Meanwhile, in Chicago...
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When you've lost Walmart...
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Even so, closing a Walmart is an unusual event.
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@Jolly said in Meanwhile, in Chicago...:
Even so, closing a Walmart is an unusual event.
But wait! There's more!
Walmart Inc. WMT 1.52%increase; green up pointing triangle plans to close three of its U.S. technology hubs and require hundreds of workers to relocate to keep their jobs, according to a memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The retailer will also begin to require all its technology workers to come into the office at least two days a week.
The retail behemoth will close offices that house technology staff in Austin, Texas; Carlsbad, Calif.; and Portland, Ore., according to a memo to staff last week from Suresh Kumar, Walmart’s global chief technology officer.
Walmart will pay for workers in those locations to transfer to other primary offices, such as San Bruno, Calif., or the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. The company hopes to relocate most of the workers, and some will be allowed to become full-time remote workers, a spokeswoman said. Those who leave will be given severance pay, she said.
After a period of aggressive hiring to meet heightened demand for online services during the pandemic, tech companies are now laying off many of those workers. And tech bosses are saying “mea culpa” for the miscalculation. WSJ reporter Dana Mattioli joins host Zoe Thomas to talk through the shift and what it all means for the tech sector going forward.
“We’ve made the decision to focus our tech team’s presence within select locations,” said the spokeswoman. Rival Amazon.com Inc. and other large technology firms have recently announced plans to cut thousands of jobs.
In addition, most of Walmart’s global technology workers will need to be in their assigned office at least two days a week, Mr. Kumar said in the memo. Many workers in Walmart’s Bentonville corporate headquarters have been required to work in-person five days a week since last year.
