back to article Canada's Telus to shed 6K workers as profits plunge 61%

Canadian telco Telus plans to ditch 6,000 workers across its business — about six percent of its global workforce — after its profits fell 61 percent year over year during the second quarter of 2023. Telus CEO Darren Entwistle announced the restructuring in the biz's Q2 earnings release [PDF] on Friday. Some 4,000 positions …

  1. CowHorseFrog

    Fire 6000 employees are fire leadership and stop the bonuses... i wonder which would save the company more money.?

  2. The Oncoming Scorn Silver badge
    Facepalm

    From The Department Of The Bleeding Obvious!

    Deplete your workforce, wonder why customers leave over piss poor service & then wonder why the company is still losing money, but never mind "We've cut costs so let's give ourselves nice big bonuses!".

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: From The Department Of The Bleeding Obvious!

      Even better if they're offering voluntary leaving packages. Their best staff will be those at the front of the queue.

  3. Bebu Silver badge
    Windows

    'Nuff said

    ..."demonstrate our execution excellence"... "technology-oriented verticals"... "facing near term headwinds"... "pronounced macroeconomic pressures"

    Could be a bloody guillotine manufacturer complaining about operating their kit in foul weather and the fact the commitee for public safety isn't fronting up with the readies.

    Is everyone on being propelled into management awarded a lifetime supply of codswallop? Or is it the only selection criterion?

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: 'Nuff said

      They certainly don't sound like they're running a telecommunications business nor any other form of communication in fact.

  4. Alistair Silver badge
    Windows

    One thing here to note

    CRTC changed the rules on primary carriers and what they charge *non* associated MVNO's and associated MVNO's. Essentially, Rogers, Telus, Bell (the three primaries) have had from 4 to 7 associated or subsidiary MVNO's in their folds. Because of the rules changes, all three majors are working to fold the subscribers to their subsidiary MVNOs into their primary line of business. (Thus the reported subscriber increase in Telus' quarterly). Annnd, since they're *all* running behind the schedule they've had to cut the charges to non-associated MVNOs along the way. Wont last long tho I'm sure.

  5. Grunchy Silver badge

    Alberta Government Telephone

    I haven’t had a telephone line for more than a decade, not even cellular. Though I had taken advantage of Fongo’s freeware VOIP solutions including “freephoneline.ca”.

    I’ve got about 10 years of “demand invoices” from Telus (formerly A.G.T.), and receiving one or two more each month, all informing me of my unresolved account balance of $0.00 still owing. One day I might go drop them off back to Telus global HQ in downtown Calgary (about 5km bike ride).

    The real reason Telus is struggling is because they are retrofitting each and every structure in Calgary with the Fibre Optic connection. They come around and hydrovac a small tunnel from your front yard to the service portal (being that most of Calgary is serviced by underground utilities, including electrical, water, sewage, natural gas, plus one each of telephone + coaxial cable TV).

    I used to “make do” with my bottom-of-barrel, 5-million baud (5 Mbps) cable internet, but now they’ve upgraded me & fellow laggards to 250 Mbps minimum speed. Funny thing, it’s still a DOCSIS 3.0 modem, of which all devices lower than DOCSIS 3.1 are still threatened to be obsoleted by next year.

    (The way Telus roving gangs operate is they come to your door and apologize that the only way they can get that fibre optic connection strung is to tie it to the coax and pull it into the structure that way, which unfortunately destroys the cable service, but that’s ok because there hasn’t been cable TV in about as long as people stopped paying for landline telephone, or newspapers. You know, they don’t even charge for the library card anymore either? As a matter of fact they don’t even charge late fees anymore too! In fact… when’s the last time I even went to the library? And yet I still have hundreds of books kicking around the place, peculiar.)

  6. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

    Profits down 61%

    So, let me get this straight. They are panicking and laying off people because profits are down? They aren't losing money, just not making as much as last year? And this is a full panic-mode disaster that requires extraordinary measures? Really? Can the CEO not afford that extra yacht this year or something?

    Maybe instead of paying people off, they ought to be looking at consolidating the business and accrued expertise and looking for ways to improve thins rather than cutting back. It's the people who generate the income. If they really need to get rid of people, look first at the upper and middle management. Every large company almost always has far too much management as departments and admin grows during empire building and each department or division tries accrue "kudos".

    1. Potemkine! Silver badge

      Re: Profits down 61%

      Agreed, but these people don't get a damn about long term. What they want is shareholders to be happy _now_, even if it means leading the company to the grave. Their bonuses depend on that!

  7. StargateSg7

    We're going to MURDER TELUS, ROGERS, BELL, Verizon, BT and most every OTHER WORLDWIDE Telecom provider later this year when we FINALLY publicly introduce our 64k by 64 array of Trapped Xenon particle Quantum Communications chips which will allow for Spooky Action at a Distance (aka Quantum Entanglement-based) via full duplex PetaBYTES per second data rates! YES! We at NCA (North Canadian Aerospace) have SOLVED the decoherence issue and have our own version of Q-ECC (Quantum Error Correction) via INFERRED Daata Set/Get infrastructure on-on-the-chip at nano-scales!

    We are also OPEN SOURCING THE TECHNOLOGY for all the smartphone manufacturers who can embed the tech directly into the handsets so peer-to-peer network voice, video and data can happen ANYWHERE ON EARTH and off it WITHOUT needing ANY telco provider!

    We Win!

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