just laid off a total of 20 this year at my store plus 5 more today. They laid me off in April just to bring me back for min wage and double the work. It's like working in hell there cause they won't turn the air conditioners anymore claiming cooperate controls the temp...but I'm sure they are enjoying the air in there offices. When they lay u off they didn't even have to the balls to inform u that it's gonna happen. You show up one day and before u clock in they r walking u out the door with a smile
They just laid 3 leads off in my Kmart store today too. I was off, but heard from someone else. I'm scared now because I'm a lead too. Guess I'll find out tomorrow.
Which kmart did you work in