Target Layoffs: The Official Story vs. The Impact on the Stock

So, you're a corporate employee at Target headquarters. It’s Thursday afternoon. You’re probably wrapping up a spreadsheet or stuck on a soul-crushing Zoom call when an email from the incoming CEO, Michael Fiddelke, lands in your inbox. Your stomach drops. These emails are never good news.

And this one? It's a masterclass in corporate doublespeak announcing that 1,800 of your colleagues are about to be vaporized. One thousand people will be fired next Tuesday, and 800 open jobs will simply cease to exist. An anonymous employee told Business Insider the vibe inside was "total panic." No kidding. Everyone’s now playing a sick game of musical chairs, wondering if they're "essensial" enough to still have a job next week. The company, in its infinite benevolence, is asking everyone to work from home next week, presumably so they don't have to deal with the messy, human spectacle of people packing their desks into cardboard boxes.

How sterile. How clean. How utterly cowardly.

The Gospel of "Simplification"

Let's talk about that memo. I've read enough of these corporate death warrants to know the playbook. Fiddelke, a 20-year company man, didn't just come out and say, "Hey, we've screwed up for four years and now you have to pay for it." Offcourse not.

Instead, he served up a steaming plate of meaningless jargon. He said the decision was driven by a need to simplify "layers" of "complexity" that have been "holding us back."

Give me a break.

"Complexity" is the new corporate bogeyman. It's the vague, shadowy villain that executives invent when they need to fire people without admitting their own strategic failures. What does it even mean? Are we talking about the "complexity" of having too many people with good ideas? The "complexity" of paying middle-class salaries and benefits? Or the "complexity" of a management team that let the company stagnate while Amazon and Walmart ate their lunch? This isn't a bold new vision. No, "bold" doesn't cover it—this is the oldest, most tired trick in the C-suite handbook. It's a five-alarm dumpster fire of accountability avoidance.

When an executive starts talking about cutting "complexity," what they’re really saying is they’re out of ideas. They can’t innovate, they can’t out-compete, so they just start cutting. It’s like a ship captain who, instead of patching the gaping hole in the hull, decides to throw the navigators overboard to save on weight. It creates the illusion of decisive action, but really, you're just more lost than you were before. What happens to the people who are left, now expected to do the work of the 1,800 who are gone? Does that sound simpler to you?

A Four-Year Hangover and a Plunging Stock

Let's be real about why the news that Target cuts 1,800 jobs in first major layoff in years is even a headline. The company has been in a slow-motion dive for years. We're talking four consecutive years of sluggish, flat, or even negative sales growth. Revenue is down $2.5 billion from its peak. Customer traffic is declining. The `target stock` has been absolutely brutalized, down 65% since 2021.

Sixty. Five. Percent.

This isn't some proactive, forward-thinking "restructuring." This is a panic move. It’s a desperate signal to Wall Street that they’re "doing something" about the abysmal numbers. The problem is, you can't fire your way back to growth. Cutting 8% of your corporate staff might give the stock a temporary sugar rush, but it doesn't magically fix the underlying reasons why shoppers are choosing other stores. It doesn't make your e-commerce better than Amazon's or your prices lower than Walmart's.

And what about the survivors? They're now supposed to be faster, more agile, and more innovative, all while looking over their shoulders and wondering when the next round of "simplification" is coming. The morale in that building must be in the absolute toilet. They’re supposed to build the future of Target while their bosses just showed them that their loyalty is disposable, and their jobs are just a number on a balance sheet...

This whole thing reminds me of when my internet provider "simplifies" my plan by jacking up the price and removing channels. It's the same brand of corporate gaslighting. They're selling you a downgrade and calling it an improvement. And they expect you to thank them for it.

The most infuriating part is the predictability of it all. This isn’t Target’s first rodeo. The news that Target to Cut 1,800 Corporate Jobs — First Layoffs Since 2015 is a familiar move; back in 2015, they cut over 3,000 jobs in a similar move under then-CEO Brian Cornell. It’s the same playbook, different decade. A new leader comes in, sees a mess, and their first big, splashy move is to bring out the axe. It’s easier than, you know, actually fixing the fundamental business problems. But does it ever lead to long-term, sustainable success? Does it build a culture where people feel safe enough to take risks and innovate? Or does it just create an environment of fear where everyone’s primary goal is to not get noticed? I think we all know the answer.

So Much for 'Expect More'

Here's the truth nobody in that Minneapolis headquarters will say out loud: these layoffs are a public admission of failure. Not a failure of the 1,800 people who are about to lose their livelihoods, but a failure of the leadership that steered the ship toward the iceberg for four straight years. The people getting fired aren't the ones who set the strategy, approved the budgets, or failed to compete with Amazon. But they're the ones paying the price. Target's slogan is "Expect More. Pay Less." It seems for their corporate employees, the new slogan is "Do More. For Less. And Pray You're Not Next." It's just another Tuesday in corporate America.