ยท John Stankey will ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป๐๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ๐บ ๐บ๐ ๐น๐ถ๐ณ๐ฒ (thanks, your Wave 1 accomplishes that for me but not in the way you intended)
ยท "๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐๐ถ๐๐ฐ๐ต, ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐น๐ผ๐ผ๐ธ ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ." Oh, like the time a President (of the United States) told us "๐ ๐น๐ผ๐ผ๐ธ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐บ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ. ๐ ๐ณ๐ผ๐๐ป๐ฑ ๐ต๐ถ๐บ ๐๐ผ ๐ฏ๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฑ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ฟ๐๐๐๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐ต๐. ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฏ๐น๐ฒ ๐๐ผ ๐ด๐ฒ๐ ๐ฎ ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ต๐ถ๐ ๐๐ผ๐๐น.โ "The man" was Vladimir Putin. How'd that work out?
ยท The message is that remote workers cannot build a culture. That's true, we can't build the culture ๐๐๐ came up in. But that's not what you want, John, or is it? Make up your mind: you spent several minutes talking about change, and yet you want to revert to a time before there where we hadโwhat's the term?โoh yes, ๐๐ฒ๐น๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ต๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ๐ for connecting people wherever they live and work. (If that last phrase sounds familiar. it was AT&T's marketing tag line from 2007.)
ยท ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฌ,๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฝ๐น๐ฒ is not what you're telling investors, it's more like 75,000. How do you look the other 65,000 people "in the eye at the watercooler?" Are those the ones who don't have life plans, or refuse to learn, or "live sequentially?" Or, are they simply too much of a burden for a bottom line corrupted by bad acquisitions and accumulating debt? As one widely quoted anonymous colleague said when this all started, "layoff wolf in sheep's clothing." Still is that, and nothing more.
ยท AT&T plans big reductions of in-house capability and turning to vendors to replace it. An example is Salesforce, where AT&T is committing billions to make it the core tool for CRM and sales. Am I to understand our CEO is only now starting to understand the Salesforce licensing model? And then he goes to Quora at bedtime to figure it out? Is anyone sitting on the Board of Directors watching these things?
ยท "๐ ๐ฑ๐ผ๐ป'๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ ๐๐ผ ๐ฏ๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐บ๐ฎ๐ป [๐บ๐ ๐บ๐ผ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ถ๐ป ๐น๐ฎ๐] ๐๐ต๐ผ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ป'๐ ๐๐๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ผ ๐ด๐ผ ๐ถ๐ป๐๐ผ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ป๐ธ." Is that anything like "I don't want to be the boss who values the twitch at the watercooler" over measurable results from employees regardless of where they're working? Last time I looked, business is transactional. Professionals don't go to the watercooler for therapy from management, we go there for the water. I get a lot more in-depth, personal chat with co-workers across a phone callโwhere both of us are in our private home officesโthan talking to someone at hub where a half-dozen randos sitting within earshot hear half the conversation. Again: RTO is not about culture, but getting older, expensive, in some cases pension-carrying workers outta here. Nothing more.