Sprint announces Voluntary Separation Program; more layoffs possibly on the way
In a move similar to what Dell is currently offering its employees, Sprint is also giving employees the option to voluntarily leave the company. While Sprint hasn’t announced anything officially, layoffs have certainly followed voluntary separations in the past. So far, this program is only affecting the Sales and Distribution channel and is not a company-wide offering. Whether it remains isolated in that division or spreads throughout the company is yet to be determined. The only exceptions to those who are allowed to opt-in are the retail employees (including managers) and executive and administrative assistants; that leaves everyone else in the sales division wide open. Of course, Sprint will not short itself where staff numbers are critical, so not everyone who wants to leave will be able to do so. In the meantime, employees considering a mutual termination have until December 8 to express interest. We feel for those who are affected by companies that need to put cost-saving or cost-effective programs into place, especially at Sprint where this is the third year in a row such a program has been offered. Let’s just hope it doesn’t lead to company-wide layoffs. Hit the jump for the official internal email sent to employees this morning.
It would be nice if they would extend “voluntary separation” to their subscribers too so I could get one of the new Blackberrys before 2010 (When my contract expires.). I wonder if there may be a buyout on the horizon?
that’s sad I like sprint they need to rethink there devices the instinct is a thing of the past every body else has the new samsung touch devices my sprint q9c is better than the instinct the iphone gets updates all the time the rant is not that great if they beef up there rugget phones with better technology they have a good chance being on top a lot of people like them so come on sprint get on the ball wake up and stop being stupid iden is the past iden-3g or iden-cdma is the future
Where was the news when AT&T did the same thing & offered voluntary separation to their work force in May 2008?
when did at&t do this in may? I work for the Mobility portion of the company in management and I never heard of that being an option in the 4 yrs of employment.
I am just sadden that this is happening in our country and many american are losing thier jobs. GOD BLESS them and thier FAMILIES. I really mean this. Think for minute if this was you. dealing with peoples livelyhoods carrers and familes…….
Verizon should just buy Sprint already…
The VSP is not limited to the sales and distribution channels as the article claims. ALL Sprint employees should have received some form of notification about it. The caveat here is that not all employees are eligible for it – there are some employees that Sprint will try to keep no matter what.
AT&T offered voluntary separation across the board for wireline network operations (legacy BellSouth, SBC, AT&T). Mobility — aka Cingular/AT&T Wireless — was spared that particular separation offer. I can fwd you the letter from the V.P. if you really want to continue to question the fact.
I applaud this. This announcement wasn’t needed for everyone to know that a RIF is coming. Giving this to the people that want it will offset the number of people that will be involuntarily separated. I wish MCI would have done this in the wake of the WorldCom disaster.
Many of the depts not offerred the VSP are ‘customer facing’ depts. Like Call Centers,IT,Billing,Customer Care, and a few other internal elements needed to stabilize the company.
I work for sprint as a supervisor and I somewhat wish that we could get VSP so I didn’t have to work for a company that is up in the air from day to day. The only people that are getting offered VSP are the people that probably wouldn’t have too hard of a time finding another job.
Damn i guess those Sprint in-stinks ads backfire quite badly i guess, Apple sold almost 7 million units while sprint loss about 1 1/2 million customers, Next up will be Sprint Vs wall street short sellers
Damn they only have $5 billion in market cap? last week they had $10billion, that’s it man expect massive layoff as of this week, bye bye sprint, shareholders are doing to set it up in Flames in 3,2,1.
i know this was already mentioned but why is it when at&t did the same thing it wasnt covered
AT&T has two seperate organizations, wireline and mobility. This website tends to only deal with cell phones and such. AT&T offered the voluntary layoff to the wireline side of the organization, hence why this website didn’t see fit to mention it.
Maybe BGR doest tend to write anything bad about ATT.
ummm..
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/04/18/att-set-to-lay-off-4600-employees/
what is the point of this entire situation? what job doesn’t have voluntary separation? it’s called quitting.
Lets all stop bashing Sprint and speculating…
Here is to hoping that Sprint employees realize they are all now expendable. Cleaning house is happening, which is good for the consumer. It means, less cost for Sprint, more services, and focus on deployment of things that have been lacking/lagging…mainly Sales Retention, Customer Service, and Upper Management.
I see this as being a great start for Sprint to rebuild and launch some 4G
I am surprised that much is even left of S&D right now. first they took away merit raises but still paid sti for having repeated terribad quarterly reports (but not as bad as was estimated) and then retail didn’t get paid on any data revenue last month. right hand doesn’t know what left hand is doing. working for this dump depresses me.
I am a Sprint customer and have agreed they have improved their plans and their customer service. My problem now is with the phones/devices. They are lame compared to the other companies. Sure, some decent ones have come out recently, but not at the rate the competition has been releasing new/good phones.
You can’t beat Sprint’s $99 everything plan. If they are bought out, that might go away. Although other carriers offer an “everything” plan, I haven’t noticed one that truly has “everything” for $99.
What part of VOLUNTARY do some of you morons not get? Geez Jerry, “think of the children”? Come on folks, would YOU prefer to get a VSP notice, or a Notice of Termination? At least the Sprint folks who might be interested in leaving for greener pastures have an easy out now. Taking a VSP looks far better on an employment history that layoff, fired, or just out and out quit. From the sounds of some o your comments, it sounds like a lot of you have never had a job, let alone had to go looking for a job after losing one!
So many companies are doing this out there right now. I would not think too much into it. http://www.thehackersparadise.com
The Retail person who posted the VSP letter is a good example of the kind of retards we have working as Sprint. This is internal company information that is not needed to be shared. You should be fired without severance for being a dirtbag employee
The voluntary separation is a great opportunity for the people already considering leaving the company, but it is scary for the other employees since layoffs generally follow this type of offer.
Plus, this offer is for everyone, even engineers and techs.
I agree Sprint needs to clean house, but I think they need to replace the poor leaders they have in place right now, vice getting rid of their hard working employees. Its the leaders that define the company not the workers. The workers are unfortunately pawns to their decisions.
Sprint hasn’t had a major overhaul of their upper management for a long time, not since the merger with Nextel that is probably a major reason why their success rate is similar to what it has been for the past couple of years. It’s hard to succeed if you are using the same ineffective plan that didn’t work from before.
They really need more innovative and go getters to lead their company. Right now the VPs are spending their time focusing on their bonuses, profit shares and not the company or customers.
I hope for the sake of the 60,000 people employed by Sprint, that the CEO realizes it’s time to change the company’s old stale way of thinking.