Am hearing that the grim reaper may be visiting BT/VLSS and Wireless/WBG Sales this week.
For VLSS I just heard that a handful of Directors were hit last month, and this week it will be the Manager level (individual contributors) hit. Could be 50% or so.
Heard less about WBG except that it was the sales data specialists that need to get their resumes dusted off. Might be a consolidation of Mng Partners as well.
Any other rumors out there for this week?
Please be respectful of those impacted by the upcoming RIF. It's hard enough to be told you've lost your source of income and benefits which provide for your family. These people don't need to hear or see cruel venomous words about the company or them personally. That changes nothing. Your words are a reflection of your own character. How do you want to be remembered? Be kind, encouraging and supportive to others. Wishing everyone the best in this difficult time.
BT = Business Transformation which also = Another bull$hit Verizon group made by some dumb a$$ executive trying to make his mark.
If you don't know what those two things mean then you don't need to know. If they were affecting you you'd know what they mean.
Sorry, new to this thread, what do BT and MZ stand for?
I don't have a dog in this fight, but there were 2 VLSS directors who were let go about four weeks or so ago.
VLSS reports into SP and into Marc Reed...there were no directors in their team of 70 laid off. I know folks who work there and asked them directly. There is no MZ in VLSS and VLSS does not roll up into BT...they are separate organizations. Those affected by rifs were part of BT and not VLSS
Can that change soon- of course, anything can.
One of those VLSS Directors who was RIF'ed was already interviewing for a gig with Google and got it. That is one lucky guy; he got a heckuva lot of severance and accepted a job with Google a week after. Talk about someone bieng blessed!
VLSS and Business Transformation are the same thing now. There is no such thing as VLSS officially anymore -- it's all BT reporting to Sampath. And yes 2 directors were given notice last month.
7-pxn - There absolutely were two VLSS Directors RIF'ed last month, both of them in the group MZ runs. You need to re-check your info.
XO is obviously fearing the worst here. One of our billing locations was already hit with the 30 day letter so we pretty much know where we stand now.
VLSS is 70 people...they have nothing to do with new open seating design or recommended retail personnel layoffs of anything else...they work on coaching SS projects for the business teams. I know people who work there and no Directors were let go last month.
I think people are getting this confused with BT which is under Stratton and has like 500 people...'just saying. But this April could be a badmonth for lots of employees..
"Stack ranked by favorites never by results"
This! Yes, this!
This VLSS bs was dreamed up by some brilliant Harvard Yale or Stanford typ while anyone who got a business degree from a state school could tell you this works for manufacturing parts not people run processes. My spouse worked for 3M and I worked for Verizon. We have had many conversations laughing at this stupidity.
First of all VLSS is another scam perpetrated on the first levels to frustrate them at every turn and to quit . I would sit in mtgs and tell directors what an asinine gimmick this is and they looked at me like I was some Neanderthal from the ice age. The timesheet is also another gimmick. I fought my mgr every week on the timesheet. Waited to the last hour on Monday to give it to him. Joke. Condescending Aholes like Mudge and Stratton during the strike giving the rah rahs on Monday morning huddles. Ha ha how did I last so long in this phoney outfit!!
VLSS is just another example of massive waste/failure that "leadership" is too proud, stubborn, blind, or stupid to admit failure on. Just like blow90, ves, wbg, on and on and on. The people who are behind these brainfarts are never held accountable, only the Frontline people tasked with trying to make disasters work. Another great example, the whole "open seating" b---s---. Haven't heard one single employee who likes it, there were companies who reversed the strategy 2 years ago, and yet we continue down the road rather than cutting bait, satisfying employees and saving on future construction costs. The absolute cluelessness of everyone up top is truly mind numbing.
Stacked and ranked in which business unit(s)?
Is this hitting retail also?
Stack ranked by favorites never by results.
"stack ranked" aka "rank and yank"...
I know directors stack ranked last week, not sure what the timeline is after that happens. Would think this week or in two weeks.
This week. Still waiting. No layoffs
Not at Verizon, but I'm SS certified and have watched the program here. I was very interested in joining the program before it changed.
@Mom4V30-2obe, I take it you're LSS?
VLSS... is that the reason the time sheet is now more important than the customer?
2inb - That's not what I've seen but I guess different groups are different.
Best and brightest? In my experience VLSS is a penal colony for employees with bad results or blacklisted by their upper management.
More coming.....
The VLSS issues I've seen have more to do with how it's implemented at VZ than anything else. It was originally implemented because too many projects were trying to solve problems by attacking the wrong root causes. LSS forces them to use data to prove what the actual root causes are which allows the correct issues to be focused on.
Unfortunately for VZ they want everything yesterday and/or immediately, so using a methodology like LSS which requires discipline and time will not work. I've heard several LSS people say that they don't do the DMAIC part of a project because they are told to go faster, which means they are approaching problems just like they did prior to VLSS starting.
It's a vicious circle, and unfortunately most of the problems VZ has are related to antiquated systems and processes that are very expensive to fix as well as the company just flat not having any resources (due to layoffs mostly). VLSS won't/can't fix those types of issues, but those are exactly the types of things they are being tasked to fix.
I feel for many of the people who will be affected. They came into that program being told it was to develop the company's best and brightest, but when their two years in the program is up there aren't any positions for them to move back into the business.
Six sigma works great in the manufacturing sector to cut costs and reduce variance which helps with consistent product creation. It's primary goal is to reduce defects and remove unnecessary processes in manufacturing. Outside of the manufacturing environment it is far less effective because it usually means job losses and people fight it tooth and nail for good reason (self preservation). I would never try to implement it outside if that space
@1eom...you've pointed out an obvious key issue and failure on the company. There is no research done and research should include the bad and the good. If it was done properly, they'd discover that LSS isn't a solution the company needs and also see the failures over time if they did their research correctly. We have too many lazy individuals or people who want to push their own agenda as the next best concept without thinking how it would injure the company. There is no accountability to behavior like this. It reminds me of the ones who skate by and gaining their degrees without learning a thing. You know kind of like those who hold a certificate claiming they are PMP certified but went to a bootcamp to pass the exam. Yeah that definitely spells a good project manager.
In my opinion, lean six sigma has a compelling history of causing injury to companies more than helping them and, when poorly done, can lead to stifled innovation & creativity. To the best of my knowledge, Motorola, 3M, Xerox, and Toyota, all LSS disciples, went through very rough patches while under LSS programs. It also seems somewhat silly for grown-ups to be labeling themselves greenbelts, blackbelts, and the like...like youngsters in some karate class.
I know the men and women who make up LSS segment in our society work hard, but I also think a sober examination of ROI at the individual companies in which they're plying their trade is always prudent, just to see if the effort is having the intended effect, or if it is instead resulting in more harm than good and is calling out for adjustment or disbandment.
VLSS = Verizon Lazy Stupid Scum
Awesome!
VLSS just poaches into other groups work and then claim they came up with the process even though the process already existed. If a process is broken it is because there are not enough people to support it which is usually caused by another great idea from VLSS. Six sigma concepts would work but not the way the VLSS twist it. Too many people in that group wasting company resources and reinventing the wheel.
I was once in voice of employee and those VLSS people spoke very badly about employees.
Someone made a suggestion (i dont remember the suggestion) and he was like were not gonna pay some stupid guy $13/hr to do that. Those guys barely do anything anyways .
I assume he was talking about the experience reps before the layoff cause it was 1 year later when os/es was cut. Which proves this (the retail layoff) was 1 year already in the making.
It's ashamed wireless reps don't know any better and don't go union.
If the VLSS rumor is true, its about time. I sit next to this VLSS person and maybe see her in the office about once every three months or so. No one knows what the heck she does, but she is raking in a DM salary of about $120k a year.
VLSS is just another one of Lowell's many, many, many failed pet projects.