Omg. So true! WHAT AN HONEST VERIZON LAYOFF EMAIL WOULD'VE SOUNDED LIKE:
Team,
I’ve seen your messages, and I appreciate the hope that leadership will “do the right thing.” But in corporate America, “the right thing” usually means whatever keeps shareholders happy.
So let’s be blunt. For years, investors have said Verizon is too big, too slow, and too costly. Wall Street wants higher margins and better returns — now. Our board wants fewer excuses and more “cost discipline” and “EPS expansion.”
And when shareholders want something, that’s who we serve. So today, we’re laying off more than 13,000 employees. Not because these people failed, and not because of sudden inefficiencies, but because cutting headcount is the fastest way to boost profitability on paper.
This isn’t strategy. It’s arithmetic.
Fewer salaries + fewer benefits + fewer contractors = lower costs = higher margins = a stock chart that slopes up.
Publicly, we’ll talk about “simplifying operations,” “reducing friction,” and “accelerating customer experience.” Internally, here’s the truth: this is about keeping Wall Street confident. As for the $20 million Reskilling and Career Transition Fund: it’s PR. It’s tiny compared to the payroll we’re cutting, but it gives us something noble-sounding to point to when headlines hit.
To those leaving: you weren’t the problem. You were just expensive in a system that rewards expense reduction.
To those staying: your workload is going up. When we say “customer-first culture,” we mean “do more with less, faster.”
Yes, we expect full motivation even as teams shrink. Contradictory, but that’s corporate survival. You’ll soon see restructuring charts, new org designs, and plenty of agility-and-accountability language. All of it decorates one reality: we are cutting costs to boost profitability.
Verizon’s future will be defined by how lean we can be and how well we convince Wall Street that “leaner and faster” means “stronger,” even if stronger just means cheaper.
Thank you to those departing. And thank you to those staying — we’re counting on you to carry more with fewer hands.
Together, we will build a more profitable Verizon.
Dan Schulman, CEO, Verizon
Well before tomorrow’s “holiday” I will leave you with this:
Juneteenth specifically marks June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the last enslaved people in the Confederate states, over two years after President Lincoln's proclamation was issued. While the Emancipation Proclamation applied only to states in rebellion, not the loyal border states or already Union-controlled areas, slavery was also a reality in the North. Northern states had begun gradual emancipation earlier, but some still had enslaved individuals until the ratification of the 13th Amendment in December 1865, which ultimately abolished slavery nationwide. Thus, Juneteenth celebrates a pivotal moment in the South's emancipation, while recognizing that the end of slavery across the entire U.S. was a more complex and drawn-out process.
What election results would sound like from a NASCAR driver. “The #47 Donald Trump, JD Vance, Elon Musk Chevrolet was awesome. We had some help in the back stretch from RFK and Tulsi, Charlie Kirk also took a little wedge out. All and all a great day for the #47 Chevy, She was just awesome!”