NO LOVE AT VERIZON CALL CENTERS (05/03/21)

MAY 3, 2021— MEDIA GROUP SOLD TP APPOLO FOR $5 BILLION

Verizon will get $4.25 billion in cash from the sale of its media assets to private equity firm Apollo Global Management along with its 10% stake in the company. Verizon and Apollo said they expect the transaction to close in the second half of 2021.

Look for extreme cost-cutting and restructuring to recoup value and lower the actual sale price.

APRIL 29, 2021 — DANGER: VERIZON PLANNING TO DIVEST ASSETS, POSSIBLY TO AN EMPLOYEE-CUTTING HEDGE FUND

According to the Wall Street Journal, “Private-equity firms including Apollo are among possible bidders for Verizon media assets.”

The company appears to be exploring a sale of assets including Yahoo, AOL, Yahoo Finance, and Yahoo Mail, TechCrunch, Engadget, as the telecommunications giant looks to exit an expensive and unsuccessful bet on digital media.

FEBRUARY 20, 2020 — 496 LAYOFFS IN HILLIARD, OHIO

The company has notified the State of Ohio that it plans to close its Business Government Customer Operations Center and its customer support service team operation as well as downsizing its credit order review operations at its Hilliard, Ohio office.

The decision which will impact 496 employees are scheduled for April 2020.

According to a company spokesperson, “Our employees are highly trained, skilled, and experienced and we want as many of them as possible to stay with us. Our Hilliard facility will continue to be home to Verizon employees and is an important part of our operations. We remain committed to supporting the local community.”

APRIL 9, 2019 — CONTINUING PHASE OUT AT ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO

As previously announced, the company will be closing its Albuquerque call center operation and laying off 257 employees.

MAY 28, 2018 — Original post…

In accordance with the pre-announced restructuring of its call centers, the largest U.S. telecommunications carrier, Verizon, is abandoning its 191,000 square-foot Franklin, Tennessee call center and laying off up to 265 employees.

Some of the employees will be allowed to work from home under Verizon’s HBA (Home-Based Agent) program that allows the company to save infrastructure costs while providing flexibility to a varying workforce.

This workforce is not unionized and some posit that this move prior to 2019 union contract expirations with a number of Verizon unions is a method to avoid increasing the unionized employee headcount. 

Verizon has ongoing plans to phase out most of its so-called “brick-and-mortar” call centers into a work-from-home program by May 2019. In addition to the Franklin, Tennessee call center, the other centers affected include Huntsville, Alabama; Little Rock, Arkansas; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Mankato, Minnesota; Hilliard, Ohio; and North Charleston, South Carolina. 

Approximately 3,000 workers are said to be affected by the closures although an unknown number of employees will be offered the opportunity to work in the HBA program or transition to other positions within the company. 

Verizon’s spin on the situation is “happy employees mean happier customers.” 

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere ... are you now wondering, Am I Next?

NO LOVE AT PPG INDUSTRIES

OCTOBER 19, 2024 — 1,800 EMPLOYEES TARGETED

The company plans to implement a multi-year cost-cutting initiative that will involve closing various facilities and reducing the workforce, which will impact 1,800 employees.

PPG announced that it had agreed to sell all its U.S. and Canadian architectural coatings business, which includes brands like Liquid Nails, Glidden, and Olympic, to private equity firm American Industrial Partners. The company also agreed to sell its silica products business to Poland-based QEMETICA S.A.

Chairman and CEO Tim Knavish noted, “While these decisions are difficult, they are necessary to adjust our fixed cost base and to right-size our company.”

MAY 30, 2020 — PPG LAYOFFS IN HUNSTSVILLE, ALABAMA PLANT AFFECTS 60 EMPLOYEES

A company spokesperson noted, “As you can imagine, the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting PPG’s global businesses in many ways. In the aerospace industry, the manufacturing slowdown has dampened demand for some of our products. We have taken a number of actions to protect our business: reducing or eliminating costs; deferring or eliminating capital spending and travel expenditures; postponing most hiring; and introducing pay reductions for all executive leaders and salaried employees. In some instances, we have also made the difficult decision to make long-term adjustments to our workforce. These decisions, while difficult, are necessary in order to sustain our business while continuing to meet the needs of our customers."

Original Post…

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based PPG Industries, a Fortune 500 company and global supplier of paints, coatings, and specialty materials to industrial, commercial, and retail sectors, has announced further restructuring which will result in the loss of at least 1,000 positions. The layoffs were attributed to rising materials costs and the loss of a "major customer. 

Costs Associated with Exit or Disposal Activities.

"On April 23, 2018, PPG Industries, Inc. (the “Company”) approved a business restructuring plan which includes actions to reduce its global cost structure. The program is in response to a customer assortment change in our U.S. architectural coatings business during the first quarter 2018 and sustained elevated raw material inflation." 

"The program aims to further right-size employee headcount and production capacity in certain businesses based on current product demand, as well as reductions in various global functional and administrative costs." 

"A pre-tax restructuring charge of $80 million to $85 million, based on current exchange rates, will be recorded in PPG's second quarter 2018 financial results, of which about $75 million to $80 million represents employee severance and other cash costs. The remainder of the charge represents the write-down of certain assets and other non-cash costs. In addition, other cash costs of up to $35 million to $40 million will be incurred, consisting of incremental restructuring-related cash costs for certain items that are required to be expensed on an as-incurred basis of approximately $15 million and approximately $20 million to $25 million for items which are expected to be capitalized. The Company also expects approximately $15 million of incremental non-cash accelerated depreciation expense for certain assets due to their reduced expected asset life as a result of this program. Substantially all restructuring actions are expected to be complete by the end of the second quarter 2019 and will result in the net reduction of approximately 1,100 positions. The Company expects the cash payback of the restructuring program to be less than two years."

PPG is also reporting financial discrepancies to the SEC …

"As previously disclosed on April 19, 2018, PPG received a report through its internal reporting system alleging violations of PPG’s accounting policies and procedures regarding the failure to accrue certain specified expenses in the first quarter of 2018. Based on its initial review at that time, PPG identified approximately $1.4 million of expenses (including legal fees, property taxes and performance-based compensation) that should have been accrued in the first quarter of 2018 and that were then reflected in PPG’s earnings for the quarter ended March 31, 2018 released on April 19, 2018. In addition, the report alleged that there may have been other unspecified expenses, potentially up to $5 million in the aggregate, that were improperly not accrued in the first quarter." 

"The Company is working diligently to complete its investigation, but is currently unable to predict the timing or outcome of the investigation. PPG has self-reported information concerning this investigation to the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result of the ongoing investigation, PPG will not be able to file its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2018 by the deadline of May 10, 2018 and has filed a Form 12b-25 Notification of Late Filing. PPG is currently unable to predict when it will be able to file its Quarterly Report." 

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?

NO LOVE AT TJX CORPORATION

JUNE 23, 2020 — TJMAXX DOWNPLAYS E-COMMERCE AND BETS ON BRICKS AND MORTAR OUTLETS

It appears the company is shunning e-commerce and stopped taking online orders. It appears that the company is betting on their “treasure hunt” style of merchandising.

Original post…

Framingham, Massachusetts-based TJX Corporation, the parent company of Marshalls, TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, HomeSense and Sierra Trading Post, has eliminated 300 employees in what it calls an infrastructure and operations realignment. 

Company spokesperson Dorren Thompson spun the event as a pro-growth initiative. 

“As TJX continues to grow, we consistently look for ways to efficiently meet the needs of our expanding business and help us better serve our customers around the world. Today, we announced the restructuring of our global IT Infrastructure and Operations group, which eliminates approximately 300 IT positions. As part of this restructuring, certain services will transition to a third-party provider, who plans to create job opportunities for some of the people whose TJX positions will be eliminated.  While we are eliminating certain positions in this area of IT, as part of our overall strategy, we are expanding in others to meet the future needs of our business. Although we believe this is the right strategy, these decisions are always difficult.  We are grateful to these Associates for their contributions and dedication to the Company. We are confident that the changes we are making will ultimately better position the IT organization to support the continued growth of our Company.”

Sounds like outsourcing to me. I wonder if any of these employees were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements and train their replacements as a condition of their severance package?

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?