A Call for Volunteers?

Sprint is offering employees an opportunity to RIF (Reduction in Force) themselves! Boy ain’t that a great thing. That is a precursor to action down the line that I will reference after the jump. —

Sprint Nextel is instituting a voluntary separation package for its employees, giving them until Dec. 3 to leave the company voluntarily.

The beleagured carrier, which lost 1.3 million net subscribers in the third quarter, has not announced any layoffs as part of the plan.

“What is happening is Sprint is offering a personal decision for employees to take advantage of a voluntary separation package,” said Lisa Zimmerman-Mott, a Sprint spokeswoman. Zimmerman-Mott said the offer was made to most employees that don’t have direct access to customers.

“No one is being forced to do anything,” she said. “There are no forced reductions. There are no layoffs in store. It’s a matter of employees having the option to exercise discretion. No targets have been announced.”

“…No targets have been announced.” , heh. That does not mean they aren’t in the works. From personal experience I can tell you that if a voluntary plan has been hatched then there is a larger RIF plan coming soon after. The reason companies do this is to blunt any possible legal action when the RIFs come due. That way they can say “Well we asked for volunteers. Doesn’t that show compassion?” in any court of law that they operate under.

Sprint has to have a RIF planned. They lost another 1.3m customer last quarter. They are rapidly reaching the point that they may not have the income base to continue a broad based national network. I hope not I am one of their customers.

Linky.