Best Buy is reportedly laying off Geek Squad employees en masse, in a move being described as “bigger than the cuts last summer.”
Best Buy has struggled to adapt to consumer trends as more and more have turned to Amazon and other online shopping outlets for their electronic needs. The company has laid off thousands of employees in the last few years.
According to 404 Media, the company notified Geek Squad employees to stay home Tuesday and to expect a call regarding their employment.
“It sucks, I spent more than half my life with this company and sacrificed a lot of personal time and experiences just to be let go,” the laid-off worker told the outlet. “At the same time, for me it’s for the best, haven’t been scheduled 40 hours since last year and it’s a struggle to get by so I’m off to a better job and better things.”
One employee described the as being “definitely company wide and bigger than the cuts last summer.”
Another laid-off employee told 404 that their boss was very open about the reason, saying Best Buy simply couldn’t afford to pay them.
Given the high-profile nature of the Geek Squad, and how important the brand is to Best Buy, mass layoffs in that division do not signal good news for the company as a whole.