If I am right in my observation, then the next couple of years at the company are likely to be bleak. More layoffs continued lack of direction or focus and an abundance of low morale workers. If that is correct then the time to leave is now if you are close to retirement then now is a good time to exit. But if you are young and have some time, rest assured that the Hans, just like Lowell and Ivan and Charlie before him, will eventually depart and be replaced - hopefully with someone with some vision and understanding of the US telecom market.
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My personal observation for tha past 15 years or so is that the left hand of wireless doesn't know what the right hand is doing and vice versa. This isn't anything new. It's always been that way. I am talking day to day as well as long term. The plans are there but the execution is lacking. A little too general? Maybe, but if you work at VZW you know exactly what I mean.
@fqx - even if true, none of that changes the fact that the wireline side of the business isn't making enough money to be worth the effort. The operational cost of providing the services is simply too high. 30 billion top line, 300 million bottom line. Only 1% of the revenue is making it through the funnel. Fund a s---er now willing to add a bunch of debt to their balance sheet in return for a very capital intensive business while interest rates are low and the economy is still good.
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Keep wireless.
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Keep the fiber backbone.
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Spin Oath, it's not going to ever compete with Facebook or Google. It's a loser.
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Sell CMB. The infrastructure is ancient, the customer base is shrinking. Every couple of years the associates have the chance to hold you hostage. For 300 million, make it someone else's problem to deal with.
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VES s---ed when it was MCI, it still s---s. Without the federal contracts it is a total dog and even that barely helps. Everything you need to know about VES is summed up like this - Chris Formant was the president of VES, making insane amounts of money to try and right that stinking garbage barge - instead, he used the time during his executive contract to write a fiction mystery novel, got it published, and pulled the rip cord on his parachute.
Define Irony: VES sells a managed service where other companies re-badge their IT support to Verizon to provide it, yet Verizon IT went to InfoSys. What does that tell you about VES pricing and capabilities? Yeah - just what you think it does.
First off -- when are people going to get through the head that Verizon is one company?
Second -- The financial numbers are bs. It has been established that Verizon requested rate hikes for Wireline for "updating", then used that money for Wireless. It made Wireline look worse and Wireless look better.
There are few areas where vzw and vz/vzb have integrated. One of them is engineering, which also has open job positions... but at the same time was given the offer.
Likely to entice those engineers with 20+ years and six figure salaries to leave and be replaced by cheaper (younger or H1B types).
@Vv2t4uo-yfa - Spare me the wireless had so many redundant layers nonsense. When you look at VP/SVP roles, look at how many are in VES, VCM, Wholesale, whatever 3 letters they come up with to further slice and dice the international and wireline into multiple market segments. When you look at VP/SVP titles, how many have an @verizon.com email address vs an @verizonwireless.com email address.
Let's look at the headcount numbers...
Wireless headcount is difficult to find solid numbers on as it isn't generally reported differently than Verizon headcount. In 2003, the Washington Post indicated Verizon Wireless had about 40,000 employees. They acquired Alltel in 2008, who had roughly 15,000 employees. So even if you assume none of wireless folks were laid off (which isn't true, they have been RIFed repeatedly,too),you end up with 55,000 out of 155,000 employees are wireless.
Something like 23% of the workforce consists of union associates working on call center, outside plant, inside plant jobs in 11 or 12 states + the District of Columbia. That's 35,000 of 155,000 employees.
So... 1/3 of the company wireless, 1/5th of the company union associates, the rest wireline "management." (Wireless had its own IT, legal, finance, etc... Regardless of how Fran Shammo liked to try and spin it.)
So, let's look at the 10-K for 2018, shall we? Consolidated revenue:
Wireless: 87,511,000,000 (87 billion, 511 million)
Wireline: 30,680,000,000 (30 billion, 680 million)
Operating Income:
Wireless: 29,207,000,000 (29 billion, 207 million)
Wireline: 380,000,000 (380 million). I'm not missing a comma there.
Also, I'm not putting the EBIDTA numbers here because they're b---s--- and not GAAP and there's way too much room to wiggle with them when they don't equate to real dollars falling to the bottom line.
So, 30% of the headcount accounted for 29.7 billion in operating income for the business. (As in value added for shareholders.) The other 70% of the headcount accounted for 380 million in operating income. Brilliant!
Other craziness:
Wireless CapEx was 10.3 billion to grow and fund that 29.7 billion in income.
Wireline CapEx was 5.3 billion to grown and fund that 380 million in income.
So please, tell me again how 30% of the employee base contributing to 98.7% of the operating income is a landscape that is not running lean.
Now, couple that with a leadership group where 2/3 of the VP/SVP ranks come from wireline, and new key leaders come from the outside, and you're left with an environment where the clueless and the ignorant and running the operation. Why does anyone doubt that they wouldn't know who to keep and who to let go and would bring in a well-known hatchet man to indiscriminately slash headcount across the board through voluntary separation, outsourcing, and what are sure to be future RIFs. Most of the wireless leaders worth a damn jumped ship a long, long time ago (there are some exceptions.) They saw the writing on the wall. The folks left are the ones who either couldn't land elsewhere or thought they'd have a clear playing field to the c-suite before the board decided to stop promoting from within. After all, some Ivy League consultants with a history of blowing up companies (like Enron and Valeant and telling Wall Street banks to grow their debt sheets) told them that is old fashioned. 24 year old MBAs from the right schools with questionable moral compasses and no cultural ties to Verizon know much better than anyone in this industry how to transform the company. Read https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/mckinsey-how-does-it-always-get-away-with-it-9113484.html if you want to understand who is pulling the puppet strings in the c-suite these days...
Won't be just like Lowell... where is he now?
Hint: check out VZ's board of directors.
How do so many people miss this?
Happy Hans= Cheating Hans
OP - This must be your first time on this board if you think you are alone in your thinking. Pointless...
Lets be clear that these layoffs started before Hans came aboard, the company/shareholders included came up with this master plan to revitalize the company in order to be "more profitable" - because VZ is very profitable. Hans was brought in to execute their wishes. If your betting that things will get better once the leadership has changed you'd lose, as a whole Wireline has been running "lean" for decades. Wireless "though making money" has so many redundant layers that it didn't make sense. How do you make more money without selling more products/services? You look inside your organization and get rid of duplicate groups, departments, job functions etc. The leadership of VZ is concerned with generating profits and by any, every and all means necessary they will do it. I don't have as much time in company as many people on this site but I am thankful for all that this job has allowed me to provide/accomplish for myself & my family and bear no ill will toward it for trying to thrive. I have received far more from VZ than they've given in return, im sure im not alone in this thinking. It's painful yes, I understand that but change is not necessarily a bad thing - complacency on the other hand is.
Just ask yourself, how much am I willing to pay out of my pocket for my mobile service each month? Of course, you want high quality service, with most of the latest features, at a low cost. And the competitors are willing to sell at low cost to customers compared to Vz. And the customers are willing live with slightly lower quality then what Vz offers. So they hop over to Vz competitors. If Vz has to keep cost down to retain customers then they have to cut somewhere else. They will cut in the matured technologies such as wireline and wireless 3G/4G.
Therefore, I can't really blame all the blame on the CEO. It's just the nature of the business. But I do blame the executives/board/CEO/etc. for taking a huge salary to do the job they are doing which is basically cleaning house and keeping the new technology growing to win customers.
Happy Hans is not there for his vision. As others have pointed out Hans is there to radically reduce costs just like he did at his last gig.
Smiling faces sometimes
Pretend to be your friend
Smiling faces show no traces
Of the evil that lurks within (can you dig it?)
Smiling faces, smiling faces, sometimes
They don't tell the truth
Smiling faces, smiling faces tell lies and I got proof
Oh, oh, yeah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntiQs7FNIZE