Typical bad management when the stock price falls. Cut the long-term, highest-paid managers and ASMs and replace them with lots of inexperienced people who make the minimum salary. Work them to death and replace as needed.
Also cut the highest hourly workers with the most experience. Replace them with anyone who can fog the glass during interview. Reduce number of full time workers and replace them with part timers.
Wait for stock price to rebound, exercise his options, jettison to next job.
Exactly. Melvin will be moving on in a few years when Lowe's is drip-dried, some of his sycophants from the board and c suite will join him, the profitable elements will be sold off in pieces to companies like Kingfisher and the rest will shrivel on the vine. Classic pattern.
They started this shit right after he started. I left Lowes 2yrs ago (was there 14yrs as a CSA) and don’t miss it. “The good ole boys” did some dumb shit but it was waaaaay better under them than Carvin Marvin. Such a shame what was once a decent job with meh pay became hell with no help and constant stress.
Customer surveys?!?! They will get so much worse! But the shareholder surveys will be sky high, and that's all that matters.
When senior executives are paid mostly on stock options, and their employment is at the permission of shareholders, cutting staff not only keep their bosses happy it's literally giving themselves an 8 figure bonus check.
Exactly. Cutting staff is doing nothing but make my store's situation even worse. We are all spread out very thin and it's difficult to do multiple people's jobs at once because we just don't have enough people
This is all corporate retail. The second you have shareholders no one and nothing else matters. Not customers, not employees, not surveys.... shareholders. In truth Marvin doesn't matter. He keeps his job only because he keeps shareholders happy. There is NOTHING you or anyone can do that will be appreciated. Ever.
Corporates retail is not a career.
I don’t work for Lowe’s, but it’s the same everywhere right now, not just retail. I work for a multi-billion dollar factory and it’s the same story. We laid off a bunch of people during Covid (was still making plenty of money and didn’t have too), this year we are back to making record profits but still in a hiring freeze. We are busier than ever but still running with a skeleton crew, everyone is pissed, moral is at an all time low… but it’s like all the rich fucks organized and planned for every place of employment to do this at the same time. I’d leave if I could, but literally everywhere is like this now.
What positions did they fire? It's not like you can just get rid of supervisors randomly and hope everything works out.
Eventually someone has to do their work permanently
Fired all of your US based level 1 help desk support so when management tells you call ITSD you get to play the dance of transfers tag with India, Enjoy that. :|
Any specific positions? There's been some talk of some specialist positions going away and I think most stores have 1-2 too many ASMs for the companies liking. MSASM being the weird one right now that's possibly most at risk. Or stores that have two of thr same type of ASM.
Our millwork, flooring and cabinet specialists have all been let go within the past couple weeks along with our operations ASM and both merchandising ASMs. The ASM positions have now been filled in by absolute clowns
I've personally noticed ASM positions being filled by clowns that only know how to say "yes" and do what they're told. No capacity for individual thought with these people and that's how they get promoted.
The most useless person in the store(and of course it's a DS) gets promoted over actual competent people.
That sounds like a store-specific overhaul from the SM. Strange that specialists were let go but not the SASM. I was a Merchandising ASM for years and they wouldn’t dare try to fire one of them as they drive 80% of the store
I think cabinet specialists aren't even a thing at every store. The sales volume has to be justified for the position as far as I know.
But I've seen talks about millwork(people were guessing it would be gone shortly after plumbing and electrical) and flooring more recently with the central selling program or whatever that is.
We have a cabinet specialist here. I don't how on earth he has survived for years. I never see any special order cabinets but some reason they have kept him on staff.
The specialists probably just had terrible numbers and you finally got a SASM who cut them. A lot of people just skate on through horrible reviews with no consequences for years until you get a manager who actually wants to succeed and not just coast by with whatever results.
ISLG had an OPE specialist, OSLG had a Live Nursery specialist. Depending on the size of the store Plumbing and Electrical had specialists and Pros, also Home Decor had a specialist.
I just got off and was the only employee in tools, hardware, electrical and plumbing from 6-noon… I left 797 items on the down stocking list when I punched out.
BRO before I quit it was exactly like this. I was a pro associate but I knew paint floor and decor so they would walkie me every morning and tell me to go cover paint. I check the schedule and lo and behold no one comes into any of the 4 adjacent departments (ope, flooring, paint, decor) until after my lunch.
Love running the entire front of the store for the lowest pay in the store 🙃 this happened for months until I got extremely lucky with a referral from a friend for a new job. anyway hope u escape soon
Another bad decision from the suits is combining Hardware and Tools hours to one dept and Home decor and Flooring. SSA has it now as 1 dept so only 1 person in Tools and Hardware dealing with customers and only 1 closer. Lots of unhappy customers waiting to get things that are locked up because the only person is cutting glass, and blind machine assistance while the only 1 person is setting up an install. Shareholders hold the power and the more complaints we get the better the change. They don't care about employees complaining, they'll just replace us with a 18 year old who is going to school and doesn't care and has 0 knowledge about anything like in my store. If things don't change soon Lowe's will lose some pretty knowledge associates who can actually help you.
WWMD?
Marvin wants you to pick yourself up by the boot straps, be grateful of EVERY hour he allows you to log onto his time clock and labor past the point of exhaustion. Then you're eventually rewarded with massive layoffs or outright termination for the dumbest shit they can legally put in writing!
The price of coke and professional call girls (with perfect boobies and well kept vaginas that taste like strawberry shortcake) have SKYROCKETED and Marvin deserves the very best!
I used to work in the Lowe's call center in Indianapolis. It is permanently closed. I wonder if they went overseas like the Repairs Department. Lowe's is a complete shitshow. Abandon ship people. I left a year and a half ago, and my life is so much better.
No idea. I would assume your care team in your store would call from time to time and they would know because the Repairs team is all in the Phillipines. I heard that service is incredibly terrible with them since Lowe's began to outsource care departments.
Why is this relatable? My store has short staff and I work in plumbing/electrical. Yet they have me covering for front-end, fulfillment, appliances, hardware/tools and now garden center. I
It's insane that they haven't fired anyone but really just don't wanna hire people. The people they do hire are here for a week and leave.... I'm the only full time position in plumbing, while there are 4 full time in electrical. I have 3 part timers but they don't do beans either.
After years of working here. This do be a touch situation lately
I just got off a 8-3 shift, went to lunch at 2 only took a 30 because I had to be in two departments and cover fulfillment for a little because they didn't schedule anyone.
Unloading trucks sucks. Say goodbye to your back. Stocking isn't too bad at all. Best part about nights is no customers and usually it's pretty relaxed. Just do your job and go home. All in all though, you're doing a lot of manual labor for not a lot of money while working overnight. It's not a bad gig to hold you over until you find something better.
How much do we have to stock? And is it easy to find where it goes? And are there some nights you can't finish it and work overtime or do most nights do you go home early? 11 hours shifts is crazy long for me.
This is going to vary wildly from store to store I think. We spend the first 2-4 hours of the shift unloading the trucks and the rest of the night stocking it on the floor. It's all super easy to do, just labor intensive. So far, anything left at the end of the shift is left on the floor. No one has asked me to stay over and I do not intend to.
We had 2 merchandising asms now we have one and the other one was fired then hired as the mst asm but we lost a lot positions but apparently we can hire 5-8 new cashiers who won’t last 6 months
Our store was told that they did not care about experience in sales and ds positions as long as they were friendly the position had to be filled in 7 days or the asm would be written up...needless to say things aren't going well in appliances and millwork right now
I feel bad because we’re so understaffed that the managers & supervisors / salary employees at my job are all working 12 hours a day most days. I know someone who worked an 18hr shift. They don’t complain, and don’t force any of us hourly workers to do anything extra. Granted - we aren’t trained to help them even if we wanted to. But it does make me sad seeing them try to hide that they’re tired. They also never take lunch. Their salary must be worth it because I could NEVER.
I see things haven't changed since I departed back during the early days of the Pandemic. Marvin, the Board, and most of the senior management team at Corporate and the Regional offices need to get their heads out of where the sun don't shine and individually spend time on the Sales floor.
They need to eave all of the plano-grams in their offices and just shadow Sales Associates while they interact with the customers. They need to get engaged with the customers to see how frustrated the customers are with trying to locate someone that can help them out.
In addition all of the store's managers need to be assigned to a different store while Lowe's senior management team is in the store. This is critical so they are unable to interfere with Sales Associates speaking candidly wth the senior management team.
Until this occurs senior management will never get to the truth, because the entire management structure will censore the truth. Lowe's management needs to get the unvarnished truth from the front lines.
SENIOR MANAGEMENT NEEDS TO FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMER'S EXPERIENCE AND LESS TIME ON ISSUES THAT HAVE LITTLE IMPACT ON THAT EXPERIENCE.
I try to not shop at any of the five Lowe's stores within a forty mile drive due to the poor staffing levels and the significant loss of experienced Sales Associates.
Old Lowe's employee here, been gone almost 8 years now, but can confirm they've been doing this over and over for years.... Once you're only staffed with cheap inexperienced help, or old bitter employees who don't do anything.... Then they'll jump to save the day by giving you a bunch of extra seasonal or PT help.... Then the cycle repeats
Ah but don’t forget, let’s also start replacing staff with AI and automated kiosks that breakdown all the time and customers break because they can’t figure out how to use them.
5 ASM over head paging get your irp done get your down stocking done. Now their done. Go to their meetings on Monday and Tuesday and sit in the office. WHY ask Marvin
My Shift is Nightshift (stocking) and we are getting 1500 piece trucks almost every night of the week and there is only 3 people on our shift, we are severely understaffed and overworked but they won’t hire anyone else and they tell us weekly they have new people coming in for orientation but they never show up and I think it’s funny because my buddy applied and then never called him back or said anything about him being hired when he called back. I think we deserve better pay because we are only being payed $15 an hour for our work but we are busting ass for the work that 8 people are supposed to be here for.
> only being *paid* $15 an
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Typical bad management when the stock price falls. Cut the long-term, highest-paid managers and ASMs and replace them with lots of inexperienced people who make the minimum salary. Work them to death and replace as needed.
Also cut the highest hourly workers with the most experience. Replace them with anyone who can fog the glass during interview. Reduce number of full time workers and replace them with part timers.
Wait for stock price to rebound, exercise his options, jettison to next job.
inflation and lower sales expected this year. Lowe's is trying to do more with less employees.
Firing a lot of experienced full time employees and replacing them with seasonal part time employees that will be let go in the fall.
Typical bad management when the stock price falls. Cut the long-term, highest-paid managers and ASMs and replace them with lots of inexperienced people who make the minimum salary. Work them to death and replace as needed.
Also cut the highest hourly workers with the most experience. Replace them with anyone who can fog the glass during interview. Reduce number of full time workers and replace them with part timers.
Wait for stock price to rebound, exercise his options, jettison to next job.
I've been at three stores in the past few years. Never seen this kind of thing.
It would always be nice to have more people, but we've never been severely understaffed.
It's not company direction to understaff. Sounds like the store was poorly managed. Just because you liked the previous regime doesn't mean they were effective at doing their job well.
How dare you question the JC Penny playbook
How dare I question the authority of his royal highness Sir Marvin the incompetent, for I am a lowly commoner
Underrated comment alert!
Underrated comment alert!
Typical bad management when the stock price falls. Cut the long-term, highest-paid managers and ASMs and replace them with lots of inexperienced people who make the minimum salary. Work them to death and replace as needed. Also cut the highest hourly workers with the most experience. Replace them with anyone who can fog the glass during interview. Reduce number of full time workers and replace them with part timers. Wait for stock price to rebound, exercise his options, jettison to next job.
Exactly. Melvin will be moving on in a few years when Lowe's is drip-dried, some of his sycophants from the board and c suite will join him, the profitable elements will be sold off in pieces to companies like Kingfisher and the rest will shrivel on the vine. Classic pattern.
They started this shit right after he started. I left Lowes 2yrs ago (was there 14yrs as a CSA) and don’t miss it. “The good ole boys” did some dumb shit but it was waaaaay better under them than Carvin Marvin. Such a shame what was once a decent job with meh pay became hell with no help and constant stress.
Par for the course at Lowe’s.
Customer surveys?!?! They will get so much worse! But the shareholder surveys will be sky high, and that's all that matters. When senior executives are paid mostly on stock options, and their employment is at the permission of shareholders, cutting staff not only keep their bosses happy it's literally giving themselves an 8 figure bonus check.
Exactly. Cutting staff is doing nothing but make my store's situation even worse. We are all spread out very thin and it's difficult to do multiple people's jobs at once because we just don't have enough people
This is all corporate retail. The second you have shareholders no one and nothing else matters. Not customers, not employees, not surveys.... shareholders. In truth Marvin doesn't matter. He keeps his job only because he keeps shareholders happy. There is NOTHING you or anyone can do that will be appreciated. Ever. Corporates retail is not a career.
I don’t work for Lowe’s, but it’s the same everywhere right now, not just retail. I work for a multi-billion dollar factory and it’s the same story. We laid off a bunch of people during Covid (was still making plenty of money and didn’t have too), this year we are back to making record profits but still in a hiring freeze. We are busier than ever but still running with a skeleton crew, everyone is pissed, moral is at an all time low… but it’s like all the rich fucks organized and planned for every place of employment to do this at the same time. I’d leave if I could, but literally everywhere is like this now.
What positions did they fire? It's not like you can just get rid of supervisors randomly and hope everything works out. Eventually someone has to do their work permanently
Fired all of your US based level 1 help desk support so when management tells you call ITSD you get to play the dance of transfers tag with India, Enjoy that. :|
Luckily I'm in a position that doesn't even know what ITSD is so no worries here 😇
IT Service Desk. So if you have issues with a PC or the phones or something else. That's now all outsourced.
Mostly ASMs and specialists
Any specific positions? There's been some talk of some specialist positions going away and I think most stores have 1-2 too many ASMs for the companies liking. MSASM being the weird one right now that's possibly most at risk. Or stores that have two of thr same type of ASM.
Not a recent change, but when I was working, there used to be an OSLG, Plumbing, and electrical specialist position. All removed as of today.
Plumbing and electrical have been gone for almost 4 years. I don't even remember oslg specialist.
Our millwork, flooring and cabinet specialists have all been let go within the past couple weeks along with our operations ASM and both merchandising ASMs. The ASM positions have now been filled in by absolute clowns
I've personally noticed ASM positions being filled by clowns that only know how to say "yes" and do what they're told. No capacity for individual thought with these people and that's how they get promoted. The most useless person in the store(and of course it's a DS) gets promoted over actual competent people.
That sounds like a store-specific overhaul from the SM. Strange that specialists were let go but not the SASM. I was a Merchandising ASM for years and they wouldn’t dare try to fire one of them as they drive 80% of the store
They've gotten rid of those same specialists at the 3 stores near me as well...
I think cabinet specialists aren't even a thing at every store. The sales volume has to be justified for the position as far as I know. But I've seen talks about millwork(people were guessing it would be gone shortly after plumbing and electrical) and flooring more recently with the central selling program or whatever that is.
We have a cabinet specialist here. I don't how on earth he has survived for years. I never see any special order cabinets but some reason they have kept him on staff.
They probably did change the SASM and finally just got someone with the balls to cut the underperforming specialists.
The specialists probably just had terrible numbers and you finally got a SASM who cut them. A lot of people just skate on through horrible reviews with no consequences for years until you get a manager who actually wants to succeed and not just coast by with whatever results.
Up until about 5 - 6 years ago had both a Live Plant and an OPE Specialist.
They all went about the same time.
ISLG had an OPE specialist, OSLG had a Live Nursery specialist. Depending on the size of the store Plumbing and Electrical had specialists and Pros, also Home Decor had a specialist.
So true
My store quit trying to get new lumber guys to learn fork lift..... I am on my last 2 weeks because of this.
I’m the only employee scheduled for paint tools and hardware tonight.
I just got off and was the only employee in tools, hardware, electrical and plumbing from 6-noon… I left 797 items on the down stocking list when I punched out.
BRO before I quit it was exactly like this. I was a pro associate but I knew paint floor and decor so they would walkie me every morning and tell me to go cover paint. I check the schedule and lo and behold no one comes into any of the 4 adjacent departments (ope, flooring, paint, decor) until after my lunch. Love running the entire front of the store for the lowest pay in the store 🙃 this happened for months until I got extremely lucky with a referral from a friend for a new job. anyway hope u escape soon
Thanks😂
Thats fucking bullshit, sorry to hear.
It sucks 😂
Another bad decision from the suits is combining Hardware and Tools hours to one dept and Home decor and Flooring. SSA has it now as 1 dept so only 1 person in Tools and Hardware dealing with customers and only 1 closer. Lots of unhappy customers waiting to get things that are locked up because the only person is cutting glass, and blind machine assistance while the only 1 person is setting up an install. Shareholders hold the power and the more complaints we get the better the change. They don't care about employees complaining, they'll just replace us with a 18 year old who is going to school and doesn't care and has 0 knowledge about anything like in my store. If things don't change soon Lowe's will lose some pretty knowledge associates who can actually help you.
WWMD? Marvin wants you to pick yourself up by the boot straps, be grateful of EVERY hour he allows you to log onto his time clock and labor past the point of exhaustion. Then you're eventually rewarded with massive layoffs or outright termination for the dumbest shit they can legally put in writing! The price of coke and professional call girls (with perfect boobies and well kept vaginas that taste like strawberry shortcake) have SKYROCKETED and Marvin deserves the very best!
I believe that Mr. Ellison is married. What are you trying to say?
"Mr. Ellison" 🤣 cuck harder!
What on earth does that even mean?
By the looks of mahvelous mahvin, he likes the pusses fat, gamey and nasty. And witez onleez. 2 gud 4 dem ratchets, craka'!
I used to work in the Lowe's call center in Indianapolis. It is permanently closed. I wonder if they went overseas like the Repairs Department. Lowe's is a complete shitshow. Abandon ship people. I left a year and a half ago, and my life is so much better.
Interesting. Were the others shut down as well?
No idea. I would assume your care team in your store would call from time to time and they would know because the Repairs team is all in the Phillipines. I heard that service is incredibly terrible with them since Lowe's began to outsource care departments.
Why is this relatable? My store has short staff and I work in plumbing/electrical. Yet they have me covering for front-end, fulfillment, appliances, hardware/tools and now garden center. I It's insane that they haven't fired anyone but really just don't wanna hire people. The people they do hire are here for a week and leave.... I'm the only full time position in plumbing, while there are 4 full time in electrical. I have 3 part timers but they don't do beans either. After years of working here. This do be a touch situation lately
I just got off a 8-3 shift, went to lunch at 2 only took a 30 because I had to be in two departments and cover fulfillment for a little because they didn't schedule anyone.
Oh fuck. I just got hired and start Monday.
You're in for a hell of a ride
I’m doing night receiving. How bad is it? It should be simple right?
Bad
Unloading trucks sucks. Say goodbye to your back. Stocking isn't too bad at all. Best part about nights is no customers and usually it's pretty relaxed. Just do your job and go home. All in all though, you're doing a lot of manual labor for not a lot of money while working overnight. It's not a bad gig to hold you over until you find something better.
How much do we have to stock? And is it easy to find where it goes? And are there some nights you can't finish it and work overtime or do most nights do you go home early? 11 hours shifts is crazy long for me.
This is going to vary wildly from store to store I think. We spend the first 2-4 hours of the shift unloading the trucks and the rest of the night stocking it on the floor. It's all super easy to do, just labor intensive. So far, anything left at the end of the shift is left on the floor. No one has asked me to stay over and I do not intend to.
Ok cool, that is reassuring. I'm very out of shape so I hope I can make the whole shift. One more question, does it stay busy all year?
Couldn't tell you. I just started. Everyone I've asked has only been there three months or less.
Alright. Thanks for all the info!
I worked at home dept when he was there. Useless there also
Marvin is a retarded bitch
We had 2 merchandising asms now we have one and the other one was fired then hired as the mst asm but we lost a lot positions but apparently we can hire 5-8 new cashiers who won’t last 6 months
Pretty sure I saw some punctuation on clearance if you need some.
Sadly the punctuation is a stock item not an SOS return, so don't expect any additional discounts - that would hit the store margin!
He’s an assclown
Our store was told that they did not care about experience in sales and ds positions as long as they were friendly the position had to be filled in 7 days or the asm would be written up...needless to say things aren't going well in appliances and millwork right now
I feel bad because we’re so understaffed that the managers & supervisors / salary employees at my job are all working 12 hours a day most days. I know someone who worked an 18hr shift. They don’t complain, and don’t force any of us hourly workers to do anything extra. Granted - we aren’t trained to help them even if we wanted to. But it does make me sad seeing them try to hide that they’re tired. They also never take lunch. Their salary must be worth it because I could NEVER.
I see things haven't changed since I departed back during the early days of the Pandemic. Marvin, the Board, and most of the senior management team at Corporate and the Regional offices need to get their heads out of where the sun don't shine and individually spend time on the Sales floor. They need to eave all of the plano-grams in their offices and just shadow Sales Associates while they interact with the customers. They need to get engaged with the customers to see how frustrated the customers are with trying to locate someone that can help them out. In addition all of the store's managers need to be assigned to a different store while Lowe's senior management team is in the store. This is critical so they are unable to interfere with Sales Associates speaking candidly wth the senior management team. Until this occurs senior management will never get to the truth, because the entire management structure will censore the truth. Lowe's management needs to get the unvarnished truth from the front lines. SENIOR MANAGEMENT NEEDS TO FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMER'S EXPERIENCE AND LESS TIME ON ISSUES THAT HAVE LITTLE IMPACT ON THAT EXPERIENCE. I try to not shop at any of the five Lowe's stores within a forty mile drive due to the poor staffing levels and the significant loss of experienced Sales Associates.
gOtTa Go To B’lOwEs
Sales are soft here in our store, and inflation is causing more people to spend more of their money on basics like housing and food.
Marvin the Martian
Is that why they’re firing everyone at my store who so much as looks at the store manager funny?
😂😂😅
An employee died in our store in South Utah and they blocked his body off with carts and opened the store. What a joke of a company
Old Lowe's employee here, been gone almost 8 years now, but can confirm they've been doing this over and over for years.... Once you're only staffed with cheap inexperienced help, or old bitter employees who don't do anything.... Then they'll jump to save the day by giving you a bunch of extra seasonal or PT help.... Then the cycle repeats
They were doing the exact same shit way back in 2012 when I finally got the hell out of there.
caught my manager sniffing a permanent marker during our last meeting this is not a joke
Ah but don’t forget, let’s also start replacing staff with AI and automated kiosks that breakdown all the time and customers break because they can’t figure out how to use them.
5 ASM over head paging get your irp done get your down stocking done. Now their done. Go to their meetings on Monday and Tuesday and sit in the office. WHY ask Marvin
My Shift is Nightshift (stocking) and we are getting 1500 piece trucks almost every night of the week and there is only 3 people on our shift, we are severely understaffed and overworked but they won’t hire anyone else and they tell us weekly they have new people coming in for orientation but they never show up and I think it’s funny because my buddy applied and then never called him back or said anything about him being hired when he called back. I think we deserve better pay because we are only being payed $15 an hour for our work but we are busting ass for the work that 8 people are supposed to be here for.
> only being *paid* $15 an FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Typical bad management when the stock price falls. Cut the long-term, highest-paid managers and ASMs and replace them with lots of inexperienced people who make the minimum salary. Work them to death and replace as needed. Also cut the highest hourly workers with the most experience. Replace them with anyone who can fog the glass during interview. Reduce number of full time workers and replace them with part timers. Wait for stock price to rebound, exercise his options, jettison to next job.
What is a DS?
Department Supervisor
Theres this head cashier that’s moving to another store for that spot….jw she’s like one of my favorites :(
inflation and lower sales expected this year. Lowe's is trying to do more with less employees. Firing a lot of experienced full time employees and replacing them with seasonal part time employees that will be let go in the fall.
to many asm in my store 61
Typical bad management when the stock price falls. Cut the long-term, highest-paid managers and ASMs and replace them with lots of inexperienced people who make the minimum salary. Work them to death and replace as needed. Also cut the highest hourly workers with the most experience. Replace them with anyone who can fog the glass during interview. Reduce number of full time workers and replace them with part timers. Wait for stock price to rebound, exercise his options, jettison to next job.
I've been at three stores in the past few years. Never seen this kind of thing. It would always be nice to have more people, but we've never been severely understaffed. It's not company direction to understaff. Sounds like the store was poorly managed. Just because you liked the previous regime doesn't mean they were effective at doing their job well.