‘She didn’t even know my name’: Lowe’s worker says her entire department of 50 was just fired by a manager who called her ‘Josh’


In a trending TikTok video, a Lowe’s employee with a seven-year tenure said her entire department was unexpectedly laid off despite meeting the company’s “really high standards.” They didn’t even get her name right when they called to fire her.

In the clip, Jamie (@user3812126841522) shares that she’s had a few difficult days after being fired from Lowe’s, where she worked for the better half of a decade. She says the department of about 50 people, made up of mostly parents, never missed a day, a bonus, or got bad reviews—leaving her and her coworkers perplexed by the decision.

In the comments section, Jamie said she was a knowledge support professional in the training department.

“We were the perfect department because we had to be. We were not allowed to go ahead and be anything but perfect,” Jamie says in the video.

Jamie herself noted that she has two kids to care for and no other income to fall back on.

@user3812126841522 Fired from Lowe’s. #lowes #lowe #homeimprovement #fired #fire #viralvideo #viral #jobs #job #homesepot #marvinellison #maryannbell #jobloss #joblos ♬ original sound – Lonely

Despite the surge in layoffs that started at the top of this year and has continued well into 2023, there have been no news reports regarding layoffs at the home improvement company. Earlier this year, Reuters reported that the company’s sales may not meet projections as the home improvement market shrinks.

The website The Layoff—an unofficial forum where people can post about recent layoff news at companies—has a post shared yesterday regarding Lowe’s. The post states that an entire call center comprised of workers over 40 years old was laid off. While they were told the department was being outsourced, the worker called out that a new class of new hires was seemingly coming in to replace them.

To make the situation worse, when they called Jamie to fire her, they didn’t even know her name.

“Is this Joshua?” the person doing the firing initially asked. When Jamie told the woman her full name, she let Jamie know she was being fired along with the rest of her department.

“To call me and not even [respectfully] know my name, not even [respectfully] call me by my correct name or apologize for that, was pretty horrible. She just doesn’t care about anybody but herself. Lowe’s doesn’t care about anybody but themselves,” the worker says.

She says her department was held to “really high standards,” and they were supposed to keep them “no matter what.”

“I just can’t believe Lowe’s just did this to us, and we just don’t have any backup plan or anywhere to go. Just gonna try to find the next job. It’s horrible. I’m just so upset,” Jamie concludes.

The video has more than 30,000 views and is nearing 200 comments as of Monday morning.

People in the comment section were sympathetic to Jamie’s experience.

“I was fired from Lowe’s after 7 years also (2 years ago). You’ll get unemployment and be better off,” one person said.

“You got this Sweets. Something better will come. Your feelings are valid. Remember your worth,” another wrote.

“Lowes never cared about you. You’re just a number to them. They only care about the bottom line. so unprofessional doing this over the phone,” a further commenter said.

The Daily Dot reached out to Jamie via TikTok comment and to Lowe’s via email.

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Source: https://www.dailydot.com/news/lowes-fires-knowledge-support-professionals/