Thread regarding Comcast layoffs

@ch unlikely this time. no one is buying our products

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Like 4 years ago they laid off the entire sales department then eventually they hired back a sales department. History repeating.

@b7 they need someone to blame if things fail.

This feels right. There is a huge opportunity in AI for Comcast and Charter. Someone who was let go a while back in Product did a whole bunch of research showing the opportunity and was trying to convince T&P execs of that, but was completely shut down. Those of us who saw the research thought it was a no brainer... but anyone at a VP level or above refused to even engage. It seems McKinsey may have picked up those reports that were written. It's always some fu--ing consulting dude who says what smart employees were saying that gets the credit. "Great idea, Bob!" "Thanks, Bob!"

@aw jeeeez AI slop!

@ax same. Thank you to those of you coming here with solid info. even after being let go. I wish you all the absolute best.

Why do I trust this anonymous TheLayoff post more than any communication coming from the top???

It makes no sense, it just tells you how bad the situation is and how the trust in leadership is lost.

And, yes, a big thank you to whoever spilled the beans - well written too.

@OP A campaign needing eight people isn’t a sign of ambitious strategy—it’s a sign of organizational bloat. Modern tech teams automate or solo-run that work with one person. Cutting it down to three isn't "giving up"; it's finally acknowledging inefficient processes and redundant headcount.

@as This, yes exactly.

@ap hate to say it but there are still generations of people out there that want it done the old school way; seniors. A lot of them invest in our products, probably a lot of cable customers, and don’t just want to click a button to onboard. They actually want to speak to someone they can trust and understand. I understand up and coming things in the works, but understanding there are all kinds of customers is also a big deal.

@ap you aren’t wrong in the long run, but the business isn’t setup to handle a sales model this way yet.

I’m sure they will invest to get there but it takes years to build the systems to do these things without sales reps. And those systems don’t exist yet.

CB even tried with the whole “Orion” platform and that fell flat on its face.

@an your gut feeling is not wrong

@a9 They aren’t trying to innovate. They are setting up the business to be ran like a utility company and make it enticing for acquisition. Any idea that we are going to innovate or invest is a joke.

i can’t say that i’ve ever purchased a utility or cable service or provider based on the help of a sales agent or marketing outreach program. i would presume that most people nowadays are doing their own research and finding us on their own. we don’t need nearly as many sales agents. especially when onboarding and offboarding customers should be as simple as them clicking a button. why we make it so hard for customers to do business with us is beyond me. but yeah the reduction in sales makes complete sense

@aj
"The people whose jobs were associated to finding revenue, sales, growth from mobile, broadband, video - they will be the ones most impacted”

I'm interpreting this as cuts within Jon Gieselman's org. Folks (Comcast term) that are responsible for business strategy decisions so think Kohposh's team and Jason's team. COMPLETELY my own interpretation, I have no knowledge.

@aj from what I know, most of the impact to sales and sales engineering is leadership (Director+). Otherwise just lower performers will be laid off.

Sales support - some more impact. You still need someone doing sales reports showing rep performance as example. But likely need less people who are putting together sales training files since the promos and comp plans won’t be changing as often. Hope that helps!

@a2 regional? HQ? Some of the sales teams are already completely leaned out from the last restructuring.

“The people whose jobs were associated to finding revenue, sales, growth from mobile, broadband, video - they will be the ones most impacted”

What does this mean exactly?
What about for sales reps? Their Supervisors, managers, engineers, teams ?

Let me answer what I can:

Construction & Engineering - similar to sales, more impact on leadership roles than individual contributors.

Where are we going? Honestly I’m not in those conversations anymore since I’m not going to be with the org starting 12/31.

Can you self nominate if close to retirement? Depending on your team, it might not matter. The reality is that your own supervisor doesn’t know either more than likely - so asking them might not help. If you have a good relationship with the SVP or EVP in your org that you feel comfortable having a convo, go for it. Otherwise I’d say there isn’t much of a point.

Product marketing - depends on which products the team members were supporting.

As far as AI - not really the blame. This is more because of intense competition and the lack of the company having other revenue streams to help counter it. When you are making $150-$200 per customer 10 years ago, and now making $75 per customer - the well eventually runs dry.

The company will eventually move towards finding new ways to sustain itself or become a commodity business with most of the workforce dedicated towards operations and engineering.

It is so disheartening. We have to read about Comcast layoffs online versus a communication. Last year we were told our Dept would not be impacted then we lost half our team. I see AI taking over different products. Lining millionaire pockets who do not care about agents who need this job to survive week to week.

@a9 imho, the most likely path forward is that almost everything goes into sustaining, as we prepare to be parted out and sold off in pieces.

@OP for folks that may be coasting towards retirement, can they nominate themselves? I’d talk to my boss about it, but honestly I don’t think they have any input into the process either.

You say it's going to be keeping the lights on- is that all the company is going forward, or is the idea to bring in new people to innovate?

@op When is everyone going to know about it ,. Will it be one round or subsequent rounds are already planned ?

So, product marketing groups ?

Will this impact construction & engineering?

What direction is the company going to ? Enterprise connectivity , like Verizon is doing ?

@a

Sales leadership will be significantly flattened and reduced.

Sales reps/supervisors - less so. Just the lower performers. To keep the lights on, we still need people to sell to customers, convince them not to cancel and move to T-Mobile or Verizon, etc…

It sounds like they’re going to lay off sales teams and sales reps?

Or is it mostly sales support, marketing, ops, etc?