#attrition

Another round of layoffs, affecting a limited number of back-office positions. Recurring pattern in August and November.

We want to save money, so we hire people at the lowest possible rate. Then we burn out the good workers managing the bad ones. The good people leave, the bad ones stay, and we hire more cheap people to fill the gap. Then we wonder why nothing gets done. I'd rather have a team of ten people who actually show up and care, paid enough to stay, than fifteen people who are just sitting around, waiting for their next paycheck.

We've reached the point where even the laziest people, those who work maybe 2-3 hours a day, are leaving for better opportunities. When that's happening, you know things are truly dire. If even the coasters are jumping ship, what's left for the rest of us? Seriously?

Who else is seeing 50-100% turnover on certain teams? Expected to continue? Not to mention executives turning over like crazy or hopping to new roles internally.

Dedicated people with decades of experience are walking away. We're losing our best resource, and nobody in charge seems to care.

Layoffs were just an occasional thing until a couple of years ago. How did we get to a point where they're now happening every few months?

Most people here have been here for years. We joined when the rules were different, when loyalty meant something and a job was for life. Then the rules changed, and for those of us well into our careers, that's been hard to accept. But new hires came in knowing they'll move around and are not afraid to quit after a year or two. It's funny, it's the same company, but completely different mindsets.

Synopsys is in real trouble. Most of the people with actual skills, the ones who could make a difference anywhere, are headed for the door. They've figured out that better pay, significantly better culture, and actual work-life balance are out there. Unless something drastic changes, there won't be any true talent left here soon.

The company will cut you without a hint of hesitation, they've done it before and they'll do it again. Profits come first, people come second. The younger workers aren't wrong to take what they can and move on. They learned what took some of us decades to accept.

After reading so many posts on here about rankings I have realized that even though the rankings are a ridiculous practice that the company still needs them because we have so many people that don’t do anything of value for the company and they have to do a rankings system as justification for having so many pointless positions.
Also, the posts about losing execs makes perfect sense as a business to reduce waste especially at that level. Why do we have so many people in Houston when we can’t get enough people to work in the Permian/Delware? Use the extra money from reduced Houston employees to bring in quality employees where the company needs them.

The Board of Directors — Dan’s bosses — wants one thing above everything else: stronger cash flow and a much leaner Verizon. And there are really only two ways to accomplish that at scale: increase revenue and aggressively reduce costs.

That’s where AI, automation, indirect retail, and organizational consolidation come into play.

As much as we joke about AI being terrible today, we’re still in the baby stages of what this technology will eventually become. Think about where AI could be 10+ years from now after years of development, training, and integration into systems like Salesforce, POS, digital sales, customer service, and account management.

The long-term vision, in my opinion, is for significantly more of Verizon’s direct sales and service transactions to happen digitally with fewer employees involved in the process.

And that brings us to retail.

I would not be surprised if we eventually reach a point where the overwhelming majority of Verizon retail locations are operated through indirect partners rather than corporate retail. People ask why Verizon would do that, but look at the economics. Some indirect locations are already producing strong numbers while Verizon doesn't have to carry the same corporate labor and operating structure behind every store.

Why own and operate the entire distribution network if somebody else can sell your product for you?

Then there's Business.

I think a major consolidation between Mid-Market and SMB — B2B, I2B, R2B, etc. — is brewing.

Instead of maintaining all these separate channels, imagine one broader organization called Business Markets, with roles differentiated primarily by account size and customer segment. It could eventually resemble the Government model: SMB and Mid-Market account managers operating within the same broader organization, potentially rolling up through the same leadership structure.

If you're wondering why accountability conversations, performance management and PIPs suddenly seem to be getting more aggressive, I don't think that's happening in a vacuum either.

When a company knows it needs fewer employees in the future, attrition becomes valuable. Every employee who voluntarily leaves — or exits through performance management — is potentially one less severance package or position that has to be eliminated during a future restructuring.

At the same time, the company gets an opportunity to identify and preserve its strongest performers for whatever the next version of the organization looks like.

That's why I think the ultimate goal is a much leaner Verizon — potentially below 50,000 employees over time, with headcount continuing to decline as automation improves.

And here's the uncomfortable part:

Verizon probably knows exactly what it's doing.

That doesn't mean employees have to like it. It doesn't mean every decision will be executed perfectly. But from a shareholder and cash-flow perspective, there is a clear logic behind the direction.

And this isn't exclusively a Verizon story.

It's happening across corporate America.

Companies are realizing they can automate more, outsource more, consolidate departments, flatten management structures and operate with fewer employees. Meanwhile, a difficult job market gives employers something they haven't had to this degree in years: leverage.

You can quit tomorrow because you disagree with the direction of the company, but there's a large pool of qualified candidates competing for good-paying corporate positions right now. Companies know that.

So when you connect the dots — AI integration, digital sales, indirect expansion, organizational consolidation, increased performance pressure and headcount reduction — these don't necessarily look like a bunch of unrelated decisions.

They look like pieces of the same long-term strategy.

The Verizon of 2035 may still be one of the largest telecommunications companies in America.

It just might require a fraction of the people to operate it & that's just facts. Hate it or love it.

All the smart people are gone. Just underachievers and people riding out retirement left.

I’m trying to figure out what the long-term plan is for the French site post-acquisition, because the messaging we're getting locally is incredibly concerning and honestly makes zero sense.
I’m in a very profitable BU. We have the budget and desperately need the headcount, so we went to put in a job requisition. I was flat-out told that the company has decided not to make any future hires in France from now onward. Period.

This is right on the heels of the recent layoffs where we lost over 60 people on the Ansys France side (around 10% of the local workforce). The layoffs were executed pretty smoothly here, so a sudden, permanent-sounding hiring freeze immediately after feels totally out of left field.

What really baffles me is the geography of it all. France has historically been Ansys’s third largest presence globally, right behind the US and India. We used to easily have 10 to 30 open positions at any given time. We’ve always hired heavily here because we have massive customers right in our backyard and the engineering talent for Ansys products is top-tier.

Yet, from what I can tell, this strict "no more hiring" rule isn't being pushed on most other geographies.

If we are profitable and have the talent, why the hard stop just on France? It creates so much uncertainty about the future of the site. It feels like they are just going to let attrition bleed us dry. Has anyone else heard this directive from leadership? Are they quietly planning to phase out French operations entirely?

The rot has been allowed to set in at the management level. High performing individual contributors are leaving every week! Frustrations with the Presales team now boiling over as opportunities don’t have any support and management clueless to what is going on in the field. GA looks like a fool thinking RL is a capable leader.

Get ready for more passive aggressive job cuts followed by deepest apologies.

14 ways to fire people without technically firing people:

1. Hiring Freeze:
   Don’t replace anyone who quits. In 18 months, congratulations: you’ve “reduced headcount through natural attrition.” Nature is beautiful.

2. Performance Improvement Plan:
   Employee: “I’ve worked here 11 years.”
   Manager: “And yet somehow your performance became unacceptable precisely when Finance needed savings.”

3. Reorganization:
   Delete 500 jobs. Move the remaining 300 into 17 boxes on a PowerPoint slide. Call it “Organizational Transformation.”

4. Consolidation:
   “We’re combining two teams to create efficiencies.”
   Translation: 30 people enter. 17 people leave. The spreadsheet applauds.

5. Relocation:
   “Your job is absolutely safe.”
   “Where?”
   “Dallas.”
   “I live in Boston.”
   “We respect your decision.”

6. Cut Hours:
   “Good news! You still have your job.”
   “Great!”
   “It’s just 30 hours now.”
   “I have a mortgage.”
   “Have you considered synergy?”

7. Cut Bonuses:
   Base salary: unchanged.
   Bonus: mysteriously evaporated.
   Employee: suddenly very interested in recruiters.

8. Freeze Raises & Promotions:
   “There’s no room for advancement at the moment.”
   Translation: Please advance yourself directly onto LinkedIn Jobs.

9. Remove Benefits & Perks:
   Remote work gone. Flexibility gone. Free lunch gone.
   CEO: “We’re getting back to our culture.”
   Employees: “What culture?”
   CEO: “Exactly.”

10. Voluntary Separation:
    “Nobody is being forced to leave.”
    “What are you offering?”
    “Eight months’ salary.”
    “I have suddenly discovered that I am extremely voluntary.”

11. Workload Attrition:
    Three people quit.
    Company replaces nobody.
    Remaining employees get all three jobs.
    Six months later: five more people quit.
    CEO: “We have an attrition problem.”

12. Outsourcing:
    “Your position has been eliminated.”
    Two weeks later:
    “Welcome to our exciting new strategic partnership with GlobalCheapCo.”

13. AI & Automation:
    “AI isn’t replacing employees.”
    Correct.
    It’s just replacing the tasks, which eliminates the need to replace employees, which eliminates the employees.
    But technically? Nobody said ‘replace.’

14. Role Redesign:
    Eliminate 100 jobs.
    Create 63 jobs with different titles.
    Require everyone to reapply.
    CEO: “This isn’t a layoff.”
    HR: “This is an opportunity to showcase your resilience.”

And then comes the earnings call:

• CEO: “We successfully optimized our workforce through disciplined voluntary attrition.”

• HR: “Nobody was fired.”

• Employees: “You made the job impossible.”

• CFO: “And our margins improved 4.2%.”

• Everyone: “Amazing. Do it again next quarter.”

Corporate layoffs have evolved.

Why fire someone when you can simply make their job economically, geographically, psychologically, or mathematically impossible?

No layoffs. Just choices.

5 people left our team in the last 2 months. Everyone else is looking for new jobs. It’s becoming genuinely concerning, seems like a race on who’s going to get out first.

If you are not outstanding or excellent then did you know you are not considered regretted attrition when you quit? They do not care about or invest in anyone who is not sponsored. If you are outstanding or excellent now and have no sponsor just know it will not last. Also what happens when your sponsor leaves? Look around and learn. There is no future here. It is not a meritocracy.

probably even worse ... people are leaving

I'm at the slowest store in a district by a long ways. They transitioned a store that is a fair amount busier then us. We went from 7 reps down to 5 before the big layoff. Now we are losing another rep to a different store. I have not heard if they are replacing that position. But you can not run on 4 reps. Any chance they just flat out close us because we are slow enough even indirects didn't want us? Has anybody seen that play out?

Mesa Public Schools is preparing to implement staff layoffs for the upcoming 2026-27 school year. This decision stems from a projected decrease in student enrollment, which directly impacts the district's funding. The district is hoping that attrition through retirements and resignations will mitigate the number of positions ultimately eliminated. While the exact number of affected employees has not been disclosed, the district is exploring various strategies to manage the reduction in force. These strategies include offering incentives for early retirement and considering involuntary transfers for some staff members.

Mesa, Arizona

https://www.themesatribune.com/news/mesa-school-district-readying-pink-slips-amid-enrollment-slide/article_76c0a031-9196-42cd-8ba3-c7792f78a29e.html

Not surprising, though. New people don't get trained properly, can't keep up, and run for the door before the three-month mark hits. When will they realize that training people properly will benefit both the company and those of us who won't have to neglect our own jobs to help them out.

The vast majority of people who remain here are just waiting for MR75 or to see what happens with leadership.

There are a lot of employees hoping that when Stankey is gone and a new CEO comes in, one of the first things they do is take a hard look at this completely overextended RTO policy.

Because if the new leadership comes in and decides to keep five-day RTO, I don’t think we’ve seen anything yet.

There are a lot of people who are tolerating this right now because they’re hoping the policy changes. Take that hope away, and you’re going to see a lot of people make their exit at the same time.

And that’s when we’ll find out just how much talent this policy has actually pushed toward the door.

AT&T can change course or keep doubling down. But I genuinely believe the consequences of this decision will become impossible to ignore by 2028.

This company may sink or swim based on what happens with RTO. You ain’t seen nothing yet!

It's the same everywhere. New people come in at a discount, and people who've been here longer and cost more get pushed out the other side. It's not about skill or loyalty. It's about the spreadsheet. The room only holds so many people, and they've already decided which door you're getting pushed through.

Shell employee here. We have lost a handful of wells employees to y’all over the past few years, and 3-4 DW drilling engineers the past few weeks. Why? Are you having natural attrition and need to backfill? Are there new projects that demand it? Or is this just adding to the bloat? I’m under the impression BP has the highest headcount per barrel produced of all the majors, so it seems like you should be reducing headcount not adding it.

Apparently India staff are so impressed by WFs new ranking system and career prospects based on it that as soon as they get an IM, they start applying out, get hired in 1-2 weeks, and leave.

The best part is, execs don't understand this, don't understand it takes months to years to fully train up a replacement, and don't understand how this is leading to system instability. Why can't they just follow the Jiras to do the job?

The cards are starting to fall.

I feel like my team has hit rock bottom. Every single person is looking for something else. Everyone.

It's going to be a rough fall season. I think they are on a mission to make this company very lean. That means going down to 6000 employees this year.

Another departure from the CSBB audit team. This time a director only there for a year and a half. You have a managing director that is pregnant and will be out on leave. A recently promoted director out on leave. What is going on with management in that team that so many are finding an out?

Well, their plan is working. Over the last month two of my most talented colleagues have left for other firms. As predicted by every study, the forced attrition is working through departures of the most talented. The only folks being left behind are those that cannot leave, the CVX cultists, and the unhireable (which we have so so so many of). It’s like watching a company rot before your very eyes…

What’s happening with UHC Texas C&S, specifically service coordinators? They aren’t laying off, but they are shrinking numbers drastically through natural attrition. After 1% across the board raises for even 4s and 5s, they immediately quit backfilling spots when people leave, resulting in low pay increases coupled with high increases in workload. Our caseloads have increased drastically and we are nowfalling behind and not meeting members needs the way we should be. Everyone is discouraged and most people are looking at leaving soon. It takes months to onboard and train new SCs to the point they can take on a full caseload, but they still haven’t hiring. It’s the members that suffer the most. Turnover has been accelerating since everyone is overworked and underpaid and many people have left. In my service area we’ve probably lost a quarter to a third of our nurses this year. At the same time we are getting emails saying the company is doing well….

Every week another solid performer walks out due to the uncertainty and constant cuts. Anybody who has options is heading for the door. The brain drain is real, and I don't think leadership even sees it. Or they see it and don't care, instead they're celebrating the attrition without severance.

Losing experienced employees on account of outsourcing and bringing on cheaper recent grads who have no idea what they're doing. All the experience is getting kicked out and somehow they think this place will continue functioning in the same way. Spoiler alert, it will not and I'm almost glad I won't be here to see the consequences.

Centene stock (NYSE: CNC) fell nearly 9% following its Q2 2026 earnings report because projected headwinds and higher attrition in its Medicaid business overshadowed an otherwise strong profit and revenue beat.

My thought is so many of us applied that they couldn't hold up their end of benefits for everyone to depart in Sept. The added dates allow at least one large depart per quarter for a full year! If we quit between now and our separation date - OVER A YEAR FROM NOW (!!!!!!!) they don't have to pay us anything!

For this situation where VSP was accepted but the end date is like 6-16 months from now, has this happened in other companies? This all seems like the company’s attempt to CYA themselves with their mistake of offering VSP to everyone. It just seems like Centene doesn’t want to give out too much VSP benefits, and they’re hoping for attrition, that folks (who clearly signed up for VSP) will either leave on their own or get PIP’d or get fired.
Since there’s no job protection during this 9-16 period, what else can we do? I’m curious if anyone has thought about contacting a lawyer to review this situation. I’m not planning to initiate that myself, but if someone wants to form a group to explore that, please sign me up!

With some many people getting dates a year or more from now (way past the original September 2026 date) it seems pretty obvious they are hoping people just quit. This will save them money in the long run not having to pay out lump sums.

Such a slap in the face and a sh-tshow.

I've watched so many experienced people leave this place in the last year. The replacements don't know the job and don't seem to want to learn. Meanwhile, management acts like the veterans are the problem. We're the ones carrying the weight, but we're the ones being blamed. It's exhausting.

If this is true, and with dead weight in management just getting heavier, we'll be in major trouble very soon. When you lose most of the people who know what they're doing and you add useless managers instead of trying to replace them, things are bound to start breaking sooner rather than later.