[mschuster91]

The problem with being a nationwide ISP - and Verizon runs mobile phones, fiber and all kinds of other stuff - is that you need lots of hands across the country. A lot of stuff can be done remotely and with automation, but often enough you still need actual physical hands on site, and you can't just say "eh, we'll come around tomorrow, we can't make it there faster".

[sumtechguy]

Also 'Verizon' is not really one company. It is 2. Telco and wireless. Each of those is a mashup of dozens of other phone companies VZ gobbled up over the years. With tech stacks going back decades. At one point while I worked there about 10 years ago they were running the 56k dialup for AOL. They also run a decent amount of stores. They are not going to automate a retail store in the same way you would amazon. You have to have people standing there. Then there is the "i need to talk to someone about why my phone keeps doing weird things" helpdesks/servicedesks. Then the line workers like you point out. Plus the backend people who might be able to work from home. But only if they are not in a secure area working (they have lots of that). That 15k of people was probably the result of several big projects that were scaling up but didnt work out. They have all sorts of projects to try to 'monetize the last mile they own'. Almost all fail.

[adrr]

Are amazon stores automated? I have Amazon fresh store next to me, they have the smart grocery carts that no one uses because they are overly finicky. They have same number of employees as other grocery stores.

[sumtechguy]

That was my point I think I said it badly. A physical store takes people on site to run it. Even amazon with its online store has an army of people running the behind the scenes things. Most things are not automated by code. VZ is not much different. When I worked there they had well over 5000 locations worldwide that were staffed by people. They reduced it at that time. Hence me no longer working there. But sounds like they put it back and then some. Their core business is probably small. But they have huge initiatives they try to do. They do not want to be the commodity data line company. But most of their stuff just doesnt stick well. They think in terms of 'number of lines sold' instead of 'number of customers satisfied'.