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Lowe’s confirmed in January that it would be eliminating 2,400 management jobs, and those staff cuts are unsettling to employees companywide, according to The Charlotte Observer.
“The layoffs announced this month are causing angst and uncertainty at the company’s headquarters … as well as in stores around the country,” the North Carolina newspaper reports. Lowe’s is headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina.
“It’s pretty ugly in Lowe’s land right now,” an employee told The Charlotte Observer. “They are hurting families from East Coast to West Coast, from Canada to southern Florida.”
Lowe’s is moving more workers into customer service positions and eliminating back-office jobs in efforts to improve its bottom line while “under pressure to keep up with” Home Depot, the article says.
Lowe’s third-quarter 2016 earnings were down, while Home Depot’s were better than expected. Home Depot is the largest home improvement retailer in the world, and Lowe’s is the second biggest.
“It is always difficult to make decisions that affect our people, but sometimes they are necessary as we build for the future and meet the evolving needs of customers,” Lowe’s CEO Robert Niblock says in the Observer article.
