Thread regarding Sprint layoffs

Hello former Sprint employee here. I left voluntarily four years ago and have never looked back. I could see the writing on the wall even in 2016. I knew that it wasn't a matter of if the merger was approved it was a matter of when and the Sprint employees would be the ones impacted. While I never said the merger was good for Sprint there was no way they would make it on their own so it's kind of a lose/lose situation. I was there for 20 years and saw it go from a thriving company to circling the drain on life support. All because of poor management decisions. Best of luck to you

Nearly all acquisitions end up this way. If you study the history of these kinds of business transactions, the acquiring company does this. During the process, the executives talk about "team" and "growth" and all kinds of cliched terminology. Sprint has been limping along for many years and could have eventually filed for bankruptcy or layed off tens of thousands and become a regional carrier. It didn't have the kind of financial backing to survive long-term against the big boys of telecom. This was the best outcome with where it was in its financial condition.

I remember when sprint bought centel, our local phone company. Oh its going to be great. a few years it was okay but they didn't spend any money on improvements and then sold us off after they took all the profits they could. It seems the way of telecommunication.. sadly this is not the end.

I remember listening to the first town hall after Marcelo announced the merger was back on, and thinking...this won't end well. Marcelo fed us all that line of BS that he "listened to the people" when the overwhelming response was to go it alone and walk away from the merger. He pantomimed the walk away, just to make sure we all felt like he had our backs. Dude NEVER had our backs. He was there to get PAID, just like every other executive. He made $100 million on the stock he was given for his TIA. Sprint was never intended to survive. It was a long con by Masa. With maybe a few exceptions, we sprinters are/will be the ones suffering, and it comes during the worst economy in generations.

What is good for the company and shareholder comes way before what is good for the employee

Does anyone remember the very first conference call?? Everyone is safe we are not and have no plans of laying of anyone!! I knew this day would come and everyone I was around had a blind eye. Everyone was told were safe we are creating new positions for everyone!! T-Mobile just lies like every other company

I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! They said that there would be jobs for everyone...BULL! Well, I guess so as long as you want to work in a call center! They want to replace my $80k a year job with one for $40k. Oh and you notice that zero TMO folks are being laid off.

I just lost my position in the company after 10 years, and have been through this scenario previously in my career also after a 10 year stay. I am super frustrated how the current situation played out in regards to the steady flow of misinformation that was given post merger close. Specifically the often used phrase "everyone has a seat at the table."

All that being said. Were any of the people you're speaking of in a position to stop the merger?
I'm guessing they weren't. With the news of a merger you can assume these things will happen. That was certainly my thought when we first heard the news a couple years ago. Probably the same for everyone who was here at that time. So, at that point you had to make a choice to either get on board with it, or be upset about our pending doom. I chose not to dwell on the uncontrollables, and looked for the positive in the situation so I could continue to be a top performer in the business. Does that get me anything at this moment. No, not at all.
I did have a damn good run the last two years though so the fact that you want to sit here and say "I told you so" frankly pisses me off. Being positive doesn't make you stupid, but does make for a better work environment. I'll take a couple days to regroup and then set out on finding my next role which will be hard to do right now, but I'll make it happen. Good luck to you, but please don't make an already terrible situation worse by being an a–hole. T-Mobile has already stepped up to the plate on that front.

Of course! Most of them are learning the hard way like the rest of us older experinced folks that worked for corporations in the past including Sprint.