Recently stumbled upon this site, and wow, the amount of whining is unbelievable. Let's get real—if your career's not where you want it to be, you've got no one to blame but yourself. There are tons of jobs out there, but too many of you are too scared to shoot your shot because deep down, you know you're punching above your weight in your current roles. It's cringe seeing all the moaning, especially for someone who came in from the outside. I could walk out today and have a new gig in a month, easy. Do yourselves a solid—hit up some networking events, get off your butts, and start valuing yourselves a bit more.
33 replies (most recent on top)
To that a.s.s hat L3 external hire.
The fact that you were hired as a L3 at T already shows you are a failure. Lol why do u think T is hiring external at L3 when they know there are a lot of capable employees inside? Its because you are A YES person. Easier to manipulate. You are new blood ready to impress and with this, you won't dare to steer clear of the current toxic environment. I actually laughed at your comments, thinking about yourself that you are soooo valuable because you are at T Level 3.
You my friend are just another body. Fresh ideas my a.s.s lol. You know nothing about T if you think that.
Hey a.s.s. hat, my career is just fine, ive turned down several offers because T pays me for not doing anything. I crawl to work, thats it. Is sh-t getting done? Nope. Paycheck coming yes. Life is good.
OP is clearly trolling you guys. Not an employee.
OP jokes on you. You’re stupid enough to leave your career and start at T. That novelty will wear off as soon as you are educated enough to know what is going on at the company. You’re too naive to comment and likely to deliver anything more than a load of horsecrap at meetings. What kind of happy new hire researches layoff .com boards for a company they just started? BS
"Recently stumbled upon this site" = I constantly monitor this site and have it in my favorites
- “OP speaks the truth. All the thumbs down ratings prove that.”
You’ve been at the company over 42 years and I as a 4 year software engineer make more than your band as Area Manager - maybe you should be more critical of the company yourself.
Protip: don’t use your real name on anonymous sites where people are allowed to be critically honest.
agree with op. page is full of whiners. begin the thumbs down
You complain about people complaining too much.
OP got roasted. Funniest post all day.
This person knows what’s up.
OP - I am also an outside hire who has worked at companies of various sizes and stages, startup to Fortune 500, and you really come off as arrogant and out of touch as a lot of the execs here.
First, there are things I genuinely like about this place, mainly the L3s I have worked for so far and most of my colleagues. My L3s have been some of the best bosses I have ever had and I have had more than a few. However I would never want to do their jobs given what I see them have to go through. I also think the benefits and pay are decent to good, though maybe not what they used to be.
However, you don’t seem to understand why people say what they say here.
- The complaining is repetitive and sometimes over the top but the layoffs also seem to never stop. Healthy companies and cultures don’t do this kind of thing. Stankey calls them tough decisions. I doubt they were all that tough for him and his people. The tough decisions have no impact on their lives.
- RTO here in particular has nothing to do with collaboration. It’s about getting rid of large numbers of people and making it seem voluntary. 3 days a week may be the trend but forcing people to either relocate or be unemployed is definitely not a trend. Leadership has produced zero data justifying the decisions, just feelings. I have never seen anything like this. Usually you relocate for a promotion or new opportunity in a different function. Forcing thousands of people to relocate without compensation would never be tolerated outside of insane corporate America. They blather on about trust. This destroys trust and the ongoing nature of it means we can’t move on, hence the repetitive posts.
Execs at other companies with a little vision try to make in office time have a purpose. I go in and do all the same conference calls and emails because my team and partners are still spread out. The difference is that I waste time and money to do it and end up working less.
Finally, I support the decisions to offload Warner and DTV but these were horrible decisions from the start and in most cases, the people who make such decisions are not allowed to continue running a company. Wall St doesn’t trust our leadership and it’s reflected in the stock price.
Instead of blaming people for complaining maybe see why they do it and use whatever influence you have as an L3 to try to fix some of it.
Also the committees, decision making by committee is the worst way to make any decision in software. You’ll always end up with a bad solution that literally makes no one happy.
Put a lead in charge, let them take input, and give them the rope to live or die by their decision.
Build apps quickly, be agile, get things done and deployed…we spend weeks making trivial decisions sometimes and it’s absolute madness.
But I digress, needed to vent.
Adding more to this, those non-technical folk are the people I delegate bullsh-t tasks to, like dealing with filling out access request forms, meeting with other paper pushers to get approval for stuff, etc…I could do it but it’s annoying and a waste of my time - the amount of red tape we have here is insane and I legit can’t be bothered.
Get rid of all that bs and the paper pushes and we’d see huge cost savings and productivity gains.
Id--ts.
- “the only tech company where you can get an L2-L10 level job with an under water basket weaving degree.”
Exactly…
Wild seeing so many ‘expert’ titles and L3+ with non-technical backgrounds leading technical teams.
I thought people learned this lesson that engineers make better managers years ago by looking at case studies like Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, etc?
That should be the reorg we’re going through, not this bullsh-t upper mgmt is doing right now.
Get rid of all the non-technical mo--ns with joke degrees, push engineers to the forefront. We don’t need managers looking over us, I run multiple projects with no interference from someone with a ‘project manager’ title or anyone with a ‘management’ degree and we’ve seen great success.
Keep the devs, SME’s, and technical folk, dump the real dead weight which is paper pushers.
wtf is wrong with companies?
the only tech company where you can get an L2-L10 level job with an under water basket weaving degree.
Ah, talking down to everyone else but couldn’t hack it in tech…which is why he’s at AT&T.
Got it.
Guess Google didn’t need anymore people who pretend to work by micromanaging developers who are already self-starters.
Must be hard with most of them working from home when you can’t walk around the office and pretend to be important while the devs do all the real work, huh?
Best go make another DEI committee.
Also, if you’re such a Gigachad interviewing machine, why are you even at AT&T?
This company is for people who don’t live in coastal areas or already in Texas and don’t have access to tech jobs.
Go get a real job in tech and fetch that $400k TC.
To the external hire L3:
As an L3 to L3, wait until you are surplused and either have to take a demotion or hit the door. And don’t think for a minute that external marketplace cares about your “soft” management skills. They need engineers, developers, systems architects, data analysts. They have plenty of managers of their own.
L3 is the worst job in T. You have all the responsibility, but none of the rewards higher levels get.
Sure, Stankey.
Now go along back to your office, have your nanny get you a juice-box and get back to work talking up the garbage stock so the adults can converse.
Remember:
The Stink, who transformed Toxic-T into what it is, deserves every bit of complaining there is.
The Stink did not get to the top of the CEO Wall of Shame without being the worse CEO in history.
OP is right
OP and his follow ups. Speaking the language of a leader - a collection of meaningless slogans and words. On another note, if you are such an over achiever why the h3ll are you working at T? I think that tells many of us all we need to know about you.
“ Nice lecture, but let’s cut to the chase: I’ve spent over a decade thriving in high-stakes environments, not just warming a seat. Your 'time at the company' pitch? Spare me. Experience isn’t just tenure—it’s impact, something I bring in spades.”
Happy to measure results with you, I promise you won’t come close. I’ve been here 12 years now, prior to this worked in very high stakes places as well, so I do know what that world looks like and what it takes. Leadership is more than your results, effective leaders know how to get the best out of their people. Based on your comments, you are obviously a terrible leader and person.
OP: If "coming in X times per week" is your criterion for accomplishment, you're a good fit for the new AT&T. It's an insult to those who for decades made measurable contributions to revenue and process improvement without ever "coming in". Glad i'll never be working with you.
"RTO is needed" to reduce headcount and repopulate downtown offices. It has nothing to do with productivity or collaboration. It's actually worsened both. "RTO is needed" to create constructive dismissal, so that more people will leave the business voluntarily.
“ You haven’t been here long enough to understand things. I bet you couldn’t do the job of the lowest person on your team.”
Nice lecture, but let’s cut to the chase: I’ve spent over a decade thriving in high-stakes environments, not just warming a seat. Your 'time at the company' pitch? Spare me. Experience isn’t just tenure—it’s impact, something I bring in spades. You think I can’t match the ‘lowest’ on my team? You have no idea how easy you lot have it here. I’m here not to play old tunes but to compose a new symphony. And for the record, caring about the company isn’t exclusive to you or your tenure. IIt needs fresh eyes as much as seasoned hands. So, how about we drop the gatekeeping and focus on pushing forward.
No u.
Who is this clown who posted it?
“ OP here. As an L3 external hire”
All you need to know right there.
Come back when you actually have some time at the company. You don’t know what you don’t know. Listen and learn. You came in at an L3, know how many people here have way more experience than you, know far more than you and very likely got passed over for your role that deserved to be there? Probably every person you manage. You haven’t been here long enough to understand things. I bet you couldn’t do the job of the lowest person on your team. People complain because they care, they want this company to do better and be better, but that doesn’t happen when they bring in external hires at L3+ positions that think they know it all, people like you just make things worse and make poor decisions. Realize you don’t know what you don’t know, seek the counsel of those L2’s that have been around the block a dozen times and know what’s broke before you try to fix things.
OP here. As an L3 external hire, it's clear to me that many here wouldn't qualify as an associate elsewhere — no certifications, no soft skills. Working with people who should be mandated to reapply for their jobs. Everywhere I turn, it's 'RTO this, RTO that'... just so you know, the industry is simply moving with the current. You’re coming in 3x a week.. get a grip.
So many posts on here show the reason RTO is needed.
I’d like to complain about how much u complain, because I complain the correct amount.
But day make me RTO.
This is the best post I have seen on this site in 2024.