The OP is partially correct. Verizon laid off a lot of top talent in 2015. After that, remaining talent began to voluntarily leave since the job market has been so good and a great employee will easily find a better job and working at Verizon went downhill really fast.
Today, after the VSP, why would a talented individual even work at Verizon? They wouldn't. All that remains are low self esteem lifers and union people wanting a handout to leave because they are basically unemployable.
Hate this post all you want, but it is true. Verizon today has a below mediocre employee base and its poor performance and stagnant growth are proof of that. Zero inovation, zero initiative, zero vision means zero future.
5g is a joke and it is status quo as all the carriers are touting this worthless garbage in a desperate attempt to try and manufacture growth.
Wireline has been relegated to the background as it is no longer a viable customer facing product. The repetitive wire pulling, cable splicing, button pushing tasks can easily be outsourced to non union contractors at a fraction of the cost.
The last of the VSP's will be off the books next month myself included. I will ride off into the sunset with my VSP tresure chest in tow to begin my retirement. Verizon will continue its downward spiral into an anonymous dumb pipe that will be used by technology companies whos products consumers will want. No one will care about Verizon or any other network carrier as they all blend together into a data network that silently operates in the background and sold to wholesale MVNO's. The end.