Hooray!! We Alltel employees can now look forward to our layoffs just after Christmas!! Woohooo!

Great thinking. Should only have added “If we ever lose our nerve to continue to take risk [like the EU], then we’re in a lot of trouble.” I know it’s politically incorrect but so true.

we have stock in VZ and are very proud of Ivan for saying this, it will always be a great stock

IM SO HAPPY THAT TRMAY IS PROUD OF IVAN I THINK IVE SOILED MY PANTS

Verizon operates in an oligopoly, with government regulation protecting its most valuable asset. His comments about the wonderful benefits of competition must have been his attempt at humor.

Ivan’s got it backwards. It was LACK of government intervention that caused the current credit crisis and the same lack of intervention that allowed Verizon and AT&T to construct their duopoly and crush competetive telecom in the past few years. The telecom act of 1996 created competition which the current administration has steadily stripped down over the past 8 years. Ever wonder why your long distance bill went from $200 per month to $20? Yeah, that was competition at work. Ivan would love to keep regulation out and return to the days of 25 cent long distance.

Ivan Seidenberg for Secretary of the Treasury…

Ivan is the greatest visionary of our days. From his days at NYNEX he was providing value to shareholders and dropping cost of communication. Perhaps he is better aware of ill affect of government intervention then all competitors combined

Competitor, you have it wrong, it wasn’t lack of intervention that caused the problem, it was bad intervention. The trigger for the crisis was based on bad loans pushed by Government Sponsored Enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack. The Community Reinvestment Act pushed banks to make loans they wouldn’t normally make, with the Government Sponsored Entities of Fannie/Freddie ‘guaranteeing’(sic) the loans. With the bad mark to market regulations, it basically made Fannie/Freddie look profitable while they where piling on bad debt upon bad debt. It was a thin wire holding the economy with that load of bad debt, and escalating energy prices snapped the wire.

I’m going to miss Scott Ford as CEO, but this guy seems to have a good head on his shoulders.

Yea, telecom stocks have done awesome. So awesome in fact an overlay of VZ and SPY over 2 years identical!

i think telecom making too much money from consumer. they should low down the monthly charge from customer.

For MNTX:
Investment banks created higher risk mortgage backed securities, because their clients wanted more return than the plain vanilla low risk/return bond funds coming from the GSEs. All was fine until in come the the predatory lending practices from mortgage brokers who had no regulation, no repurcussions, and no ethical standards, just sign the loan, sell it and walk away. That tainted the whole market, led to foreclosures, lack of condfidence and … well you know what happened. Yes the dem’s, Barney Frank, etc did push banks to open loans to more low income people, but that was only a side dish, not the main course.

i wish verison would buy up qwest when its stock is so low as this company needs someone good with its money.

DEAR IVAN SEIDENBERG;
I HAVE BEEN RETIRED FOR TWENTY YEARS IN MANAGEMENT,
I NEED HELP WITH MY SHRINKING PENSION. MAKING ENDS MEET IS VERY DIFFICULT. HAVE A HEART.
WILLIAM R. MORGAN
RETIRED FROM VERIZON LEGAL DEPT IN NEW JERSEY, 20 YEARS AGO

Finally someone who knows the score:) I nominate Mr. Seidenberg to be the next Treasury Secretary.

As bad as the Community Reinvestment Act turned out to be, it had benefits in certain neighborhoods, where it shouldn’t have been applied. I, for instance, bought into a somewhat upscale historic district that was designated under the CRA, so I only had to put 10% down with no PMI. I put the 10% I saved into the house, but the CRA was designed for poor folks, not me. In this case, bank error in my favor. And, just like everything else, those who need help the most either don’t get it or get the wrong kind and those who don’t need the help get it any way.

Of course Ivan is happy. He makes 25 million per year, while he has frozen lower managements pension,insurance coverages, and is wanting to lay off 3500+ managers anyday now. And if he could do it with the union workforce he wouldve done more. Id be happy to if I was him.

If you guys could only see the company from the inside on a daily basis.

Comments of Oct 14 2008 VZ employee so true. Why would Ivan be unhappy with his millions while those of us who gave 25-30 yrs had our pension froze in 2006, have seen a reduction in insurance coverage when we were promised when hired 100% payment and the list goes on. VZ cuts people year after year every Oct-Nov. Some areas don’t have enough help to cover current obligations let alone if a disaster would happen. Cuts of people and capital expenditures do what to the co equip and plant in the field? I can only hope no more decline on our insurance coverages and costs will occur. Ivan seems to have taken care of Eastern unions and not management. Union has a pension and excellent insurance costs. It use to mean something to be promoted to management.

I watched my mothers once halfway decent pension, insurance, and benefits go down the chute all 2 years before her retirement when they promoted her to manager.
We now know why they did promote her and several of her soon to retire co-workers so they wouldn’t have to pay and it looks like they’ll be laying her off now…

Glad to see Verizon is doing well in spite of dozens of foreman and second-liners in Manhattan who BEG their techs to falsify their timesheets with phony helper , rehab and disconnect tickets.
It’s like welfare that you have to show up every day to collect.
And , with all these guys actually dying to do some work the company won’t let them. They’re actually hiring more field techs.
Stay off MY cot…..rookies!

Had enough ………out the door very soon

Hey Mr. Ivan so happy to hear that all is good with Verizon. I will be sure to share that information with the 20% of management employees under each of your director group the will be laid off at the end of October. Maybe you can help us out when we can’t make our mortgage in 6 to 8 months. You know divide that big bonus up and help the people you dumped on …. you can afford it.

Like the comment from “1 of Many”. Remember, one of our presidential candidates believes in “REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH”. Retirees are needing help as well with insurance costs. Use to be able to have an HMO at 100%.

How can Verizon let its managers in the state of Rhode island take home there Verizon vehicles and charge gas do personal things in there Trucks,cars and also put wear and tear on the vehicles! isnt that misuse of company property or is it a bonus to have a vehicle with a gas card and unlimited use? they have it real tough in Providence,RI Our company should not be paying for that i know as a stock holder im not HAPPY!

HOW ABOUT THOSES MANAGERS LYING ABOUT THERE NUMBERS AND HAVING TECHS FALSIFY THERE TIMESHEETS TO MAKE THEM LOOK GOOD! IT STARTS WITH LANCE CUMMINGS ON DOWN TO 1ST LEVEL! ITS PURE FRAUD!

Bully, Ivan. Bully. You certainly deserve the praise of your industry and the American economy, being so sanguine about the future. Today, the 30th, the day of Verizon’s cuts, everyone was told to show up at the office for a special treat, but there are virtually no hits to a Google querry of “Verizon 2008 layoffs”.

Well, despite an economy that should be squeezing a little a bit of transparency (if nothing else) out of businesses these days, this is SOP for a multi-millionaire CEO with stock options, etc. My only real question is how come Wall Street’s Deal Journal has to validate these phony claims of optimism? After the cuts, will you recast this story in a more realistic light?

Verizon CEO Ivan “the Terrible” delivers the worst in shareholder value while taking in huge pay bonuses based on performance of what? Stock has devalued year after year. Continuing layoffs with more and more outsourced IT from India taking the jobs of talented management employees in both East and West. Verizon CEO Ivan “the Terrible” toughts that Verizon is innovative… What is innovation to a telecom company who plans to not be a telecom company. Ivan stated we are transforming into a entertainment company on his 2nd quarter web session IF that is the case then he and Denny Snickers need to step down and let someone who has run a entertainment company take over. Another tid bit… All you who say Ivan is a great business man need to get more info from VZ employees. The company is collapsing on the inside due to idiot leadership feeding lies to idiot leadership.

I love our company & love my job! Yes, the layoffs started this week….but unfortunately, didn’t hit those who really deserve to be laid off! The managers should be FIRING those who spend all day surfing the internet or only work 20 hrs week for full time pay. C’mon Ivan - ASK YOUR EMPLOYEES what we think about our co-workers and mngmt!!!

Has anyone heard of any layoff over at Verizon wireless?

300 Managers laid of in New York state on Oct 30th. Front line people making Verizon work.. and now told.. see ya!! After 29 years of hard work , long hours my pension is frozen,we have to do more with much less. Ivan, do you realize our respect for you is dwindling or non existent? This is creating a dog eat dog world. Who suffers? Your customers.. remember them? They deserve the best this company can give but are sadly forgotten about. Ivan stop by a call center or garage and listen to what we have to tell you. You have been away from the trench’s too long.

Ivan got a ten million dollar bonus for signing the piece of paper that made Bell Atlantic into Verizon. How much else has he gotten while employees benefits are cut?

Hey everyone, welcome a new HR member to the “college recruitment” team, while 40% of the organization is cut, a new “high potential manager” was added just before layoffs. Oh, and he happens to be a NY Sr. VP’s SON - trying to mask his identity with a hyphenated last name! Oh, go figure, he’s “high potential”. HA - he has NO EXPERIENCE in the area but someone figured out he was working for momma in NY, son instead he got a management job in NYC while other qualified HR managers are out the door. When I call Ethics, I am told that this was fair and square because it was a deal between VP’s for a “high potential manager”. THEN DON’T DISGUISE HIS NAME AS HYPHENATED TO THINLY MASK HIS IDENTITY. Check it out, those of you still at VZ. Telecom, HR, Recruitment, you can figure out the rest….

Verizon has so many indians working for them that FIOS is going to ROCK in the US for year to come. Just because you get canned doesn’t mean you should not subscribe to FIOS!