https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/open-letter-to-44000-verizon-employees.html
13 replies (most recent on top)
Good Article.
It’s like a train wreck...can’t keep my eyes off it, but know it won’t end well.
Management isn't involved in this one. Just HR. If a proper number dont volunteer, they will be involved for the following RIF. Just keep it in mind... your boss is likely just as worried about this.
Except.... that management DOES get to say who stays and who goes. Just because you volunteer doesn’t mean you are going to be selected. They made this very clear.
So top talent, sorry, you’re stuck. Unless you want to go without a package, that is.
@nuc ... ah yes, NORTEL. I remember when they started going down hill; at least from the perspective of a person that went to Triangle Park for schools, etc. First came the CBT courses, then NORTEL management decided that they did not need experienced technicians to do the training; so they hired school teachers off the street, with no experience and gave them a course and said read this and now teach it to these phone company techs. My first experience was this petite teacher that had no idea what an ohm is. They certainly were worthless when it came to the hands on with the captive switch. They were about worthless. Any way, it got worse and worse and the ex-NORTEL people know better than I what all happened.
Make no doubt about it, this company has a huge debt load to service and the share holder is number one, the customer number 6 and the employees are well, somewhere further down the line.
I am fully expecting a rebadge of wireline.
Awesome article. Thanks OP for posting.
What positions are being laid off? Are they offering severance or keep job title?
He is totally right.
The other option is to stay , get a pay and if your rif'd collect unemployment until you can secure a job. If you terminate your employment you cannot collect unemployment.
Only point he missed is the possibility that VZ offered the voluntary severance to avoid age discrimination lawsuits. The spreadsheet of those offered looks like a bell curve of # of people in each age group... peaking at 47 years of age... but the package will be more attractive as you have more years of service (which drives the average age of those that get the full 60 weeks higher - likely in the mid-50's or higher.
The rest of it feels pretty spot on.
My first instinct was to volunteer- then I was told they'd like to make me Sr. Manager (of whatever's left of our team)... now its "well, that's not up to us", it's possible it'll never even be put up as a job, they'll just move the org under another Sr. Mgr and I won't even have a shot at it. There are other issues- so now I'm waiting for those to shake out- but likely I'll volunteer before 11/10.
Nicely done Verizon management. 1000 experienced IT people that managed to survive 50 previous rifs , get nothing except the shaft and an offer to do the infosys shuffle. Now all these clever IT people have a grudge, and are being contracted back out to you. Well played! You deserve whats coming to you.
Exactly what happens to Nortel. Now it’s happening a VZ. Upper management are clueless about the talent they have and middle management are mostly parrots spouting the corporate BS with no real world experience.
a very compelling article. I only been with Verizon for 1 year so um not sure if it's worth it for me. but if you been here longer. take the money and run.
outstanding