#costcutting

https://www.theage.com.au/business/workplace/telstra-to-cut-209-jobs-from-ai-joint-venture-offshoring-work-to-india-20260210-p5o15l.html

Telecommunications giant Telstra and consulting firm Accenture are proposing to slash hundreds of roles from their data and AI joint venture, with some work to be offshored to India.

Telstra’s $700 million joint venture, one of the biggest AI investments by an Australian company to date, said on Tuesday it proposed to cut 209 jobs.
The venture, announced in January last year, is aimed at rolling out AI capabilities across Telstra to improve its business processes, chief executive Vicki Brady saying at the time it would build specialised AI tools for its teams to “work smarter and faster”.

A spokesperson for the joint venture confirmed on Tuesday evening that it would be reducing roles “where work is no longer needed” and moving some of its work to the joint venture team in India which, they said, had advanced AI expertise and a specialist hub that could deliver Telstra’s data and AI roadmap more quickly.

“We anticipate that over time, this would result in improved cost efficiencies
and bring an enhanced experience to Telstra’s customers,” the spokesperson said. <-- In this employee's opinion, it would only be a negative enhancement.
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Here's an idea: why not overhaul the leadership? Every bad decision has come from the top. That might actually save the company.

across data and risk managemnent. Reuters quotes that Citi thinks only ticking the box work is left for consent order especially with data. Though the OCC committee has to agree with the work done by Citi and this committee has appointees from both political parties, they might just give it given the overall direction of regulations under the present admin.

What this will mean....obviously layoff's. In any case, Nawani's org size is beyond control. It's still a pretty cr@ppy market...those in such roles should dust out their resumes and start applying/activating network

So now that AP has had all of its powers stripped and the new boss has laid off all of oversight, restructured technology to lay off people, and cut all of the district taskforce teams to replace only some of them with 1 investigator, how do we all think this is going to pan out?

I doubt his desperate attempt to offset the future losses (from his policies) by cost cutting everywhere else will not work. I expect store AP teams to start being cut by end of FY26 to cover for increased theft.

Also, what a great idea to cut technology! Not like 80-90% of the stores are running equipment from the late 90s that barely works or doesn’t work at all. This company loves to talk big about investing in our stores when they haven’t provided a comprehensive investment to safety & security in the last 30 years.

I'm hoping to get a clearer picture of the current situation with our vendors. I've heard whispers about potential cost-cutting measures on their end, and I'm trying to understand the impact on our side.

Does anyone have any insight into whether cost-cutting is actually happening? If so, do we know which specific vendors are being impacted? Any information you can share would be greatly appreciated.

Will Ayman have a plan to switch the company from cost-cutting back to growing revenue? Are customers actually paying extra for the new AI features, or are they just free add-ons to keep people from leaving?

I don’t see a way to break out of our current low-growth holding pattern. Thus the only future is for all divisions to eventually be acquired. Does anyone else see it differently?

Think about it, how many times can you reduce headcount before the quality of work starts to really suffers? They're boosting profits by slashing people, instead of improving the product or service. It's a very short sighted approach to business that'll bite us in the a-s.

Allstate keeps talking about efficiency, but the biggest inefficiency is the never-ending redundant management. Getting rid of some of those layers would help by cutting costs and reducing the bureaucratic nonsense we deal with daily. It's a win whichever way you look at it.

firm need access to the capital markets. time to change corporate structure. can't keep cutting your way and back into profitability. have to raise revenue. Malarkey is ki.ling us. approves 50% automatic reductions on plan pricing w/his new found $500K a year job. he sends out an email not to travel during World Cup to save $5K, but he just got a huge bump in pay and in the same vain, cuts plan pricing & revenue by 50% and there are no real revenue enhancers to speak of. $1k ira rollovers into IAA ain't gonna cut it. Need in plan annuities, managed accounts, CITs, and plan pricing hikes. Time to raise fees man ! Cut C-Suite $$, cut reps who can't sell, pharm out IT, and cut the phu.cking bloat fats

Is it just Xerox being cheap…. We’re not in a COVID situation so what’s the excuse?

No point of layoffs if they replace with new people. So they won’t. They are going to try to reduce costs if they laid off people. Some people think that they be safe if they survive layoffs. So they keep asking on this site “are there any layoffs?” and participate in rumors about it. Even though you don’t get a layoff, your workload will increase. Believe me all this types of conversations and any decisions will just make the company sink.

At the current scale, multiple layers of management are not required. For teams of approximately 50 employees, one manager is sufficient to ensure effective supervision and decision-making. Maintaining additional management layers leads to unnecessary overhead and increased costs without proportional value.

No. I won’t be going skiing. I will be at home, on the couch watching YouTube Tube or cutting the grass. Or some other low cost activity. Or sitting around thinking and planning how to increase my income.

They just did it again last week but a smaller round and called it “cost cutting”. They just can’t help themselves. Post if you know more

After all the talk of AI, re-orgs, non performant BUs the time for talking will end next week.
Hearing Collab is heading for a 20% haircut which is long overdue. Will be targeted mostly at high cost locations.

Due to principles in Semiconductor manufacturing and moores law, GFs products will enter the low cost semiconductor market within 36 months.
SiPho isn’t capturing as much market demand as previous anticipated, and GaN is somewhat niche. Larger scale (7+nM) technologies will become cheap, consumer scale electronics that mostly any foundry in the world will be able to successfully manufacture. GF will scrape along for some time, missing Quarterly targets here, laying off staff there, cutting cost all the way as they try to keep investors and BoD happy. When NYS incentives run out, GF will consider being acquired by other manufacturers. My bet would be TSMC as they continue US expansion, with some potential for Intel as well. Only hurdle is US administration woes, however, GF is not an American company. This is furthermore complicated by massive deficits in skilled labor, prevalence of AI, and opportunities for robotic automation that will present themselves over the next 36 months.
Any employees considering this as FUD, ask yourself, where do you see GF in 5 years? Are things feeling concrete? Or do you feel some ripples in the water.
Costs of production are going up, which always results in profits going down, especially when producing antiquated tech.

Reading the investors call transcript.

The CFO said the plan is going as expected and that the company should save around $490–$550 million.

What that actually means. When this plan was talked about before (back in May 2025), it was tied to cutting about 1,600 jobs worldwide. Those savings are still being worked through now.

The “one-third” comment, the CFO also said they expect to see about a third of those savings this year. That suggests the cost-cutting and likely the job cuts linked to it is still ongoing, not something that’s already finished.

So expect more layoffs soon.

If you are an hourly lead, key holder, counter manager, associate —-it is illegal and against wage and hour laws to have you on call because of systemic reduced staffing and budget cuts. It is not a requirement to answer your phone or a text on an off day if you are hourly, belk cannot reduce your hours for failure to respond to a call or a text on an off day, that is flagrant violation of wage and hour laws. If you are an hourly lead or key holder, you are under the same laws and guidelines as all other hourly employees . Only salaried managers are required to respond to store emergency situations (alarms, key holder call outs, ect). belk is increasing their demand on hourly employees was tasks that are specifically designated to salaried managers, this is a strategic but illegal way for belk to cut costs.

I've heard rumbling that the superhero event will be canceled this year. I have to say I have mixed feelings about it. While , it's great for those who are recognized, I'm sure it cost millions of dollars to throw a party for the few hundred people who get to go. Could jobs be saved instead?

By constantly cutting and piling on work, they're ensuring the employees left behind will have nothing left to give. That lack of engagement and energy will directly hurt the bottom line in the long run. They're trading tomorrow's success for today's spreadsheet. We're being run by id--ts.

Many are wondering why the company layoffs are being done incrementally and not all at once or in large batch mode. The answer lies in the incentives the bank receives to operate this way. Let me explain.

What Is SUI?
State Unemployment Insurance (SUI) is a tax employers pay to fund unemployment benefits for workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. Every employer pays it — but not at the same rate.

Why the Rate Changes
States use an experience rating system.
This means your employer’s tax rate goes up or down based on how many former employees file unemployment claims.

• More layoffs → more unemployment claims → higher SUI tax rate.
• Fewer layoffs → fewer claims → lower SUI tax rate.

The rate can vary dramatically. In some states, employers with few layoffs pay almost nothing, while employers with heavy layoffs pay 10x or more.

How Layoffs Trigger Higher Costs

When a company lays off employees:

• Those employees file for unemployment.
• The state attributes those claims to the employer.
• The employer’s SUI tax rate increases for the next year (or several years).
• The company pays more per employee going forward.

For large employers, this can mean millions of dollars in additional annual taxes.

Why Companies Try to Avoid “Layoffs”

Because layoffs increase their tax rate, companies have a financial incentive to avoid anything that triggers an unemployment claim. This is why employees often see:

• Sudden performance downgrades
• “Voluntary resignation” pressure
• PIPs used as exit ramps
• RTO mandates that force attrition
• Location changes employees can’t meet
• “Resign or be terminated” conversations
• Severance tied to waiving unemployment claims

These tactics shift the separation from employer‑initiated to employee‑initiated, which avoids unemployment claims and keeps the SUI tax rate low.

Why This Matters
Understanding this system helps employees recognize:

• Why companies push resignations over layoffs
• Why performance ratings suddenly change
• Why severance may be tied to waiving unemployment
• Why “restructuring” is framed as “performance management”
• Why attrition‑by‑policy is cheaper than layoffs

This isn’t about conspiracy — it’s about incentives.
And incentives shape behavior that drives our illustrious culture.

Am I imagining this? Has the cost of eating the cafe gone up dramatically over the last year or so? It seems like my same lunch used to cost around 650-750 is now 10.50. I think the firm used to subsidize the cafe to keep the cost down. Wondering if they took away the subsidy as part of the cost cutting or to pay for the overly lavish Trailblazer cafe.

How do you reduce costs to raise your stock price - layoffs! Strap in.

Leadership seems he-l-bent on cost-cutting. But there's always a breaking point.

Instead of laying off employees, organizations should evaluate management layers more carefully. Many manager-level roles come with high salaries but limited hands-on AI or technical expertise. As companies shift toward AI-driven work, it makes sense to prioritize retaining employees who actively learn, adapt, and contribute directly to delivery. Reducing unnecessary management layers can control costs while empowering skilled teams to move faster and innovate.

Today’s layoffs were brutal and inhumane. Lost really good friends and colleagues. Entire teams were wipe down in the name of cost cutting where CEO is going to enjoy millions in bonus and salary hike.😔

During the earnings call, Dan & company stated that they will reduce OpEx by $5 Billion in 2026 (including the 2025 layoffs).

Let’s say laying off 13,000 employees saves $2 billion a year. Where will the remaining $3 billion come from?

In the past month, I visited two leading microbiology labs in top U.S. hospitals. One lab had nearly 80 people performing the same task; the other had just five! Why don’t labs just start understaffing like we do! Need more yachts.

Expense management to priority #3, does this mean we are done with cost focused layoffs?!

And noncore areas that are not aligned to growth, including legacy areas are being significantly reduced and/or eliminated and that includes areas such as business wireline, nondirectional products, technology as well, wholesale, legacy copper and voice platforms and even projects with too long of a payback. So the team has done a great job in finding unit cost efficiency as we build both in wireless and in fiber, cost for prem pass, et cetera. So there's a lot of good work being there, and that helps us get to a lower CapEx envelope, but we're very focused on being very efficient with our capital deployment this year

They know how to squeeze the last bit of blood out of the employees. The company is making $650million cash profit but they plead poverty and won't pay the employees. Execs take millions for themselves and on top they are using the profits cash buying a third of the company by share buybacks. Drums package suddenly goes from $6.7 million to $10million effectively back door. They squeeze every $ they can from employees. Its plundering every which way they can.

It took a while. The financial turmoil is going to reveal a lot about a decade of corporate failure to strategize. I suspect we'll also discover that discarding human capital, treating people as a low-value input, has always been the stupidest mistake, driven entirely by short-term greed. A textbook example of cutting the branch you are sitting on.

Been told will end of Q3, all supporting roles, most of middle-management will be cut, and most of Presales - will go away too, and rest centralfised to Egypt. Savings everywhere. First they assessed all middle-managers M4, M5 and M6 if needed. And you know answer.

Things have been quiet but we know budgets are still tight and headwinds are only increasing. Something is definitely brewing. How likely is it that they offer a VSP to push out more expensive employees? I recall a post here from a few months back that mentioned this being a possibility. Any new thoughts?

I suspect there will be mass retail store closures/indirect takeovers over the next two years. If you listen to the Q4 earnings call 10 min 20 seconds in when Dan is speaking he word for word says “we expect to realize 1 billion in run rate operating cost synergies by 2028-double our initial estimate. These savings will be derived from network integration, THIRD PARTY CONTRACT EFFICIENCIES, and go to market savings across marketing and advertising.” If you work at small retail store that is not considered an “A” store and you are within a 10-15 mile radius of another corp store you should be working on your backup plan now and trying to transfer to the A store in your area.

I suspect there will be mass retail store closures/indirect takeovers over the next two years. If you listen to the Q4 earnings call 10 min 20 seconds in when Dan is speaking he word for word says “we expect to realize 1 billion in run rate operating cost synergies by 2028-double our initial estimate. These savings will be derived from network integration, THIRD PARTY CONTRACT EFFICIENCIES, and go to market savings across marketing and advertising.” If you work at small retail store that is not considered an “A” store and you are within a 10-15 mile radius of another corp store you should be working on your backup plan now and trying to transfer to the A store in your area.

Please try to remember this while you are listening to a corporate goon (GoGo) explain why VCIP isn’t great but the best is coming!
“During the pendency of any appeal in the Propel Fuels case, Phillips 66 is accruing additional interest liability at a rate of approximately $228,272 per day.” More than the median employee salary …… per day. Ignorance is bliss.

While CEO says Verizon is in drastic cost cutting mode, thus laid off 15K employees last month and another 8-10k will be next month...
While Verizon executives are posting pictures of their DINNERS IN KOREA while attending Samsung meetings in person! So much for cost Savings!!!

Watch, the first major move from the new boss will be another round of layoffs. It's the classic move to prove you're serious about costs to the investors. We should all brace ourselves because it's coming soon.

Peloton Interactive Inc., the long-struggling fitness technology company, slashed 11% of its workforce in a cost-cutting move, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-30/peloton-cuts-11-of-staff-including-from-engineering-teams