I wish I was joking. what an embarrassment.
I've been here a long time. I've defended this company to my family, my friends, recruiters who called. I've pushed our products at backyard barbecues when it wasn't easy to. And for years a lot of us have been saying the same thing in every employee survey, fix the customer experience. We said it over and over. Nobody listened.
Look at where we are now. We lost 654K broadband subs last year and another 232K so far this year. KeyBanc thinks we lose 558K more this year and 665K next year, and they just downgraded us with an $18 target. Fiber is overbuilding our footprint about twice as fast as it was a couple years ago and competitors are selling gig for $30 to $40 a month. The buyback is paused. The stock fell 6% the day they announced the transformation. Wall Street has a name for companies like this, a melting ice cube. And our leadership's plan is to make sure we're all in the building to watch it melt.
Most of us heard about the biggest cost transformation in company history from Wall Street, same as everyone else. No town hall, no memo, not even a heads up. But the RTO change? Every SVP, VP, director and manager had that message and delivered it in what felt like a day. Impressive honestly. So this company knows exactly how to cascade information when it wants to. They just decided what we get to hear.
And good luck finding the actual RTO policy. It isn't in the handbook. There's no written requirement ANYWHERE. It's all verbal and it changes depending on your leader, your org, honestly depending on who you are that week. Calling that a policy is generous, it's pressure. If you work here, email your manager and ask them to point you to the written policy so you know you're meeting it. If they can't, you have your answer.
Wall Street doesn't give a sh-t how many days we're in the building. Nobody has ever upgraded a stock because badge swipes went up. What the market wants is a new direction, pricing customers will actually stay for, and real retention. And if this team can't deliver that, they want NEW LEADERSHIP. You can't badge your way back to Wall Street.
When a stock hits a 13 year low somebody isn't doing their job. And let's stop pretending we don't know who. The problem was never the people in the building. It's the people LEADING the building. We didn't set the pricing. We didn't ignore years of feedback about the customer experience. We didn't let fiber walk into our footprint. We didn't tell Wall Street about a transformation before telling our own people. LEADERSHIP did. You run this company, you made these calls, and the stock is your scorecard. Dragging us in another day doesn't change who's responsible for where we are.
So here's an RTO mandate I'd actually support. Every executive in the office five days a week, plus weekends as needed, until the stock is back up. Spend that time with customers, fix pricing, figure out how to stop losing subs. I'll even save you a parking spot. The job was always yours. Do it.
And to the board. This happened on your watch too. You approved this direction, you signed off on these leaders, and you've watched the stock slide for months. Thinking more badge swipes will fix a company in decline is honestly SHAMEFUL, and if nobody in that boardroom is saying it out loud, then consider this your wake up call. The market is telling you it wants a different direction. Maybe it's time to listen and find the people who can lead it.
Leadership, stop managing our desks. DO YOUR JOB.