#news

Hoping we’re done for the holidays, but not feeling very confident.

I just heard that the 11/20 date is moving to 12/20.

Fundamentally Fiserv is a good company and strongly believe that it will bounce back under the leadership of our courageous, professional leader, peoples' person and The Beloved Mike Lyons.

Along the way.. MTG steps up to standby 'America First'.. Hatsoff..

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5605801-marjorie-taylor-greene-h-1b-visas/

She called the H-1B program “riddled with fraud and abuse” and said it had been “displacing Americans for decades.”

Trump has largely agreed with this assessment but has recently sought to reform the visa process rather than eliminate it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV-bEhI2nNw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV-bEhI2nNw

Layoff Tactics Keep Changing, and the Blunders Keep Coming

• Amazon informed staffers via a text-email combo. Target asked workers to stay home. Does any of that make job cuts less painful?*

When Amazon started laying off 14,000 employees last month, some workers got a text at home telling them to check their email.

The email subject line read: "Update Regarding Your Role at Amazon." Inside: "Unfortunately, your role is being eliminated." Employees could join a voluntary meeting with a company leader or HR rep to ask questions. Some thought: Why bother?

Source: https://www.wsj.com/business/layoff-job-cut-strategy-changes-9b8ef26a

The quick text-email approach shows how layoff tactics keep evolving. The pandemic brought individual Zoom calls and surprise HR meeting invites. Now, the goal is efficiency with fewer chances for public drama or group grieving.

Companies want to share bad news "as quickly as possible across a large swath of the employee population" to control the message and limit worker stress, said George Penn, a managing VP at Gartner who advises on staff cuts.

There's never a good way to tell employees they're losing their jobs, he said, but "you're looking for the least-bad option."

Many employees disagree. The newer methods have drawn criticism. "Who thought that was OK?" a user wrote about Amazon's layoffs. "When you lay people off with dignity, you prove your values are real. When you do it via text? You prove they were just words."

Recent layoffs have had other problems: inaudible Zoom calls, technical glitches. Some managers were cut out, unable to answer questions or explain dismissals to their teams.

## Why companies keep changing tactics

One reason is to prevent disruptions. Southwest Airlines closed corporate offices to most staff during its corporate layoffs earlier this year. Some employees learned their status at home on video calls in listen-only mode. Target told U.S. corporate employees to work from home the week in October when it conducted layoffs.

Remote layoff decisions prevent teary office goodbyes as workers leave conference rooms after bad news, according to HR specialists. It also solves a logistics problem: When companies cut thousands of workers at once, there usually aren't enough HR people or leaders for individual meetings.

## When things go wrong

Plenty can still fail. During Target's recent layoffs, some employees logged onto a Zoom call and hit an audio glitch in the first few minutes that stopped them from hearing parts of the conversation. The company later emailed workers to apologize and confirm they'd been laid off, according to a note viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

A Target spokesman acknowledged the audio issue but said the follow-up email was always planned. He added that the Zoom glitch didn't stop those in the meeting from hearing the information before the call ended.

Other cuts have led to bigger scenes. After media company Condé Nast said it would move Teen Vogue under Vogue.com and let some employees go, a group of workers confronted HR executive Stan Duncan outside his office to ask why. Video of the encounter spread fast online. Condé Nast later fired four participants in the office protest and suspended others.

The firings sparked their own protest in a rally outside Condé Nast headquarters in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday. New York Attorney General Letitia James attended, where people held signs saying, "Reinstate the Fired Four." James threatened to take Condé Nast to court.

A Condé Nast spokeswoman said those terminations were lawful and based on clear policy violations. "We have an obligation to protect our workplace from harassment and intimidation," she said. "If the attorney general has concerns, we are happy to respond."

Some companies warn in advance that layoffs are coming to soften the blow, though that can create anxiety too. Verizon Communications CEO Daniel Schulman indicated in an all-hands meeting recently that layoffs were coming, according to someone familiar with the matter. The company plans to eliminate roughly 15,000 jobs in the coming days, its largest cuts ever, the Journal previously reported.

## Does any of this matter?

Veteran HR specialists say yes. The tone and style of a layoff discussion can greatly affect how employees process a dismissal.

"For a lot of people, the way it's communicated to them actually will reduce the chances that it's a negative separation," said Vanessa Matsis-McCready, VP of HR services at Engage PEO, which handles HR functions for small and midsize businesses.

To prepare companies, she often suggests HR executives role-play layoff interactions. When she does such exercises with clients, Matsis-McCready often plays a frustrated or emotional employee learning of a layoff.

"I've cried. I've done very angry responses," she said. "It is really important to be prepared for any type of response."

The goal is to learn how to calm a situation and respond with care. A one-on-one conversation with an employee that goes well can help prevent a laid-off worker from posting on social media or voicing anger elsewhere.

"When you're laying somebody off," she said, "you're trying to be human about it."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV-bEhI2nNw

Toledo is laying off today, first thing this morning it was happening.

Higher ups were supposed to get calls today.. anyone on here in the know and willing to share what’s going on?

https://nypost.com/2025/11/14/business/ousted-verizon-boss-could-still-pocket-most-of-20m-salary-as-company-cuts-15000-jobs-report/

Vice-owned Pulse Films, the storied transatlantic production company behind Gangs of London, American Honey and The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann, is exiting the high-end TV and film game after 20 years.

https://deadline.com/2025/11/vice-layoffs-london-pulse-films-shuts-tv-film-division-1236619967/

what does CSCO have <2B??? I kind of feel sorry for CR and the gang.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2025/11/17/jensen-huang-just-delivered-incredible-news-for-nv/

The situation in the Nordics is not ideal...denmark for instance is not in the best shape with Novo firing 5000 employees already and this is not the only company with high numbers of fired people. Any news on the Nordics?

This is apparently a big story: Eli Lily is dropping Caremark as their PBM and moving to Rightway (same as Tyson Foods had done a few years back). Rightway is a fee service PBM (no rebates, odd pricing, etc).

I feel like CareMark is really endangered

Source:
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/eli-lilly-drops-cvs-dr-g-plan-workers-after-novo-obesity-deal-bloomberg-news-2025-11-12/

Tracking participants count #general Slack channel in Oracle One workspace, as the fastest available proxy indication of ongoing layoffs.

• nov01-nov17: 682 layoffs, 791 additions (based on Slack regular tracking)
• oct01-oct29: 1950 layoffs, 1689 additions (based on Slack regular tracking)
• sep02-sep30: 6275 layoffs, 861 additions (based on Slack regular tracking)
• aug14-sep01: 733 layoffs (based on Slack very few data points)
• aug01-aug14: ?2900 layoffs in IDC (based on media reports)

Regions outside IDC and NA usually have a significant delay when laid off people are disconnected from Slack (e.g. 1 month in Pacific regions, perhaps longer in some EU countries), so this is a floor estimate with additions reflected immediately, but reductions lagging behind on average.

I will post daily in comments on the count change and running current month total while this post is still on the first page.

The North Carolina-based book distributor Baker and Taylor LLC laid off 253 Illinois workers this month after announcing the closure of its Momence facility.

https://www.pjstar.com/story/news/state/2025/11/16/layoffs-ahead-for-over-1500-illinois-workers-heres-what-we-know/87233878007/

For fans dreaming of returning to Middle-earth in a new, next-gen adventure, the news isn’t good. Amazon’s ambitious Lord of the Rings MMORPG, which had been in development since early 2023, has reportedly been cancelled.

https://geektyrant.com/news/amazons-lord-of-the-ring-mmorpg-reportedly-cancelled-after-massive-layoffs

After over a decade in the position, Walmart Inc. CEO and President Doug McMillon will retire Jan. 31.

Current Walmart U.S. President and CEO John Furner has been elected by the board of directors to succeed McMillon effective Feb. 1, according to a Friday press release. Furner has also been elected to the board effective immediately and the company plans to announce his successor before the end of fiscal year 2026.

https://www.retaildive.com/news/walmart-ceo-doug-mcmillon-retires-john-furner-succeeds/805522/

Bayer has let go of about 13,500 employees, including around 5,000 managers, since implementing a new operating model in early 2024. CEO Bill Anderson said in a recent earnings call that he expects a slower rate of headcount reduction moving forward.

https://www.biospace.com/job-trends/bayer-layoffs-continued-in-q3-but-ceo-says-cuts-should-be-incremental-moving-forward

Solgen Power LLC, which merged with Oregon-based Purelight Power, is laying off 104 workers in Washington effective Jan. 13., according to a notice filed Friday with the state Employment Security Department, as required by the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN Act.

https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/business/article312925080.html

https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2025/11/intel-lays-off-669-more-oregon-workers-as-local-headcount-dwindles.html

Tis the season

https://healthpoint.com/technology/why-is-unitedhealthcare-cutting-remote-monitoring-coverage/

During last 20 years- since 2005, the usa has lost more than one third of its newspapers & three quarters of its newspaper journalism jobs

Unknown number of employees

https://nypost.com/2025/11/14/business/ousted-verizon-boss-could-still-pocket-most-of-20m-salary-as-company-cuts-15000-jobs-report/

By being special advisor for a year, Hans will still get his $20m bonus

Seems Alaska wasn’t hit as hard as other places.

https://techrights.org/n/2025/11/15/Many_IBM_Workers_to_Become_Unemployed_a_Few_Weeks_Maybe_Just_Da.shtml

What is with the Tesco lawsuit? Seem Samsung as well?

https://cloudinfra.blog/how-broadcoms-takeover-of-vmware-sparked-lawsuits-patch-access-fights-and-a-licensing-backlash/

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/business/luxury-electric-vehicles.html

EVs are not for America, maybe by 2030.

It's the best decision for all of these companies to stop producing EV trucks that people don't want, can't afford, and not efficient. I will buy EV if it can give me over 650 miles range.

I recently found out that Hughes doesn’t actually own the Jupiter-3 satellite, it’s leased from EchoStar, and Hughes pays about $190 million per year for that lease.

I also learned that the SpaceX–EchoStar spectrum deal includes a clause requiring EchoStar/Hughes to refer new customers to Starlink. Essentially, if someone wants satellite internet, EchoStar will direct them to SpaceX’s Starlink service . Bonkers 🤯

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/verizon-layoffs-add-to-mounting-toll-across-large-companies-165130821.html

You hear it first here. Ready for your last Christmas meal, coffees and bananas.

The AI bubble is bursting, the so called AI factories are doomed. Yann LeCun left Meta tired with the shennanigans of Zuck and his honchos.. Nothing good on the horizon for Dell either..

DXC's Jennifer Ragone Recognized with the 2025 N2Growth Leaders40 Top CHRO Award.

Exciting times. Way to go.

https://youtu.be/OKgurZ0CRDE

President Donald Trump said he was “very much opposed” to last month’s controversial immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia, while South Korean President Lee Jae Myung warned the incident may hinder future U.S. factory construction.

Following urgent negotiations, the workers were returned to South Korea on a chartered flight. The operation, however, leaves the plant with a startup delay of two to three months. The setback comes as Seoul already faces 25% U.S. tariffs on automobiles, compared to 15% for Japanese and European competitors.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Lee said the treatment of the workers came as a surprise: “Many in Korea were surprised because our workers who went to the United States to help the U.S. with its manufacturing renaissance received irrational treatment.” He also characterized the experience as traumatic for both workers and their families, noting some that some no longer want to go back. “Unless we completely resolve this issue, I believe that they will not want to return,” he said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/business/bill-pulte-mobile-homes-fhfa.html

https://www.intelligentinsurer.com/john-neal-wont-be-president-of-aig-after-all

For the curious former employees, what happened? Who got laid off?

https://www.lawyerly.com.au/nielsen-exec-claims-unfair-dismissal-after-husbands-axing-cant-get-job-back/