Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

" I still tell my team I don’t care where they work. They’re all seasoned bad Ases. Give me your badges, I’ll swipe them. "

Yeah, that's cool and all (probably completely made up) --BUT as soon as anyone drops a dime on that, they are ALL fired, without question.

• “I still tell my team I don’t care where they work. They’re all seasoned bad Ases. Give me your badges, I’ll swipe them. If you want to come in, do it, just don’t let it impact your finished product and don’t show up on one of those d-mb A reports.”

This guy knows what’s up.
Good boss.
The end result is what matters, not this performative bullsh-t.

I still tell my team I don’t care where they work. They’re all seasoned bad Ases. Give me your badges, I’ll swipe them. If you want to come in, do it, just don’t let it impact your finished product and don’t show up on one of those d-mb A reports.

"Why do you stay?"

A couple factors.

Primarily being, at 25+ years, the salary is quite good. Great bonus this past year too.

Secondarily because, F them. I know what they "want" me to do (read: resign), and I am not going to do it.

I am going to continue to comply, and keep performing my job at a high level, until they just man up and retire me and give me my severance. I'm not willing to leave it on the table. I have financial obligations at this "stage of life" where I hope to keep this income level for a couple more years.

I am not one of these long-term employees that will have difficulty finding a job when the time comes. My resume is current, I have a great network of external contacts (many of which left T over the years) that would hire me. I have professional certifications and a degree. From what I am seeing I just likely wouldn't be starting at where I am at now in terms of $$.  

This is why I stay.

"Why do you stay? " Just waiting for the inevitable severance. Will continue to do the bare minimum and jump through the hoops of RTO to keep from being terminated. Will wait out Stankey who now seems he-l-bent on termination-instead-of-severance method and will grab that severance once it inevitably comes. For only things in life you can count on is death and taxes and if you are an AT&T employee inevitable layoff.

Why do you stay?

“And some of us adults were perfectly able to get our work done at home. Not all of us are so undisciplined that we need someone looking over our shoulder.”
It’s doubtful you would be regularly posting on an external, anonymous message board during working hours if you were really a disciplined employee. See you in the office!

“ The more people kick and scream just confirms they had it waaaay too good at home.”

Imagine wanting satisfied employees. How crazy.

And some of us adults were perfectly able to get our work done at home. Not all of us are so undisciplined that we need someone looking over our shoulder.

"Awwwwww. Sorry you have to go to the office to work. The horror of it all. "

Don't be an a-hole!

Many are fine with going back into the office, but make it a place and atmosphere worth going to, conducive to actually accomplishing my job.
"RTO for collaboration" -- except you will not guarantee that I will sit next to those I need to collaborate with, and you take away the application that allows us to reserve desks close to each other.
We need everyone together for mentorship" -- except that you have told those in a position to be a mentor (the ones with the institutional knowledge) that they are too old and we need the young employees that match the customer base, and you are actively doing everything you can to force the mentors out of the company.

• “It’s fun talking to friends and family that work for normal employers, just to see how they react when you explain how your bosses spend a lot of time reviewing dashboard reports on badge swipes on office doors. And how you have to compete with your coworkers by signing up early / first so you can get a seat with working equipment. Or any seat at all. You know, in order to comply with the badge swipe requirements. Those of you that think this is normal have been conditioned by years of ineptitude and poor leadership. Some of us in our 50’s and older are kind of “stuck” waiting for the inevitable. Try and find the humor in the ridiculousness of it all. It does help.”

Yes, a lot of other developers I’ve spoken to at other companies find the way they’re doing things comical.
Lots of talented people here at T (in the software space) are looking to leave and basically just running the clock on how long they can milk the check.
We all know it’s only a matter of time and that the company could care less about retaining talent, they’ve made that obvious with multiple town halls saying “you don’t like it, leave”.
They only care about short-term stock performance but this insane brain drain will come back to haunt them.

It’s fun talking to friends and family that work for normal employers, just to see how they react when you explain how your bosses spend a lot of time reviewing dashboard reports on badge swipes on office doors. And how you have to compete with your coworkers by signing up early / first so you can get a seat with working equipment. Or any seat at all. You know, in order to comply with the badge swipe requirements. Those of you that think this is normal have been conditioned by years of ineptitude and poor leadership. Some of us in our 50’s and older are kind of “stuck” waiting for the inevitable. Try and find the humor in the ridiculousness of it all. It does help.

"The majority of the posts on this board confirm why T leadership took steps to implement RTO."

The more people kick and scream just confirms they had it waaaay too good at home.

Drive into the office in my gas guzzler while they tout how “environmentally conscious “ they are. 🤦‍♂️

We work for mo--ns.

Rampant abuse. lol. Prove there was rampant abuse.

The majority of the posts on this board confirm why T leadership took steps to implement RTO.

" So, is the report working again?"

Yes it is working again, and being scrutinized, big time. Our AD is pretty transparent, they pull it up during our calls for all of us to see.

But I always had a place to sit. If people wanted to collaborate, they knew where to find me. What we have now is ridiculous. Software professionals really can't be productive

The latest executive buzz is that people will see our productivity and will love to work here. If I interviewed for a software job and saw someone sitting in an giant open noisy space and they had to run around to find a private space to interview me, I'd run away fast from that company. That's probably why they are moving the software jobs to India where they are used to living in space like that.

I know someone who spends days working on goals and accomplishments each year. And then there are those who spend at most 30 minutes and say what they actually do. Guess who's metrics show they do more? And who really does more?

The lines of code written tracking is my favorite stupid metric tracker. Watch how someone can bloat code by making it so inefficient. Or how someone rewriting things multiple times gets you lots of code points.

"One sister is an Administrative Assistant with a 2yr Business degree. The other has a Psychology degree. Both make half what I make. Spent 5yrs getting an EE with CompSci minor. Both sisters have comfortable quiet offices with a door and window"

I've worked in the software profession for decades. I worked for two major companies prior to ATT. I've had cubicles and I've had private offices. But I always had a place to sit. If people wanted to collaborate, they knew where to find me. What we have now is ridiculous. Software professionals really can't be productive in what ATT is offering as "Return to Office". There is no office. There isn't even a cubicle where you can have a little bit of privacy and a little bit of consistency. People need that to think and to create. Not being thrown into an open air mass of tables and chairs where someone is accounting for you coming and going. ATT is not treating its professionals as professionals. So it's no wonder that people aren't acting like the professionals that they can be.

So, is the report working again? It wasn’t working for weeks after the Workday implementation. But never heard any further.

One sister is an Administrative Assistant with a 2yr Business degree. The other has a Psychology degree. Both make half what I make. Spent 5yrs getting an EE with CompSci minor. Both sisters have comfortable quiet offices with a door and windows. Last week I went home with a backache because someone stole the good chair I found so I had to sit 8hrs in a crooked one. If I spin around, I can look about 12 people straight in the face. The lack of respect for the quality of talent on staff is real.

You've taken advantage of the company enough. Time to actually work.

Why be a manager when you can be a direct report and buy this: “Mouse Jiggler Undetectable Metal USB Mouse Mover with Switch Button” on Amazon for $10? Get paid $150K by AT&T and bring my laptop from Jackson Hewitt to work and make $80K more filing returns for dummies. L 2 is the place to be! Mo money, mo jiggle mouse!

You people don’t realize that L. Fink and A. Dunn run this sh-t show called AT&T. EPS doesn’t matter only ESG matters to Fink on Wall Street and Dunn in White House.

Why would they make a 65 minute video for something that takes 30 seconds to check?

No reports are accurate. They don’t care. The 4/8 off payroll people are mostly 50 or 60 year old men who have the modified rule of 75. Don’t believe me? Watch! This company is disgusting. I’m in the female category of having the modified rule of 75 and can’t wait to see what happens next. Really just want to know how they look themselves in the mirror and what the he-l kind of loser spouses they have.

Awwwwww. Sorry you have to go to the office to work. The horror of it all.

The reports have been published and shared with managers for months now.

And..this has been fixed..
"The report isn't even accurate. It has multiple proven issues for people who may work both at home and an office in the same day."

I think this RTO SH$T is Fd up too. And I realize its all about getting rid of people.. I personally need a paycheck.. soo.

“ ATS released a 65-minute video walking through the presence reports managers will now have to use to check in on their employees, ensure they are working their days in the office, and how much time in their office. ” There is currently no method in place to track how much time anyone spends in the office on any given day. Dont start shouting about monitoring Ethernet time, they have no reliable way to track that currently. The standard is a remains in most organizations swiping in 3 times per day. They can measure your VPN time however as has always been the case. The standard for in office (quietly spoken) is 3 days for a total of 18 hours.

“Going to the office is outdated, stupid and a waste of space, and resources in almost all cases.”
You need to seek employment elsewhere

"Leadership has had no choice with all the rampant abuse. Network metric reports have made it clear RTO has been needed."

Your cheeks must be blown out with the amount of su-king up to corporate idiocy you're doing... Working in an office doesn't prevent abuse at all. Tickets and metrics have, and always will be a game that doesn't show or reflect real work.

Going to the office is outdated, stupid and a waste of space, and resources in almost all cases. Middle managers who have no other skills than getting a management degree at frat school their parents paid for should be worried. They were fighting against remote work forever. Middle managers are who should get the axe.

“ and how much time in their office.”

I go to the office 3 sequential days every week. I leave my laptop logged onto the network in the office for the two nights. I’m going to look like a rock star working around the clock.

Is video available on the intranet site somewhere?

First rule of having a job is showing up.

None of these reports are an issue if you are just following policy.

If you aren’t showing up as directed your employment should be terminated for cause.

You aren’t special, you just think you are.

Not special but too talented for this DEI put you in a box place.

End up with a bunch of DEI clock punchers and chased all the talent off.

The report isn't even accurate. It has multiple proven issues for people who may work both at home and an office in the same day.

First rule of having a job is showing up.

None of these reports are an issue if you are just following policy.

If you aren’t showing up as directed your employment should be terminated for cause.

You aren’t special, you just think you are.

The real sad part is that somebody actually thought this was a way to change "culture".

It only made it even more toxic.

The Stasi are back.

It's apparently easier to get rid of people based on some meaningless statistic than to actually judge what someone actually does. If I approve a document, I get as much credit as the one who wrote it.

And don't be one day late with the document because that's close to being the same as not even doing it in the first place.