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

[USAFRet]

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.

Yep.
Radio Shack used to be good. Long long ago.

Back in 2002-2003, I had a tiny gumstick size video camera. Output a standard RCA signal, and needed external power.
Me, being me, I'm going to adapt it as a helmet cam, for bike riding.
RCA output to the camcorder in my backpack, and a battery pack.

Went into RS.
Camera, and 4x AA or C battery holder.
"I need a cable to mate this, with that"

'Sorry, we don't have anything like that'.

"Yes you do! This is effin Radio Shack!"

A few minutes of rooting around in the bins, I found what I needed.

Take it up to the counter to pay....'Can I have your name and phone number? Would you like to sign up for our battery replacement service?'

"No, dude, I just want to pay for this stuff."



Then they descended into cellphones and RC cars.

 

[Leptir]

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.

Me too. And it wasn't just resistors, but all sorts of electronic components.

The only store with a selection of electronic components (including Arduino and Raspberry Pi) that I know of is Micro Center. But in my case they are an hour away, well over 3 hours round trip in traffic. RadioShacks were everywhere.

 

[Ralston18]

We also had those real Market-Pro computer shows that were packed with mostly independent booths buying, selling, trading (usually RAM), and other electronic components.

Caterpillar memory chips - in a long clear plastic tube.

All sorts of cables, adapters, tools, etc. plus PC components and peripherals of any sort. RS-232, PS-2, VGA. Some really useful utilities plus cutting edge apps such as Print Shop....

You could see, touch, feel, examine, discuss specs with people who (for the most part) truly knew such things.

New, used, refurbished, salvaged.

Could spend hours there..... and get good deals nearer to closing time. Just a bit of price shopping and some bartering was all it took.

Get to know a booth owner and be willing to be fair. Some good deals to be had.

Eventually the shows degraded into general non-IT junk products. People stopped going and the shows were defunct thereafter.

And Radio Shack is missed here as well.

 

[USAFRet]

We also had those real Market-Pro computer shows that were packed with mostly independent booths buying, selling, trading (usually RAM), and other electronic components.

I bought most of a Cyrix 6x86 based system from one of those shows.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrix_6x86

 

[COLGeek]

I bought most of a Cyrix 6x86 based system from one of those shows.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrix_6x86

Good times! I think I had all of the alternative x86 CPUs at one time or another.

Radio Shack was a place of wonder and enjoyment. I really hated losing those, back in the day.

 

[Co BIY]

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

Just because you are the last one standing in a dying business sector doesn't make you a monopoly.

To have a monopoly you must have power over the customer. You must be able to set prices.

 

[Co BIY]

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.

I usually see the company bring everyone in to their normal place of business. Let them go with a explanation of any severance before noon and the rest of the day off paid. That way they feel like they got a free day to think and they have all their things and no reason to return to the office.

My guess is 75% of these employees have a better position in 8 weeks.

 

[DougMcC]

I usually see the company bring everyone in to their normal place of business. Let them go with a explanation of any severance before noon and the rest of the day off paid. That way they feel like they got a free day to think and they have all their things and no reason to return to the office.

My guess is 75% of these employees have a better position in 8 weeks.

I'm not suggesting it doesn't work out fine almost all the time, but I think doing it remotely is considered best practice for safety.

 

[vanadiel007]

Well, what can I say? Years ago I bought an OLED TV from Best Buy. Back then they were brand new tech.
The sales guy was telling me that a 4K OLED TV has more pixels than the same QLED or LED and that is why everything looks so good on them...

So there is that.

 

[Bob.B]

I worked for a hi-tech company for many years during that time the company got bought out once and merged twice.

People came and went it was a merry-go-round.

Hi-tech is not the place to go if you want a career job.

With so many people today carrying a gun I would be very worried as a manager tell someone to take a hike.

 

[brandonjclark]

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.

"Dodge v. Ford is one corporate law’s iconic decisions, regularly taught in law school and regularly cited as one of corporate law’s core shareholder primacy decisions. Ford Motor slashed its dividend in 1916 and minority stockholders—the Dodge brothers—successfully sued Ford Motor Company for a big dividend payout. Ford had justified skipping the dividend because he sought to do well for employees and America’s car buyers, with corporate profits a secondary motivation. The court largely rejected Ford’s justifications for holding back the dividend."

<em>Dodge v. Ford</em>: What Happened and Why?

Read our latest post from Mark J. Roe (Harvard Law School).

corpgov.law.harvard.edu

TLDR: Henry Ford tried to pay his worker more by cutting shareholder payout and the Supreme Court effectively ruled to the point that public companies exist solely for the benefit of the shareholders. (not the trifecta of: customer, shareholder, and worker)


Long story short... NOTHING will get better until the trifecta are reinstated as the equally-deserved parties.

I think this can only happen via a new law or ruling.

 

[CmdrShepard]

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

Yes.

30 days in advance before your termination date, preferrably with a 3 months worth of salary paid as a severance. That's how it's done in most EU countries.

This is pretty conventional, and has a good reason: safety.

B***** <Mod Edit>

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.

So, what are all those expensive HR people on your payroll good for if they couldn't even screen your employees and weed out potential nutcases before they got hired in the first place?

I bet this will come as a shock to you, but if you show some compassion and treat people with basic human decency they won't go Postal when you fire them. If you treat them fairly and help them through it with severance or at least good recommendations the chances tempers will flare are non-existent.

That's a little bit over dramatic. Don't forget what people work for: money. Or should work for!

Newsflash! A lot of people work because they love their job, and will often work for lower salary if it means they can do what they love.

If all people worked for was money, then you could pay everyone to do all sorts of horrible things. Thankfully, most people aren't like that (yet).

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.

You are contradicting yourself "profit comes 1st" is the very definition of capitalism (in the US).

 

[garrett040]

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.

I stopped shopping there and use other online retailers after that story came out about there internal training was telling employees to be "less white" lmao

 

[CelicaGT]

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.

Sustainable profit. Which includes taking care of your valuable employees. Something large american businesses need to rediscover.

 

[CelicaGT]

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.

FWIW the corporation I work for has over 60K employees, we are not treated this way. We are also not american, not sure if that's a contributor (probably).

 

[USAFRet]

Sustainable profit. Which includes taking care of your valuable employees. Something large american businesses need to rediscover.

These are not "valuable employees".
This is front line help desk, which they think can be replaced by AI.

And their 'sustainable profit' is being killed by their competitors like Amazon.

 

[TechLurker]

The Geek Squad in my local area and in the city I used to live in as a kid have always been useless, so I can't feel as much pity for them given the lack of professionalism I experienced from them. In fact, their complete uselessness is what helped drive me into learning basic computer stuff so I can fix things myself, or seek out an actual professional who can fix what I can't.

 

[thisisaname]

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

Yes.

30 days in advance before your termination date, preferrably with a 3 months worth of salary paid as a severance. That's how it's done in most EU countries.

I agree that is better but it is still not good.

 

[CelicaGT]

These are not "valuable employees".
This is front line help desk, which they think can be replaced by AI.

And their 'sustainable profit' is being killed by their competitors like Amazon.

Consider my comment a statement of how things could be, and perhaps should. If I only did business with corporations whose values I shared, I wouldn't do much business. I'm well over half my turn on this rock, sad state of affairs we've ended up in that's for sure. Hope these poor bastards find something better, and I hope AI works out as well for Best Buy as it has for others....

 

[Co BIY]

Yes.

30 days in advance before your termination date, preferably with a 3 months worth of salary paid as a severance. That's how it's done in most EU countries.

While a generous policy regarding layoffs sounds good it is also factored into the decision to hire in the first place. It hurts to get "laid off". It's worse to never get hired in the first place. The heavier the labor regulations are the higher the unemployment rate will be.

You are contradicting yourself "profit comes 1st" is the very definition of capitalism (in the US).

A company can want to put profit first but they have to break even before that happens.

 

[35below0]

While a generous policy regarding layoffs sounds good it is also factored into the decision to hire in the first place. It hurts to get "laid off". It's worse to never get hired in the first place. The heavier the labor regulations are the higher the unemployment rate will be.

That strictly depends on the terms of the contract. The law can set minimums for the notice period, or it may say nothing at all. Full time employment also differs from part-time employment or indipendent or self-employed workers.

Unemployment can be affected by regulation but it isn't true that heavier regulations increase unemployment. Idealy, regulations should ensure workers get paid for their work and cannot be forced to do unsuitable shifts or overtime against their will. At the same time regulations should give employers a free hand to compete.
It doesn't have to be complicated.

In the case of Geek squad employees, their contract presumably gave them no protection against sudden dismissal and did not entitle them to severance/redundancy pay. This contract they signed, so it's on them.

Typically without a union and/or a collective agreement, contract terms will not offer much in protection or benefits but the money may be good.

It could be worse.

 

[CmdrShepard]

While a generous policy regarding layoffs sounds good it is also factored into the decision to hire in the first place. It hurts to get "laid off". It's worse to never get hired in the first place. The heavier the labor regulations are the higher the unemployment rate will be.

"More regulation hurts X" is a typical US-centric (dare I say indoctrinated) view and it has been proven incorrect in practice in many fields from privacy, social security, medical insurance, labor, gun control, etc.

Laws here mandate that employers, who have great power over employees, also have great responsibilities.

Here it is illegal to fire someone without advance notice and without a properly documented reason.

To balance things out and avoid your scenario of employers being reluctant to hire in the first place there's a 6 month probational period where freshly hired employee is getting full salary but they can be fired during this period if their performance is not adequate without prior notice.

However, once the employer signs the contract and puts an employee on full time they have to own that decision and do their best to keep them employed.

Other things related to employment are regulated as well. Regulations on overtime for example are really strict -- total amount of overtime per day and per week, minimum rest periods, schedule, and overtime salary are all regulated. And it's good -- you can't drive people into the ground with 12 hour shifts like in feudalism.

 

[USAFRet]

People...this is getting a little too politicky, and "My environment is better than yours"

Let's dial it back a bit.