Verizon Wireless has laid off 45 percent of the employees that worked at in-store Circuit City locations, according to Verizon Wireless spokesperson Harold Waterman. Fierce received an email from Waterman this afternoon responding to an inquiry we sent earier in the day and said the company would provide severance and outplacement services to "those we cannot unfortunately retain." Waterman said in an email that the layoffs are solely related to the Circuit City store closings, and that rumors of layoffs of senior sales staff in the Gulf Coast area are "absolutely not true."
A Verizon Wireless employee who lost his job this week and wished to remain relatively anonymous, said the company is paying two weeks severance for every year with the company and will provide benefits for the next four weeks. "Shawn from Texas" stated his official severance date is March 14, but that he did not have to report to work any longer. He said 61 Verizon Wireless employees in the north district of Texas lost their jobs in the shake out, and only 17 were retained. The district manager told Shawn that all layoffs were determined by a "rate and rank process which measured 2008 performance, quota attainment, credo/core values, customer first commitment, and corrective record."
Here's the story we ran earlier with links to good background information on the subject.