Thread regarding FirstEnergy Corp. layoffs

Appears front line is being affected too. Should be a good 2026!

https://www.change.org/p/petition-to-maintain-10-hour-work-days-for-first-energy-employees

@5f6 Maybe that guy is Brian Tyranny. He seems to have his feelings hurt over all the negative talk about FE and Tyranny.

@5bw, you must be financially illiterate if you think FE stock is something worth owning. It has essentially flatlined over the last couple years when accounting for inflation. The dividend isn't enough to save it. I immediately divest any FE stock that I am FORCED to purchase as part of our laughable 401K plan. Not to mention, you aren't even allowed to buy real FE stock (in)Fidelity puts your money into an "FE Common Stock Fund" which is priced higher than the traditional common stock AND carries a management fee. It's an absolute ripoff.

@5bw Same can be said for you. Son. You can wake up one morning out of a job as well. Anything you can do, some slub in India will do for $14 an hour. Based on your opinions. I can 100 percent guarantee --- everyone in your department --- including your boss, hates you and wishes you were terminated back in April.

@567 your job isn’t as “essential” as your overinflated ego thinks it is. You’re easily replaceable and joining some magical union is so laughable it won’t make a difference. I’ve held on to my FE stock and am enjoying the additional earnings from the stock appreciation I expect that will continue as replaceable whiners like yourself are forced out.

Some of you talking about unions don’t know anything about unions. Do you think that just because you are in a union you can’t be replaced and you’re untouchable?

Looks do at the auto and steel industry.
Don’t be so naive.

@55m Basically you're here saying that you hope roles continue to disappear. Got to love the continued division going on within FE. We have people, I know many of them, that are stressed out so much they are on meds, due to the current climate at FE. You're he saying you hope my position will be eliminated, in so many words. Looks like you're the founding member of the BXT fan club.

@4y1 false. You’re not seeing the whole picture there. We donate depending on who is up for reelection in each state. Overall, we donate more to democrats due to our precarious existences in Jersey and Maryland, and now new transmission activity in VA.

If unions really were pointless, you wouldn’t have every corporation in American fighting tooth and nail to stop them. They want you to think you’re powerless and have no control over your working conditions. Employers don’t want unions because union employees have better wages, better insurance, and better working conditions.

There are other office jobs in FE that are union besides the call center. OPEIU is connected to IBEW and it exists for office personnel. You don’t have to have your entire building unionize, just your specific group you work in. If anyone reading this wants to unionize, don’t let these negative comments deter you! You are not powerless and you can have a say in the conditions under which you sell your labor!

@53h Keep crying and making excuses then. It will be addition by subtraction when your role is eliminated.

@538 "Internal Job Postings". That's laughable. Have you seen the frequency and quality of the "Opportunity Marketplace "? To be frank. There has not been jack sh-t since FE offered PEER!

@52q Unionizing won't do you any good. If anything it will speed up the inevitable while you get laughed out of the office. Why you think a union is the way to go for an office job like a call center is beyond me. My advice to you if you work in the call center is to update your resume and start applying for internal jobs or start looking elsewhere. If you really want to play your cards right you should try to get into the field and working for a line shop or substation. The new apprentice program would be a good place to start. Those are the jobs a union is actually beneficial and not to mention, the pay is much better.

@515 The call center is already being outsourced to Accenture. Like I said. Stephen Avilla came to us in 2024 from Macy's where he outsourced them to India. He claims otherwise, but we will most definitely be out 100 percent soon. It's only a matter of getting Accenture 100 percent onboarded. So why not try to unionize. We are abused and treated like sc-m.

News flash, the Reading call center is already union. As for the West Virgina and Ohio call centers, you had many chances to unionize.

@4ty The call center thinking they can constantly talk about unionizing and then wonder in shock when their positions are actively being outsourced is hilarious. The work groups in FE that can be unionized and not outsourced are already in unions and they’re all field workers. The only other group that might have a chance are the control centers but they’re paid higher than every other group to keep from doing so. Nobody working an office or call center job will be allowed to unionize so just give it up.

@4te FEPAC actually donates more money to Democrats. Honest to God. The company doesn't care if you're union. All a union contract really does is essentially outsource some HR work.

@4te I pushed to have the Call Center unionized but nobody is willing to take the next steps out of fear of retaliation. Everyone knows that retaliation is illegal. But also, the upper level management in the call center, if they want you gone, they will manufacture a way to push you out. We had an old Director who has a series of open door complaint sessions. And ALL the employees that spoke to him were gone within a month or two. It's very corrupt.

BXT is very anti union. If you want to stick to him unionizing would be the way to do it. It would make him the laughing stock of Wall Street if the entire company unionized

We could get everything we wanted and then some if we unionized. By being non-bargaining we have to accept whatever we get and we have no say or control over it. I tried unionizing my unit but damn near everyone is Republican and against unionization. Even the union employees are against it. It doesn’t make sense. You can be damn sure the FE PAC donates to anti union congress members (republicans). There is a legal way to have a seat at the table but people have been fed so much propaganda they don’t want to hear it.

The only reason we have any employment rights at all is because of unions. Work can work for you if you bargain for it

@4nc Thank you. It's pretty disgusting when our own Vice President thinks we are sc-m and is only waiting until he can outsource us all. It is actually what he did at Macy's when he worked there. Outsourced everything to India.

@4hb our management may not respect you, but please know that the VAST majority of FE employees have nothing but admiration for the call center folks. No one ever calls the power company simply because they're happy and want to share their joy. I know these are just words, but they're true words.

I am a current FE employee. All I can say is in my department, the Call Center, we are not respected. Anyone outside our direct supervisors, well most of them, do not respect us. Ever since the COVID Pandemic, we have worked our as--s off.

Constant mandatory overtime. I'm not talking about a half hour, here and there. Many weeks it was 8:00Am-6:00Pm. But that really means working till customers stop calling and is more like 7:00Pm.

If we are lucky, we get notice of a few weeks. But all too often, 4:00Pm rolls around and were being mandated to stay, with sometimes a half hours notice. And if we have appointments. Forget.

Now I pray when I schedule something that OT won't come up later.

But we are just entry level sc-m I guess.

Everyone enjoy your discounted Cleveland Cavaliers tickets, because we don't have an Ohio obsession...

We ignore every state not named Ohio. I see the reign of HRH BX Tyranny, Rex Akonae, hasn't changed our focus from the important things.

@4fd I believe they said they don’t deserve extra pay?

@4fd Reading comprehension isn't your thing, is it?

@4d9 because you have to come into the office you should get more pay and PTO? That is ridiculous. I was 100% onsite employee. If my kids were sick during Covid I had to use PTO, unlike you. I did not get my kids on/off the bus. I had to make arrangements.

Why do you think you’re entitled to more pay and PTO because you were remote? You had a benefit many of us did not have. How many people just grabbed their laptop and went on vacation while working remote?

Entitlement generation I guess. Most of us did not complain about working onsite because that’s what we signed up for. But you wanting more pay and PTO is absurd.

@4b1

I am going to play devils advocate here. There will always be positions which must be in-person. I understand that those who always work in-person will have certain feelings about remote work.

Are those people who got to work remote, out of their mind for wanting more pay and more PTO simply for returning to the office? Due to travel time. YES! Absolutely.

They managed before COVID with the same pay and same PTO. But what COVID taught us was that some jobs can be done remote.

The excuse given by C-Suite Leadership that, "We need 10 years of data to prove the benefits of remote work" (I may be paraphrasing), I also absurd. There are countless studies that show work from home make employees happier.

The return to office is about control. It is about trust. C-Suite wants to have total control over us.

I can tell you that when I was sick (not to be gross but maybe a stomach bug), I would still work. At home. But now. I have to take PTO.

I was able to get my kiddos on and off the bus. Instead of paying latchkey. I didn't have to get them up earlier than needed to get everyone ready and at the school.

If my kids were sick. I could work.

Now. I have "Mary", up my rear end at all hours of the work day.

• How do I set up secure print again?"
• Can you show me how to print this out and scan it as a PDF and email it to myself from the printer" (ki-l me please)
• Where do we keep the stationary again
• Will you pick up my order from the cafe please?

So, yes, I threw a fit about return to office. Why do I need to come I to the office just to sit on Teams meetings at my workstation. And to be distracted by water cooler talk and people clipping their finger nails at their desk, chewing on ice, or talking on Teams meeting at their desk on speaker because their supervisor won't buy them a headset.

Also, think about this. If, because of Microsoft Teams, FE has cut way way down on corporate travel, because cross functional meeting across various sites can be done online.....then so can work. My butt is just warming an office chair.

Now about the "conspiracy theories", some of them have merrit. C-Suite is definitely up to something. I don't know what. But I agree with others that, whatever it is, it's not over.

@33s no I do not think for the most part FE leadership respects us.

I worked in person the entire time because the nature of my position cannot be accomplished remote; so no I am not jealous. You can’t deny the complete meltdown allot had with return to work. People wanting more pay and more vacation time because they had to go to the office; give me a break.

This is not the same FE it was years ago, and even that was painful. However, I do not subscribe to all the wild and unfounded conspiracy theories that are put out by the typical lackluster employees.

@3v7 posts like this are more representative of this site. “He’s out to get us?” Your typical low IQ comment from a conspiracy theorist.

People like you make this place miserable for your co-workers.

BXT is out to get us. He’s laughing while half of y’all are on here doing his bidding and the other half are trying to get through to them. We’re not enemies here. Whatever your salary, you’re closer to being laid off or outsourced than you are to being in BXT’s position.

WAKE UP. We are fodder. The only people who matter to this company are the shareholders. I’m not saying FE should crash and burn but are you really on here defending a CEO and a billion dollar corporation that has a new scandal every few years?? Knock it off!

Let's not forget the backdoor 150% health insurance premium increase for folks on the high deductible plan. These sc-m bags shifted the company subsidy to the PPO plans, which is simply cruel and pure politicking for the execs. FirstEnergy has become the literal embodiment of private equity investment leading to the enshittification of a major brand.

Too many people here are sheep without any curiosity as to why we're now all riding on a trailer.

@33s, this 100%.

@2y1 Talk about a conspiracy theory. Yes. It is the same person.

It sounds like you're interested in creating division. You talk about the language other comments use but you're set on putting them down for not wanting to return to the office, because you had to work in person the whole time. Jealous much? You're have it set in your mind they are low performing employees, yet you claim to be the opposite? You're worried about what people or "one person" made about the CEO, Brian Tierney. I guess you should call the employee concerns line and tell them, "someone is saying nasty things in an anonymous message board".

Yes, our coworkers are frustrated. But what can we do? Find a new job? We have pensions. Many of us have the "old pension". A lot of us make really really good money. So what can we do...

Sacrifice being stressed for having a nice income and great benefits.

Not to mention. FE seemingly cherry picked older employees with quite a lot tenure and high income and many years with pension.

You think FE respects us? They quite literally fired employees over email. One of my peers left work for the day. Got the email at 10:00pm at night and when they got to the office, their credentials were revoked.

Yes, that's no reason from current and former employees to be outraged.

Respectfully, get off your high horse and have some sympathy and compassion.

@2sb I think all these posts are the same id--t.

@2t9 I'm new here. Why are you responding to some of these posts as if you think some of them are continually the same person?

@2sb having concerns meaning wild conspiracy theories? Bashing people? Did you read the complete filth the poster made about the CEO’s man-unit?

People came in here, stating that it would appear that all the changes or at least major changes are completed. All these wild conspiracy theories are just those. And then they get attacked and being called a collaborator? And this person says they know who that person is but yet they won’t say it?

If there are so many people in here that hate this company and hate their job. Why are they still here? Go somewhere else then if you are that miserable.

My question is if some of you are so happy with FE and secure with your employment why do you feel the need to bash people on here? All departments are different and some people may be having a hard time with the events of this past year. Saying nasty things and making fun of people for having concerns and trying to figure out what may be next is less than helpful.

@2nx There's a lot of us who work jobs at FE that aren't going anywhere. We're the ones who didn't get to work from home the past 5 years. It's hilarious to us listening to all of you complain and come up with all these insane conspiracy theories. Fact is many of your jobs who got to wfh could be eliminated and it wouldn't effect company operations in the slightest.

@2p4 I have a job. Allot of people have a job. I work with great people too. With all of the added stress we have become closer.

My job of going nowhere.

Keep underperforming and being exposed as the whiner of the group, there is always one. And most likely nobody listens to you. That’s why you come here pretending to be a tough guy, low-IQ at that.

Again, you found the “collaborator” you say. Well enlighten us please.

@29e What does "Found the Collabortor" mean?