Geeze, CNN is dense! It's not like 10,400 just decided to up and quit, one day, because the economy is allegedly so great.
It was more like someone holding a gun to your head. You can take this pile of money and walk away, or I'll shoot you.
"Oh, so you CHOSE to take the money and quit. God bless you."
I took the buyout. I got an offer with another company a week after the revocation period closed. Say what you want, but Verizon is good for the resume and I had a lot of potential options. It was fairly painless for me to find a new job. I’m not so sure it would have been so easy if the market was bad.
That's labor that could better be used elsewhere. Everyone has cell phones now, it's not a growth story anymore. No one misses the pony express now that email's come along, and no one misses traffic cops now that we have traffic lights either. A greater labor supply will make prices cheaper for the things we actually want. Adam Smith wrote about this all the way back in 1776.
@mdj - Never really lived in fear of layoffs... just no point in worrying about something I have no control over. Went 21 years without my number coming up.
Now, what did enter into it was an assessment of what changes I'd have to go through- and given was was going on in my group, massive change was inevitable. So I elected to get a big check and have a choice in my big change, rather than just the big change within engineering and hope I like the new org.
There were other factors- but in short, I didn't think I would get laid off if I didn't volunteer.
CNN fake news (fake drama) ;-)
Most long time tenured employees that are not ready for retirement pushed the button because they felt they were targets for future layoffs. Push now and get more money or wait for the inevitable with less money. Many took the plunge now with more lead time to find a new job. Also, many tenured employees were “restructured” downward over the past several years in positions that did not utilize their skillsets.
@tied to sinking ship -- I didn't realize that not all who volunteered were accepted. Wow.
That said, I bet Verizon loses about 1/2 of those that volunteered and were rejected in the next year or two.
Sounds like a morale loser all the way around. Brilliant VZ.
“Those who weren’t confident stayed on the sinking ship”?
Try being one that did click the button but was denied. Tied to the sinking ship against your will.
"Drama much?"
Are you telling me that the possibility of a layoff had nothing to do with your decision?
Because, I talked to a few people I know at Verizon and that was exactly what they were concerned about. (Out of the six I talked to -- one is retirement age.)
I don't think any of them necessarily wanted to leave and they all hard time making a decision because they wondered if they'd get laid off if they didn't take the buyout.
So, once again -- it wasn't: "Gee, the economy is doing great -- so I might as well get an extra pile of money and go to work somewhere else." At least not for most of them.
One guy, who's in his middle-forties asked my opinion. I told him, personally I'd take the buyout, if I were in his position, since he had a high-demand job, in a busy part of the country. But he was still afraid he couldn't find work.
Ultimately he didn't take the buyout. For his sake I hope he doesn't get laid off soon. The decision to stay was hard for him.
It's pretty myopic of this CNN reporter to see this as only a "the economy is doing great" thing.
It is good sign. It shows 10k people have confidence they will find a new job before their severance runs out. Those who weren't confident stayed on the slowly sinking ship.
Drama much?
Didn't feel that way at all to me.... but if unemployment was still pushing 10%, and there was very little prospects to get another job, I would not have volunteered- I'm not of retirement age.