
Verizon Says 44,000 Managers Qualify for Company Buyout Offer - emeraldd
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-03/verizon-says-44-000-managers-qualify-for-company-buyout-offer
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whack
Aren't these buyout offers the worst way to trim headcount? The people most
likely to take them are the ones who are good at their job, and confident of
landing another one at a different company. The people least likely to take
them are the mediocre ones who know they'll never land an equally good
position elsewhere. If you want to keep your best people, this seems like the
exact opposite way to do it.

~~~
in_cahoots
Many times the offers are a thinly-veiled attempt to get rid of their older
(more expensive) employees. People nearing retirement age are most likely to
have many years of service, making a severance package that pays per tenure
especially appealing. And there’s the threat of layoffs if you don’t accept
the offer. If you’re in your 50s or 60s it’s hard to get a new job regardless
of how qualified you are, so this makes gambling on your continued employment
risky.

My mother went through this exact exercise two years ago. Management was clear
that, if not enough employees took the buyout, they would start layoffs with
less generous terms. From previous rounds of layoffs she knew older employees
were the first to go, so she took the buyout and got 52 weeks paid severance.

The day she resigned, she received a termination letter offering only 40
weeks. Fortunately the company stood by the more generous offer. But it took
her the better part of a year to get a new job, and it pays much less than the
one she invested 30+ years in. She’s from a generation when you worked at a
single company for life, but companies don’t operate like that any more.

~~~
positr0n
Almost the exact same thing happened to one of my family members too. 50 year
old programmer with a decade+ tenure at a large corporation. 52 weeks
severance retirement offer. It took a year to find a new job and only now,
almost a decade later, is he above his old salary.

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jsnell
> The incentive includes three weeks’ pay for every year of service, thanks in
> part to profit-enhancing benefits from new corporate tax laws.

I genuinely had to check whether this was some kind of a parody site.
"Corporate tax cuts are great, companies can now afford to give bigger
severance packages!"

~~~
_jal
I'd read that as, "The investor class has not quite yet internalized regarding
the recent tax changes as their god-given birthright, so at the moment they
don't squeal quite so loudly when the proles get a nickel."

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yostrovs
Amazing that they have 44,000 managers

~~~
ExBritNStuff
They use the term manager for lots of roles that don't actually have any
management function. I worked on a team within Verizon that had ~40 people,
all of whom were considered managers, even though none of us, other than the
two actual managers, had any people under us.

~~~
minikites
For those who may not know, companies do this so they can classify as many
workers as possible as "exempt employees" meaning they are exempt from
overtime pay and other worker protections.

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zdragnar
"In general, to be considered an “exempt” employee, you must be paid a salary
(not hourly) and must perform executive, administrative or professional
duties."

[https://www.thebalancecareers.com/exempt-and-a-non-exempt-
em...](https://www.thebalancecareers.com/exempt-and-a-non-exempt-
employee-2061988)

To be honest, I'm a little surprised that these employees couldn't be
considered administrative or professional without a managerial title.

Edit: reading further, this clarifies a bit: "These categories are
purposefully broad to encompass many types of jobs. However, it is the tasks
performed on the job, not the job title alone, which determine exempt vs. non-
exempt employment status." Essentially, it's __not __entirely a cop-out by
companies to avoid worker protections.

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onetimemanytime
>> _" Verizon had 153,100 employees as of June."_

and 44,000 managers qualify for the buyout. Let's assume that 100% of managers
qualify, so they only have 44k managers. What am I missing in corp America? 1
in 3-4 is a manager?

~~~
datavirtue
Yeah. It's a stupid title like "architect."

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sytelus
In past decade Verizon had been rapidly reducing workforce: 224K to 153K. The
44K new cut is massive 29%. So net shedding over a decade is almost 48%. From
the look of the graph, the shading had been at constant rate. This short of
indicates that the problem isn't over-hiring (which they could have fixed by
one time layoffs) but rather attempt to increase stock by risking long term
prospects. AT&T for comparison has over 254K employees. I'm now bit worried
about verizon's long term future. I have been planning to switch to Verizon
from AT&T and now this doesn't give me comfort.

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paul7986
Verizon paid me $4k (business customer svc rep) to go away which I put towards
my first startup/learning to code.

It was a fun place to work with some great people and it’s hard to beat
getting paid to go away(union).

~~~
paul7986
My heart wasn't in this job or profession, but I do thank Verizon immensely
for being a great company to work for and treating their employees very well!

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datavirtue
Why did they hire them to begin with? Joe investor would like to know.

