"we're about to grow a ton, better cut 10k jobs to maximize those gains."
that just sounds so... weird to me.
That's a significant chunk of their workforce! I suspect Verizon will quietly be hiring thousands of people from places where they can legally pay them less than these 10+ thousand.
The working conditions in call-centers or guys doing installation & maintenance tend to be absolutely horrendous across the board.
It makes perfect sense. T-Mobile basically bought up all the spectrum in the last round of bidding because they got a $4B breakup fee from AT&T as part of AT&T's failed acquisition. That has put all the other U.S. carriers on the defensive, because if they can't win a significant percentage of the 5G spectrum then they're going to be out of business.
With such a large cut it would be weird to be rejected, I would feel an awkward mix of jealousy and loss to go back to work afterwards.
It took senior people making 90-120 base and laid them off to employ (me and others) at 47-60k base salary in Massachusetts.
Then after 3 years, they laid us college kids off to employ even lower paid fresh graduates in Austin and San Antonio, because Texas cut them an even better deal than MA did I believe.
Anecdotally for key skills "radio planners" competitors where known to ask what your redundancy payment would be and offer a golden hello to match an dwe are talking > £100,000 15 years ago
"You're too valuable to let go! Best yet is you don't have all those pesky coworkers!"
Whatever leftover slop the company feeds you from the remains of your coworkers won't have that satisfying flavor.
That people are making the choice - and many don't seem to mind doing it, makes this quite a different thing than a regular layoff.
Apparently churn has been high, and people leaving their jobs voluntarily is in some ways a good sign for the economy. They certainly don't do that when times are bad.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeanbaptiste/2018/10/05/verizon...
Also why would a brand new network deployment require any less head count? I assume they will just hire new workers when the uptake in 5G begins in earnest?
Probably at lower wages to boot.
For consumers that would be great and I’m sure other carriers would follow. If they do Comcast will suffer and millions of consumers will have a choice of residential broadband vs. only one player.
Thus I wonder if these job cuts are happening mostly in their wireline business that’s unionized?
It's also worth noting that Verizon is also the most expensive wireless carrier out there by a pretty good margin. I only use them because when I'm on road trips, they're often the only provider I get signal with. If I were just in town, I'd probably switch to a lower cost carrier, and rely on wifi more.
Still the economy is going in an upward direction, and Verizon isn't shrinking. Why are they laying off 10K people?
Michigan's unemployment is the lowest it's been since records have been kept: https://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/21325
Stock buybacks [1] done with these tax cuts, enriching shareholders, does little to stoke economic demand or benefit the middle class [2]. More likely, cheap, loose credit is what has allowed the music to carry on.
[1] https://money.cnn.com/2018/07/10/investing/stock-buybacks-re... (Tax cut triggers $437 billion explosion of stock buybacks)
[2] https://www.npr.org/2017/12/19/571754894/charts-see-how-much... (CHARTS: See How Much Of GOP Tax Cuts Will Go To The Middle Class)
Even if you believe the tax cuts have had some positive effect on the economy, every legitimate economics professional and reality based think tank said that in order for the tax cuts to pay for themselves growth has to be 6%. Last time I looked it was 4.5%. These tax cuts won't pay for themselves. And the austerity we're in store for when the economy takes a down turn, which is inevitable, will be quite painful.
Hey remember when conservatives used to advocate for fiscal responsibility and balancing the budget? That's only for when Democrats are in charge. It's all an excuse to throw poor people under the bus.
That's exactly what it is...which is why it is currently the top comment. HN never disappoints.
I don't really think you can attribute this to the tax breaks, but if you can - then this would be an immense positive. Employee turnover is already very high pretty much everywhere now a days. Getting paid a year of salary, and more, to agree to leave? That's something I think the vast majority of workers would be absolutely thrilled to be offered. It's a potentially life changing offer giving somebody a chance to carry out any entrepreneurial fantasy they have, to get a fat head start on the joy of compound interest, or simply spending a year with bikinis, booze, and beaches if that's your thing.
Imagine you’re a 50 year old employee with a kid in college. Would you be thrilled to accept a year of salary with limited job prospects? What jobs do you think will be the first to be cut?
Don’t try to sugar coat it - when there are lay-offs (voluntarily or not), it’s rarely a positive for the majority of affected employees. And this in no way should be considered a positive effect of the corporate tax cuts.
If a company just announced they are hiring a bunch of people, does the tax credit get credit for that? Currently, the US has very low unemployment. Also, in December 2017, wage growth was at 2.9%, while now it has increased to 3.7%. So almost a full percentage point in less than a year. Is that because of the tax cut? It would be very difficult to say for sure, but one thing is clear from the data, the tax cut didn’t reduce wage growth.
What amazes me is some working people will continue to vote this way even though it keeps failing. I guarantee there will be more tax cuts sold in the very near future, and the same people will buy into it. Some people never learn.
“As part of the separation program, the employees will get a salary of up to 60 weeks, bonus and benefits, depending on the length of their service, Verizon said.”
This is why I always advise people to negotiate significance severance benefits up front, on the order of 6 months for junior employees, a year + bonuses and continued benefits for experienced employees.
Companies absolutely agree to severance amounts like this, even for new grads, and sayingno to a company that won’t is just doing yourself a favor.
Also, which companies negotiate severance package before you are even hired? Especially as a new graduate? I've never heard of such thing as a software developer.
Some places will certainly negotiate severance, but it's state and industry specific as well as very, very dependent on the position you're moving into.
comp(tenure) -> {
(60 [weeks of salary, benefits]) * (tenure [weeks]) / (65 [years]), tenure < 65
60 [weeks of salary, benefits], tenure >= 65
}
Still, it’s a cautionary reninder to negotiate significant severance benefits.
> Verizon Communications Inc said on Monday that about 10,400 employees will be leaving the U.S. wireless carrier by mid next year as part of the company’s voluntary separation program.
They offered a package earlier in the year https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/25/verizon-offers-separation-pl...
Why? Because you say so? We should ignore the literal words of the press release in favor of something you think may happen?
In fact, the structure of the the offer is one that offer's a far greater incentive to those with a lot of seniority vs those who are newer. If we assume that many of these might be technician jobs under a union contract where more years of service equals higher pay, they could have more senior workers take the package, immediately hire new employees and save a decent amount of money.
Granted, I've only seen that strategy in practice with municipal workers, but it makes no more assumptions than you do.
It's just another layer of corporate double-speak.
The same way "fired" became "laid off."
Until the early 90's, "laid off" applied to factory and seasonal workers, who were expected to be recalled when production ramped up again.
Laid off means an employer doesn't want/need your position anymore.
Fired means an employer doesn't want you anymore.
Fired and laid-off are not synonyms. Fired and terminated are synonymous. However, laid off generally means the position is not continuing.
That being said, "voluntary separation" just means they are anticipating a large layoff and are attempting to reduce the overhead of determining who to let go.
> It's just another layer of corporate double-speak.
No, it's really not.