Radio Shack - A Class Act

[W1RKW]

For RadioShack, apparently the best way to deal with employees is not face to face.
Radio Shack sends out layoff notices by email.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/31/business/31radio.html?ex=1314676800&en=0ddfbac764da4440&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[Tom WA3KLR]

I'll remember to refuse to give my employer my personal e-mail address.  Won't stop a lay-off, but won't allow the easy cowardice from your "family" company.

[W1ATR]

Radio Shack--You've got questions? We've got pink slip emails.

Shittio Rack has been on it's way out for some time now anyway. I doubt these layoffs are going to dig them out of the hole they're in. I haven't been in a radio shack in a few years now myself. I already have a damn cellphone and don't want to be asked 10 times if I want another one, and just the fact that they DONT carry anything decent anymore is enough to keep me out. Obtaining parts, or any other supplies is greatly simplified by the internet. It was a different story in the old days when the people behind the counter were actually helpful, but today the kiddies working there are too busy text messaging each other to be bothered with you. Let's not forget that they couldn't tell the difference between a PL-259 and a fire hydrant anyway.

I for one probably won't miss them when they're gone.

SK
Jared

[Bacon, WA3WDR]

Now it's just a matter of time before spammers realize that they can fake pink slips.

I can see it now - "Due to unforseen business trends, effective immediately your services are no longer required.   Should you need employment assistance, click on the link below.  All your job are belong to us.  You have no chance to survive make your time. (Link to phisher site #93400821374923747234 requesting all identification information, user names and passwords.)

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Do you think these people would be pissed if they received news of a 20k a year pay raise in the same manner?

[John Holotko]

The only reason this is news is because it comes in the form of firings and layoffs and the media knows they can stir up emotion. If they emailed pay increase notices the media would likely  never cover the story. Nor are they stating why these people have been layed off. Lay off's are quite common in the business sector and often a justifiable practice. So what's the issue ? Can the media provide  info to show the lay off's are illegal or un-justifiable or somehow anti labour ? As presented by the media this is a moot issue. Nothing interesting here.Move on.

[David, K3TUE]

But the fact is, they did not receive a pay increase.  They were let go ("dismissed immediately").

I don't think anyone was implying anything illegal.  Unless you have a contract of employment you are employed at the pleasure of your employer, so long as they act under the law.

What I believe was the issue was the inhumanity of firing someone by email.  Treating 400 people like they worth little more than Kellnex is pretty callous, even if you could say it was to save the money of all those sit-down meetings.

What they ended up with was a bunch of coonfused people which certainly caused many more (not targeted) to be confused as well.  Now you have a who lot of people not working.  This bodes bad for investors (poor decision by people in decision positions).  And you have a bad PR situation (because the public can see the inhumanity of this story).  This also bodes bad for investors (bad image, falling sales, bad decisions again).

So in the end, it is not a media hype.  It's a real story with real consequences for real people.

And it's sad.

[W1ATR]

But the fact is, they did not receive a pay increase.  They were let go ("dismissed immediately").

I don't think anyone was implying anything illegal.  Unless you have a contract of employment you are employed at the pleasure of your employer, so long as they act under the law.

What I believe was the issue was the inhumanity of firing someone by email.  Treating 400 people like they worth little more than Kellnex is pretty callous, even if you could say it was to save the money of all those sit-down meetings.

What they ended up with was a bunch of coonfused people which certainly caused many more (not targeted) to be confused as well.  Now you have a who lot of people not working.  This bodes bad for investors (poor decision by people in decision positions).  And you have a bad PR situation (because the public can see the inhumanity of this story).  This also bodes bad for investors (bad image, falling sales, bad decisions again).

So in the end, it is not a media hype.  It's a real story with real consequences for real people.

And it's sad.

We the people of Kellnexicon 5 take offense to this statement.

Just the fact that these 400 people got blasted off like spam is what will hit home with a lot of other folks that work for large corporations. It's this kind of BS that makes people realize that Corporate Amerika only see's them as a file on a computer, and not as the backbone that carries the company. As I said earlier, this move may save them a few payroll bucks, but I doubt it'll dig them out of the hole they're in.


Jared W1ATR
Self employed HVAC tech for 10 years now and would'nt have it any other way.

SK

[Carl WA1KPD]

Do you think these people would be pissed if they received news of a 20k a year pay raise in the same manner?

I would be unhappy about it yes. If my employer is going to give me that kind of raise, I would want to express my appreciation in person and also understand what I should do to earn another!

Having been on both sides of the layoff scene, I think the email approach was gutless and dehumanizing. It is not fun to either party but doing it face to face shows respect.

But the Radio Shack corporate culture seems to treat employees and customers’ with the same lack of respect.

Wonder if that has anything to do with their stock price?

[WA1GFZ]

If someone emailed me with a 20K raise I would feel ripped off.

But then who gets a 20K raise........they wouldn't be hanging here.

[W1RKW]

I worked for a belly-upped dot-com company as a network geek.  I received a layoff notice (my first and only).  That was about 6 years ago.  I  had the CFO and the CTO issue the pink slip.  I knew the layoff was coming because of the dot-com industry situation at that time so I wasn't surprised when they issued me the pink slip.  But the funny thing was it took 2 of them to deliver the news.  At the time the CFO seemed uncomfortable.  I didn't know what they were thinking, my guess is it was their first time to issue layoff notices.  I later found out from the CTO that the CFO was terrified of me (for whatever reason) so they tagged teamed me. The CFO then came up to me and told me you took that pretty well.  I said why shouldn't I.  It's no big deal.  It's business and I saw it coming.  He said I saw you get ticked off once when you were on the phone and that just stuck in my mind so I didn't know what to expect.  I told him I was doing what I needed to do for the company and get things done.  I guess that stuck in his mind and figured I'd lose it.  To make a long story short.  I respected both of them, they respected me and they were sympathetic to the situation.  It was business with a personal touch. 

An email saying you suck and we don't need you anymore, clear your desk out, that would not sit well with me.

Someone is trying to tank RS.  They are not a good business model.

[ve6pg]

...FIRST TIME I WAS LAID OFF,I WAS SO BUSY WITH A MISSLE CONTRACT,I COULD'NT SEE OVER MY DESK....BUT,IT WAS A"NUMBERS GAME",WHAT EVER THAT MEANS...I UNDERSTAND THAT BUSINESS HAVE TO BE RUNNING SMOOTHLY,BUT IN MY CASE,WHEN I WAS LAID OFF,THE DELIVERIES OF SAID MISSILES WERE DELIVERED 8 MONTHS LATE,BECAUSE THERE WAS NO ONE TO MANAGE THE PROGRAM...THE COMPANY LOST MILLIONS IN PENALTIES,BUT COULD NOT KEEP ME FOR THE SMALL AMOUNT OF $40,000.00 (IN 1982 CANADIAN DOLLARS)....TIM...SK..

[KB2WIG]

                  "THE COMPANY LOST MILLIONS IN PENALTIES,BUT COULD NOT KEEP ME FOR THE SMALL AMOUNT OF $40,000.00 (IN 1982 CANADIAN DOLLARS)"

 Maybee the person running the layoffs got a  few thousand $$ for doing a good job. The fact that the Co lost money didnt bother the layoffer as long as he made out O.K.??    klc

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

The only reason this is news is because it comes in the form of firings and layoffs and the media knows they can stir up emotion. If they emailed pay increase notices the media would likely  never cover the story. Nor are they stating why these people have been layed off. Lay off's are quite common in the business sector and often a justifiable practice. So what's the issue ? Can the media provide  info to show the lay off's are illegal or un-justifiable or somehow anti labour ? As presented by the media this is a moot issue. Nothing interesting here.Move on..

You nailed it. As Rome would say, "Rack em!"

[WA1GFZ]

I stayed across the street from RS HQ a few years ago. Wonder if any bean heads got the ax. Nice building must have cost a lot of blister packs of electronic scrap.

[W1UJR]

Pink slipping via email?
 
The company wasn’t quite so callous when it kicked out its chief executive officer six months ago. David Edmondson “resigned” after admitting he had lied on his resume.
    How did Radio Shack kick him out?
 
    By e-mail?
 
    Lawsuit?
 
    Mocking stripogram?
 
    Not at all.
 
    It gave him early access to certain options and restricted stock.
 
    It also gave him a payoff . . . of $975,000.
 
    Oh, yes, and $57,962 cash for “unused vacation.”
 
    That’s some vacation. Some more champagne, Mr. Edmondson?
 
“I clearly misstated my academic record,” he admitted, just before loading his boardroom-approved loot into a sack and heading out the door. One of the degree programs that he had claimed to have graduated from didn’t even exist.
 
Sad isn’t it? High priced CEO’s seem to know less business than a 18 year old just entering the work force.
 
Radio Shack used to be my favorite store in the mall, when I was a teenager. I eagerly run into the store to check out the latest and great “Science Fair” electronic kits.
Radio Shack bought me my first car in 1981, a 1970 Ford Mustang Mach 1.
Those were the halcyon TRS-80 days and as a high school student I was deeply interested in computers.  I had purchased stock in RS, had a 2 for 1 split, and then a short time later another 2 for 1 split. I cashed out half my shares and ended with the Mustang, 351 Cleveland engine.
 
The emailed termination notice is not a surprise, just typical of the lazy management style at the current Radio Shack. I’d love to see Jack Welch, aka “Neutron Jack”, come in and clean house, bet the stock price would double.
 
I've witnessed the slow decline of Radio Shack, and it saddens me.
It’s NOT the fault of the store workers, but they bear the brunt of the impact. It is the upper management’s fault for failing to change with the times. But then rarely do those folks lose their jobs, at least not without a golden parachute.
 
Radio Shack has fallen into the same trap as GM, Ford and a host of other American companies who refused to change with the times and rethink and reshape their business model. And like GM and Ford, their days as an independent company are numbered. Closing stores and surrendering market share never has brought a company back, just delayed the agony. I’d say RS is an excellent candidate for acquisition; they have a solid distribution channel, just need to find the right product.
 
Like everyone else, I cringe when I have to enter the doors of Radio Shack.
I know I’ll assaulted by some slacker sales droid trying to sell me a cell phone, or asking “do you need batteries with that?” Of course the ever-present asking for name and address, a feature now captured off your credit card data.
 
It’s sad to see the decline of an American icon like Radio Shack, but it by no means a surprise. My prediction, just between you and me, Dell is next.
 
Is it me, or has American business gotten stupider over the last 10 years?AT&T, Lucent Tech, the AOL Time Warner merger, HP and Compaq, the list goes on. Not to mention MCI/Worldcom, Enron and the implosion of the accounting firm Arthur Andersen.
 
I'm carefully preparing my bunker with beans, bibles and bullets for the last days. :-)
 

[Carl WA1KPD]

Good points all around Bruce.
 
BTW I bought in at a time where I thought RSH was on a rebound (4/00) and thought they would be purchased for just the value of their store locations (note the previous run up to $80). Watched that investment drop further to the mid $20s and wrote it off lin 04 as a tax loss (Along with a lot of glorious 1999 investments).

Is it me, or has American business gotten stupider over the last 10 years?

I think not. It is Darwin at its best and American capitalism allocating resources where they belong:

I offer up Google  (GOOG) Caterpillar (CAT), Starbucks (SBUX) as  examples of companies that “get it"and show the type of foresight that will continue to drive the USA forward. Their stocks reflect the market allocation of investment resources

Come back out of the bunker, have a cup of Starbucks, surf the web via Google and then build your new shack using a Cat tractor and you will be happy.

 

Hope to see you at HT.

[WA1GFZ]

Bruce,
Jack Welch is the prime example of what is wrong in US business today.
The new (old ) thinking is customer is the priority not the quarter report.
As a guy in business I bet you know the customer thing.
Welch was a money grubbing AH who sold GE down the tubes
He screwed everyone in his path for a buck.