However, at the same time, Walmart’s earnings have not been what it expected, and this has lead the company to instruct managers to cut some workers’ hours in a bid to curb spending.
Earlier this month, store managers were told by regional executives that they needed to cut workers hours beyond what is already allocated to them based on sales projections. This is an effort to rein in expenses.
As a result, some stores have been cutting hours from their schedules, and have asked employees to take longer lunches or to leave their shifts earlier. This has been going on for a few weeks, even though the back-to-shopping period has arrived.
The only Walmart locations that are seeing cuts are in stores where store managers have over-scheduled workers. A spokesman for Walmart said that the reductions won’t affects efforts to better staff stores, as well as reduce lines at the checkout counter and to improve the cleanliness of stores.
One worker at a Walmart in Texas did say that her store has cut 200 hours of workers, and that is on a weekly basis. The worker added that in just a single day, eight workers have been sent home, and one customer ended up waiting 30 minutes for service because the store was lacking staff.
