Target Lays Off 1,800: What Happened & The Corporate BS You're Supposed to Swallow

So, Target sent out the memo. You know the one. The corporate email equivalent of a hangman oiling the ropes while telling the condemned man it’s for a "more streamlined experience." Target cuts 1,800 corporate jobs in its first major layoffs in a decade. Poof. And they’re serving it up with a side of lukewarm, jargon-filled nonsense.

Let’s get one thing straight. When a brand-new CEO, still smelling of the corner office paint, starts talking about "complexity holding us back," it’s time to check your wallet.

This isn’t about some noble quest for efficiency. This is a bloodletting. And the memo from Michael Fiddelke might as well have been written by a ChatGPT prompt: "Write a soulless corporate memo justifying layoffs while using the words 'future,' 'growth,' and 'progress'."

It’s insulting. Not just to the 1,800 people who are about to have their lives upended, but to anyone with a functioning brain stem who has to read this stuff.

The Gospel According to St. Michael of Minneapolis

Let's deconstruct the sacred text, shall we? Fiddelke, the new chief, says, “The truth is, the complexity we’ve created over time has been holding us back.”

Read that again. "The complexity we’ve created."

Who is this "we," Michael? Was it the mid-level marketing manager who is now polishing their resume? Was it the data analyst in merchandising? Or could it possibly be the layers of senior VPs and executives—the very people who have been steering this ship for the last two decades—who built this labyrinth of "overlapping work"? Fiddelke himself has been at Target for over 20 years, climbing from intern to CFO to CEO. Is he telling us he just noticed things were a little complicated around the office? Give me a break.

This is a classic corporate sleight-of-hand. It’s like a ship captain who, after running aground, decides the problem isn't his navigation but the weight of the crew. So he throws 1,800 people overboard and tells the shareholders he’s invented a bold new strategy called "agile buoyancy." It’s nonsense. This isn't a strategic realignment; it’s a public ritual sacrifice to the gods of Wall Street.

And what about the timing? Fiddelke gets the top job in August and by October, he's swinging the axe. This isn't deep, thoughtful analysis. This is Day One playbook stuff for a new CEO wanting to look "decisive." It’s the easiest, laziest lever to pull to make the numbers look better for a quarter or two. Does gutting 8% of your corporate brainpower really make you "move faster," or does it just make the stock ticker twitch in a way that pleases the board?

It's the Sales, Stupid

Of course, the memo barely whispers the real reason for all this "progress." The numbers suck. Net sales are down. Comparable sales are down. The stock has cratered 65% since its 2021 high. The party’s over, and now the rank-and-file employees are paying for the hangover.

This is what really gets me. The absolute disconnect. One minute, they’re talking about elevating the "guest experience." The next, they’re firing the people who are supposed to be architecting that experience. Have you been in a Target lately? I spent twenty minutes last week trying to get help from a human being, only to be directed to a self-checkout line that stretched back to the electronics department. It’s a mess. And their solution is to hollow out the corporate teams that are supposed to be fixing this? It just ain't adding up.

This is a bad idea. No, 'bad' doesn't cover it—this is a five-alarm dumpster fire of corporate thinking. They’re trying to solve a demand problem by creating a morale and brain-drain problem. The remaining employees are now looking over their shoulders, updating their LinkedIn profiles, and wondering when the next round is coming. That’s a fantastic way to foster innovation and "move faster," right? By scaring the hell out of everyone who is left.

The memo talks about paying people until January 3rd and offering severance. That’s the bare minimum. Offcourse, it’s legally and ethically required, but it’s presented as some grand act of corporate benevolence. And they’re sure to mention that no store or supply chain jobs were cut, as if that makes the whole thing okay. It’s a transparent attempt to divide the workforce and pacify the public. "Don't worry, shoppers, the person stocking the shelves is safe... for now."

A Lifer Isn't a Revolutionary

And who is the man leading this charge into the glorious, streamlined future? Michael Fiddelke. A man who started as an intern in 2003 and never left.

I’m not saying insiders can’t be effective. But are we really supposed to believe that a 20-year company man is the fresh-faced revolutionary needed to dismantle the very system he climbed to the top of? He is the system. He was the CFO while the stock was on its long slide. He was the COO. He was in the room where it happened, for all of it.

Now, he's the guy telling us that the "complexity" he helped build is the problem. It feels… disingenuous. It feels like a man who knows the only move he has left is to start cutting limbs to save the body, and he’s trying to sell it to us as a bold new workout routine.

Maybe I'm just a cynic. Maybe this is a brilliant, 4D-chess move that will position Target for a new era of dominance. And maybe I'll win the lottery tomorrow. But from where I’m sitting, this looks like the same old story: when the spreadsheets look bad, the people at the top protect themselves by sacrificing the people in the middle. They wrap it in pretty language, talk about hard choices and a brighter future, and expect us to just nod along…

Just Another Tuesday in Corporate America

At the end of the day, strip away the PR spin and the carefully worded memos, and what are you left with? A struggling company firing a ton of people because they failed to keep up with the market. They’re not reinventing retail. They’re just managing decline in the most predictable, soul-crushing way possible. Don't let them tell you it's anything more than that.