By Howard Levitt and Lavan Narenthiran

Last week, Bell Canada didn't just cut nearly 700 managerial jobs. It performed a masterclass in how to eliminate an entire tier of middle and senior employees with surgical efficiency and almost no legal blowback. And, whether it be banks, telecom, insurance or energy companies, the rest of corporate Canada is taking notes.

If you are a manager, this is a moment to pay attention. Because the very title you worked so hard to earn is likely now your biggest liability.

Bell's purge is the clearest warning yet — if you have "manager" in your title, you are the easiest person in Canada to fire.

This Is not only a restructuring. It is a demonstration of how far Canadian employment law goes to protect some employees while abandoning others. And if you are a manager, particularly in a federally regulated sector, Bell just reminded you of where you fall: among the unprotected.

Federally regulated non-managers enjoy statutory protection from termination without cause. Managers do not.

There is:

• no arbitration process,
• no reinstatement rights,
• no meaningful procedural barrier.

For employers, removing a manager is not a legal challenge. It is a cost calculation. It is the cleanest termination imaginable. Bell took full advantage of that.

It didn't cut managers because it had to — it cut them because it could.

This is a company that knows the law. And it knows human nature. That combination made the mass layoffs possible with almost no resistance thus far.

Most managers do not sue. Rather, they accept the first severance package — often the lowest legally plausible number a corporation believes it can get away with.

Yet many of these managers are entitled to dramatically more: often up to two years' compensation, and even more, as the law has evolved. But you cannot claim what you do not know.

Bell knows that, too. That's why 700 terminations went off with barely a ripple.

The financial markets love these cuts, which public companies also know.

Let's dispense with the corporate euphemisms: "streamlining," "strategic realignment," "future-focused investment." These are press office inventions.

The real driver is simple: cutting managers improves earnings immediately. Analysts applaud, share prices rise and senior executives hit their performance targets.

This is not crisis response but corporate strategy. And employment law, drafted in a different era, still makes managerial layoffs the path of least resistance.

Ottawa talks about protecting the middle class while designing policies that erase it.

Telecom companies face a contradictory policy landscape, which includes:

• Pressure to lower prices
• The burden of ever-expanding compliance requirements
• Restrictions against consolidation
• Heavy taxation
• No meaningful relief for capital investment

When everything else is squeezed, labour is the only remaining cost lever. And the employees easiest to cut — by statutory design — are managers.

Politicians may express shock at mass layoffs. They should not. They engineered the environment that makes these cuts inevitable.

Corporate Canada is studying Bell's playbook carefully. And here is the blueprint the company just handed to every major employer in the country:

1. Target managers — the legally exposed group
2. Issue standardized severance packages that look non-negotiable
3. Count on most employees not seeking legal advice
4. Redistribute the work internally
5. Call it "transformation"

Banks, insurers, energy companies and other telecom giants will not miss the message. Why would they? The incentives are obvious and the legal risk is minimal. Employees need to understand something: your title is not protection — it's a target.

If you are a manager, your greatest vulnerability is the misconception that you are secure. You are not. Your severance may be high, but only if you refuse to accept the initial offer.

Never, ever, sign the first package. Never assume it reflects your true entitlement, because it almost certainly does not.

And if you remain employed, watch your duties closely. After major layoffs, constructive dismissals spike. Workloads jump. Roles shift. Titles evaporate. A job can be hollowed out long before it is eliminated.

Bell's layoffs are not the story. They are the forecast.

Watch for Howard's Saturday column, in which he'll explain what managers should do to protect themselves from mass layoffs.

Howard Levitt is senior partner of Levitt LLP, employment and labour lawyers with offices in Ontario and Alberta, and British Columbia. He practices employment law in eight provinces and is the author of six books, including the Law of Dismissal in Canada. Lavan Narenthiran is an associate at Levitt LLP.