I've been on the reason side of this argument since the DM's were wiped away, Lowes already has their financial plan set for the year for each store. That's why the cuts were made before the beginning of the fiscal year. because of this notion, it is highly unlikely that any other major structural changes will be made this year. Plus the responsibilities and work load of a specialist are hard to pawn off on inexperienced part timers, and it would be crippling to place the work load of say 3 flooring specialists onto one or removing all specialists from a store(mine has 14) and expecting the rest of the staff to pick up the slack and be able to maintain the relations that each specialist has built.
now with that being said, I have some information from a reliable source that has changed my perception of this situation. My source works the front end of another store and was in the cash office and happened to overhear a conversation between their store manager and another unknown member of management. They were discussing their strategy for specialists for the first half of the year, not uncommon, yes. The plan was to ride them hard and use them as much as possible to generate sales for the spring and first half of summer, during which they were to begin the process of determining who they were going to keep and let go. My source also told me about Lowes letting go the DM's sometime before it was leaked to the press and became a rumor at the store.
Its all hear say at this point and although this post doesn't do much to calm anyone's nerves, I thought it was important to share. No one's heads are safe. unfortunately.