I joined Verizon two years ago right out of college, and I can’t remember a single stretch of time when layoffs weren’t hanging over everyone’s head. Was it always like this in the past, or is this just how things are now? Is it the same everywhere? Is this what I have to look forward to for the rest of my working life?
15 replies (most recent on top)
@cc new grad salary for me a year ago was 90
@bv Exactly! Verizon began circling the drain in 2015.
@OP what was your base salary out of college?
10/29/2015 is the daye when the death spiral started. That's when they imploded the Area / Region structure and used a chainsaw vs a scalpel. Before that any layoffs were small and surgical. After that, HQ took over and the entrepreneurial spirit was gone. It became a political and optical cesspool.
Since then its been constant chaos, reorgs, and RIFs.
It’s been like this for the last 15-20 years, back to the Lowell era. It’s the nature of the telecom business.
I've been here a long time too but the only thing I can think of that underlies all of it is that VZ got to be too big a business. Not that that is bad, but we didn't have the leadership to run that big of a business.
@b3 Huh? "Don't try your best" ??
Don't you owe it to at least yourself and your next employer that you interview with to do your best for the sake of your own future, so you can talk about how you manned up and delivered something / grew yourself in the face of bleak circumstances? Just sayin'
You’re in telecom man. It’s been a way of life forever.
It’s been like this for the past 10 years at least. Nonstop reorgs and chaos. Survival here requires no longer caring about doing great work or offering ideas to improve processes. Just say yes sir and yes ma’am to the leadership. They just enforce whatever external consulting firm says (coe, bluejeans, etc). When you become a people leader don’t try to performance manage your team. It’s a wasted effort with nonstop reorgs. Despite looking for so called savings, it’s nearly impossible to fire someone for poor performance. Senior leaders would rather hold onto the deadbeat headcount in fear they won’t backfill. Many scammers know this and do next to nothing while getting bonus and stock for years now. The money is great but just don’t try to make sense anything of anything. Don’t try your best. It’s a wasted effort. Just collect and do whatever the overlords say and build your real life that matters outside of this poorly managed company.
I had 10 yrs in and in 2015, the first reorg I ever saw was when the legacy four areas were dissolved and merged into HQ. I saw my manager get laid off and saw my workload disappear in a day. Then saw multiple big reorgs after including VSP and Verizon 2.0 reorg in 2018 under Hans.
It slowed some during Covid and I got promoted to band 6 in 2020. Laid off in 2022 in a major reorg and laid off again in 2024 under a small reorg. By then I was so sick of the layoff and reorg culture that I still want to vomit thinking about how unhealthy of a culture VZ has become. I was so glad to get out and the sweet severance made it better.
Yeah, I do come back to read posts here because anytime I think I might miss VZ, I am reminded of how sick of a work culture it is to work under the type of culture this place has become. Sorry to those who are enslaved here and I hope a better door opens.
It started in 2015, prior to that VZ hadn't really done layoffs since its formation in the early 2000s. Ever since 2015 it's basically been layoffs almost every year if not every year. Contrary to what everyone is saying here, the layoff culture started under Lowell.
@a5 totally agree! 25 years - and while there were RIFs here and there ~ It’s become the norm these days..
Sadly its become so common it’s been named the “Home for the Holidays Tap”
I've been here over two decades and it was not like this. It just wasn't. This is all Hans. That man ruined this company, and the company was already going downhill.
Ever since Hans became CEO. He actually bragged about laying of US employees and outsourcing those jobs.
yes, every thanksgiving is bloodbath at some org.
overall Telco corporate