The message you heard from Pat today may have caught many of you off guard. I’m sure many of you are asking “Why?” What I would like to do is reiterate the key messages and help put this in perspective for Cox New England.

As you know, we’ve had a relentless focus on improving our operating efficiencies in New England over the past several years, as our competition has intensified and the economy has softened. As Pat’s message demonstrates, this is a focus across all of Cox Communications as well.

We continually re-examine our business, looking at many options for reducing costs and evolving our business while intensifying our focus on the customer experience. Running the business more effectively is a discipline we’ve practiced in New England for years, and it is something that will be part of everything we do going forward.

As you heard from Pat earlier, we are beginning a workforce reduction across all of Cox Communications. And as he said, this workforce reduction impacts both corporate and field offices, and includes a Voluntary Retirement Program and an involuntary workforce reduction.

The company’s Voluntary Retirement Program is attractive and generous and, I believe, will be well-received by eligible employees. After we assess the impact of the voluntary program, we still likely will need to eliminate a relatively small number of positions in Cox New England through an involuntary workforce reduction. I do not expect this to in any way reduce our commitment to providing a quality customer experience, consistent with our Trusted Provider vision.

Although some positions will be eliminated, we will encourage those affected employees to apply for open positions elsewhere in our organization and will create a process to assist them in their efforts. We’ll do everything we can to help match those employees with open positions, but I do expect that at the end of this process, some of those employees whose positions are being eliminated will no longer be with the company.

We’ll start the process this week, beginning with the Voluntary Retirement Program. All employees who are eligible for the Voluntary Retirement Program will be contacted by HR via e-mail this Thursday, November 6. HR will then provide individualized packets of information that contain pension and benefit information for each eligible employee, and will schedule meetings over the next few weeks to review the packets and answer any questions. The deadline for an employee to accept the Voluntary Retirement Package is Friday, November 21.

Employees who are impacted by the involuntary force reduction will be contacted by your leaders in early December. If you are impacted, your leaders will provide you with more information about the severance package, outplacement assistance and other details at the notification meeting. I know this is several weeks away, but please be patient; these are not easy decisions and we want to be very diligent before making them.

I realize that there is a lot of anxiety around this announcement, but it is important that we all remain focused. We must continue to deliver to our customers the kind of service that only a trusted provider can provide. I know that you will support your co-workers as they work through their own individual situations. I know, too, that this will position Cox New England, and Cox Communications overall, to thrive going forward.

Thank you for all that you do every day.

Paul