As somebody said, the layoffs seem to be quarterly right now. October, January, April... If Windstream continues that pattern, we should be safe at least until July.
It's sad but knowing that would make me feel better. I gave up job security long ago, so at least getting a temporary reprieve from worrying would be great.
What kinda changes are coming, let us hear it
Lots of change just around the corner.
State unemployment laws when a company moves your job overseas.. for example. It's not a salary but, you draw unemployment while your schooling is paid.
Check your local states unemployment laws / laws pertaining to being laid-off.
How do you get paid for school/ retraining from layoff?
@Good evening
Rochester also closed an office and consolidated from 3 buildings into 2. There are still 2 switch sites, I am sure one of those will close this year.
I don’t know about that. I heard today that Charlotte is closing two buildings: the one near southpark, and the white building. They are moving all people to the brick building, and all will be moved over by October. The brick building cannot fit all these people. Certain departments will obviously be cut, whether in the brick building, or the other two. After hearing this, it may seem that this next one will be major. I heard this today from several people in the other buildings. My group works with them on certain functions, and my team only has less than 15 people.
"Most people who read and comment on this site are extremely disgruntled."....that does seem to be correct. But I heard that almost 50% of the employees disagreed with the statement 'I rarely think / look for another job outside of WIndstream' on the latest Employee Engagement survey. Is this correct? If correct then this board is more reflective of the company as a whole than some would like to believe.
Even more shocking a very large percentage of employees would never recommend the products that Windstream sells. These two statements seem to be very telling and further undermine Windstream management style and the leadership. The new business model will change as have all of Tony Thomas plans due to continuing failure of leadership. Sad but True
To know whether or not you are safe - we'd need to know both your job and your area. Some areas are letting go and not back filling - some areas are letting going but, hiring more in needed areas...etc.
Most people who read and comment on this site are extremely disgruntled.... so good luck fishing through their crap.
If you are in a position which supports the new business model - your likely pretty safe. If you are supporting legacy crap - polish your resume - your layoff is coming.
From a hiring perspective, the idea of "getting a job whilst having a job is easier" and "people look for committed employees who stay in positions for years" is an out dated concept.
Fact is - no company is loyal to you. Most companies (especially tech) don't expect you to stay forever (cause tech gets old and so does the ideas of the stagnant people who support them). There are several business articles floating around you can google for reading enjoyment which cover this idea. You can get a new job every year or two and will look better for doing it.
I work in an area where tech is not a growing industry... (Tech: network engineering / support). So - competition is high and the other tech companies around here just laid off tons of employees too). I'm not getting a good job by just looking. I need to look and get lucky. But, if I get laid off - I get to go back to school paid for re-training... ergo - I hope I get laid off cause, that's the best option at the moment.
I'd stop asking for advice from here and look at your local area and skills.
Your numbers are a bit off. The raises are budgeted for 1.5 but some will get more and some will get less. Also being that only hourly employees are getting raises your number of 96% not getting raises means only 4% of Win workforce is hourly? Not likely but the rest of you post is pretty accurate
Windstream wages have not kept up with inflation for several years. Last year Tony (its not a prison) Thomas received over a 20% increase in pay while stiffing the workers and driving down the capitalized value of the company by 80%. I would like to know who is measuring his job performance, as their skill set must lie elsewhere! If he had driven the company value down by 90% would he have been given a bigger or smaller increase?
This year a very small amount of workers can get up to a 1.5% increase but 96% of employees will get zero (again) while Directors and above are set to get both raises and bonuses in 2018.
In light of all this greed and incompetence at the very top, would being laid-off be so bad? Send the pink slips out Tony because working for you is nauseating! I cannot believe the Board of Directors allowed you to destroy moral to this level !!
As previous rants on this forum show the margins are p!ss poor in the Enterprise B.U. which is the CLEC services. If the FCC or should I say Verizon's Washington DC office... Change the rules those margins go from crap to nothing... Also the FCC (pre Trump) has already allowed for the ILECs to retire the copper. Which means the legacy TDM services are doomed. They are already decommission ing some of those services right now. Yet sadly TDM services do make up a substantial percent of our Enterprise customers and TDM services have higher margins than not owned metro E (nni) services... So effectively Enterprise is not a safe place at all... The only thing that BU has is the Carrier or wholesale service which according to earnings had pretty good return and margins.
Yet the troubles of this company are too vast for a good chance of redemption. This will not end well. Sad to say Windstream does not have 1000s of programmers... What we do have is a 1:8 manager to employee ratio and a network that has gone far past it's prime. Leadership that is out of touch and incompetent and a group of middle management that are borderline ret@rds... People if your house hold depends on Windstream for it's majority income FOR GOD SAKES find another job! Inform your coworkers! Don't let anyone be blindsided.
Nobody wants to look... would rather live day to day with doom and gloom than to give up that extra week of vaca they might lose when moving elsewhere. Always assume they can't negotiate that extra week or too... and don't even try. At least grab an interview with an offer to see... or stay here and worry.
Seeing as how the REIT owns the bulk of the network assets, what exactly does Windstream have to sell? A usage agreement along with some old trucks, outdated test gear, and a seriously depleted spares inventory? Maybe throw in the network records they managed to jumble and monkey f*ck to the point of being useless as an incentive? Good luck with finding anyone willing to pay a decent penny for anything associated with Windstream after the stink they’ve put on their “brand”.
On Tonys call with JP Morgan Chase he slipped up and said they have a buyer lined up for the CSMB business. He also mentioned that a traditional CLEC business selling type 2 services is dead. With the changes in FCC rulings it's really hard to make money with off net transport. I would imagine they have their closing for the sale of those BU's to align with Q2 earnings call. Along with that as others have mentioned will be layoffs a few weeks ahead of that. He also reiterated that we are a software company with 1000s of engineers writing code. That is where the future is not in a TDM network with lots of the CLEC baggage that we have. With all of that said I would imagine we end up with a 50% reduction in workforce by the end of next year.
In June, there will be blood. Watch out if you get put on a PIP. PIP = RIP
It’s always better to find a new job while you are still working. Just saying!
If you think you're going to end up looking for another job, why not start now? The demand for qualified employees is intense. The time to change jobs, in this industry, has never been better in the past 20 years. Besides, you'll probably end up with a 30-50% raise. Windstream is about the only company downsizing and not giving out raises. (except to TT).