Sorry, goodbye! This operator closed 250 business halls and laid off 3,400 employees. What warning do we have?

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Perhaps you still naively think that this is a story that happened in the distant American Empire and the dirty capitalist world, but in fact, such "tragic events" may not be so far away from us.

Recently, the American Telecommunications Workers Union revealed that mobile communications giant AT&T has notified its main union that it plans to permanently close more than 250 stores across the United States in the coming weeks and lay off more than 3,400 technical and clerical positions.

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AT&T explained that the reason for this plan was mainly affected by the new coronavirus epidemic and the local government's lockdown measures. Due to the requirements of social isolation, users began to get accustomed to online consumption, and this consumption behavior did not seem to be reversible, which means that even after the epidemic is over, users' online consumption habits will not return to the state before the epidemic.

Based on this, AT&T decided to permanently close 250 stores to save costs. It is understood that AT&T has about 2,200 directly-operated stores in the United States, and the store closure ratio this time exceeds 10%, affecting more than 3,400 employees, accounting for 2% of AT&T's total employees, most of whom are basic technicians and office clerks.

In fact, AT&T has always had plans to streamline its staff to ease its heavy operating cost pressure. For example, it laid off nearly 2,000 regular employees last year and adopted outsourcing. It also implemented a huge layoff plan the year before last. The COVID-19 pandemic since the beginning of this year has accelerated and aggravated the overall layoff plan.

Perhaps you still naively think that this is a story that happened in the distant American Empire and the dirty capitalist world, but in fact, such "tragic events" may not be so far away from us.

Recently, the three major domestic operators have frequently released various signals of "disguised layoffs" - for example, one operator recently issued the "Employee Exit Management Measures" with the aim of stimulating the employee exit mechanism and making normalized exit a new normal. For example, another operator recently issued a notice, "Notice on Clarifying the Standardized Management of "Taking Me as the Main Body" (Individual Agency Model)", encouraging employees to resign and start their own businesses. Another operator that is promoting mixed-ownership reform has already made "layoffs" a normalized work.

The reality is even more serious. At present, 5G networks are being promoted for joint construction and sharing. China Telecom and China Unicom jointly build and share, and China Mobile and China Broadcasting Corporation jointly build and share. What does this mean? It means that operators no longer need so many network construction, operation and maintenance, and optimization personnel, and these personnel account for at least one-third of the operator's employees. Where should these overlapping personnel go?

Another point is that operators are all transforming towards digitalization. Digitalization is actually a double-edged sword for operator employees. On the one hand, operators use digitalization to help transform traditional industries. On the other hand, digitalization also requires operators to carry out digital transformation themselves to improve efficiency. What will be the end result? The end result is that employees will face a lot of streamlining! For example, robot intelligent customer service will replace more than 90% of traditional manual customer service, and online sales will replace more than 80% of marketing personnel. What should these employees who have lost their place do?

When questioned about "excessive layoffs," AT&T executives explained, "We are also looking for suitable positions for those who have lost their jobs, but for those who have no position, we can only say 'sorry, goodbye'. Everything is for survival."

Domestic operators may not express it so "naked" and "straightforward", but they are facing a similar situation. If they cannot get rid of the burden, it will be difficult for them to walk well in the future, or even to continue on. Domestic operators will not lay off employees drastically, but they will make those who lose their positions feel uncomfortable. The purpose is the same: to let those who can no longer contribute value leave.

In fact, domestic operators are saying goodbye to those employees with practical actions: Sorry, goodbye!