I accepted a job at AT&T (IT) and I just discovered this page. Reading through the posts, I have a feeling I might have made a huge mistake. My issue is not with the comments on pay and benefits, I am satisfied with what I've been offered, but everything else. Can I get some honest, non-exaggerated responses on the company culture and work environment? Please?
20 replies (most recent on top)
as you are just starting out you will be fine - just come here knowing that you need to leave in 5 years or less
Expect about one percent raises per year and all the feel good platitudes social justice kool aid you can drink
And just remember Raj in banladesh can and will do your job someday for 25 bucks a day
Other than that bring your sippy cup you will love it here
If you have no other choice, dump at&t. Unless that other choice is the welfare roll.
it is a toxic work environment, and is not good for your mental health in the long run.
Take the opportunity and learn what you can. You will be guaranteed at least 80% pay of your TSR pay band. As a new employee you can easily keep a job 3-5 years while always looking outside. ATT is a good gig man, enjoy your time, make some good friends, learn, learn, learn, and then get the F outta there and you'll most likely get a 25%+ pay increase.
depends on where you got the offer to accept or not. Look in linkedin, indeed, etc. and see if the skillset you will be learning is marketable. if it is - take job, learn the skills and then GET OUT while the skills are still marketable. This is a dead-end company and if you stay it will be a dead-end career. There is no promotion or movement for 95% of the employee base. As someone stated: company, once they hire you, will do everything to get rid of you. Through constant cuts, if you are not fired (and forget this 'surplus' garbage: you're fired and it usually has nothing to do with your work performance but either what technology you are working on, age group, or location (had cuts 2 years ago that got rid of extremely good talent because they VO'd, then last year told we can VO. does not make sense!), you will be expected to put a minimum of 50 hours in but do not officially report anything in elink over 40. Given all this: take the job if you are learning marketable skills then leave. Stankey, in last year's address to employees, stated that expectations are that you will do this -- so do it. If you are not going to be learning marketable skills - do not waste your time here
Some of us got rebadged - passed off to vendors then forced to train offshore replacements before getting laid off.
This is a terrible demoralizing practice that only the worst companies do. ATT has done this for years. That should tell you what you need to know.
This isn’t the company for you. The culture is toxic. Pay raises are like 2% a year even for top performing employees. Every year benefits are decreased coupled with the constant threat of layoff. You will need to work 60+ hours a week. Unless you are “in” with leaders in the organization you will never get promoted. If you are good at what you do you will never be allowed to move. When you look for the next job hiring managers will either think you are over qualified (can’t match pay) or you are toxic yourself for working at T. If you don’t have any other job lined up, take this. But keep applying to other jobs. Run.
I think it is also important to consider where many of the comments are coming from. For those of us who have been employed at AT&T for years, back when we joined the company the rules were different. Unless you really messed up you had a job for life. You were encouraged in many ways (the promise of retirement benefits, career opportunities, etc.) to spend your entire career with AT&T. But then the rules changed. When you are well into your career, those rule changes can be hard to absorb. For those close to retirement, it is frustrating to lose those retirement benefits you thought you had locked in at the eleventh hour.
But if you are just starting out in your career, you are coming in with a different set of rules and expectations. You know going in you will probably change jobs several times during your career. That is usually a good thing too because it is how you get bigger bumps up in salary and signing bonuses. You also know you will never get retirement benefits, so you plan for it all along. You won't have that same sting of losing something you felt you were promised.
I think you will be fine, at least in the short term.
The work environment depends on your group. If you have one of those constant whiners that always bring people down, you are in trouble.
I am retired with pension and full subsidized benefits. Lucky me I know. If you are young starting out, remember to be loyal to your paycheck. Always, Always, Always take FULL advantage of available training and certification opportunities. You will have to do that on your own time most likely, but it's worth it long run. NOT the internal compliance and rah rah training - cheat your way thru that to save your precious time. Just get that cr-p brain dead training out of the way. My colleagues and director shared answers to the tests all the time for years! Good times! But in the case of real certifications that are recognized OUTSIDE the company, those are priceless. Earn those. Grab as many as you can. And take advantage of opportunities to get certifications or better yet, master degrees from real universities on AT&T's dime. Keep your resume super current and ALWAYS keep looking on the outside for new opportunities. Information Technology security certifications are in high demand. Get in the CSO organization for a few years experience which looks great on a resume. Then JUMP SHIP!!
It’s a good place to make a decent living, but sometimes it feels like you have to sell your soul to do it. One thing that’s annoying is after they hire someone, they spend the rest of the time trying to find ways to get rid of you. If you want to stay at this company a long time, you better be flexible and able to move around from position to position all over the country.
The company is poorly run by top executives who treat the employees with open hostility and disdain. Particularly the CEO, who is little more than an arrogant, greedy, narcissistic, incompetent bully. Not only do the senior executives expect a high turnover, they do everything they can do force it.
T always has layoffs to cover the numerous and exceedingly costly blunders by the top. The employees affected are often simply unlucky enough to be in a group or division that has to take the hit. Layoffs are almost never based on performance or reviews.
The company culture is as toxic as injecting a co-----l of mercury, uranium, and cyanide. Senior management try and create an almost cult-like environment of worship among the staff. Way too many employees buy in to that nonsense. The culture is also very decidedly corporate and bureaucratic, but in a weird Texas way that blends false modesty and manners with ruthless indifference and disdain.
All that said, take the job. T can provide a lot of opportunity for personal professional growth if you take advantage of it. They do this through offering free courses and seminars across a wide spectrum of topics, and by allowing employees to move about internally somewhat to learn new skills and practices. But don't fool yourself, nothing you do to improve yourself is valued by T management at all. However, it will help when you move on to your next job.
Hope that helps
Get out now before it is too late. Run Forest RUN!
AT&T is a company in decline. Right now there's a lot of rack to rah-rah about "going back to basics," but all that's really about is that management doesn't know what else to do. And even when it comes to their core telecom services, the way forward is not so clear. In the world of 5G wireless, TMO is far ahead and will be for years. Further, at the recent auction, Verizon crushed them and now holds licenses giving them a commanding lead in spectrum. As for the much vaunted fiber deployment, you have to wonder how great a business it is to be in after Verizon and Google, two much more intelligently run companies, bailed on it. At present ATT is in the process of digesting itself (cutting employee bennies, selling off real estate, etc.) to create the illusion of growth, but that's all it is, an illusion. In an environment like this opportunities for advancement and personal growth are limited, so ambitious and talented people tend to leave. And what's left increasingly consists of people who got where they are by way of nepotism, politics, and various other forms of bu-----t. These people stay because they have no place to go. Bottom line is the general environment is not good and will most likely get worse as what's good in ATT's workforce leaves and the toxic waste that's left becomes more concentrated. However, there will always be decent places to work in the company, albeit on a short-term basis (measured in single-digit years). IT might be OK as some real work happens there. Places to stay away from would be things like PR, Consumer Marketing and other places where the subject matter is inherently 100% bu-----t.
Did they tell you that when you retire you don't get any HC benefits . ............started doing that for new hires back in the early 90's and many of them are just hearing about it .
Job in IT? Be specific, doing what?
I will speak from my personal experiences over my career.
The company today is no longer the company I started working for 21 years ago. The pay, benefits and culture have changed over that time- None for the better.
I’m here because I’m close to getting my pension. If it weren’t for that, I would be gone making more money somewhere else.
The benefits are no different than most companies today. The culture is where I would draw the line as a younger worker coming into the business. T will continue to have a toxic culture as they shrink the business and force employees to do more work. This will work itself out as they get to a more fiber/wireless driven company and more work is automated. At that point less workers will be needed. The pay will become less because the need for skilled labor won’t be needed the way it is today.
If this is the only offer you had to work, then take it. Get some experience so you can move your career where you would be most happy and compensated fairly. I wouldn’t look at the offer as a long term career. That doesn’t exist anymore at T.
Most people who leave - come back as a contractor. Most contractors who reach their time limit - want to come back. I see that its a good place to work.
Does it really matter? Just get more certs and move on for something better in 3 yrs like everyone else and as HR & the CEO expect. People don’t do 30 yrs at one company anymore.
If anyone believes the question posed here is anything other than one intended to provoke the typical rants and contemptuous comments usually found here, think again. I guess the posting comments have been too mild mannered for you. Whip up the frenzy huh.