Staples to cut part-time hours starting Jan 1st

Staples is to cut part-time workers hours down to no more than 25 hours per week to start the new year. Bad news for nearly all of the Staples employees are part time, but the worst part is, they're not even giving them any advanced notice.

My girlfriend works for the chain, and overheard her manager arguing during a conference call about how many good part-time workers he can't give more hours even though he'd like to and they deserve it. The new rule states that part-time workers are to be scheduled for no more than 25 hours per week, and if they work more than 25 hours, they get written up. If they get written up 3 times, they're fired.

The manager was not supposed to let the employees know; they're trying to keep them in the dark; but he didn't agree with the company's decision and let his employees know ahead of time so they can make arrangements and it doesn't come as an unwelcome surprise.

It's terrible that a company can just cut hours like that with no real warning. Like saying "Happy New Year! Hope you can find a second job to pay your bills!"

Without knowing the "reason", we can only speculate why.

My best guess is they don't want anybody qualifying for possible insurance.

They must have the "formula" down pat, probably from legal advice.

Do you know if they are cutting total "budgeted" work hours, or just individuals ?

If the total work hours is not a factor, then we would assume the cuts are for insurance reasons.

Staples offers part-time insurance and benefits, so I'm assuming they're only doing it to ensure that workers stay under the 30 hour limit so they don't meet the full-time requirement.

Ex-staples manager, Staples has always been exceptional in terms of Pay and Benefits compared to other retail.


Well not stellar they are among the few retailers that already offer benefits to both full and part time, that beings said.

I am sure Ins is a major consideration, as PT employees can get promoted to FT via policy if they hit so many hours for so many weeks. The warning people for over 25 is probably due to that factor, because once in FT they guarantee you at least 36 hours, which could play havoc with payroll and scheduling properly.

A standard staples runs on tight hours, volume is lower than standard Big box and hence hours are fewer than a similarly sized store. One of the reasons I left staples was they relied heavy on their Management to make up the pay roll gap, I often found my self with no hours for employees, and Salaried Managers like myself working 70-80 hour weeks bell to bell to make up the difference. (the final straw was calculating my salary based on hours work, came out to less than minimum wage with so many hours in one week)

So I am sure this falls to a multitude of reasons, not limited to but Including the ACA.

So are we going to see a thread every time a company decides to cut hours? Jeez we might need a new forum for that

muse7
So are we going to see a thread every time a company decides to cut hours? Jeez we might need a new forum for that

Its a valid statement on the current state of the Economy.

I've managed retail most of my career, from small specialty shops, to large big box retail, to the district and regional level.

Retail trends are an important indicator of the health of the nations economy, it is foolish to not heed these type of stories.

Retail is drastically cutting hours and full time jobs in droves, and it is changing the shape of the economic landscape.

Retail is the bastion of employment for a certain age groups, usually those struggling to get by 16-25, to retirement age and up.

The trend of underemployment is going to have massive societal effects outside of "Gee another company cutting jobs" Its going to go much further.

That college student working staples easy tech, who just got cut hours, now has to look for a second income to make up the gap. Which equals reduced time for school, which causes the student to have to cut back on that education due to time. Thats one personal example, my brother works Easy tech and he faces such a choice now.

Thats just one person, imagine that amplified across the board of that age group, and you begin to see why such a thread like this matters.

OR you know, we could all stick our heads in the sand and ignore the after effects of ACA, which ever works.

I have been in my local office Max store a few times recently. I am usually one of only two or three customers in the whole store. every time I wonder how they can afford to stay open.

how long until the wal-mart is the ONLY place to shop? *cringe*