Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

Dose of reality here:

There is absolutely no answer that anyone can give on the survey that will make any difference at all. Not even if 99% of the respondents give the same answer, nothing will make any difference in present or future policy.

The survey does give the respondent the impression that you might be contributing to future policy, but that is only your impression, not actuality.

It is very likely that someone high up either has a relative that works for the survey company or will get a commission on the sale of yet another survey.

Everybody needs to get a big dose of "GET A CLUE", unless your job description is to be a very high up corporate leader, then your job is to follow.... Just try (some need to try very hard) to show up and do your job.

Boy George is going to be put in charge of the culture club results.

unfortunately they never show you answers to any individual question but do category composites. Often they throw snowball questions in there that's hard to go pure negative on to "boost" the score in the categories they expect negatives in.

I completed the survey. I answered as honestly as I could, but frankly, this is the most negative employee survey that I've ever submitted (at ATT and other companies that I have worked for). Do I think things will change? I doubt it, at least not in the short term. I plan to resign (retire) in the next few months and am just waiting to get a few more things in place before I do, so I answered the question about liklihood to leave in 6 months accordingly I am still trying to do my best, but I realize that there is simply no future for me in this company anymore, and I do not want to deal with the stress any longer. I wish everyone who stays the best and I truly hope that things improve.

I hit on the fact that the goals of the company are clear, but that they are fairy dust and unattainable. They keep trying to sell ice cubes to Eskimos.

“Culture”

Where do we even begin!

That train left the station A LONG time ago!

“ Call for a fresh team of executive leadership“

I did just that (in a professional manner) and I believe it’s important.

Employees have lost trust in the executive leadership. Most are afraid to say so.

Here's another good tip. If you're providing verbatim answers, have chatGPT rephrase them for you so it doesn't come across in your writing style. The managers do know who says what based on writing style.

If you read the survey questions closely you will see there are some contradictory questions that should be answered opposite to earlier questions. This is done to make sure you are reading the survey and are consistent in your feelings on the survey. Be sure to read each question and answer.

"The pace of change we desire” is the key. The change they desire is smaller payroll. The responses to the survey will be used to determine how well their forced attrition layoff is going. The angrier and more dejected the responses, the more their strategy is working. The only current goal that matters is getting to a head count of under 85,000. This survey is just checking in to see if more needs to be done to maximize the misery index.

VERY IMPORTANT

On the question that asks how likely you are to recommend AT&T to a friend, BE SURE to answer 6 or less. 7 and 8 are considered neutral. 9 and 10 are considered positive. 1 to 6 is negative. It doesn’t matter if you choose 1 or 6, the value is the same.

This is typically the most important question in surveys like this and a negative score, meaning people are likely to be actively negative about the company, is really one thing that they will care about and will take seriously.

“I cannot believe how some of you still (naively) (in a way that shows a lack of experience, wisdom, or judgment) believe that if you respond with a few favorable answers and then tell AT&T the truth, that something is going to change for the better.”

Nobody has any expectation of positive change from this but you don’t get how this works.

If everyone who is ticked off just blows off the survey, the results will look great and validate in Stankey and crew’s heads that everything they are doing is fine. They can dismiss low completion rates because of the survey length (it is lengthy) and can use the results as a cudgel to say that according to their numbers, complaints are coming from a small minority of losers.

If a decent chunk of surveys come back with only the most negative choices, the dear leaders can say the same thing, just a lazy bunch of losers who mindlessly checked one box over and over.

McKinsey is every bit as shady as they are expensive. They exist to take a tu-d sandwich of an idea and tell execs that with better messaging or some McKinsey (or Bain or Boston Consulting) Magic, it can turn into a pastrami on rye from Katz’s Deli. They will do their damndest to do just that here.

If we have a high participation rate, negative comps vs. our peers since this survey is done by many companies along with a high percentage of legit negative responses, we can at least make it hard for the Jeremy Leggs of the world to just blithely dismiss complaints.

Again, they will never admit they were wrong to do the RTO layoff the way they did (have they ever admitted Warner was a mistake?) and will not change, but we can at least pi-s them off with real numbers.

If they never reveal the results, then we’ve succeeded. It’s similar to how Stankeycasts are no longer recorded to cover for his verbal vomit

I cannot believe how some of you still (naively) (in a way that shows a lack of experience, wisdom, or judgment) believe that if you respond with a few favorable answers and then tell AT&T the truth, that something is going to change for the better.

If you foolishly complain about a process or behavior on the survey, AT&T will see that as a "pain point". AT&T will double down on that behavior.

No response on the survey is the equivalent of John Stankey commanding everyone to stand at parade rest and everyone turning their backs to him.

Do what you want.

The survey is administered by McKinsey. If you get to end of it it tells you that. Almost most expensive consulting company in America.

Management troll

Free response at the end-use this as a platform to call out the poor job Stankey and the BOD are doing! Call for a fresh team of executive leadership!

“ I have been told that supervisor’s raise/bonus is affected by the percentage of their direct reports taking surveys such as this“

Hogwash.

I have been told that supervisor’s raise/bonus is affected by the percentage of their direct reports taking surveys such as this.

“The pace of change we desire”, what exactly is the change they desire is the question? I think we need a townhall to explain, in detail, what exactly the change is. All we ever get are very high level generalizations.
If anybody does know what the “change” is, please explain.

DO NOT RESPOND!

“ They want you to hate your job, but for some reason they can’t stand ambivalence.“

This is a true statement, but also true, unfortunately is that the vast majority of folks will succumb to the pressure from their L3 and above to complete it. That’s a fact.

If you could somehow get 50-75% of management to not take part it would send a strong message. But you can’t. And among those that respond will be the sycophants that rah rah everything that comes out of executive leadership’s mouths.

So I am going to take the opportunity to provide some scathing feedback on the culture. In a professional manner of course.

And for those of you terrified and paranoid regarding providing negative feedback, GROW A PAIR. Honestly.

ATS email from Legg regarding survey said: “This is an added chance to gain insight from you to help us accelerate the pace of change we desire.” What? And where is the data backing up this assumption “Building a better and stronger Culture is a prerequisite to sustainable success..”. What? That is not going to raise the stock price. You fools barking up the wrong tree AGAIN. Have a survey, yes. But take the feedback without the presumption that if it is bad, it means you need to hammer harder on us.

The best thing to do is not respond to any of it, because that is the only thing that gets upper management worried about these nonsense surveys. They want you to hate your job, but for some reason they can’t stand ambivalence.