https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/01/68-year-old-engineer-spent-50-years-with-one-companyhis-one-regret.html
This smells like fact free PR.
23 replies (most recent on top)
Run Kip run, you represent everything Stankey revels against. Get out now before he hunts you down like a wild animal and lays you off. He would like nothing better than to find you a place in the nearest old folks/ nursing home.
Total PR.
of course if your company offers tuition you should take advantage of it sooner than later.
I have worked with Kip and I still work with him . He is a smart and helpful guy . He knows his sh-t better than most of us and gets things done .
He goes by Kip , his name on webphone is Paul Turner
One point of clarification on the following previous statement.
“At 68, he's already on Medicare so he doesn't have to worry about coverage until he gets there.”
This may not necessarily be true. I believe you do not necessarily have to start Medicare at age 65 if you are still working and can show you have sufficient Medical coverage via your employer.
Yes, I knew him for many years. I retired 5 years ago myself (35 year tenure) and did not realize how young he started his career. 50 year career quite an accomplishment.
A lot of his success is due to a wireless career in Network RF Engineering and being a Market Employee residing in the Market Headquarters of Little Rock. Not to mention his versatile skills. Great employee.
Hoping he retires soon and gets to reap the benefits of his long tenure.
Congratulations Kip.
" What is his name in webphone? There is no Kip Turner and nothing starting with K Turner in that role showing"
You're not a very good Webphone sleuth.
Search in Webphone for "Turner" in AR.
There's 7 of them.
Only one of them with his job title.
That's him.
There's only one with his job title
Retired here with 33 years at age 56. I love not going back to the grind. Maxed at my 401K from the 2nd paycheck on. It would have been the 1st paycheck but it took 2 weeks to get through the IT stuff back then.
" ...And "Milton" will retire with more benefits than you can imagine."
The subject is non bargained. He will retire with a cr-ppy Mobility discount that can be beat as a regular customer anywhere else. And that's about it.
At 68, he's already on Medicare so he doesn't have to worry about coverage until he gets there.
No degree needed for craft jobs. Very little opportunity to move up in craft anymore as well, it’s wire tech or bust for most. Not enough $ in the world for me to take any kind of “management” job, moving up there seems limited as well with all of the downsizing going on.
He works alone in the basement of a large operations center. He has a red stapler and always tries to take extra pieces of cake whenever there are employee birthdays.
The training center they built on Las Colinas was nice. Initially, the housing and food there was outstanding. At the beginning of each year we would get a list of all of the courses offered that year you could sign up. Some were mandatory courses related to you job, but you were also encouraged to sign up for courses you were interested in.
Of course this in the Southwestern Bell days, went away as we started to accumulate other companies. Later, everything we online, which I disliked because I usually had to take the courses after hours, due to workload. At least going to an off side campus allowed you to totally focus on what you were learning.
Lucky him. In the last 15-20 years, our group/leadership has continued to say "no" to any training classes. I stopped asking eventually.
“Their supplementing education - whether for a Bachelor's or an advance degree - is a policy that is not only generous, but also rare“
Tuition reimbursement is not at all rare for large corporations.
The photos in the article are “courtesy of AT&T” - this was a PR planted story.
Good for Kip but no one should take this seriously.
For as flawed a company as T, the fact is their support for personal and professional development is (or at least was) quite impressive.
Their supplementing education - whether for a Bachelor's or an advance degree - is a policy that is not only generous, but also rare. Their offering additional certification, nanodegree, and other skills courses is another area where T may well be among the leaders in the business world.
The paradox is that for at least the last 10 years - likely much longer - even though T would encourage employees to grow, the company didn't actually value any employee effort. Going to get a degree or certificate wouldn't make any difference in one's time at T, whether in terms of promotion, transfer, or even job security! Any effort on education or growth by the employee would really only bear fruit with a new position at a new company.
People should take as much advantage of these opportunities as they can, because it's very likely that Stink will either get rid of them or scale them back as a cost-saving initiative.
Congratulations to him
You should take advantage of tuition reimbursement, if you can.
At one time the 50 year service anniversary list of gifts to chose from included a treadmill. Ironic.
He's in Webphone, so he's still working but his legal first name is not "Kip". He's probably a good guy, and smart, to be able to be around that long but def from another era. Those days of moving around to different gigs and becoming an "engineer" with a HS diploma are over. Indeed, if you read the article, he regrets not earning his degree over the last 50 years. And it's valid, he should have taken the time to do so, though in his case it probably won't matter as when he retires, I am guessing he will not be looking for another job. Though I have been here almost 30 years, and in my early 50's an undesirable in JS's view...when I started, I was recently discharged military with an electronics background. That was enough to get me in the door as a tech. About year 10 it dawned on me I should work toward that BS degree while they were willing to pay for it, so I knocked it out. Glad I did it. I am not anticipating being able to hang on here until true retirement age. I'd like to stay but the resume is always updated, and I have a solid external network.
Long story short, if your plan is to stay here 50 years and counting like "Kip" has, you should probably revisit that plan. Just being the "new" person, on a new team in this constant layoff environment is enough to get your number pulled. His model is not at all realistic or viable today.
Fake news
Did not read article, but assuming this is an at&t employee, you can bet Stankey will try his best to track this senior citizen down like a wild animal and eliminate his employment with at&t. This old cat represents all the wrong values that at&t stands for. He wants to re-invigorate at&t with a much younger workforce.
Over the years, I have met many people with an incredible number of years of service.
Back in the day, if you were in the service, large companies would count your armed forces service in your corporate service. A lot of people used to go to work right out of high school, work for a while, and then get drafted, or serve in the national guard or reserves.
Double dipping at its finest.
I was hired at age 38 without a degree and took advantage of tuition reimbursement to obtain my bachelors. That bachelor degree has provided me with multiple promotions, resulting in higher salary. All of that helped me accumulate more money in my 401k so that I can retire sooner than later. Whether or not this article is "fact free PR", I have to say that I agree with the advice....at AT&T or any other company....get that degree, if you can.