Home Depot lays off 800 workers and announces a return to the office for 5 days

Home Depot It said on Wednesday that it would lay off 800 workers and the company’s declared employees would have to return to their offices five days a week.

In a letter to employees, CEO Ted Decker said the changes were intended to increase the company’s “agility and flexibility.”

“To strengthen our industry-leading position, we must position the company to move faster and stay more closely connected with our customers and partners on the front lines,” he wrote in the memo.

A company spokesperson confirmed that the company will cut 800 jobs. About 150 employees work at Home Depot’s Atlanta headquarters, while the rest work remote jobs, mostly in the company’s technology organization and others on other corporate teams, she said.

In a memo to employees, Decker said the office’s five-day work policy will begin the week of April 6. He said the changes are “necessary to streamline our business and focus our energy on the priorities ahead.”

“Personalized engagement allows for more meaningful support to store and field colleagues, drives results, and reinforces our people-centric, inverted-pyramid culture,” he said.

Home Depot sales were weaker than expected, as the retail giant waits for housing turnover and big home improvement spending to rise again after a surge in demand during the Covid pandemic. Company leaders attributed the slowdown in demand to higher mortgage rates, economic uncertainty, and consumer hesitation in the spring for more expensive projects.

The retailer missed Wall Street earnings expectations for the third straight quarter when it reported its results in November. It said it expects full-year fiscal 2025 sales to rise 3% and comparable sales, which exclude the impact of one-time factors such as store openings and calendar differences, to be slightly positive.

Home Depot shares have fallen about 10% over the past year, lagging the S&P 500’s 15% gain over the same period. So far this year, Home Depot stock is up about 9%, ahead of the S&P 500’s gain of about 2%.

Home Depot will report its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on February 24.