#costcutting

The golden years are long gone. To compete with price slashing, we have to almost give away our product. This leaves less to work with. Though cost cutting has been a theme the past 5 years. But this past year has reached Sprint levels. Do more with less people and money but be happy about leadership's questionable decisions. It is scary the similarities of what Sprint went through before being destroyed and what we are seeing today within. A sad coincidence we added yellow to our colors. On top of all that weight from above, customers are getting worse. Not just with us but everywhere. The entitlement norm and lack of compassion or respect of fellow humans is a crazy strain on workers already looking over their shoulder.

@xx+1kqqf7e4m makes an excellent point.

UPS closed the midnight shift at its 43rd Street hub in Manhattan. This action is part of the company's "Network of the Future" restructuring drive. Workers faced job elimination or difficult split-shift arrangements. UPS has eliminated 48,000 jobs since 2024 and plans further cuts. The company aims to reduce labor costs and increase profit margins.

New York City, New York

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/05/23/mzuy-m23.html

An employment lawyer identified several indicators preceding layoffs. Return-to-office mandates often prompt employee resignations, reducing staff. Leadership comments about financial struggles can encourage employees to seek new jobs. Implementing multiple cost-cutting measures also signals potential workforce reductions. These actions help companies reduce staff without formal layoff announcements or severance.

https://www.yourtango.com/career/subtle-signs-show-up-right-before-job-starts-laying-people-off

Adding all the extra employees to Denver City from the properties offloaded greatly increases overhead. Cost cutting? Fuzzy math?

Isn’t it unwise to be hiring summer interns while laying off experienced employees left and right? If we need to cut costs, shouldn’t we start with interns, who are a net drain on resources?

The purpose of an internship program is to build a pipeline to hire entry level workers. Are we really going to hire entry level workers? Isn’t AI going to do all the entry-level work? Even if we are going to hire entry level workers, is it necessary to recruit them prior to graduation? There are thousands of them desperate for jobs.

I feel sorry for students right now, but does it make sense to spend time and money on an internship program?

The Portland Trail Blazers laid off over 70 employees. This cut nearly 18% of their workforce. Hall of Famer Tina Thompson was among those affected. She had served as a scout for the team for nearly four years. New owner Tom Dundon initiated these cost-cutting measures.

Portland, Oregon

https://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/2026/05/trail-blazers-layoffs-include-hall-of-famer.html

WH Smith rejected a request from Modella Capital. Modella Capital is the new owner of a former high street chain. They sought millions of pounds. These funds were for layoff costs. Sky News reported this development.

https://www.tradingview.com/news/reuters.com,2026:newsml_FWN41X0JM:0-wh-smith-rejected-plea-from-former-high-street-chain-s-new-owner-modella-capital-for-millions-of-pounds-to-fund-cost-of-layoffs-sky-news/

Why hire "expensive" experts from the west when an Indian or Bangladeshi will do the same job for 90% less. Quality of work isn't a variable in this discussion.

BILL Holdings is cutting its workforce by up to 30%. This strategy aims to make the company leaner. The company also plans to leverage AI for increased efficiency. BILL Holdings faces headwinds from declining interest rates and SaaS sector pressures. Its stock has seen a roughly 20% decline year-to-date.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4906834-bill-holdings-ramping-profitability-with-new-layoffs

https://x.com/TheLayoff/status/2056862351513866483

👀🚐 Tan said great job, crushed it, I just need less of you and I want you in a hub. Though he was in The Hague he said Hague ain’t hub. Did I catch that correctly?

Anyone know what's going on in NJ? Heard a bunch of senior leaders are out there for a couple of days. Rumor mill says they are discussing more cost cutting

Hearing rumors that some departments won’t see any RIFs, not because things are stable, but because the company supposedly can’t afford severance packages.

Interesting priorities considering there’s still money for multimillion dollar golf sponsorships. Something about that doesn’t add up.

From London to New York on business class for frivolous reasons that achieves nothing substantial? Especially when Citi has laid off so many people? If this person is required to be in new York, why wasn't he made to relocate to let go and someone new York based found to fill the opposition?

Is it only a coincidence that this person has family in ny/NJ that he gets to meet on company dime when laid off people have struggled to find something new after being laid off, been on expensive insurance and many other struggles?

Why is Nawani and his team so special? They've barely achieved anything of note that isn't brittle as a house of cards that would fall apart when actual experts in data look into it rather than second or third line generalist that have made every decision for him on data products? And whatever was left was made by generalist consultants

Starbucks announced 252 corporate job cuts in Seattle. These layoffs impact vice presidents, directors, and senior managers. The company stated cuts will sharpen focus and lower costs. Separations are expected from July 17 through February 1, 2027. Starbucks is also closing some regional support offices.

Seattle, Washington

https://www.geekwire.com/2026/starbucks-layoffs-impact-252-jobs-at-seattle-support-center-including-vps-and-other-senior-roles/

The online gambling industry is experiencing widespread layoffs. Penn Entertainment recently cut over 70 jobs in its interactive division. Gambling.com Group also laid off approximately a quarter of its employees. These reductions reflect a shift towards efficiency and AI adoption. Industry growth is slowing, forcing companies to streamline operations.

https://www.gamblingnews.com/news/betting-firms-cut-jobs-as-industry-growth-stalls/

Gambling.com Group's stock price plummeted sharply. Its shares fell by 53% in a single day. This decline followed an announced cost-cutting program. The company plans to restructure and lay off 25% of its staff. First-quarter results showed a $1.17 million net loss and a 43% EBITDA decrease.

https://wnhub.io/news/hr/item-50863

These days, it's fashionable not even to attempt retaining talent. Cost-cutting is the go-to strategy for propping up the share price and securing leadership bonuses. In the long term, they're cutting the branch they're sitting on. I'm not sure any of this is sustainable. The two groups most targeted in layoffs have been veterans, the well of knowledge and experience, and the younger talent that any company would ki-l for under normal circumstances. It's a recipe for disaster.

Unfortunately, if things are falling apart, the only way to turn a profit is to reduce headcount, and that is not sustainable. That works on Wall Street but not with a private company. You do not have investors to impress and no stock price to move , only members who have given more than most and deserve an experience that reflects that commitment.

While expanding membership eligibility may address volume concerns in the short term, it risks diluting the brand's unique identity and the trust that took decades to build.

It is increasingly difficult to demonstrate genuine care for members and their financial well-being when it becomes harder to differentiate from competitors. For the first time in my life, I am looking at other options.

Giving three billion dollars back to members sounds significant until you do the math. Spread uniformly across 14 million members, that is roughly $214 per member per year, while USAA simultaneously raised my home insurance premium by $1,000 with no prior claims. The net result is a loss of $786 before I even start counting.

Meanwhile, member attrition is often attributed to external factors, but internal dynamics are worth examining too. Until member service metrics are quantified and honestly compared with competitors, nothing changes, and the members who built this company will keep doing the math and ask, "What do I get in service to justify the extra cost ?" Right now, no one can answer that question. Pretty sad.

OP: @ke+1krm5bf35

Bumping this up for visibility.

Because the company wants to keep up with all the other tech and telecom layoffs, and they will blame “AI” like the others did.

1) Current leadership appears to believe staffing levels expanded too aggressively during prior growth periods. Recent layoffs and return-to-office initiatives are being framed around AI and efficiency concerns, although many employees do not view the reductions as directly connected to AI adoption.

2) A broader organizational issue remains unresolved despite restructuring efforts. Cost reduction initiatives continue to focus primarily on headcount reduction, particularly among contractors and remote employees, because those areas are easier to target operationally.

3) The challenge with this approach is that it may not address underlying performance issues. During the pandemic, the company significantly expanded access to national talent pools through remote hiring. If productivity metrics such as revenue per employee are declining despite broader access to highly qualified technical talent, the more important question may be why the organization has struggled to convert that talent into stronger business outcomes. Cost cutting can improve short-term financial optics, but it does not necessarily resolve structural execution problems.

4) Recent operational and strategic missteps suggest that many issues originate at higher management layers rather than within technical teams themselves. Even after workforce reductions, competitive challenges are likely to remain if leadership and organizational alignment issues are not addressed. Managing distributed teams effectively requires different operating models, and return-to-office mandates alone may not solve coordination or productivity concerns.

5) A stricter return-to-office policy may also reduce access to specialized talent that competitors continue to recruit nationally. “But Amazon is doing RTO also” is a failure of leadership to understand their competitor - Amazon has headquarters in every tech capital
of America. RTO does not affect their access to this pool of talent. An alternative strategy could have been deeper investment in fully remote corporate operations alongside stronger management accountability, clearer execution priorities, and improved organizational communication. Employees generally respond more positively to leadership engagement that produces measurable business outcomes rather than highly polished internal presentations with limited operational impact.

6) Many employees joined the company because it was perceived as having a stable culture and experienced workforce. However, there appears to be growing disconnect between leadership and technical staff. Compensation structures and long-term incentives that may have retained prior generations of employees do not necessarily create the same loyalty among newer talent pools. Leadership may benefit from evaluating how effectively the organization supports, retains, and empowers the employees responsible for maintaining and building critical systems. After this abject failure of management, it will take years to earn any trust at all.

Verizon CEO cuts to the chase on new layoffs and AI future:
As a new wave of job cuts hits Verizon, leadership delivers a blunt reality check on future plans and an AI deadline.

May 11, 2026 5:37 PM EDT
Dan Schulman, president and chief executive officer of PayPal Holdings Inc.
Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The leaner era of Verizon Communications has entered a new phase of targeted reductions. On May 7, the company confirmed a new round of workforce cuts that will affect hundreds of employees.

This move arrives less than six months after the company completed a massive 13,000-person reduction, the largest in the telecom provider’s history.

The heaviest impact of these new layoffs is expected to be concentrated at the company headquarters in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.

According to Business Insider, the latest reduction represents approximately 1% of Verizon’s overall headcount.

And while the company has been conservative with specific headcounts, a recent State Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filing in May confirms that 121 employees at the Basking Ridge headquarters are scheduled to be laid off on August 7, 2026.

Behind these layoffs and the company’s shifting profits lies a larger story of finance and AI-driven infrastructure aimed at improving efficiency.

Verizon’s $5 billion efficiency mandate

The latest workforce reduction follows a transformative milestone for the company. Earlier this year, in January, Verizon finalized its acquisition of Frontier Communications. The $20 billion deal expanded Verizon’s fiber footprint to 31 states.

During the Q1 earnings call, CFO Tony Skiadas also revealed that Verizon is aggressively pursuing an operating expense (OpEx) savings target of $5 billion by the end of 2026.

The telecom provider has also set an ambitious target of $1 billion in operating cost synergies by 2028.

As Verizon absorbs Frontier’s merger and expands its fiber footprint to almost 30 million passings, the company is also prioritizing automation to manage the expanded network, albeit with a smaller human headcount.

“We have begun to see meaningful cost benefits from our transformation efforts as we take out legacy structural costs from the business,” said CEO Dan Schulman during the call.

Skiadas detailed a relentless strategy to permanently remove $5 billion from the company’s annual spend.

“We’re off to a great start on the $5 billion of cost transformation,” Skiadas told analysts.

The strategy is multi-layered:

Workforce reduction: The 13,000-plus layoffs since October 2025 are the primary driver of savings. Skiadas noted the company is “running leaner” and is cutting “third-party contractor and outsource spend” to keep savings in line.

Legacy decommissioning: Verizon is decommissioning old copper network elements, recycling and “monetizing” them by selling scrap metal.

Real estate rationalization: As the workforce shrinks, the company is also reducing its real estate footprint across administrative and network sites.

The most vital aspect of Shulman’s turnaround is the AI tech stack sprint, designed to address customer pain points by automating digital sales and service.

Verizon, through these AI-enabled channels, aims to lower the cost of retention while defending its customer base.

Schulman, who has usually been upfront about AI’s role in the future, told investors that the company is on a timeline that would have been impossible a year ago.

“We are going to be substantially complete with that entire AI tech stack by July, and we hope to be fully done by November,” he said on the call.

To hit this mark, the company has recruited several “AI-savvy individuals” over the last seven months, adding that “we’ve done more in the last three months than we’ve done in the last three to four years around this.”

Verizon’s stock is up 15% year to date.

The Frontier factor and Verizon’s record profits

The May layoffs coincide with Verizon’s most successful quarter in recent years. According to the company’s recent Q1 2026 financial release, Verizon achieved its first positive first quarter “postpaid phone net adds since 2013.”

Its adjusted EPS also rose to $1.28 per share, a 7.6% year-over-year increase.

By integrating Frontier’s fiber network, Verizon expects at least $1 billion in annual cost synergies by 2028. This merger allows Verizon to stop paying third-party access costs and automate its network management, albeit now with a significantly smaller headcount.

Analysts, meanwhile, remain divided. Morgan Stanley recently raised its price target on Verizon to $50 from $40, keeping an equal weight rating. Noting the improving subscriber growth and competitive intensity in wireless was “encouraging,” the firm said.

However, Este Group downgraded Verizon to hold from buy, saying the company’s earnings growth still lags behind the broader sector average, according to TheFly.

As Verizon works to complete its AI tech stack by July, the company’s message is clear that it intends to continue this cost transformation well beyond 2026.

https://www.thestreet.com/employment/verizon-ceo-cuts-to-the-chase-new-layoffs-ai-future

TRend at Bnym, and it’s not subtle.
More and more employees are being “RIF’d” under the disguise of performance issues — even when their track record is spotless. Let’s call it what it is: ageism and salary targeting.Batman and Robin don’t want to admit they’re cutting older, higher‑paid workers, so they hide behind manipulated evaluations and vague buzzwords like “not agile enough,” “not aligned with culture,” or “needs more energy.” It’s a cost‑cutting strategy dressed up as performance management.
This isn’t about merit.
It’s about money, age, and who they think they can push out quietly.
I should have fought your bullsh-t but didn't. I hope others do and this POS company gets what they deserve.

Dan has been give 20-30% reduction in costs now. There will be massive cuts for 3P and employees. Expect layoff, expect old investigations opened up, and expect minor issues to result in termination. The teams that will be hit are EDAO, P&C IT, Corp and Bank. No one is safe but those are the target areas

• Amazon's Selling Partner Services team cut jobs this week.
• Amazon is doubling down on AI and other forms of automation.
• The latest job cuts highlight Amazon's ongoing efficiency drive.

https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-continues-job-cuts-retail-ai-2026-5

Verizon announced new layoffs affecting several hundred U.S. employees. These cuts follow a larger reduction of 13,000 roles less than six months ago. The company aims to achieve $5 billion in operating expense cuts by 2026. This restructuring is part of a broader strategy for cost savings and efficiency. Verizon also reported strong first-quarter growth and expanded its fiber network.

https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/2921385/verizon-announces-new-layoffs-as-cost-cutting-continues-into-2026

I've watched hardworking, competent people get lower ratings than they deserved, then get laid off as soon as possible. It's not about your value. It's about cutting costs.

Ford is in denial if they believe the supply base is responsible for their pathetic quality performance, First they purge their tenured engineers from the team and they revel in lowest price globally and can’t provide reliable repairs for recall issues.

No one is drinking the Ford Kool-Aid on TVM.

From Ford Authority:

Ford has certainly dealt with its fair share of quality issues over the past few years, leading to soaring warranty costs and a record number of recalls being issued. However, many of these quality woes stem from supplier parts, and not anything made by The Blue Oval itself, though it's obviously dealing with the repercussions. As such, while Ford attempts to improve its relationships with suppliers, the automaker is also getting serious about improving the quality of parts it procures from them.

According to Crain's Detroit Business, Ford is cracking down on supplier quality and costs by placing companies that exhibit quality issues on a "no bid" list for future contracts, as well as requiring others to submit three-year cost savings plans to prevent a similar outcome. The Blue Oval is requiring certain suppliers to enter what's known as "total value management" plans (TVMs), which require a certain percentage of cost savings on the overall supplier business every year.

TVM programs are nothing new nor uncommon, as automakers generally bind suppliers to meet certain quality and cost savings targets in that manner. What makes Ford's TVMs unusual, however, is that it's stepping up the enforcement of its multi-year requirement, and even pulling business from suppliers that don't reach some sort of agreement with the company.

At the same time, Ford was quick to point out that this is not a new policy, and that enforcing TVM programs are part of its broader efforts to improve quality and reduce costs in order to better "compete in a rapidly changing and complex industry."

“We work with each of our suppliers to seek ongoing improvements to address gaps in quality, cost, delivery and resilience, which may take multiple years to implement,” Ford spokeswoman Ursula Muller said in a statement. “Sourcing is a multi-dimensional process that rewards suppliers who perform and bring the best enterprise value for Ford and our customers.”

Have you recently check Verizon careers posted externally? All locations seems to be on India even Engineering Ops. Is this an operational strategy to cut cost where eyes are in India and fewer hands in US? I see a murky future for Verizon. Parts of it will be sold.

VZI employees reduction and cost cutting is in peaks. A lot of work load been observed in every domain.

General Motors is laying off hundreds of salaried employees. These cuts impact its information technology operations. The reductions began on Monday. Around 500 to 600 employees are largely affected. The automaker aims to cut redundancies and reevaluate workforce needs.

Detroit, Michigan

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/11/gm-layoffs.html

They’ve cut ~20% of the workforce today as, “ the business reorganization we announced today, which will impact approximately 20% of our global workforce. The intent of the reorganization is to simplify our global engineering operations, reduce our fixed costs, lower general and administrative expenses, and accelerate our move up-market and away from down-market SMB.”

Nearly 38,000 US jobs were cut in the first 10 days of May 2026. This affected sectors like technology, finance, and aviation. Spirit Airlines ceased operations, impacting 14,000 employees. Many companies cited AI-driven restructuring and cost reduction plans. Kyndryl, PayPal, and Cloudflare also announced significant workforce reductions.

https://americanbazaaronline.com/2026/05/10/us-layoffs-in-first-10-days-of-may-2026-nearly-38000-jobs-cut-480502/

contractors paid more then FTEs for same work ? any company will retain their FTEs and lay off contractors for any scenario!!

Anyone else remember when Ricky got up on stage at that 2025 end-of-year townhall to proclaim that we would be getting COLAs on top of our merit raises in 2026? It's been nothing but radio silence since then, share prices are down 13% YTD, and we're shifting into cost-cutting mode— the writing is on the wall, and we're not getting that COLA, but we all know Ricky and the EC will sure as he-l be making out like bandits with their equity comp.

"Trust— earned over a lifetime, lost in an instant." Maybe you should start listening to your handler, Ricky Boy.

Siloam Mission is implementing cost-cutting measures. The Winnipeg non-profit is laying off 16 people. Its drop-in dining space and clothing store will operate on reduced hours. These changes address a projected $4.4-million deficit. Charitable giving is at a 10-year low.

Winnipeg

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/winnipegs-siloam-mission-announces-layoffs-213040710.html

Does anyone think building the new HQ with this economic climate is a little crazy?

I can’t help but think about how they will ultimately cut people as part of the balance sheet tight-rope act such an enormous expense will cause.

Lastly, as a Dallas native I’m worried about the economic health of the city when we leave. I know the tower isn’t the best but access to mid-day kayaking isn’t something anyone cares about.

Major announcement in ECS. UHG has determined it is cost effective to offshore pre authorization services for LTAC, IRF and SNF to the Philippines. 30-40% is caseload gone. Member PHI to be handled by 3rd world

Many jobs sent to the Philippines because it is cheaper , pushed the CEO out bc KKR investment firm

My partner works for AZ and in a recent town hall meeting they said they play to reduce costs by 30% by 2030 with AI being the main focus. Expect more layoffs to come