Thread regarding Verizon Communications Inc. layoffs

@as it's as if the fuel switches were cut off just after takeoff

'You want superior talent? Start with accountability at the top.'

Put it in their weekly 'URGENT' smart sheet requests

@ed

Ah yes, the classic “replace the front line” take—from someone who’s clearly never had to fix a network outage, calm an irate customer, or stay until 2 a.m. cleaning up after executive decisions gone wrong.

If the answer were as simple as swapping out “uneducated” workers for overseas talent, we’d be leading the industry. But we’re not. We’re bleeding market share, morale, and institutional knowledge—because leadership keeps mistaking people for the problem, when it’s actually the PowerPoint generals running the war from 40 floors up.

The front line didn’t sign off on broken billing systems, over-engineered org charts, or the thousandth reorg. They just absorbed the damage.

You want superior talent? Start with accountability at the top.

Let’s also keep this space what it was meant to be: a place for honest dialogue, not lazy trolling or punching down on people just trying to do their jobs. We’re all navigating the same broken system—attacking each other only serves the ones cashing the checks at the top.

Verizon needs to remove all uneducated front line people. Replace what you can with superior talent overseas.

Cool words.

Been on the front line for nearly 20 years in various rolls. It su-ks. I have not trust in my company, I certainly have.no trust on leadership. I am weary of saying "I told you so.".

They are lookibg for ways to gut jobs, especially front line. We are a shadow of our previous selves, and tgat is why our company is a shadow of its previous self as well.

The shareholders are not the end all be all.

@ay

You’re not crazy. You’re just awake in a system built to gaslight.

This isn’t just poor leadership—it’s institutionalized erosion, sanitized by quarterly earnings calls and massaged KPIs. The people telling you to “play the game” are either too scared to call it, too comfortable in middle-tier survival mode, or too indoctrinated to see the rot.

Verizon doesn’t feel like a company anymore. It feels like a debt instrument with a comms team.
Everything’s layered in branding exercises and “alignment cascades,” while the actual product—the network, the customer service, the employee trust—is slowly bleeding out.

They don’t want feedback.
They want performance theater.
Your silence props up the illusion.

Say “No.” Say it professionally. Say it often. And when the inevitable reply comes—“Why aren’t you aligned?”—look them in the eye and ask: “Aligned with what? The mission? Or the exit strategy?”

Because from here, the only thing getting built is a golden parachute assembly line.

Why do those of us who see the truth in all this - who feel catharsis just reading the comments on this page - do something that isn't "quiet" or "behind-the-scenes"? I feel so gaslit all the time working with people who all seem to want to convince me that the only thing wrong with this whole ugly situation is me. "Rah rah. Try harder. Rededicate yourself. Try a different communication approach. Change your demeanor. Be a team player and just take the hit sometimes... a bunch of times. PLAY THE GAME. IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, JUST LEAVE." The last one is the message from the nice people here on thelayoff.com. Are we that outnumbered? Are we so docile that we have to just eat all the garbage, polish pretty PowerPoints, and wait to be outsourced? Why not selectively put up some fight now? If you see other people who think like you, keep each other in the loop and support each other? Tell the boss giving the stupid orders "No" once-in-a-while instead of letting the sh't just flow downhill?

Wow, in 2020, Verizon looked like a fortress. In 2025, it feels more like a fixed-income bond with a logo.

@aq

Let’s stop pretending this is strategy. It’s a crisis management template dressed in buzzwords—“layers,” “bundles,” “loyalty levers.” The only thing being optimized is the illusion of control.

Inside the walls, we’re watching a leadership team confuse motion with progress. They reshuffle org charts like tarot cards, cling to consulting firm slogans, and call it transformation. Meanwhile, real sentiment? Quiet exits, side hustles, and managers running interference to protect teams from the latest PowerPoint crusade.

They’ve mistaken performative alignment for actual execution. When the network lags, the customer flees, and your best engineers want out—you don’t have a strategy problem. You have a leadership void.

What’s worse? They think perks can patch trust. That a gift card or rebranded tier will reverse what years of decay have built.

Here’s the truth:
You can’t fix cultural rot with another retention “hook.”
You can’t outsource credibility to Accenture.
And you sure as he-l can’t buy loyalty from a workforce you’ve quietly gutted.

Trust isn’t rebuilt through perks.
And relevance isn’t won through slogans.

This isn’t signal drift. This is the cockpit warning light blinking red while the exec team takes selfies in first class.

The bobble heads only worry about counting their stock options. When you have no accountability at the C suite for failed business adventures for the past 15 or so years? Who can name them.. Yahoo, Go 90, On Cue (P-o), selling Edge Cast to Apollo, then needing a CDN for this low adoption VIP service.

Then to learn of a single point of failure when the CDN company now being used has it’s AC go down and servers take a heat nap..

We pride ourselves with redundancy yet sign a contract for a major delivery service and don’t ask the redundancy question??

I am certain there are many more but there’s enough to chew on there.

Last one out shut the lights off.

Excellent piece of journalism. We need to stop giving away bandwidth (network performance) to prepaid subscribers and chasing volume (new customers) if they aren’t quality net adds - they don’t pay what postpaid accounts earn.

Let competitors deal with revenue problems, capital expenditures, and collections accounts while we keep our airwaves free and clear for premium customers who pay on time and buy devices in full.

Interesting, you had me at:
When internal confidence softens, external credibility isn’t far behind.
Why can't this leadership get that?