JCPenney Is Quietly Firing Lots Of Middle Managers Across The Country

Business Insider ^ | 05/03/2012 | Kim Bashin

[SeekAndFind]

Ron Johnson's plan to transform JCPenney continues to roll along, and many of its workers on the frontlines aren't happy about the changes.

JCPenney cut a bunch of middle managers across the country on Monday, according to multiple former managers we spoke with. We've withheld their names for their protection.

This appears to be part of the layoffs announced back in January, but it's unclear how exactly how many have been let go. One source says that the number may now be in the thousands.

JCPenney didn't immediately answer requests for comment, but a spokesperson did mention yesterday that the retailer will be “operating with fewer layers of management."

Here's how it went down, according to one assistant manager who was laid off Monday:

"One hundred store managers across the country were quietly laid off two days before they announced the home office reductions and the call center closing. The rest, phase two, happened Monday. They said it was done purely on year-end appraisal ratings, but someone in my store got a higher rating than I did (and was laid off anyway), and also they changed what the ratings stood for this year, and eliminated performance improvement documentation, so that they did not have to wait longer to do this. If my name or even state comes out I will lose my severance."

[nonsporting]

That’s when they lost me, a regular customer for more than 20 years, and I contacted them and told them so.

I, too, abandoned JCPenney. I didn't even bother to contact them. I hope they go belly up for their sodomite pandering.

[Jvette]

Yes, there sure are and we don’t even know yet the exact number of long time employees they dropped without a second thought.

Video this morning was a joke, with some guy saying that they are just devastated about having to let all these fine workers go. But hey, we sure appreciate all your hard work, and want to make your job better.

Ack, I could hardly sit and listen.

I know that JCP doesn’t owe these people a job and that streamlining is the buzzword, replacing downsizing, of the business world, but it’s a little like what the libs would do to the country if they could. There is no middle, it’s a few at the top and the rest of us at the bottom.

[Jvette]

Ron Johnson led Target and Apple, so he does have retail experience.

I think he looks at this as a big experiment to see if he can make it happen. It’s all about his ego and not about the company or the people who work there.

A lot of the people I saw in the store week after week have not been coming in.....they are going to KOHL’s. We have been getting different clientele, but since they don’t share the numbers with us anymore, I have no idea how the company is doing.

I do know that the store I work in was downgraded because it fell below the $22 million dollar mark, for the fiscal year 2011/2012 to be considered a higher tier/volume store.

We shall see. Right now, there are no greener pasture to move onto. Unemployment here is over 12% and I’m no spring chicken.

[Rational Thought]

Understand, Johnson opened stores for Apple and Target. With JCPenney, it's an attempt to turn around an existing establishment.

That being said, I'm not crazy about what I've heard. The treatment of long time employees, who after being terminated are escorted out of the store (usually by security). The apparent end of commissions to associates (in some departments), most of whom are only making something close to minimum wage. The elimination of numerous cash registers (or terminals). And of course, the continued pressure on store employees to acquire new JCPenney charge accounts.

When I add all this up, it seems the real goal of the new JCPenney isn't solely focused on transforming the retail locations at all. Instead, it appears the goal has everything to do with (promoting) an increasing presence of JCP.com.

[Jvette]

The push to get new credit customers has been there for a LONG time. They give employees two bucks for every one they get regardless if they are approved. It’s a predatory practice in my eyes and though I do offer the card, I do not aggressively pursue or pressure customers about it.

I used to be commissions in suits and now am not. As I said they raised by hourly pay, which was $1.00 an hour less than minimum wage while commissioned.

The truth is I see absolute callousness and coldness from the top that makes me want to leave. NO loyalty from the CEO to long time employees and also none for long time customers.

We shall see, but I don’t think it’s gonna be good.

[UCANSEE2]

but what the amoral raider Icahn did to TWA, and by association, the St. Louis airport hub at Lambert, should be illegal.

Icahn set the standard and 'precedence'. Once the politicians saw the potential, they jumped all over it.

Now... even Obama has adopted it as a way of washing money for campaign funding.