Walmart is cutting corporate jobs and asking remote workers to relocate to central hubs: WSJ- The retail giant is reducing its site presence, further to closing multiple stores this year.
Walmart is cutting hundreds of corporate jobs, asking remote employees to move to offices, and relocating workers in smaller sites, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
Along with axing jobs, the retail giant is directing workers in small offices in Dallas, Atlanta, and Toronto to move to central hubs like Walmart's corporate headquarters in Arkansas or New Jersey, people familiar with the matter told the Journal.
Previously-remote staff can work hybrid schedules, the Journal reported.
Walmart did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment sent outside standard business hours.
Last week, the retailer announced it will close two more stores, bringing the number of closures this year to eight. The company quietly reduced its US store count by more than 100 locations between January and August last year — a repositioning celebrated by Wall Street. The company operated 4,615 US stores as of January 31, according to its website.
Walmart, the country's largest employer, has 1.6 million workers in the US. It is one of several companies that have been pushing a return to office mandate — a tactic career experts say is a way of getting rid of employees without conducting mass layoffs.
The move has been called quiet firing. It's a subtle way to make roles less appealing, motivating workers to quit rather than slashing jobs only through layoffs, BI previously reported.
Major companies across the US have enforced RTO mandates in the past year, including Meta, Google, and Salesforce.
May 14, 2024: This story has been updated to reflect a correction in The Wall Street Journal's report that was added after its publication. The original report mistakenly listed Southern California as one of the locations that Walmart workers in smaller offices were being directed to move to.
If you work for Walmart and were affected by this news, please contact reporter Dominick Reuter via a non-work email and device or text/call/Signal at 646-768-4750. Responses will be kept confidential.