I heard from an HR source that a culture survey would be released soon as a follow up to Stankey's townhall when he mentioned he was disappointed in the progress of his culture change. Has anyone else heard anything? This is different than than annual employee survey.
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AT&T is a bacterial culture at the bottom of a Petri disk that is sorely in need of penicillin.
“here is the thing about this culture survey. we paid McKinsey a ton of $$ to send out”
Oh if McKinsey is behind it we know it must be good. More money down the toilet.
here is the thing about this culture survey. we paid McKinsey a ton of $$ to send out this 100q survey so they could “compare us to our peers”. the results are only going to the BoD (not to team leaders). allegedly it will also take about 45 min to take. but i don’t have that type of time…
Never saw any repercussions from surveys in my many years. There was nothing better though than to watch my Director read my well written and 100% factual comment about how I felt about the way things were run.
When they get negative surveys, they have to explain that to their higher ups and put a plan in place. Doesn't mean things will change, but it's nice that they have to at least squirm for a bit.
The whole point of this survey is to get bad results - they are counting on it. I'd bet little will be said about the bad results whether that's low participation or low ratings.
Then they can do another in a year and they assume it will be much better, since only lifers and Koolaid drinkers will be left, and the "troublemakers" will be gone.
This has been done before when heavy layoffs were going on.
The ONLY way to stop or change the constant surveys is for everyone (90%+ of survey takers) to give the exact answers they want, otherwise they just keep asking the same old questions that they have asked on every survey for 20+ years. Nothing will change, but they will keep asking the same exact questions until they get the answers they want.
ALWAYS REMEMBER THE SURVEYS ARE ABSOLUTELY NOT ANONYMOUS, never have been and never will be..........
@Morpheus
You make a lot of great points.
If I thought there was ANY chance of low participation I wouldn’t respond. On my non-bargained for team our L3 basically demands 100% compliance with a lot of pressure. There’s no way you could get the majority to not respond.
But I agree that would send a much stronger message.
Hysterical that you think "not responding to the survey" is going to be your ticket to longevity here. You're so smart.
Not wasting our time with their surveys initiates FAR more discussion between upper level mgmt and all of us.
Here's the thing, the Company doesn't CARE what you or I think. This is evidenced by the fact that nothing ever changes here. Ever.
Quit taking that survey, however, and they lose their collective minds.
Why ? Because, far enough up the ladder someone gets to brag about how " 100% of MY organization participated in the survey ".
They tend to panic when their participation numbers plummet after employees absolutely give up trying to help make this a better place and simply consider the surveys a complete waste of our time.
" Not falling for it !"
Then you're a paranoid plebe...someone incapable of articulating critical feedback in a professional manner. Hysterical that you think "not responding to the survey" is going to be your ticket to longevity here. You're so smart.
Not falling for it !
Besides they can get plenty of feedback elsewhere from this site or even Reddit . Think outside the box , john !
" Why take the chance unless you really want to be put on a list to leave."
One of the most common myths perpetually repeated here.
If you're threatening violence, using profanity, etc. sure, maybe you're going to have a problem.
That said, I have been here 25+_ years in various management roles, managing bargained for and non- bargained for.
Have seen a lot of surveys and a lot of negative feedback.
Have never once seen any critical feedback come back on a survey taker, NOT ONE TIME. Never ever heard a survey mentioned one way or another when someone was laid off.
So you can be all paranoid if you want to be, but I for one enjoy the occasional chance to absolutely skewer leadership (in a professional manner, of course).
Especially if they're going to have the unmitigated gall to ask me about the "culture" here. Oh boy.
- “Honest feedback is a boomerang that comes back around and hits you in the butt. No good can come from it.”
Isn’t it fair to say though that this is why nothing gets done at this company and nothing ever gets better?
My motto was always fill it out 100% positive and fly under the radar. Why take the chance unless you really want to be put on a list to leave. I was also once told by a General Manager that there were lists for the United way and PAC donations that they see.
I wish I knew the exact responses required to get surplussed vs fired for COBC violation. I have asked to be surplussed, still waiting.
Honest feedback is a boomerang that comes back around and hits you in the butt. No good can come from it.
I’ve done these both ways, been honest in feedback and been generous in my responses. Was once on a team that had the lowest scores in the company, no joke. Did anything change? Yeah, they just laid off almost everyone in that group (except the bosses). What was a big group now is only a handful of people. So those thinking there won’t be impacts, better think again and it won’t be for your best interests.
I'm close to 19 years and have actually always offered up my real opinions on the surveys, and I'm still here. That's about the only good thing I'll say about AT&T. I've stayed because of my peers, and my supervisors. Everyone above that has been cr-p. Policies like RTO, CP and "collaboration" are cr-p. Now, I'm close to that MR75, so I'm staying until then, and then looking for the exit.
The thing about the survey is that people don't think its anonymous, there are people that think getting crapped on is awesome, and those that fill it out with their manager watching over their shoulder. I don't think they accurately reflect what people think. Even when it does, Stank and Co brush it off and don't care.
Legg said it in his Town Hall last week. "Like it or leave." They are setting the culture. Your input, if it is not in alignment, is "chirping on the sidelines". They don't care.
Take as much from the company as you can in free training (don't do anything that you will have to pay back if you decide to leave!) and experience, and then get the he-l out.
I give them a honest feedback, I’m not in management and don’t have to play office politics or kiss a$$. It’s not all negative, I try to answer truthfully and offer solutions where possible. I figure they need to hear some real feedback from someone other than their sycophants blowing smoke. If it offends them, tough. They can always stop asking, as they have in the past when they got hammered with bad feedback, it hurt their sensibilities.
I understand those that have to play the game of survival, it’s exactly why I haven’t accepted management, no remorse. I have been asked many times to move into a management position, I’m good but still have to be concerned about the continual layoffs for over last 25+ years. What a mess!
I don't get it. Why would they have to send out a survey asking about culture? People have gone to work for 15 years, if not more, wondering if today is the day, when their employment comes to an end. That nagging, constant fear wears on people and for no reason other than mismanagement at the highest levels.
Let's be honest - NO ONE give two-sh--s about this company anymore and no matter how many bullsh-t surveys they send out, that's not going to change. It's literally going to take years under new management for this once storied company to be held in the same light as it was prior to the Stephenson/Stankey disaster. Stank may be trying to right the ship, but don't forget, he was Stephenson's right-hand man and was saying "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, boss, good idea, good idea"! Until that stench is good this will be a forever sh---y place to work.
I'm just saying...
The survey results will be positive like always. Too many employees are afraid to give honest feedback.
Just probing for some more detractors for the upcoming layoff list. Either that they really are stupid at the top !
Culture….
That train has already left the station and it is NOT coming back!
They left an "L" off -- should be New Cullture Survey.
As in culling employees from the ranks.
The conundrum is that smart employees either won't answer such surveys or will answer them very guardedly. So the only people who let fly on them is the big-mouth ones who do not represent the prevailing opinions of the majority, so you get very inaccurate results and hair-brained ideas get implemented.
Also, ironically enough, the employees who care the most about culture are probably your lowest performers because they’re spending more time doing DEI committees, making power-points about culture, focusing on ERG’s and doing sh-t that’s generally a waste of time instead of focusing on improving technical skills and getting sh-t done.
Companies need to let go of this ‘culture’ bs. No one cares about company culture.
A company isn’t your ‘family’ and co-workers aren’t your ‘friends’.
There is no incentive to be loyal to companies in 2024 because companies have removed all the structures in place that used reward loyalty.
Companies aren’t loyal to you, why would you be loyal to them?
Pushing culture is just another excuse and mechanism for them to exert control and extract more value from employees.
It’s more beneficial for the modern white collar worker to show no loyalty and job hop for higher total compensation.
Young people know what’s up, we aren’t stupid. We know RTO is a layoff in disguise, we know Stankey wants to offload labor to India. We know the goal of all this is to layoff older more experienced workers and replace them with under-paid TDP.
They’re going to be in for a big surprise when they realize none of those young TDP care about this bullsh-t either and are here for TC not ‘culture’.
- “I heard from an HR source that a culture survey would be released soon as a follow up to Stankey's townhall when he mentioned he was disappointed in the progress of his culture change. Has anyone else heard anything? This is different than than annual employee survey.”
Yeah, cause his strategy is flawed, it simply isn’t going to work.
The world has changed, attitudes towards work has changed. He’s a dinosaur trying to implement legacy practices in a changing world.
All he’s going to do is alienate high performers and scare away young talent.
Mo--n.
You can’t make this up!
Culture…..
I just can’t!
It was mentioned on Welday townhall today that there would be a survey coming out in spring.
I hope this is true. Not because I expect any genuine introspection on his part, but because I am at the point in my career where I can fill out such a survey frankly and forthrightly without further concern for my continued employment, so timing's good.