If working here has made you miserable, maybe staying isn't helping you or anyone around you. Constant negativity has a way of spreading through a team.
14 replies (most recent on top)
@bn On this episode of Up To Speed Playhouse:
Hey, did you hear that Joe quit?
No I didn't. Does he like it?
He loves it. He says everyone should do it. He even says it's better if you do it with other people.
Really?
Youbetcha. It's all the rage nowadays. Only the Cool Cats quit. People who aren't happy like they used to be and try to express themselves hoping that things will get better are just kidding themselves and being real Debbie Downers.
Well I don't want to be a Debbie Downer. Maybe I had better quit too. Shouldn't I think about my spouse, children, personal responsibilities and bills first?
Heck no. That is so square. You aren't a square are you?
I guess I'm not. So I will just throw caution to the wind then and quit right now. I'm going to ask some of my coworkers if they will quit with me. This will be the greatest thing we ever did for ourselves and for Verizon. Go VTeamers!!!! Will you quit with me?
Oh my goodness that is so sweet of you to think of me!!! You're my best friend at work!!! But I have to stick around to make sure everyone hears the good news.... That quitting is cool!!!!
You are the bestest best friend anyone could have at work. So selfless and thinking of other people instead of yourself. I can't wait to speak to you again when all of this is over and we can be Cool Cats together.
(They never saw or spoke to each other again.)
@OP “Constant negativity has a way of spreading through a team.” LOL! 😂
Does it now? Like the negativity that comes from being threatened with layoffs every few months, or from being unappreciated and threatened with being replaced by AI?
Your post is unintentionally funny!
@OP Are you attempting subliminal messaging so people just quit rather than wait for the next layoff? If so, keep trying :))
@OP As a Verizon executive or at least senior manager, because no lower level Verizon employee would post something like this, how many direct reports do you have? How many do they have?
Do you encourage them and give them hope that they are working towards one common clearly defined goal and then provide the direction (leadership) needed to achieve that goal?
Do you explain when you demand 110% by going the extra mile every day that NOT doing so will increase chances of being the next person to be laid off?
Are you then honest and transparent and explain that giving 110% by going the extra mile every day is rewarded with the same chance of being the next person to get laid off?
Do you explain that Verizon demands loyalty and sacrifice from it's human resources? Because that is what an employee is, a resource that is human, not a person.
Do you explain that they are offered money and benefits for their loyalty and sacrifice but at no point in time is loyalty and sacrifice to be expected in return?
If that were chiseled in stone in the credo, then everyone on this forum would have to sit down and shut up and understand that they assumed the risk when they accepted the offer for employment.
They could better calculate the risks of what could happen if they buy a house or a car or start a family and prepare a disaster plan if Verizon decides it no longer needs as many humans after they tap into AI resources. Because AI resources will provide the same loyalty and sacrifice with no limit and, supposedly, at a fraction of the cost.
People know this is true but that truth gets lost in Verizon's rhetoric when meetings and surveys and pep rallies are are filled with words that are chosen because of the psychological impact that results in the listener believing they are valued and respected as a team member, as a partner. Remember? Everyone is a partner. You are. Contractors are. Customers are. We are all partners, in words only, to make the listener feel like they are involved and have value. They might even be asked about a best friend at work. Remember that? That wasn't by chance as silly as it sounded. That was to make you believe that Verizon is the place where you could have a best friend to make you more compliant, susceptible and easier to control and less likely to leave.
If you think this doesn't happen, remember, it is a well known fact that companies will go to great lengths to influence shoppers with music, scents, pictures, product placement as well as words used and more based on in depth studies and the advice of psychiatrists. So you better believe they will do the same thing to influence and manipulate their humans into believing they are offering something they never said they were offering. Pulse Surveys anyone? How about "How many have we convinced it's better than it is Survey?
So where is the evil in the people on this forum that were innocent and believed the deceptive words and phrasing or is it in the company that hired professionals to choose every word and phrase carefully to get the innocent people to believe something was true that never was while making sure to remain free of any liability because the fine print never suggested those words were true?
This is the reason unions were created and that is the reason Verizon hates unions.
The Verizon executives have to hate and downvote this message.
Union members have the luxury of downvoting this message because they have been afforded some amount of protection through a contract.
But that contract won't last forever. What will you do when your protections are gone?
I know about 16+/- years ago Verizon union members went on strike when they had issues negotiating a new contract. It was all over the evening news. They stood in the streets and stood outside of retail stores, blocked traffic and held up signs. A number of businesses lost phone service when some junction boxes, for lack of a better term, were vandalized. One with a 30 caliber hole through a box hanging on a large cable over a small body of water next to a roadway. I saw it the next day. "Hey man. Nice shot"
We are just expressing our feelings on an anonymous website because it isn't safe to show our faces on the news without contract protection. And no one asked if I was interested getting it on my first day or any day since. So maybe lighten up a little bit.
OP is funny, don't be negative... maybe people are just being real? What is there to be positive or excited about aside from surviving each round of layoffs? Yay i get to keep my pay and benefits for a little bit longer... I remember when I used to get up and excited for what we contributed. Now I wake up wondering if the next pay week will be my notification. Not being negative to anyone, just exhausted from terrible leadership and constant threats of unemployment.
@b2 preach!!!
@av No organizational flattening is happening. Dan promised exactly that on the first or second AHC. And here we are, almost one year into his "transformational leadership": layoffs, reorgs, rebadging and JV but still exactly the same number of levels from the bottom to the top. Reminds me of the Silo series.
Same old smokes & mirrors.
@OP Ruining employee morale through ill thought out reorgs, repeated layoffs, cutting benefits, and all kinds of other egregious behavior then blaming said employees for having low morale is called GASLIGHTING
@av If you've transformed a company culture that was mid into something worse, you're technically correct in saying you're a transformational leader.
Good! I hope to bring down the morale of anyone I'm forced to deal with. Anyone happy here is a dimwit, a bootlicker, or a dimwitted bootlicker.
Totally shocking that treating the employee base like dogshit has a negative effect on overall morale. Who could have possibly seen it coming...
@OP Take a look at LinkedIn and see for yourself that every subpar manager/director labels themselves as a "transformational leader". It's their responsibility to use some of those alleged transformational leadership skills to improve morale. It's not the responsibility of the long suffering ICs. ICs aren't empowered to do that anyway.
Let's see what happens after Dan & Alfonso flatten the organization. Having fewer of those self-proclaimed transformational leaders could end up being an unexpected benefit.
OP needs to wake the F up. Hans is out and it’s just going back to the old “culture” of smoke & mirrors with a little sprinkle of cut throat. There’s very few good leaders left in that place.
@OP A fish stinks from the head down. Think about that for a moment.
@OP Fortunately, constant bootlicking does not spread through the team, except for a few who enjoy smelling management's farts.