Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

September will be another turn of the sc--ws. To do something else that makes people miserable under the façade of whatever they think will fix the company. That’s when everybody is supposed to be “living their designation“. They already rolled out an email about their new workplace reservation system. That’s supposed to be better than the last one bottom line is it’s another shake up that’s gonna make everybody miserable.

The stock price doesn’t lie either.

In April of 2023 when RTO was announced, it was the head fabricator that said we will never go back to the way it was. We’d be hybrid (outside of those roles that require 5 days in office). So from introduction of RTO we were told one plan and it shifted to another. The goal is for YOU to leave, either by choice, by force, or by burning you out until you do. Hybrid is reasonable. It provides work life balance. But that’s not the goal. The goal is for you to leave. It’s wrapped in corporate play of words called market based. Nothing is market based. It’s we are short revenue again and how many can we cut by end of year. Oh you were gonna cut 5 well now you need to cut 5 more.

@aw Foster collaboration? What are you smoking? I have one meeting a week where I actually sit in a room with other people - my weekly team update, and even that is a call because we are not all in the same location. Is there a little benefit to seeing people in person occasionally? Sure why not but there is a zero reason a telecom company needs people to be in an office to sit on calls 5 days a week.

It’s been pointed out a million times. This is about getting rid of people and ego gratification with a teeny bit of collaboration as a side benefit.

If you’re too d-mb to get that you really should get a job better suited to your intellectual capacity like taste-testing bleach or something along those lines.

How in the he-l do you people believe a damn word that comes out of leaderships mouth? Seriously, people on this board have a hard time dealing with reality! You all haven’t figured out that you shouldn’t believe a damn word that comes out of leaderships mouths? Here’s a tip for the d-mbfounded, only pay attention to their actions not their words, grow up people, it’s not hard! Leadership wants you all off the payroll asap, do you get it??HELLO, they want AI & foreign labor only!

@aw " It has been implemented to foster collaboration and productivity."

And yet, it has done neither.

When the C-Suite initiated 5xRTO they did not assign us desks to insure we would be sitting close to those we need to collaborate with. They did not provide us enough parking to insure we could easily arrive at the location our co-workers would be. So, everyone comes into the office whenever they can get a parking space, they go sit at a desk that is available with no guarantee of it being close to those we need to work with, and we all get on TEAMs to collaborate. The additional hours good employees were willing to work beyond the 40 hour requirement is now assigned to the commute.

Further, every empirical study over the last five years has shown that a hybrid work schedule maximizes productivity.

So, we know the C-Suite lied to us about why we had to come into the office 5x8. It had nothing to do with collaboration and employee productivity. It is/was purely a head count reduction exercise, and even many of the officers have confirmed that to be true. Otherwise, implementation would have been completely different.

A child running a lemonade stand could see these decisions were terrible. Costs too high? Build an expensive new lemonade stand! Try to make your sister so mad she quits! She would never kick over the lemonade cooler and make everything worse!

@aw "foster collaboration" yet everyone still sits at their desks on teams calls wake up. This company doesnt give a damn about anyone.

OP, just chill, laugh at these corporate clowns that run this circus and collect that pay check, pad that pension and collect the 401k match. It is easy street up in here, loving every day!

@aw I’ll continue to show up at the office, put I. My headphones and watch Netflix at my desk all day long while doing the absolute bare minimum. You can have fun picking up the slack. Respect is a two way street and loyalty is dead per the CEO. Funny how that works. You’re the su---r!

@aw Nope. I'll continue to waste time and resources while collecting full paychecks, and if it makes you all cranky - that's an added benefit. Enjoy picking up my slack for no added “market-based” compensation.

RTO was never promoted as initiative to increase revenue or change the market. It has been implemented to foster collaboration and productivity. If not onboard, leave!

In my role, I’m tasked to deliver improvements in metrics; whether that is sales, cost reduction or some other thing. That being said, I’ve seen many smart and talented people ki-l it, and deliver huge numbers, know what you get? Nothing. Barely even get a good job, maybe you get on some directors slide saying great job one month, but that’s about it. Yet, time and time again I see someone come up with some hair brained idea or some shiny object thing that somehow we know this isn’t going to work, we know it won’t ever actually get delivered; yet they get all the visibility, all the budget, etc. yet these things never actually materialize and can go on for years. Those are the people at the top. All smoke, no fire. I’m not surprised in the least. When things of actual value are not celebrated or rewarded, you sink and that explains the people the climb the ladder and the people we have at the top. This company is not going to make it another 150 years, we aren’t even going to make it another 20 if even that long.

@a4

As long as bootlickers like you are on payroll, I 100% agree.

@a4 I agree that attrition isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I also agree that there is a bunch of fat to be shed. But to take a blanket approach and hack across the board is not the way to do it. T needs to shed the most in the middle mgmt arena. There are way too many paper/email pushers that bring little to no value to the company and have a huge expense in salary. Sadly, the people taking the bulk of the cuts is the worker bees. And they are blindly hatcheting the good talent too. In the end, we have bad management, making bad decisions!

The only thing "leadership" understands is that it's hard to hit a moving target. They zig and zag cover their own butts.

@a4 sure but non-targeted attrition via RTO is not. Thats how you lose your best people first.

T is bloated amd has too many employeee. Attrition is a good thing.