Walmart (WMT) has officially doubled down on a growing trend in corporate America. The retail giant is laying off hundreds of its employees and pushing most of its remote workers to work in large office centers, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal.
Employees will still be able to work remotely, but will be expected to work from the office most of the time. Additionally, employees already working in small offices in Dallas, Toronto and Atlanta are reportedly being pressured to relocate and work in Walmart's larger headquarters in Arkansas, California and New Jersey.
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This is not the first time Walmart has pressured its employees to move to keep their jobs. Last year, the retailer closed three of its U.S. technology centers, forcing hundreds of its employees to relocate so they could work in main offices located in other states, according to the tech-hubs-tells-tech-staff-to-return-to-offices-3fb131e4″>Diary. At that time, Walmart also began expecting employees to work from an office at least two days a week.
Walmart's new cost-cutting measure comes just before it is supposed to report its first-quarter 2024 earnings on May 16. earnings releasewhich was released on February 20, the company revealed that its revenue grew 5.7% during the fourth quarter of 2023, but US same-store sales only grew 3.7%, representing a decline from the 4.7% it reported in the previous quarter, indicating a slowdown in consumer spending.
Walmart joins a list of major employers that are pressuring their employees to return to the office after allowing them to work remotely since the Covid pandemic in 2020. In January, it was revealed that Bank of America was threatening its workers with “disciplinary action” for failing to comply with its RTO policy which reportedly requires some employees to work from the office three days a week and others to work from home for a certain number of days a month.
Additionally, Dell reportedly began tracking its employees on May 13 via their credentials and VPN connections to ensure they comply with its new return-to-office policy that requires them to work out of the office three days a week. week.
Apart from strict RTO policies, layoffs have also increased this year. So far, 289 tech companies have laid off 83,749 workers, according to data from Layoffs.fyi.
More labor:
- Dropbox CEO thinks back-to-office mandates are toxic
- Job recruiter goes viral after revealing how applicant lost job
- Employees at bankrupt retailer forced to kick customers out of store
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