Lay-offs from big companies happen all the time, so it isn’t too shocking when news of a company the size of Verizon has let go of a few employees. It is, however, usually more shocking when a few employees ends up being hundreds, and a new rumor today states that Verizon Wireless has cut 500 jobs from its retail sales sector. With that said, this is strictly just a rumor and there is no confirmation so far that Verizon has actually laid off a large number of its sales staff.
If the rumor is true, 500 employees is still not that much compared to the number of employees that have been laid off from Lenovo’s ranks in recent weeks. Regardless of that, that number is still a decent sized chunk of staff, especially considering that Verizon is not really a global company to the scale of Lenovo. According to the rumor, the 500 employees that have been laid off from Verizon in the sales department were specifically those who were in the Experience Specialists and Operations Specialists roles. Operations Specialists could be considered the equivalent to sales representatives, as they do help sell products and services as well as activate phones on Verizon’s network, while also helping to troubleshoot hardware for customers, answer customer questions, and even deal with billing issues.
Experience Specialists are stated to help “introduce customers to Verizon” which may be a little bit like on-boarding to get the customer to be familiar with the Network and what’s available. In addition to having allegedly laid off 500 employees, reports from customers are also surfacing stating that around 120 Verizon cell towers are not operating in the North Carolina region of the US. Beyond the rumored job losses and reports of downed towers, Verizon was revealed to be the exclusive carrier in the US who will sell the Google Pixel officially in their retail stores and online at their website. The phone is already available for pre-order through Verizon, as well as at the Google Store website where it can be purchased unlocked. Those purchasing the Pixel through Verizon will also want to be aware that the carrier reportedly handles the software updates for the device, unlike the unlocked models which will be handled by Google themselves.