News Best Buy Geek Squad agents raise specter of mass layoffs in unofficial community forums — some may have been displaced by AI

[Admin]

Many of Best Buy's Geek Squad employees have received an email regarding the 'work from home' initiative and their employment status.

Best Buy Geek Squad agents raise specter of mass layoffs in unofficial community forums — some may have been displaced by AI : Read more

 

[Rokinamerica]

Horrible way to inform your employees they are laid off.

 

[DougMcC]

Unlikely to be covered by warn because of the 'single site' spec.

 

[thisisaname]

Horrible way to inform your employees they are laid off.

Is there a good way to learn you have lost your job?

 

[DougMcC]

Horrible way to inform your employees they are laid off.

This is pretty conventional, and has a good reason: safety. Because it is hard to identify which employees might grab a gun and head for the office, you want the employees to be laid off not to be in the office. At the same time, you are holding the list of employees to be laid off secret until the last minute, to avoid the possibility of a leak creating the same danger. So you send everyone home, and reveal the laid off, then invite the still employed back, typically aiming for a time gap that allows emotions to cool.

 

[COLGeek]

This is pretty conventional, and has a good reason: safety. Because it is hard to identify which employees might grab a gun and head for the office, you want the employees to be laid off not to be in the office. At the same time, you are holding the list of employees to be laid off secret until the last minute, to avoid the possibility of a leak creating the same danger. So you send everyone home, and reveal the laid off, then invite the still employed back, typically aiming for a time gap that allows emotions to cool.

Well stated. Unfortunate, but this is the world we live in.

 

[Rokinamerica]

I have had to do layoffs, early 90's. I went to every location (12) and personally told each person (23) that I had to let go what was what, and they were all helped to find positions in competitors' companies that we had good relations with.

An email saying stay home and then a call saying you are now unemployed is impersonal and ungrateful to those that have put in years of service. No advance notice, just thanks, bye. That is going to hurt BB in the long run, no one will trust the company management. Just a bad way to do business.

 

[USAFRet]

That is going to hurt BB in the long run, no one will trust the company management. Just a bad way to do business.

Hurt BB in the eyes of whom?

People will still go there and buy stuff.
Weird layoff procedures wouldn't even be a blip on the shopping timeline.

 

[Rokinamerica]

This is pretty conventional, and has a good reason: safety. Because it is hard to identify which employees might grab a gun and head for the office, you want the employees to be laid off not to be in the office. At the same time, you are holding the list of employees to be laid off secret until the last minute, to avoid the possibility of a leak creating the same danger. So you send everyone home, and reveal the laid off, then invite the still employed back, typically aiming for a time gap that allows emotions to cool.

If you run your business (not you, specifically, you in general) so impersonal that you worry that someone working for you is going to go Postal (perfect example of impersonal conditions/ my way or the highway type) then it is the culture of the company that is dangerous.

If you take the time to know who works for you and have a 2 way street of loyalty, communication and respect, you need not fear that everyone is a nut.

It is and always was a bad business model.

 

[Rokinamerica]

Hurt BB in the eyes of whom?

People will still go there and buy stuff.
Weird layoff procedures wouldn't even be a blip on the shopping timeline.

Sorry, should have been clearer. None of their employees will trust management. Kind of the whole point of my posts.

 

[COLGeek]

If you run your business (not you, specifically, you in general) so impersonal that you worry that someone working for you is going to go Postal (perfect example of impersonal conditions/ my way or the highway type) then it is the culture of the company that is dangerous.

If you take the time to know who works for you and have a 2 way street of loyalty, communication and respect, you need not fear that everyone is a nut.

It is and always was a bad business model.

Maybe so, but these things can (and do) go sideways even in the best of circumstances and environments.

On more than one occasion, I have been involved with removal scenarios where in a very small number of cases security/law enforcement was needed. The other 99.99% of the time it went as well as could be expected.

Someone said earlier, there is no good way to handle these situations.

 

[USAFRet]

Sorry, should have been clearer. None of their employees will trust management. Kind of the whole point of my posts.

Management shouldn't be "trusted" anyway.

An impersonal email of "You're laid off/fired" is little different than an individual face to face of "You're laid off/fired".
Either way, the person is out.

What "trust" should the remaining personnel have?

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

AI can't replace Geek Squad any more than just a simple internet search can, but the original report also states that Best Buy is pushing for customers to use online chats to resolve issues instead of in person visits, something not mentioned in the TomsHardware article. Also something not mentioned in the TH article but is mentioned in the source is that employees are aware Best Buy lays off employees in what they call "snaps", mass layoffs, instead of gradually.

Also as the report states Geek Squad members have seen their scheduled time decrease over the last year or more, and Best Buy themselves announced earlier that they were revamping stores to focus on lower number of staff, so it shouldn't come as a surprise to any of them, especially as the number of people with tech literacy is increasing, and the number of reputable places people can go for warranty services and repairs has also been increasing the last 10 years.

 

[USAFRet]

AI can't replace Geek Squad any more than just a simple internet search can, but the original report also states that Best Buy is pushing for customers to use online chats to resolve issues instead of in person visits, something not mentioned in the TomsHardware article.

From my very infrequent interactions with GeekSquad humans, AI can't do much worse. Even with the abysmal state of "Chatbot AI" as it is today.

 

[35below0]

"Irrespective of the company's goals, it paints a painful story of people with years of service and dedication to a company being cast aside for quick cost savings."

That's a little bit over dramatic. Don't forget what people work for: money. Or should work for! It's the same thing the company needs to earn.
Maybe people sometimes do forget where to draw the line and dedicate too much of themselves to the company. It's not easy to find the right work/life balance. But you should never be dedicated to a company that isn't yours.

This wave of lay-offs is a move that destroys value and disrupts service (quality of such aside), and it's typical of shortsighted management or short term targets. It can happen in any company.
Even though keeping valuable workers should be seen as beneficial, it is often not how it works out. Usually because they are expensive.
In the short and long term, the company will probably be alright. Laid off workers? Up to them. The good news is this is an opportunity for many of them.


I recall last year my (now ex) bank replaced most of it's customer service with a "cool" chatbot. That made it really difficult to get hold of a human, probably because very few worked the phones. The chatbot knew 90% of the solutions and answers to common issues/questions, but when it had nothing, it really had nothing. I needed a human and it was a pain in the usual pain places to get ahold of one.
Eventually it was sorted out over an exchange of secure emails. And to be honest, i didn't have to spend an eternity in a call queue so that's definetly a plus. Probably only going to get better because humans move on and new ones need to be trained. AI is trained differently.

Ultimately, the bank is going to be fine. Those who settled in customer service for too long... They're out of work.

 

[Leptir]

If you run your business (not you, specifically, you in general) so impersonal that you worry that someone working for you is going to go Postal (perfect example of impersonal conditions/ my way or the highway type) then it is the culture of the company that is dangerous.

This!

 

[DougMcC]

If you run your business (not you, specifically, you in general) so impersonal that you worry that someone working for you is going to go Postal (perfect example of impersonal conditions/ my way or the highway type) then it is the culture of the company that is dangerous.

If you take the time to know who works for you and have a 2 way street of loyalty, communication and respect, you need not fear that everyone is a nut.

It is and always was a bad business model.

Whether or not it is a bad business model can be debated by others. But it is a reality at literally every large scale employer I've seen. I would be fascinated to see a business with more than 1k employees that doesn't look like this.

 

[Leptir]

From my very infrequent interactions with GeekSquad humans, AI can't do much worse. Even with the abysmal state of "Chatbot AI" as it is today.

I agree that GeekSquad humans are woefully useless, but the solution is not to replace them with AI. The solution is to hire well, train, and pay to attract/retain knowledgeable and capable staff. Not that I have any hope that Best Buy (or companies in general) will go that route. We're just rushing headlong into a dystopian world.

 

[Leptir]

Whether or not it is a bad business model can be debated by others. But it is a reality at literally every large scale employer I've seen. I would be fascinated to see a business with more than 1k employees that doesn't look like this.

It's a systemic problem with late-stage capitalism. Profit before people (and the planet).

 

[punkncat]

From my very infrequent interactions with GeekSquad humans, AI can't do much worse. Even with the abysmal state of "Chatbot AI" as it is today.

I fully agree with this statement.

I actually tend towards a grateful feeling about Geek Squad being so (mostly) inept. A good portion of the sideline work I do are PC that went there first. In almost every case they were worse off than before from a perspective of cost and time, as well as the bloatware junk they have a tendency to 'upsell' to the unknowing. "Oh, you NEED this particular AV program" (etc., etc,)

 

[35below0]

It's a systemic problem with late-stage capitalism. Profit before people (and the planet).

It's nothing to do with capitalism of any kind. For every business profit comes 1st. Anything else and you run out of money and either go into debt or out of business.

 

[DougMcC]

It's nothing to do with capitalism of any kind. For every business profit comes 1st. Anything else and you run out of money and either go into debt or out of business.

I think the OP is referring to the fact that these layoffs are taking place at a company that reported more than a billion dollars of profit last year. If they wanted to control costs more humanely, they could eat into that profit and allow attrition to shrink their workforce more slowly. They made a choice to be far more aggressive in job cutting than they needed to.

 

[USAFRet]

I think the OP is referring to the fact that these layoffs are taking place at a company that reported more than a billion dollars of profit last year. If they wanted to control costs more humanely, they could eat into that profit and allow attrition to shrink their workforce more slowly. They made a choice to be far more aggressive in job cutting than they needed to.

Of all the other brick and mortar competitors, BB is pretty much the Last Man Standing.
They can do what they want.

Circuit City, Frys, CompUSA....all gone.
The only other one is MicroCenter, but that is VERY location limited.

 

[DougMcC]

Of all the other brick and mortar competitors, BB is pretty much the Last Man Standing.
They can do what they want.

Circuit City, Frys, CompUSA....all gone.
The only other one is MicroCenter, but that is VERY location limited.

Sure. Monopolies have a great deal of power to act. That's why antitrust exists, because descent to monopoly is inevitable.

 

[punkncat]

Of all of those and from a professional standpoint, I miss Radio Shack the most. They were one of the only places one could walk in and buy a wide variety of resistors from. Fry's also had them at one point but the last year or two those spots were devoid of product.