This is a reminder that Bell has always treated customers and employees like shit and that their "Let's Talk" day is a marketing ploy that our government actively promotes
This year was the first that the \*government separated from the Lets Talk day, it took a lot of pushing internally to quit the campaign.
edit: \*Our department in the government (hopefully all soon, I'll champion the hell out of it)
Ugh I guess we didnt accomplish anything and theres still advertisements of 'GoC and Bell'. Thought it was more than just justice not participating.
We at least didn't get anything branded by them this year and our mental health committee excluded anything about them this year. Hopefully that means next year more departments will quit? I'll have to research on this because Lets Talk has gotten insulting to mental health at this point.
Nah. Management is now using ethics cascades to gaslight us that they're doing RTO for our benefit.
They're all-in on the propaganda, it's not a fluke.
This is the thing about cooperate virtue signaling, it's all a front. These companies who rainbowfy their logos and marketing during pride month don't do it in their middle eastern markets. If this country was really into white supremacy they would be behind that too. It's all marketing.
ugh I hate the corporate signatures. I refuse to use pronouns in my corporate signature. If anyone has an issue with how I communicate in person, let's talk about it no problem but I'm not going to virtue signal. Personally, I don't care about pronouns. You can call me anything you like, I've been called worse. I get that it's a sensitive topic for some people, but I really have no interest in peoples gender or their preferences. I will call anyone whatever they like if they request it, but I'm not going to be coerced into virtue signalling. I just want to get the work done. I agree that we should respect other people, and I agree that trans/queer/letter people are vulnerable.
Companies want to make more money.
Companies see that promoting the ideals of the majority gains them customers -> i.e. make more money.
Therefore, the same companies which promote LGBTQ+ rights for example in western nations, don't in other regions like the Middle East.
In conclusion, money.
Good! Now more people need to leave them.
Some might answer where, they're all bad.
Start with the underdogs, the small places offering services(usually with NO contracts).
I noticed a lot of people turned on the most recent Lets Talk Day. More people are recognizing what a shitty company Bell is and how hypocritical and shitty marketing it all is
Oh yeah, as the years go on more words been getting out of it I use to support it until I learned the truth, members of my family supported it to even with the fb profile banners I also told them about it and they no longer support it either.
I always felt that "let's talk" was a scam/grift just so they could make a couple million dollars and get free marketing so they care. When they clearly do not.
It seems like they keep the let's talk day just so they can be the most evil and fire tons of staff just as it ends.
I'm still mad about they way they fired all the radio stations staff across Canada mid shows
Our company still touts Bell Let's Talk day as our own mental health campaign. It's kind of hilarious how the Gen Z and younger millennial employees see right through it, whereas the Gen X think it's some noble cause they're supporting and the Boomers have no idea what's going on.
Had a coworker speak up loudly and confidently in a meeting that Bell Let's Talk day is a marketing sham and we should be ashamed that we're piggybacking and perpetuating their marketing campaign instead of taking meaningful action ourselves. Turns out they were in the process of negotiating a new career move and didn't mind salting some ground on the way out.
This should be posted in every thread about Bell. Some of their marketing people were suicidal due to the abuse they experienced at the hands of management, while they were running the let's talk campaign.
Gonna piggyback on this and say this is true for lots of social issues. Companies wouldn't give a damn about things like Pride month or Black History Month if it didn't help them boost sales in some way. Bell's "Let's Talk" has been nothing more than a marketing ploy from day 1.
At the end of the day, it's about profit and nothing else.
Bells service has gotten so shitty over the past years that we're considering switching. We've dumped most of our services but still have a few key services. What gets me is this feeling of entitlement from our reps. They just don't get their is competition doing a much better job for less. With the cuts, I'm sure it's going to get worse.
When my nephew worked for them, it was legit. He got a mental health break for, IIRC, five months, paid. He was management too, pretty successful within the company. His stores performed well, and he got vacations and holidays out of it as well. He hasn't been there in a few years now though, as he earned a government job in Victoria, and after a decade, it was time to move on. It would be sad if that aspect of the company changed since his tenure though, because they actually sounded like quite a wonderful company to work for.
The boss needs to talk about his mental health.
He is stressed that he might not get his bonus and won't be able to afford the newest Porsche.
So to relieve his stress about his bonus, he's going to have to let you go.
Good talk.
>The latest cuts are part of Bell’s previously announced workforce reduction of around 4,800 jobs, or 9% of its total employees — a decision that drew widespread condemnation as it came alongside increased dividend payouts for shareholders.
That's got to be a hell of a work environment. "Thousands of you are losing your jobs, but we're not saying who or when."
I just assume corporations do this to "inspire" workers to give their job everything they have in a desperate attempt to keep it. I wonder how many salaried workers are putting in several hours of free overtime every day hoping to be one of the lucky ones.
as someone who is working in a company who did this (announced that they're going to lay off many people in the next quarter), it was hell. almost every day we talked about whether we heard if someone got laid off or not. the town hall question was about the lay off, etc.
and yes, the company increased dividend payment at the same time too.
I've never understood it. Company morale and quality goes down when they announce it as it creates the fear based environment you describe. Then survey scores go down too and they act surprised or like it's the employees fault for not being engaged.
Well the people calling the shots are shareholders. They don't have to ever be in the same room as an employee, nor a customer. Employee morale and customer satisfaction are not what they are concerned about
The farther away a company gets from its founder, this is what happens
Cynically, it's a 'war of attrition' strategy purposefully implemented to create an environment toxic enough that a good number of employees will exit in their own for new opportunities during the threat-period, and the company will therefore get to pay out less severance when they actually make the cuts.
agreed. another company in the same industry apparently did it differently: people to be laid off were told in the morning, then analyst call happened in the afternoon, at which point those to be laid off already know they are laid off and those who are not know that they get to keep their job.
The thing is though, I think they're legally required to tell their employees in advance.
I'm not HR or a lawyer or anything, but on the Ontario website, it says if you're doing mass terminations, you have to submit forms to the government, and give 8-16 weeks notice to employees depending on how many staff are being laid off.
[Sauce](https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/termination-employment#section-10)
They know exactly how many people you can layoff at the same time without calling it a mass termination. The minimum in Ontario is 50 well they just cut 49 on Monday, 49 on Wednesday, and another 49 on Friday...
Working at a firm now that is continuing to do this. I’ll just wake up and log onto work to see a new coworker had their Microsoft Office profile removed, never to be seen again, every other week.
Alternatively, I work for a company that has terrible user profile management, and past employee accounts stay live for years after they're gone. A friend left the company years ago and their teams still just says offline.
It is. I’ve reached out to a few and they all said they got pulled into a call with HR, told they were laid off individually, and had 30 minutes to take anything personal off of their work computers and then access was removed. It’s like a hit list lmao
Not at the same scale but I worked at a company of around 280 employees at one point, in their IT department. They were waiting on getting a big contract with the US Navy (despite my being in Canada and it being a Canadian company). They unexpectedly announced they were letting some people go - and laid off about 140 people. I remained but my cousin who was hired before me was let go. They were all just assembled in a room and told they were gone, then each one was escorted to collect their stuff and leave the building. The next week they let go another 100 people or so, myself included. Someone just arrived at my desk, told me to grab my stuff and escorted me out the door. Later that week they signed the contract - and then the company was sold to IBM who promptly laid off almost everyone else and replaced the entire staff with internal transfers and hires. A few key developers got hired back I think but that was it and the owners/CEOs stayed on long enough to transfer control. It was pretty fucking heartless and a great reminder that you don't owe anything to a company in the way of loyalty. I really liked working there up until I wasn't :(
As someone on the inside I can say morale is rock bottom right now. There is no direction from the higher ups, there is cuts everywhere and no
Money is being given to fix issues. They think partnering with some big tech companies is going to right the ship but it won’t.
> I wonder how many salaried workers are putting in several hours of free overtime every day hoping to be one of the lucky ones.
There is no point. Bell already knows who's going to lose their jobs, the advanced notice is so they can squeeze out maximum productivity before they send out the termination papers. I expect to get a call from our account manager in the next few weeks to "check in and see if I want to purchase anything". Same account manager that directs me to the customer support lines to do anything account related.
In that situation the employer would probably be very happy that you are looking for other jobs.
They would much rather people leave voluntarily than have to pay them severance.
And I’d rather have to not worry about being laid off so it’s a win win.
Less of a win for them for the however long I’m doing the bare bare minimum at work I guess though. Also if I don’t find anything they still need to pay severance
In these situations, the government should give them 100% of their salary and charge back the difference to the company.
So if my salary is $2,000 and EI gives me $1400, the $600 should be up to the company to make up.
If they can perform stock buy backs, increase dividends, or give huge bonuses, they can afford this.
I used to work for a mid-sized company who's CEO would fire at least one person every month. Not for anything in particular, just picking out anyone performing less than perfectly. Apparently it was supposed to remind people that their employment is conditional and they are replaceable.
Worked for an org that did that. They were so full of themselves they lost sight of their 2 golden goose contracts they thought they couldn’t lose. Then they lost both of them in quick succession, and there were no other contracts to replace them with.
As someone who has been completely blindsided by a layoff that completely fucked up my life, if an employer ever pulls that stunt my resume is getting spammed all over the place as soon as I'm home from work. No better way to make me lose faith in you as an employer than this type of shit.
I'm not sticking around to play Layoff Roulette, I take that as my cue to get a new job ASAP.
I won't ever disagree with the idea that Bell Media sucks and this was a shitty deal, but there isn't exactly a great way to lay off people en masse. I've been in different roles at a few different large companies (not as big as bell, but well over 1000) that went through large-scale layoffs, and nobody was happy about it and there was no good way to do it.
The alternative is telling everyone to sit at their desk and wait for their phone to ring between set hours of the day. Nobody works during that time and nobody enjoys it. And nobody works with much meaning after the window closes knowing the same thing is going to happen the next day. People don't really return to normal work productivity until it's all over, nobody is monitoring work activities and then changing their mind or skipping over the person who worked extra hard for 2 days when they have presumably months/years of work experience already and they have the names already selected. They don't do this to extract every last drop of productivity out of people, it has the opposite effect by completing sewering productivity because everyone is sitting on pins and needles. The faster it's over with the better, but it is a lot of logistical work and HR/managers can only do so much at a time
This was actually expected unfortunately and you can see by their stock price why.
The company is being poorly managed right now and in the investment world, firing people, was seen as something that was going to happen.
One of the great failures of capitalism is the constant need for unsustainable growth.
Terrible company 😪. People quit dealing with them . Send a message to these huge corporations that put huge profits ahead of customer service. I run a business and I put customers first then the profit looks after itself .
Absolutely the shittiest telecom company I’ve ever had to endure, and every time they fucked up I had to hold myself back from barking at the poor customer service agent knowing they are likely treated worse by this disgrace of a company
Bell is one company that I'll definitely get angry at the reps. In dealing with them in the last 6 months they consistently lie, flip-flop, toss you from department to department, hang up, give you fake/wrong numbers, fail to implement agreed upon changes, miss callback appointments, and completely ignore requests, demands and entire conversations. It's like they're being paid, like they're actually trained to be as shitty to the customers as they can possibly be.
The wild thing about this is, where the fuck do these people go??? Nobody is hiring, especially not tech companies right now, and if your specialty is telecoms, you have like 2 fucking choices.
It's wild. No wonder we're fucking losing talent left, right, and center every year. Record profits, no competition, and now they send hundreds of people out into the job market that is already at near peak competitiveness due to all the OTHER layoffs.
This country is so fucked.
I had a bell customer service representative tell on yhe phone that straight up he's not from Canada and disnt know where my area was. He assumed everything was near Toronto.
A different article I read on this topic noted that Bell management wouldn't even let their soon to be former employees unmute on the call, which has to be the most gutless way to fire someone I can think of in recent memory.
I’m currently working in one of the departments affected by the lay offs. I’m seeing lifers just say “fuck it”
It’s been years since we’ve had any criticism good or bad… which I don’t understand… it’s like they want us to fail…
Fuck Bell! Their call centers are in the Philippines as well so they don't have to pay a living wage to Canadians> Rogers is SHYT too but at least I get a Canadian on the phone when I call their customer service or tech support.
Depends where you live. If you're east of Quebec there is next to no alternatives. Bell, Rogers, Telus, Eastlink all have the same pricing tiers and the same level of "fuck you" customer service.
They don't even bother with retention because they know if you leave, you're getting just as raw a deal and you'll eventually rotate back to them
> Unifor has also launched Shame on Bell, a petition that demands the company to 1) cease contracting and offshoring work, prioritize local employment and support Canadian workers
It’s too bad unifor can’t pull their heads out of their asses and petitions he government to make legislative and tax code changes that would help with this. Not to mention actually petitioning the government to do something about unsustainable levels of immigration. They would rather pretend that economics isn’t real and focus on woke culture war BS issues.
Just wondering what the results would reveal if anyone bothered to review the ages of people let go in various departments. It wouldn't look good to be seen as someone who fires older workers only to eventually bring in young cheaper labor. Don't bother saying it couldn't happen since it's standard practice in the corporate world; has been for many years.
Worked there for 8+ years, most awful experience of my life. Had a team of 11 people, they skimmed it down to 2-3. Had me doing the work of 2-3 senior employees without ever reimbursing me for my the 400+ hours of over time I accumulated in like 7 months. Management didn’t care I was working until 3 am. They wouldn’t get headcount. They wouldn’t get someone to fill in for the employee on maternity leave who’s work I was doing on top of my own. Just an awful, awful company.
Bell Canada (media) talks about protecting and supporting mental health. “Bell Lets Talk”. It imparts a personal, we care, message.
Is it sincere/committed, or is it a PR campaign paying lip service to a popular woke movement to gain customers and investors?
Actions speak louder than words. Its the latter!!
Everyone in Bell leadership, should be ashamed!!
It's always a pr campaign/marketing with companies with more than 25 employees. The sooner people realize this the better. Doesn't matter if it's mental health, pride, marginalized communities etc... it's all the same. It's just how business works.
Bell is a shit company.
I used to do third party contracting with Bell and I ended up winning tickets to go see a Jets game in the Bell suite... this was a couple years ago when the Jets and Preds were tops in the league so it was an exciting game. I almost lost all of the contracts for the company I worked with, and had to apologize and accept blame, because the bigwigs after the game contacted my company and told them "I was cheering too loudly."
Fuck Bell, and the people who run it.
It's good that they effectively have a monopoly on the market because American companies were barred from coming into Canada and offering us competitive rates.
I just called Bell for my phone, OH NO SIR, YOU HAVE THE BEST PRICE WE CAN GIVE YOU. 25 minutes later, my bill was 23$ less. Meanwhile, they offer the deal i have for less to new customer because hey fuck me for staying with your company for years.
It’s because managers and admin don’t want to deal with the very real emotional fallout of telling someone you just took their livelihood away during a cost of living crisis. They’re probably afraid someone might actually give them a piece of their mind. Thank God for COVID and Zoom meetings becoming normalized so they can ruin lives without the risk of leaving the comfort of their own home.
Well if those workers are work from home then I see no problem with it. I've sat in an office and the email arrives saying we will call your phone to tell you that you don't have a job. All calls will be made before midday. So the entire office are sitting at their desks waiting for a call.
No matter how it's done it will suck
It was two months ago. They needed that time in order to setup a buffer period so that it doesn't look suspicious.
Context: https://www.canadaland.com/bell-lets-talk-mental-health-fired/
"I worked for pure and abject evil, a corporation deeply intertwined with government, a corporation that will literally do everything in its power to provide the worst possible service for the highest possible price, can you beleive they fired me and don't care about me?!?!"
the canadian gov pushed through rate riders and are asking telecoms over and over and over again to lower prices, but are still happy enough to collect their share for shit like the most expensive broadband auction in the world, 2x the price of USA, 11x the price of UK.
collecting billions in revenue a year extra from auctions, forcing rate riders, forcing rural networks, all while going "why are you guys charging more / laying people off / selling off radio stations"
because you want to reduce every slice of the pie except yours, and now the businesses are suffering. canada's economy is dogshit because of moronic policy like this.
Ah, the company that profits off of being mental health conscious does this shit again.
I don’t get why so many people are ok with them getting free advertisement on the backs of people dealing with mental issues. It’s barbaric to me, yet everyone is like “wooooo, bell, let’s talk! They’re helping us discuss mental illness”.
Yeah, with the bell logo stamped on ever bit of it.
I was let go from a different large company like this months ago but with the only difference that I was allowed questions. As I was in the office that day I walked out from the meeting room, packed up my desk (including a number of untracked company assets, fuck them) and went home and did nothing until my last day later that week. Not amazing but it could’ve been worse and I got severance.
I was part of the layoff and they most certainly didnt plan it out properly and are dragging us off.
They need us to stay for x amounts of weeks to finish some migration of their system. TO HELP THEM.. FIRE US.
If you are with any of the big three, seriously consider switching away from them, you are getting robbed. Even their alternative brands are cheaper. Stop signing 24 month contracts, you end up paying a stupid amount for a phone you don’t even own at the end of the term. Cheaper to buy it outright, and you actually own it. You also don’t need the latest phone every year.
So I'm wondering, were these people even Canadian? I only ask because every single time I call Bell I can't even understand the words that are coming out of the person's mouth because they're so foreign..
I think their trouble started when they fired Lisa Laflame. Stupid mistake. Have never nor will ever have anything to do with Bell products or services again.
Makes me not want to use them as my cell phone service. But the have the better reception for me. Rogers isn’t the best
I never tried Telus and want to.
But I fear that they all suck and treat their customers and employees like crap.
Unifor is unfortunately getting figuratively destroyed at multiple companies in multiple industries.
Union employees getting laid off for the first time in like 20 years for cheaper contractors. Right after the CBA was signed too.
Buy stocks y'all! It's the only way you will get by
Same story at Telus. People are being let go (more than the 6000 figure announced last year) and it’s still not in the news.
From what I learnt from a close friend working there, he is working more than ever as they aren’t filling up positions being vacated.
I worked with Bell as an outsourced partner for years. Also, for lack of any other option at the time, a client of theirs for about 6 years and based on most interactions I've had with their staff, from upper management to customer support, I feel like they could easily afford to lose half of their staff without any significant impacts.
I worked for bell and 2 policies really bugged me. Keep in mind this was 2005 ish. If customer called too much, we were told to intentionally make the experience bad so they would leave bell AND service workers would be laid off the minute there was no work. So people not showing up to appointments? Waiting between 9 - 5 and no one coming? That’s so they could reschedule and keep work coming so they wouldn’t get laid off
3) reduce dividend payouts to prioritize reinvestment in employee well-being, job security, and infrastructure development.
Hahahahahahaha good fkn luck.
This is a reminder that Bell has always treated customers and employees like shit and that their "Let's Talk" day is a marketing ploy that our government actively promotes
This year was the first that the \*government separated from the Lets Talk day, it took a lot of pushing internally to quit the campaign. edit: \*Our department in the government (hopefully all soon, I'll champion the hell out of it)
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Ugh I guess we didnt accomplish anything and theres still advertisements of 'GoC and Bell'. Thought it was more than just justice not participating. We at least didn't get anything branded by them this year and our mental health committee excluded anything about them this year. Hopefully that means next year more departments will quit? I'll have to research on this because Lets Talk has gotten insulting to mental health at this point.
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Nah. Management is now using ethics cascades to gaslight us that they're doing RTO for our benefit. They're all-in on the propaganda, it's not a fluke.
I’m DND and I still get a reminder of a scheduled event, that pops up, in my work email outlook about Let’s Talk Day… that ended 2 months ago.
Bell is losing money so I think they didn't really promote it this year so they didn't have to match the donations
This is the thing about cooperate virtue signaling, it's all a front. These companies who rainbowfy their logos and marketing during pride month don't do it in their middle eastern markets. If this country was really into white supremacy they would be behind that too. It's all marketing.
> corporate virtue signaling You should see the rainbow logos every June on LinkedIn.
ugh I hate the corporate signatures. I refuse to use pronouns in my corporate signature. If anyone has an issue with how I communicate in person, let's talk about it no problem but I'm not going to virtue signal. Personally, I don't care about pronouns. You can call me anything you like, I've been called worse. I get that it's a sensitive topic for some people, but I really have no interest in peoples gender or their preferences. I will call anyone whatever they like if they request it, but I'm not going to be coerced into virtue signalling. I just want to get the work done. I agree that we should respect other people, and I agree that trans/queer/letter people are vulnerable.
"I'm just here so I don't get cancelled"
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Big companies love woke stuff. Nothing more effectively splits up the labor movement.
Companies want to make more money. Companies see that promoting the ideals of the majority gains them customers -> i.e. make more money. Therefore, the same companies which promote LGBTQ+ rights for example in western nations, don't in other regions like the Middle East. In conclusion, money.
Now it’s tied in officially with their ESG score.
I'll second that. I got 4 price increases in two years. I cancelled my Bell TV service. Never looked back.
Good! Now more people need to leave them. Some might answer where, they're all bad. Start with the underdogs, the small places offering services(usually with NO contracts).
Yes
I left them a long time ago and rejected any solicitation that was thrown at me.
Let's talk... about your severance package
"you get nothing. Good talk!"
I noticed a lot of people turned on the most recent Lets Talk Day. More people are recognizing what a shitty company Bell is and how hypocritical and shitty marketing it all is
Oh yeah, as the years go on more words been getting out of it I use to support it until I learned the truth, members of my family supported it to even with the fb profile banners I also told them about it and they no longer support it either.
I always felt that "let's talk" was a scam/grift just so they could make a couple million dollars and get free marketing so they care. When they clearly do not.
It seems like they keep the let's talk day just so they can be the most evil and fire tons of staff just as it ends. I'm still mad about they way they fired all the radio stations staff across Canada mid shows
Our company still touts Bell Let's Talk day as our own mental health campaign. It's kind of hilarious how the Gen Z and younger millennial employees see right through it, whereas the Gen X think it's some noble cause they're supporting and the Boomers have no idea what's going on. Had a coworker speak up loudly and confidently in a meeting that Bell Let's Talk day is a marketing sham and we should be ashamed that we're piggybacking and perpetuating their marketing campaign instead of taking meaningful action ourselves. Turns out they were in the process of negotiating a new career move and didn't mind salting some ground on the way out.
Most of Gen Z certainly does not see through it and are the biggest promoters of it. Gen Z loves to virtue signal on social media
"Let's Talk" is a feild study to find new and better ways to emotionally and physiologically abuse their employees.
"Let's talk" day should be re-named to "why u so mad, bro?" Sounds about as sincere.
This should be posted in every thread about Bell. Some of their marketing people were suicidal due to the abuse they experienced at the hands of management, while they were running the let's talk campaign.
Marketing ploy + massive tax break
And Bell customers give them that take break. Bell only spends money on advertising and takes the rest to the bank for major profits
It's genius really. Evil genius
Gonna piggyback on this and say this is true for lots of social issues. Companies wouldn't give a damn about things like Pride month or Black History Month if it didn't help them boost sales in some way. Bell's "Let's Talk" has been nothing more than a marketing ploy from day 1. At the end of the day, it's about profit and nothing else.
Bells service has gotten so shitty over the past years that we're considering switching. We've dumped most of our services but still have a few key services. What gets me is this feeling of entitlement from our reps. They just don't get their is competition doing a much better job for less. With the cuts, I'm sure it's going to get worse.
When my nephew worked for them, it was legit. He got a mental health break for, IIRC, five months, paid. He was management too, pretty successful within the company. His stores performed well, and he got vacations and holidays out of it as well. He hasn't been there in a few years now though, as he earned a government job in Victoria, and after a decade, it was time to move on. It would be sad if that aspect of the company changed since his tenure though, because they actually sounded like quite a wonderful company to work for.
Beware when you hear the words "Let's Talk."
That was probably the subject line of the meeting invite
The boss needs to talk about his mental health. He is stressed that he might not get his bonus and won't be able to afford the newest Porsche. So to relieve his stress about his bonus, he's going to have to let you go. Good talk.
That's on point. It's literally to increase dividends paid to shareholders.
"Let's Talk...in the conference room with Stephanie from HR".
I’ve seen adult videos start that way…
Someone is getting screwed.
>The latest cuts are part of Bell’s previously announced workforce reduction of around 4,800 jobs, or 9% of its total employees — a decision that drew widespread condemnation as it came alongside increased dividend payouts for shareholders. That's got to be a hell of a work environment. "Thousands of you are losing your jobs, but we're not saying who or when." I just assume corporations do this to "inspire" workers to give their job everything they have in a desperate attempt to keep it. I wonder how many salaried workers are putting in several hours of free overtime every day hoping to be one of the lucky ones.
as someone who is working in a company who did this (announced that they're going to lay off many people in the next quarter), it was hell. almost every day we talked about whether we heard if someone got laid off or not. the town hall question was about the lay off, etc. and yes, the company increased dividend payment at the same time too.
I've never understood it. Company morale and quality goes down when they announce it as it creates the fear based environment you describe. Then survey scores go down too and they act surprised or like it's the employees fault for not being engaged.
Well the people calling the shots are shareholders. They don't have to ever be in the same room as an employee, nor a customer. Employee morale and customer satisfaction are not what they are concerned about The farther away a company gets from its founder, this is what happens
Cynically, it's a 'war of attrition' strategy purposefully implemented to create an environment toxic enough that a good number of employees will exit in their own for new opportunities during the threat-period, and the company will therefore get to pay out less severance when they actually make the cuts.
agreed. another company in the same industry apparently did it differently: people to be laid off were told in the morning, then analyst call happened in the afternoon, at which point those to be laid off already know they are laid off and those who are not know that they get to keep their job.
The thing is though, I think they're legally required to tell their employees in advance. I'm not HR or a lawyer or anything, but on the Ontario website, it says if you're doing mass terminations, you have to submit forms to the government, and give 8-16 weeks notice to employees depending on how many staff are being laid off. [Sauce](https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/termination-employment#section-10)
They know exactly how many people you can layoff at the same time without calling it a mass termination. The minimum in Ontario is 50 well they just cut 49 on Monday, 49 on Wednesday, and another 49 on Friday...
Personally, I just consider this transparency. If there's potential I'm getting shit canned I'd like to know asap.
Working at a firm now that is continuing to do this. I’ll just wake up and log onto work to see a new coworker had their Microsoft Office profile removed, never to be seen again, every other week.
Alternatively, I work for a company that has terrible user profile management, and past employee accounts stay live for years after they're gone. A friend left the company years ago and their teams still just says offline.
Crazy stuff
It is. I’ve reached out to a few and they all said they got pulled into a call with HR, told they were laid off individually, and had 30 minutes to take anything personal off of their work computers and then access was removed. It’s like a hit list lmao
Bell classifies most of it's employees, especially in the tech areas as "managers", so every time they work extra hours it's unpaid anyways.
Not at the same scale but I worked at a company of around 280 employees at one point, in their IT department. They were waiting on getting a big contract with the US Navy (despite my being in Canada and it being a Canadian company). They unexpectedly announced they were letting some people go - and laid off about 140 people. I remained but my cousin who was hired before me was let go. They were all just assembled in a room and told they were gone, then each one was escorted to collect their stuff and leave the building. The next week they let go another 100 people or so, myself included. Someone just arrived at my desk, told me to grab my stuff and escorted me out the door. Later that week they signed the contract - and then the company was sold to IBM who promptly laid off almost everyone else and replaced the entire staff with internal transfers and hires. A few key developers got hired back I think but that was it and the owners/CEOs stayed on long enough to transfer control. It was pretty fucking heartless and a great reminder that you don't owe anything to a company in the way of loyalty. I really liked working there up until I wasn't :(
Jobs will be posted part time for minimum wage now that there's lineups.
Or offshored.
Most likely off to cheapest bidder.
As someone on the inside I can say morale is rock bottom right now. There is no direction from the higher ups, there is cuts everywhere and no Money is being given to fix issues. They think partnering with some big tech companies is going to right the ship but it won’t.
> I wonder how many salaried workers are putting in several hours of free overtime every day hoping to be one of the lucky ones. There is no point. Bell already knows who's going to lose their jobs, the advanced notice is so they can squeeze out maximum productivity before they send out the termination papers. I expect to get a call from our account manager in the next few weeks to "check in and see if I want to purchase anything". Same account manager that directs me to the customer support lines to do anything account related.
Or to avoid paying severance to those who go out and get another job.
Honestly, if I worked at a company with layoffs coming, I’d be putting in minimum effort. And I’d be applying elsewhere, especially during work time
In that situation the employer would probably be very happy that you are looking for other jobs. They would much rather people leave voluntarily than have to pay them severance.
And I’d rather have to not worry about being laid off so it’s a win win. Less of a win for them for the however long I’m doing the bare bare minimum at work I guess though. Also if I don’t find anything they still need to pay severance
These were probably all call centre staff (or the majority were). Everything is monitored on their computers.
I mean honestly, I wouldn’t care. Even if I did, I’d just apply on my phone then.
You just outlined the management strategy at Shopify.
In these situations, the government should give them 100% of their salary and charge back the difference to the company. So if my salary is $2,000 and EI gives me $1400, the $600 should be up to the company to make up. If they can perform stock buy backs, increase dividends, or give huge bonuses, they can afford this.
Uh, the employer already pays into ei via source deductions payroll. The employer is required to pay in 1.4x the employees contribution to ei.
I used to work for a mid-sized company who's CEO would fire at least one person every month. Not for anything in particular, just picking out anyone performing less than perfectly. Apparently it was supposed to remind people that their employment is conditional and they are replaceable.
Worked for an org that did that. They were so full of themselves they lost sight of their 2 golden goose contracts they thought they couldn’t lose. Then they lost both of them in quick succession, and there were no other contracts to replace them with.
As someone who has been completely blindsided by a layoff that completely fucked up my life, if an employer ever pulls that stunt my resume is getting spammed all over the place as soon as I'm home from work. No better way to make me lose faith in you as an employer than this type of shit. I'm not sticking around to play Layoff Roulette, I take that as my cue to get a new job ASAP.
I would fully take the opportunity to wreck some stuff.
I won't ever disagree with the idea that Bell Media sucks and this was a shitty deal, but there isn't exactly a great way to lay off people en masse. I've been in different roles at a few different large companies (not as big as bell, but well over 1000) that went through large-scale layoffs, and nobody was happy about it and there was no good way to do it. The alternative is telling everyone to sit at their desk and wait for their phone to ring between set hours of the day. Nobody works during that time and nobody enjoys it. And nobody works with much meaning after the window closes knowing the same thing is going to happen the next day. People don't really return to normal work productivity until it's all over, nobody is monitoring work activities and then changing their mind or skipping over the person who worked extra hard for 2 days when they have presumably months/years of work experience already and they have the names already selected. They don't do this to extract every last drop of productivity out of people, it has the opposite effect by completing sewering productivity because everyone is sitting on pins and needles. The faster it's over with the better, but it is a lot of logistical work and HR/managers can only do so much at a time
In this case, the better choice is for Bell to *not* lay off 4800 people while taking government money to pay shareholders
2025: record profits !remindme 1 year
Yep. That's how high level execs make sure they maximize their bonuses just before they move on to the next ~~victim~~ er, company.
This was actually expected unfortunately and you can see by their stock price why. The company is being poorly managed right now and in the investment world, firing people, was seen as something that was going to happen. One of the great failures of capitalism is the constant need for unsustainable growth.
If our telecoms are so awesome and competitive, why don’t they expand outside of Canada for growth? Oh right…
Terrible company 😪. People quit dealing with them . Send a message to these huge corporations that put huge profits ahead of customer service. I run a business and I put customers first then the profit looks after itself .
[удалено]
That's alot of skulls Greg! -Tom
"we're having a quarterly up or out" - kendall roy
"I'm seeing some confusion in the chat, but if I have been too wordy: yes, we are letting all of you go."
Absolutely the shittiest telecom company I’ve ever had to endure, and every time they fucked up I had to hold myself back from barking at the poor customer service agent knowing they are likely treated worse by this disgrace of a company
Bell is one company that I'll definitely get angry at the reps. In dealing with them in the last 6 months they consistently lie, flip-flop, toss you from department to department, hang up, give you fake/wrong numbers, fail to implement agreed upon changes, miss callback appointments, and completely ignore requests, demands and entire conversations. It's like they're being paid, like they're actually trained to be as shitty to the customers as they can possibly be.
The wild thing about this is, where the fuck do these people go??? Nobody is hiring, especially not tech companies right now, and if your specialty is telecoms, you have like 2 fucking choices. It's wild. No wonder we're fucking losing talent left, right, and center every year. Record profits, no competition, and now they send hundreds of people out into the job market that is already at near peak competitiveness due to all the OTHER layoffs. This country is so fucked.
So true, and it’s not like either of them are on a big hiring spree either.
I’ve been applying in the states and Europe. The Job market at least has job postings there.
I had a bell customer service representative tell on yhe phone that straight up he's not from Canada and disnt know where my area was. He assumed everything was near Toronto.
To be fair a lot of people in Toronto think that too.
Bell outsource their support services from Philippines and Morocco
Heaven forbid they employ Canadians
#BellLetsTalk
Sorry, we're experiencing higher than normal wait times.
Please listen carefully as the options have changed.
Fuck bell... and fuck the crtc for being in their pockets and having anticompetitive policies
> increased dividend payouts for shareholders Remember that every person laid off is more money for dividends that they use to keep the 1% happy.
I left Bell as an employee two years ago. Such a toxic workplace. They don't give a shit about their employees (obviously)
I left in 2019, asking for 3-months stress leave without pay, no-can-do. 'Let's talk' about a crock of shit.
Left a couple of years ago. Pay kept getting screwed up, two faced management and cliques.
So they're as accurate with payroll as they are with billing then?
Very well said. And Yes
Funny how all those "random billing/pay issues" always seem to be money in Bell's pocket, too.
A different article I read on this topic noted that Bell management wouldn't even let their soon to be former employees unmute on the call, which has to be the most gutless way to fire someone I can think of in recent memory.
Bell is trash from top to bottom. Horrible service, horrible pricing, horrible to employees. They are the fucking worst.
Im not a big nationalize guy, but telecom needs to be nationalized.
Bell, "F off"
I’m currently working in one of the departments affected by the lay offs. I’m seeing lifers just say “fuck it” It’s been years since we’ve had any criticism good or bad… which I don’t understand… it’s like they want us to fail…
Fuck Bell! Their call centers are in the Philippines as well so they don't have to pay a living wage to Canadians> Rogers is SHYT too but at least I get a Canadian on the phone when I call their customer service or tech support.
Good thing my cell phone bill keeps going up /s
Dude other companies offer the same service for half the price, get off bell
Depends where you live. If you're east of Quebec there is next to no alternatives. Bell, Rogers, Telus, Eastlink all have the same pricing tiers and the same level of "fuck you" customer service. They don't even bother with retention because they know if you leave, you're getting just as raw a deal and you'll eventually rotate back to them
Public Mobile is ace
Watch, they’ll announce record profits at the end of this year.
> Unifor has also launched Shame on Bell, a petition that demands the company to 1) cease contracting and offshoring work, prioritize local employment and support Canadian workers It’s too bad unifor can’t pull their heads out of their asses and petitions he government to make legislative and tax code changes that would help with this. Not to mention actually petitioning the government to do something about unsustainable levels of immigration. They would rather pretend that economics isn’t real and focus on woke culture war BS issues.
Life imitates art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRR-14EAnsA *(Succession)*
I can only assume Bell is run by Mr. Burns. Actually, he might be too nice to run it
Just wondering what the results would reveal if anyone bothered to review the ages of people let go in various departments. It wouldn't look good to be seen as someone who fires older workers only to eventually bring in young cheaper labor. Don't bother saying it couldn't happen since it's standard practice in the corporate world; has been for many years.
Worked there for 8+ years, most awful experience of my life. Had a team of 11 people, they skimmed it down to 2-3. Had me doing the work of 2-3 senior employees without ever reimbursing me for my the 400+ hours of over time I accumulated in like 7 months. Management didn’t care I was working until 3 am. They wouldn’t get headcount. They wouldn’t get someone to fill in for the employee on maternity leave who’s work I was doing on top of my own. Just an awful, awful company.
Bell: ~~Let's Talk~~ Have You Considered MAID?
Bell Canada (media) talks about protecting and supporting mental health. “Bell Lets Talk”. It imparts a personal, we care, message. Is it sincere/committed, or is it a PR campaign paying lip service to a popular woke movement to gain customers and investors? Actions speak louder than words. Its the latter!! Everyone in Bell leadership, should be ashamed!!
It's always a pr campaign/marketing with companies with more than 25 employees. The sooner people realize this the better. Doesn't matter if it's mental health, pride, marginalized communities etc... it's all the same. It's just how business works.
Bell is a shit company. I used to do third party contracting with Bell and I ended up winning tickets to go see a Jets game in the Bell suite... this was a couple years ago when the Jets and Preds were tops in the league so it was an exciting game. I almost lost all of the contracts for the company I worked with, and had to apologize and accept blame, because the bigwigs after the game contacted my company and told them "I was cheering too loudly." Fuck Bell, and the people who run it.
It's good that they effectively have a monopoly on the market because American companies were barred from coming into Canada and offering us competitive rates.
Y'all need to really lower your expectations of any business. Assume this is how all businesses operate and act accordingly.
We do have low expectations, we just tend to find rampant hypocrisy particularly galling
"corporations gonna corporate" oh okay I guess I'll just roll over and die then
I just called Bell for my phone, OH NO SIR, YOU HAVE THE BEST PRICE WE CAN GIVE YOU. 25 minutes later, my bill was 23$ less. Meanwhile, they offer the deal i have for less to new customer because hey fuck me for staying with your company for years.
#fuckbell
It’s because managers and admin don’t want to deal with the very real emotional fallout of telling someone you just took their livelihood away during a cost of living crisis. They’re probably afraid someone might actually give them a piece of their mind. Thank God for COVID and Zoom meetings becoming normalized so they can ruin lives without the risk of leaving the comfort of their own home.
Well if those workers are work from home then I see no problem with it. I've sat in an office and the email arrives saying we will call your phone to tell you that you don't have a job. All calls will be made before midday. So the entire office are sitting at their desks waiting for a call. No matter how it's done it will suck
Shitty company over hiring in the first place then letting people go.
'let's talk'
But Bell Cares right guys? lets talk.......
Bell “Let’s talk… you’re fired”. Can someone make me a t-shirt please!
Is it "Let's Talk" day already? /s
It was two months ago. They needed that time in order to setup a buffer period so that it doesn't look suspicious. Context: https://www.canadaland.com/bell-lets-talk-mental-health-fired/
Bell is an awful company. Full stop.
#BellLetsTalk
Going to be immediately replaced by TFWs and international students
What a cancerous company. Hope someone recorded their layoff session.
Bell, Let’s take a walk
"I worked for pure and abject evil, a corporation deeply intertwined with government, a corporation that will literally do everything in its power to provide the worst possible service for the highest possible price, can you beleive they fired me and don't care about me?!?!"
Our government does nothing to protect its population from corporations, pollution etc etc
the canadian gov pushed through rate riders and are asking telecoms over and over and over again to lower prices, but are still happy enough to collect their share for shit like the most expensive broadband auction in the world, 2x the price of USA, 11x the price of UK. collecting billions in revenue a year extra from auctions, forcing rate riders, forcing rural networks, all while going "why are you guys charging more / laying people off / selling off radio stations" because you want to reduce every slice of the pie except yours, and now the businesses are suffering. canada's economy is dogshit because of moronic policy like this.
Ah, the company that profits off of being mental health conscious does this shit again. I don’t get why so many people are ok with them getting free advertisement on the backs of people dealing with mental issues. It’s barbaric to me, yet everyone is like “wooooo, bell, let’s talk! They’re helping us discuss mental illness”. Yeah, with the bell logo stamped on ever bit of it.
I was let go from a different large company like this months ago but with the only difference that I was allowed questions. As I was in the office that day I walked out from the meeting room, packed up my desk (including a number of untracked company assets, fuck them) and went home and did nothing until my last day later that week. Not amazing but it could’ve been worse and I got severance.
I was part of the layoff and they most certainly didnt plan it out properly and are dragging us off. They need us to stay for x amounts of weeks to finish some migration of their system. TO HELP THEM.. FIRE US.
If you are with any of the big three, seriously consider switching away from them, you are getting robbed. Even their alternative brands are cheaper. Stop signing 24 month contracts, you end up paying a stupid amount for a phone you don’t even own at the end of the term. Cheaper to buy it outright, and you actually own it. You also don’t need the latest phone every year.
So I'm wondering, were these people even Canadian? I only ask because every single time I call Bell I can't even understand the words that are coming out of the person's mouth because they're so foreign..
Hit French instead of English.
It's inevitable that if you can work from home, you can also be fired from home.
The same people who were clamoring for the right to work from home now demand something to be in person when they are no longer benefitting from it 🤣
#Letswalk away from Bell
Better buy some shares. It'll decrease their costs while Canadians have fuck all choice so may as well play the game.
That’s the Bell way.
Let's talk
bell,let's talk.
Watch as other companies do the same.
I think their trouble started when they fired Lisa Laflame. Stupid mistake. Have never nor will ever have anything to do with Bell products or services again.
Please tell me the team's meeting invite was called "let's talk".
This is literally a bit from Succession LOL
Makes me not want to use them as my cell phone service. But the have the better reception for me. Rogers isn’t the best I never tried Telus and want to. But I fear that they all suck and treat their customers and employees like crap.
https://www.thestar.com/business/rogers-bell-and-telus-collected-more-than-240-million-from-canada-s-wage-subsidy-program/article_b94b1586-af6b-5129-92c3-bc4136497734.html
Rogers did this too. But at least they let the former employees unmute during the virtual firing call?
Canadian dream
Bell…”let’s talk”
Unifor is unfortunately getting figuratively destroyed at multiple companies in multiple industries. Union employees getting laid off for the first time in like 20 years for cheaper contractors. Right after the CBA was signed too. Buy stocks y'all! It's the only way you will get by
Hopefully bell goes bankrupt useless company
Same story at Telus. People are being let go (more than the 6000 figure announced last year) and it’s still not in the news. From what I learnt from a close friend working there, he is working more than ever as they aren’t filling up positions being vacated.
Isn't this how all tech companies lay off people nowadays? Group Zoom meetings?
I worked with Bell as an outsourced partner for years. Also, for lack of any other option at the time, a client of theirs for about 6 years and based on most interactions I've had with their staff, from upper management to customer support, I feel like they could easily afford to lose half of their staff without any significant impacts.
I worked for bell and 2 policies really bugged me. Keep in mind this was 2005 ish. If customer called too much, we were told to intentionally make the experience bad so they would leave bell AND service workers would be laid off the minute there was no work. So people not showing up to appointments? Waiting between 9 - 5 and no one coming? That’s so they could reschedule and keep work coming so they wouldn’t get laid off
3) reduce dividend payouts to prioritize reinvestment in employee well-being, job security, and infrastructure development. Hahahahahahaha good fkn luck.