I've been listening to the quarterly calls as a shareholder for years.
The changes in tune have been breathtaking. Buys TW and talks to the analysts like John Stankey is the second coming of Samuel L. Goldwyn. Then, on the next call three months later acts as if that never happened, that we were pure and simple focused on telecomm.
The financial media on these calls is polite but they're listening and looking at the numbers. That's why the market never rewards these rosy reports. These guys lost credibility years ago.
The free-cash-flow debacle is merely the latest example. Anyone leading this company would have to address that with cost cuts, and labor is a big piece of cost.
A normal layoff would involves carefully calibrated age and diversity requirements, all of which takes expensive planning and opens exposure to litigation.
But job role moves instead? We cut labor costs quickly without having to consider EEO or diversity, or even having to offer severance—just move the roles and voila, 15 % of the workforce has to relocate themselves or be gone. Plus it gives some cover for all the money sunk into renovating offices and plazas.
These are executives whose feelings get hurt when their town hall isn't standing room only. They don't even drive themselves, much less configure VPNs or remote clients. So not surprising for For them the costs of parking, vehicles (not to mention drivers and pilots) is pocket change at their level of compensation. When you're at home, your IT savvy staff is not in the next room. We sell this stuff but use it.