"The majority of the posts are complaints about stupid sh--,..."
I guess you're not what some call a "big picture guy". Even though you like to try to sound like one.
Happy employees don't come on boards like this one and gripe. Disgruntled employees do.
Now for the "big picture" and the question you should be asking yourself: "Why are so many employees so unhappy?"
Well... for starters -- the obvious assumption that anybody laid off was laid off because they were "fat that needed trimming." That's absolute BS and I think everybody knows it.
Layoffs are, for the most part arbitrary. The parts that aren't arbitrary are outright illegal. Look at the layoffs at IBM, AT&T, Pepsico and Verizon in the last couple of years. (I'm sure there's dozens of other examples.)
Everyone of them had a dis-proportionally high percentage of older employees laid off. This is not only illegal, it's outright stupid.
In a healthy, thriving company, the older employees, with decades of experience, are used as mentors to the younger employees. It's very logical and natural and by far the best way to train the next generation.
"Oh, but the technology changes -- we need new blood", a million idiots shout in unison. I've been a phone tech for over 35 years -- do you imagine I was only good with the obsolete equipment I worked on the first year I was a tech?
But the stupidest part of hiring people based on their ability to stare at a smart phone screen is that the tech is the easy stuff.
The hard stuff, the stuff that takes years of experience to achieve are the real basics. The ability to see the network in your head, the ability to prioritize, to collaborate (and by that, I mean real collaboration -- not answering a Tweet in five seconds). The ability to solve problems, not pass them off. And the ability to know when you need to pass the problem off. (And to know the reason why that sounds contradictory, but really isn't.)
If I didn't work with people who had this knowledge and who passed it off to me, I never would have been a good tech. I've always remembered the advice one of my mentors gave to us over thirty-five years ago when one of the rookies wouldn't shut up. "You can keep opening your mouth and stay stupid or you can close it and learn something."
Most people aren't naturally stupid -- they know when they're being lied to and Verizon is lying to their employees on a daily basis. It starts with the glad hand.
"You're a valued employee!" Code for -- if you're near sixty or even the north side of fifty, we got a guy here with a timer -- next layoff, you're gone.
"We're growing -- we need more employees -- not less." Obvious BS.
"After this latest re-org, we've got the team we want!" (Well, at least until the next layoff or re-org in two months.)
And there's the real problem. Verizon treats their employees like they're idiot children, not adults. Give us reality, not bullsh@t. If you're planning to cut half the employees say it, like adults -- don't sugarcoat it like you're dealing with imbeciles.
After we merged my department was constantly spoon-fed, sugar-coated horse manure by the division we were supposed to merge with.
"We need you, we have WAY MORE work than we can handle." Sure you do, is that why you've blown off every one on one meeting you scheduled and refused to send any information on my new work assignments, when I asked for it repeatedly?
One thing thirty-five years of tech experience gives you -- the ability to build a well functioning bullsh@t indicator. After the merger mine spent over a year pinging it's brains out. I knew it wasn't a matter of if I'd get laid off -- it was when I'd get laid off.
Our company had about 2,500 employees when we merged. Other than the headquarters people and finance they really, really wanted each and everyone of us, they lied. Now my former company is down to a little more than 100 people working for Verizon. Most of those folks will probably be gone after the IT layoffs.
If the leadership of Verizon were real adults instead of mice, they would have been upfront with us: "Hey you guys are toast. We don't want you -- we want your assets." Would I have been happy about that -- no -- but I would have had a whole lot more respect for Verizon.
And maybe that's the real reason they don't want the old guys. The new guys haven't figured out how to build a well-oiled bullsh@t detector yet.