Thread regarding Verizon Communications Inc. layoffs

The guy should have gotten something for being above power maybe a day , because he shouldn’t have been up that high . And VZ should have done something saying how much guys do for the community .

@2mfg ..... not necessarily. A cat can take a fall from 19 stories or better and still survive without a broken leg or serious injury.

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17492802

The tech that retrieved the cat erred in his judgement to retrieve the cat. It is not the job of technicians to retrieve animals, toy, or other items for customers. He was above power and that is a no-no. Lucky to still have his job.

So that’s a polecat?

@1cqz, that was in a lot different a situation than a cat stuck up in a tree.

IMO, That cat would have fried or died without kind intervention, or at least broken its legs.

A happier ending for this lucky feline than that Bronx garage cat.

Have you asked yourself WHY the fire department, police department and animal control did not help?? That should be your first clue. The cat would have eventually come down on it's own.

Let's get a few things straight.

1)The neighbors DID call the Fire department, Police department and animal services and were told that they couldn't help.

2) While he is technically working above "electric" which is unsafe and against the rules, it isn't a high power electric feed for the street. It is actually the electric feed for the street lights (as anyone with line experience knows). And because he is a highly trained union lineman, he was witnessed checking the pole for foreign voltage.

3) Management originally wanted to FIRE him. The union is the only reason he didn't lose his job.

What kind of company do we work for? So sad.

As a cat guardian for over 50 years, if a cat can get up, it get down, when it wants too.

The biggest issue here, is legal liabilities.

If the tech or someone got hurt, a big lawsuit would hit VZ.

As to the post talking about Jesus, Jesus is more concerned about our salvation, that a cat.

Rock the catbox...rock the catbox...

At the end of the day, Verizon's number one responsibility is to get that employee and every employee home safely. This employee is working a very dangerous job for the company where over the years outside technicians in his position have been killed.

He has been trained and retrained over his entire career not to operate the equipment in the manner he did. If you violate a critical safety directive as this technician has, it cannot go undisciplined.

That being said my opinion a safety step should have been applied instead of a suspension. My feeling is there is an id--tic manager or two in his work location.

Verizon strategically transferred 2,500 workers to Indian Outsourcing company Infosys. These are people with families, mortgages, healthcare needs. At the same time, rewarding executives with lucrative annual compensation packages... $18 million, $14 million, $10 million. Even executives that cost the company billions of dollars are rewarded with enormous $60 million severance packages.

Suspending an employee for being an ethical and kind human being is soulless. It's a real shame to see the lack of empathy and compassion at Verizon.

This show's you they learned nothing from the 2016 strike and the place is still filled with incompetent managers the jerks that stayed.

For all those of you on the inside and non-Union employees, this is par for the course as to how old school management treats the outside Union employee in the North East.

It's actually funny that this makes a splash because there are even way far less unfair trivial "infractions" that you buy time for.

100% every guy on that site joked " you know we're getting time for this"

Look at the picture. He was working in power space. Clearly he is above power line which is a big no no. He is not trained nor authorized to work in power space hence the suspension for working unsafe. Try looking at it from both sides. When i worked there, someone got killed working in a bucket above communication space and the union blamed the company cause of "lack of training" and now you got a guy trying to do the right thing but risking another death on companys dime. It would have been different if it was a cat in a tree.

Verizon will hire some expensive communication strategists to hide this. CBS Philadelphia will be punished with less advertising revenue... don't bite the hand that feeds you

The absolute wrong people to get angry and upset with you is cat and dog owners....most would rather a human to suffer before a pet....Unfortunately for Verizon, there are approximately 170 Million pet owners in the United States and this is going viral.

Most likely this is the backward and old school vindictive thinking of 3 Bozo managers who should have taken the package as the CEO demanded but didn't

Hans is changing the culture ridding the company of Bozo clowns like these mo--n fools....hopefully they are next to go.

I say good riddance!

Verizon is filled with too many phony bureaucratic corporate types. This Verizon employee exhibited kindness, empathy, and ethics... yet he is suspended for 3 weeks. How could an ethical person work in Basking Ridge with these snakes?

Would Jesus align with the corporate culture of Verizon? Outsourcing jobs, $60 million severance packages, exorbitant executive packages. It's sleazy and disgusting.

If this should have happened in 1955 he would have been a hero. People's spriorities are very skewed today. What the lineman did is what he does on a daily basis and probably far less unsafe. If this was done for an upper management person it would have been great. Hippocrates. Lame company. Lame donation to divert attention

There is a fine line between suspending him or laughing at this and moving on. The company should have laughed at this and moved on. They show just why a union is necessary when they act like this.

Already been one thread on this here. The fact that someone took this to the press may not bode well for the tech and future techs. Airing public ones' private laundry is usually not a good idea and Verizon now has an even stronger reason to keep their eye on this guy.

Public knowledge of this will not in any way change the outcome for the tech; nor will Verizon decide it is OK to use a company boom to retrieve cats, kites, birds, toys or other items.

As posted in another thread:

The right thing to do would have been to leave the cat where it was and advise the person to call the fire department. While Verizon could have used this as a nice promo the bottom line is that due to potential liability the company cannot permit every tech in the field with a bucket truck to go retrieving animals and pets. Eventually there will be the tech that injures or kills them self or another while trying to do the 'right thing'.