#anxiety

While we all wait for our fate, I wanted to share a story to help keep things in a little perspective.

This Taoist and Zen Buddhism "Maybe" story illustrates the principle that it is impossible to judge whether an event is truly good or bad fortune because one never knows its future consequences.

The Story of a Farmer:

Once upon a time, there was an old farmer in a small village.

The horse runs away:
One day, the farmer's only horse ran away. The neighbors came to offer their sympathy for his "terrible bad luck." The farmer calmly replied, "Maybe".

The horse returns with wild horses:
The next day, the horse returned, bringing with it three (or seven) wild horses. The neighbors exclaimed, "What wonderful luck!" The farmer again said, "Maybe".

The son breaks his leg:
The following day, the farmer's son tried to ride and tame one of the wild horses, was thrown off, and broke his leg. The neighbors offered their condolences for this "misfortune." The farmer replied, "Maybe".

The son avoids conscription:
A week later, soldiers came to the village to conscript all able-bodied young men for the army. Seeing the farmer's son had a broken leg, they passed him by. The neighbors said, "What good luck that he was spared!" The farmer simply replied, "Maybe".

The Moral of the Story
The parable teaches that events in life unfold in complex, interconnected ways, and what seems like a setback may turn into a blessing, and vice versa. The moral is to embrace uncertainty, practice detachment and equanimity, and avoid rushing to label events as definitively "good" or "bad"

A few months ago, we didn't know this person named 'Dan', and a few years later, he wouldn't matter as much, regardless of the outcome on 11/20. This is a phase, and it will pass eventually.

Are they doing it in the morning or waiting until the afternoon on 11/20?

Anyone have any idea what this is coming at 1600 today? (Tues 11/18/25)

Just randomly popped on my calendar, zero context or clues. No message or agenda included.

I don’t know if that means I’m on the chopping block or safe or maybe they are gonna offer me a different position if riffed

If everything crashes again on Thursday, I swear my heart is going to give out from the stress, because with the total lack of real communication from leadership, this place is the only spot where I can even try to figure out what’s going on. I’m begging the universe not to let this fall apart on D-day, because losing this one source of updates would push the anxiety into a whole different level.

I was a senior manager and was severed in late 2023. We were given like 3 months notice which was awkward. The worry, anxiety, feeling of being a failure was very overwhelming. The job market had changed dramatically since 2011 and I found it very frustrating to apply over and over to jobs I was 100% qualified for to not even get an interview. I made getting a job my job, worked at it 8 hours a day. It took 3 months before I landed a job....and it was an amazing job. 2 years later and things are still amazing. Way better pay, better work life balance, and they really value my abilities and skills. Verizon trains very well, and remember that you bring alot to the table that is very attractive to employers. Leaving Verizon does not mean lower pay. Being somewhere were you are more than just a number is refreshing. Not being at Verizon anymore is refreshing. Hang in there folks, you got this!

Who's still hanging around here with zero chance of falling asleep because your stomach is in such a tight knot that lying down just makes it worse?

Random, but is anyone else’s hair falling out? It feels like I’ve been living under constant stress ever since the relocation strategy was introduced with zero details.

These layoffs have been routine for 8 years. A lot of panic and anxiety on this board over the last week. Knowing you will face this in the future; if you make it through this round, are you going to search for another job or stick around?

I don’t know about yall, but the not knowing is actually worse than the rif. Just let me know what I need to do already.

Following today's announcement, I am seeking clarification regarding Thursday's schedule. I observed that two individuals, including myself, are not scheduled for a 15-minute meeting, while three colleagues and my Associate Director are scheduled for such a meeting around 1:00 p.m., and another meeting at 3:45 p.m. Has there been any communication regarding the purpose of these two meetings, or do they signify a potential change in my employment status? I would appreciate any insights from an Associate Director or Senior Director. Thank you in advance.

Masters of suspense. Who cares that we’re all twisting ourselves into knots over here.

is it the calm bofeore a coming storm? Selfie-king just posted about some org changes. Is that the beginning of a trickle down effect?

Multiple teams n same building told 2 work from home while otha teams n building aren’t being told that.

What does that mean?

People are wild guessing and sending themselves into apoplexy. Wait it out. Get drunk if you need to. But don't invent scenarios in your head that you don't know will happen. Don't do that to yourselves.

Am I alone in thinking something major is coming before the end of the year?

I've been searching everywhere for over a year, and nothing has come through. I only had two interviews in that entire period, and I was ghosted after both. I honestly don't remember the job market ever being this bad, and that just makes the idea of any upcoming layoffs feel even more terrifying than usual.

What a fun weekend this turned into, with me refreshing this page nonstop while chugging chamomile just to keep my nerves from going completely wild, only to spend half my time running to the bathroom from all the tea. It felt like an endless loop of checking updates, stressing, and trying to calm down, and I probably slept five or six hours total the entire weekend. The only thing that made it even a little easier was knowing there were other people going through the same thing, and there’s real comfort in not feeling completely alone in it.

I find the rumblings just (which will happen Thursday… where there is smoke, there is fire) rolling off my back, like water off a ducks.

In Jan/Feb 2021, I was part of the RIF and was able to find a new role. After living through that experience and being a people leader then, I told myself that next time major rumblings came around, that I would embrace the RIF. So here I am embracing Thursday’s news.

Sure there is anxiety about am I impacted or am I not, but I don’t really want to start this post-Verizon change pre holidays leading into 2026 that the macro US economy is going to be dreadful. With that said, there is life outside of Verizon. There are a lot of good things happening in industry outside of Verizon.

We are just a cog in the wheel for shareholder value and the stock price. Our CEO has made that crystal clear. It’s best to treat your role as a cog in the machine for you to enjoy life. Think about work in the hours of work, after work forget about it. Come back to it the next day. It’s ok to ignore a slack or an email.

RIF Package expectation based off previous years.

2 weeks pay for each year of service.

Vacation payoff (hope you didn’t drop below 150% before the year ended. *this was the first hint of it happening this year btw.

Stock together- we can dissect this wonderful move. Hans introduced it and ever since we have experienced the stock price lagging against the industry. Not the cause of it obviously, just ironic.

STI- probably *from what I’ve heard gets paid out but that’s coming from a friend of a friend

I was laid off this time last year. I was with Dell in various sales roles for 20 years right out of college. I became an adult and professional with Dell. What I’m learning is my Dell skill set isn’t seen as that well trained or valuable to many other companies. Maybe it’s a bit of age discrimination as well, but surely being early 40s doesn’t mean I’m already retired from any tech job does it? I don’t know. I’ve been doing gig work to survive, but I used to have a real career, decent pay, benefits, savings, retirement, travel, dignity… feels like I’m worse than back to square one now. I feel like I’m going to lose everything I’ve spent two decades building in my life because I can’t find another job like what I had at the only job I’ve ever really known. I used to be the guy that had enough to help friends when they were hitting rough patches, now I’m the one always asking for favors. Sorry, just having a panic attack in the middle of the night because of all of this. I’ve applied to hundreds of places, even outside of tech in other sales fields, and I feel like I do great in the multiple rounds of interviews, just to get rejected or even worse, absolute crickets. I can’t go entry level in another totally different field because I’m either seen as too old to be an apprentice, or too over qualified (they feel) for an entry level thing. So how do I start over then?! I also have other friends and former coworkers that have been recently laid off, so now I feel like I’m competing with them for a role. It’s all so frustrating and frankly scary. Make it make sense. I just want to work again.

Wish I could do a legit poll but I'll just ask. Are you worried/nervous because?

A. The company doesn't care and is just cutting anyone.
B. Im just not that busy so I can see why it would be me.
C. Leadership isnt communicating clearly on this RIF
D. Other

Anyone else here feeling like this ? Just tell me already if I’m jobless. I got so much debt that the severance wouldn’t be enough. I’m SCARED. If I make it this round , once frontier deal is complete that just means more layoffs. A lot of Frontier and Verizon engineers would just overlap jobs so that means MORE CUTS

If you get sick or a family member gets sick you will be moved to the top of the layoff list.

HIPPA protects your medical history but not your medical/insurance costs. The company has access to that data and will use it to prioritize people for layoffs.

If you get old, your insurance costs will go up, and you will be selected for a layoff.

Don't get sick or get old.

I can’t imagine a laid of AD calling to tell their director reports their fate.

I've heard this is not performance based, so what is it? How do they decide who to cut? Also, I hate that we have to wait until December to know if we still have a job or not. I don't get why they have to let us wait that long.

I’m afraid the holiday season will flop, and things will only get worse from there. Jobs are scarce, most of us have little to no savings, and there’s nothing to fall back on if it really hits hard. Maybe I’m anxious for no reason, but the vibe has never felt worse in my memory.

People were talking about cuts around holidays, what's going on with that?

I’ve heard notifications are going out to folks. Some of my colleagues have gotten an e-mail with a 9/1/26 date to be fully moved to Houston. I haven’t received anything yet. Have you?

What’s the schedule for finding out this week? Do SDs know or do they find out tomorrow or Tuesday? Does everyone else find out Thursday? How will it happen?

That's our reality now, and I admit, I'm not handling it all that well.

I don’t even know where to look for another job anymore. I’ve tried everything, sent out more resumes than ever, reached out to everyone I know, even looked far outside the box. I’m willing to take lower pay, worse benefits, whatever it takes, just to have some kind of backup if I get laid off. Nothing has worked out. It just makes the worry that much heavier.

Gone

I haven’t heard anything myself, but I’d really like to know if next week is going to be safe for all of us. I honestly just need a breather.

I can barely manage the stress. I’ve tried everything and gone through every emotion on the spectrum, from outright fear to total indifference. This is taking a real toll on my health. And of course it’s happening at a point in my life when I’m already juggling so many things that dropping even one could cause a disaster. I can’t imagine I’m the only one feeling this way.

I tried gaming, watching a movie, and a bunch of other stuff and nothing helped. All I can think about is potentially being jobless next week. I don't have savings, so I'll be sc--wed if I can't find a replacement job right away, which is highly unlikely. I just feel sick to my stomach about the whole thing.

I’m waiting to hear whether I’m getting cut, and I’m calmer than I thought I’d be. I spent a long stretch tightening things up at home, cutting back, saving where I could, and making sure we built a routine that didn’t depend on every paycheck lining up perfectly. That mindset changed everything for me.

We built our life around flexibility instead of pressure, and now even a layoff wouldn’t send us into a tailspin. It took effort, sure, but it taught me that preparing for uncertainty gives you a lot more control than you think.

Whatever comes next week, I know I’m not walking into it empty handed.

I’m thinking at least a year in this economy.