Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

“I don't disagree that that's their view, but who exactly is itching to take these jobs? “

They are ramping up the new Hub in India, and they want these jobs! Read the How We Work BS FAQs, is specifically mentions couple of times work ‘could be’ moved to International Hubs.

This of course is all part of the plan. While people here complain about 3-5 days and not willing to relocate family, it’s all in T’s favor. Cheaper labor will fill the jobs, and I think they will continue to come up with schemes to get people here to leave.

Anyone flagged for surplus will have lies on all of the ratings. They’ve been instructed to do that most likely in case they get sued, they want to have a paper trail of the fake low performance.

Keep telling yourself and other people you are a top contributor.

It's an easy and cheap way to cut headcount. Stankey is letting the lower management figure out the details and how to handle the work with less headcount and lost talent.

I think you spelled 'VD' wrong. You've had VD for over 15 years.

It’s not retaliation. It’s a veiled surplus. They don’t give sh*t about anything but getting enough people to leave so they can achieve their $6B cost reduction. Period.

It was inevitable. Have you ever heard the term one bad apple spoils the whole bunch. We know people are working for other companies and drawing 2 paychecks from home so now that’s all over. The bad thing is you’ll have to comb your hair and wear pants. You’ll have to put gas in the car and maybe even pay for parking. You’ll find that everyone else is doing this already your friends and family are already doing this. I work in one of our downtown complexes and all the parking lots and buildings are filled back up except mine. Absolute ghost town still that’s fixing to change apparently. We shall see.

It has nothing to do with your productivity. It’s all about how much you are willing to sacrifice to keep your job. They only want employees the feel they have to do anything to continue that paycheck.

If your replacement is a contractor he/she can work from home anywhere in the US.

They let you work from home for 3 years and now look how bad off the company is. Please work harder than ever once you get to Atlanta and at your desk so that we can start to grow the business again. I did get a chance to work from home and man I had the best tan and my lawn was mowed twice a week. Now I’m in the office and I’m falling behind on my laundry and exercise videos. Please fix this company 100,000 people slacking and it shows.

"Umm… salesforce knowledge is plentiful. "

Not the eleven (!) different instances of salesforce within AT&T nor the four different middleware providers we use to access it, nor the specific integrations with every other legacy system we have. And as I said, those who have it command far more in pay than A&T wants to pay.

“ platforms like servicenow or salesforce, that type of knowledge isn't exactly plentiful.”

Umm… salesforce knowledge is plentiful.

"they’ll just replace you with the next up and coming one who’s willing to be in the office. "

I don't disagree that that's their view, but who exactly is itching to take these jobs? Who is going to magically get all the knowledge to run some of these systems? Even if they want to transition applications and work to other platforms like servicenow or salesforce, that type of knowledge isn't exactly plentiful - and those that do have it command more money than AT&T pays.

Additionally, my team was hiring project managers, data analysts, and interns (all externally) for the past year and a half. Or attempting to hire. People would interview, be offered the job, and then just ghost us. Later on we'd check their LinkedIn and found out they were hired by other employers. Even interns have on at least three occasions been offered a job (and internships are pretty easy money) and then disappeared.

Add that to the fact that anybody they think they're going to hire to replace you also doesn't want to come to an office - particularly in Dallas where it's very common to work remotely with other companies. Again, nobody is itching to take these jobs. So while this is almost certainly a downsizing exercise, I have a feeling AT&T is going to feel a lot of pain of they lose entire teams full of institutional knowledge and think they can easily just hire into those positions with cheap talent that wants to cram into Whitacre tower 3-5 days a week. It's simply not happening.

According to that one exec, it’s “the role that is the priority, not the person”.

Harsh. But you may be a top contributor but they’ll just replace you with the next up and coming one who’s willing to be in the office.

It really sucks but that’s the approach they are taking. It will backfire. Losing good people already has - look at our stock price.

“ Those who have been successful should not be impacted by this especially being told to have to move in less than 6 months with no relocation package.”

"Roles are being impacted, not individuals."

I feel sorry for the person who thinks roles are being impacted, not individuals. This person is incredibly naive. Who do you think functions in a role? Individuals hold roles. The term "role" in this case does not refer to a croissant or another type of bread product that is eaten with a meal. It is a job description. The people performing those job descriptions will certain be impacted by the mandates.

“ Those who have been successful should not be impacted by this especially being told to have to move in less than 6 months with no relocation package.”

Roles are being impacted, not individuals.

People who think this just some bull headed generational reaction demanding people to work from an office are just feeding their messaging. That’s the argument the execs want you to have. Pay attention to what’s really going on. They are trying to drive as many people out as they can to reduce the workforce. It’s not a return to work it’s a forced reduction. Forget work from office , they are moving what office you can work from, and they are not offering relocation. They call it “return to office” in an attempt to bury the narrative in with all the other companies who are doing that. This is a massive decimation of its workforce through unrealistic relocation demands.

@gus+1mU57CXr you are correct, retaliation was the wrong word, in fact in a conversation early with a coworker I called it an over-reaction to the new desires of the workforce. This is all about cutting costs and getting people to leave rather than having the bad press of massive layoffs.

Instead of making even more people go remote to save money on all the unnecessary office space they are using all over the country, they are going to do the exact opposite. This doesn’t affect my job, but this whole RTO thing is just completely asinine, especially considering we’re a telecom company who actually provides the service yet refuses to use it.

This is all about old timers wanting to control everyone and do things the old fashioned way because they lack any type of common sense and refuse to accept that remote work actually works better.

No more baby like temper tantrums. Go into the office and clean the bathrooms, Stinky said they need sanitizing.

I never left the office. Never. I work in the same office I have been at for 16 years and even during the height of Covid I was asked to go into that office everyday. Granted I was only one in building during that time, as I was voluntold to stay in office to receive shipments while everyone else worked from home.
But I am being told I have to move to Dallas or lose my position.
One of the members of my team who has gone to a hub office for 30 years is being told he has to move to Dallas or lose his job.
The hub he is in doesn’t count.
Let’s please stop supporting their false narrative that this is a “return to the office” initiative or even a hub consolidation exercise.
This is a cost reduction exercise to get the older more expensive employees out, and hire younger cheaper workforce in its place.
If you read the articles Stankey is expecting to lose 10-15k employees over this.

Nobody likes a tattle tale.

Feel like retaliation means something else
As in if you complained about DEI DINE and all the other nonsense and they fired you for it.

This is a reaction
“Oh you say you’ll be on phone calls at the office cause your team has always been scattered across the country. We can fix that”

BTW, no where in my initial post did I mean to come across that I blame any of the employees who dont want to go back to the office for this. Many of our jobs can be performed just as well and in many cases better VO that in a crowded office of cubicles

@gpf+1mU57CXr glad to see you can count to 12 and that you used your valuable time to count the I's, yes this post was about my experience as someone who has been VO for 15+ years and does not live any where near one of the hubs. Many other people are in the same boat but I dont speak for them. This is not about saving the business, if you think that then you are delusional.

If this was only about saving the business then it would be handled much differently. Many of the people who worked in the office before COVID and have VO for the last two years have been praised for their performance and continued productivity. The company was doing great for years with many of the people I am talking about working VO for 10+ years.

So the math does not add up that this is to save the business, especially since the failures of the company that put us hear has nothing to do with anyone who is working VO. I am glad in your world you can still be a cheerleader for our terrible leadership whose decisions have brought us here.

I suspect the company got tired of arguing and trying to persuade, and just said "f. it, everyone must go back, no more objections!". So, again, not blaming the workers, because there are no legitimately good reasons not to be able to work remotely for most of us, but by continuing to fight for it, they, or we, have pretty much screwed ourselves, especially those of us who have been working remotely for years and are not located near hubs.

The problem is that at the same time, AT&T was reducing Corporate Real Estate footprint by the boatloads, while the number of employees hasn't decreased at the rate the footprint has. Where were all these people supposed to go? You can't eat your cake and have it to. Offices at AT&T have been neglected. They have almost always been unhealthy, dusty, and dingy compared to the offices our customers build. No one likes working in them.

I would be lying if I said I didn't have similar thoughts. Not blaming the workers for it, but after Covid, and everyone working from home, there was an intense resistance to an idea of going "back to office", and I suspect the company got tired of arguing and trying to persuade, and just said "f. it, everyone must go back, no more objections!". So, again, not blaming the workers, because there are no legitimately good reasons not to be able to work remotely for most of us, but by continuing to fight for it, they, or we, have pretty much screwed ourselves, especially those of us who have been working remotely for years and are not located near hubs.

I find it interesting how the core training this year had a focus on ESG and Green House Gas Emissions and why we need to bow to the woke banks to not lose standing. The company buys overly expensive electric vehicles and LNG vehicles that often break down to virtue signal to everyone. Yet, they are going to have most of 150,000 employees driving into work daily. How many pounds of carbon are we all going to be putting in the air? How is that ESG friendly?

It's all smoke and mirrors, friends.

EAP is available...

You use “I” twelve times in your diatribe. This isn’t about you. It’s a decision to save the business.