Verizon to lay off 44,000 employees

Dear Verizon Employees:

By this point you've no doubt heard that Verizon will pay you three
weeks salary for every year of service, if you leave the company
voluntarily. You're probably wondering whether you should stay and hope for
the best, or should you take the money and run.

Stop wondering. Take the money. Tell your boss--today--that you
want the severance package. Regardless of how long you've worked for the
company, the money is a much better deal than what's coming down the
pike. Here's why:

1. Voluntary layoffs create an exodus of talent.

The moment Verizon announced the package, the most talented people--the ones
who have skills most in demand--immediately put out the word that they're
available. They'll be hired quickly so, for them, the severance
package is a sweet bonus.

That's nice for them, but not nice for you (if you're not one of
them), because companies  tank when they lose a lot of talent.
After all, it's the talented employees (and emphatically not the
blowhards in top management) that have been keeping the company afloat,
right?

2. Further layoffs are inevitable.
Since the top talent will soon disappear, the company will inevitably be in
a weaker position after the layoffs. And since top management clearly thinks
layoffs are a panacea rather than a sign of desperation, the layoffs will
keep coming.

Layoffs are (or should be) like surgery. You want to cut everything that
needs cutting as quickly as possible and get the patient into recovery.
Starting with voluntary layoffs, however, is a sure sign that a company's
unwitting strategy is "death by a thousand cuts."

3. The next package will be less generous.
This will be the only time that you'll be able to get three week's
salary per year of service. The next layoff it will be two, maybe one, week'
s salary per year of service. Then it will "pack your things, you&#
39;re out."

Don't fool yourself into thinking that voluntary layoffs mean that top
management cares about employees. Voluntary layoffs are a sign of
indecisiveness not altruism. As it becomes clear (as it will) that the
company is failing, you'll find out exactly how much they care about you.

4. You are next on the list.

Now, you may think that you're so valuable to the company that they'd never
lay you off. You may even think that you'll be even MORE
valuable to the company once your internal competition has left for greener
pastures. But it doesn't work that way.

The mere fact that top management has outsourced the decision-making on who
goes and who stays to their employees shows that Verizon's top
management has no idea who's valuable and who's deadwood.

5. Verizon's larger corporate strategy sucks.
The four points above are true of every company that institutes of voluntary
layoffs. In Verizon's case, though, the layoffs are part of an overall
strategy that's equally stupid. Which makes sense, since companies that try
voluntary layoffs, by definition, are being led by idiots.

To confirm this, all one needs to do is look at how CEO Hans Vestberg framed
the decision to Verizon employees as

"an opportunity to find more efficiencies in the size and scope of our V
Team and help expedite the building of an innovative operating model for
our future."