It's not fun whatsoever to watch coworkers, friends and/or family loose their livelihood. I know many at Verizon who've been going thru this round of layoffs turmoil, and amongst them some who lost their jobs. It's very hard watching people you know suffer, however it is a reality of working at large corporations.
Honestly, it's something you inadvertently sign up for when you take a corporate position, especially in the Telecommunications industry which has regularly had staff cutbacks for nearly ~45 years beginning with the breakup the AT&T Bell System in 1982.
I've worked in Telecom (AT&T, Verizon, Virgin Mobile, Sprint, T-Mobile and Boost) since the mid-1980's and have been thru major rounds of layoffs literally dozens of times (impacted 1 time personally when AT&T shut down their entire Consumer Business in 2003) so I can certainly emphasize with others enduring the same.
This could well be Verizon's "new norm" going forward (also Telcom & Corp America) with AI, automation and operational changes significantly take hold.
P.s., I've previously worked closely with Verizon's CEO, Dan Schulman at AT&T and Virgin Mobile over the years. He's a good Executive doing what's necessary to right Verizon's lagging performance.