This is long but details how AT&T used to be a leader in taking care of employees and now it is a leader in treating them as disposable “assets”.
Worth a read
https://www.businessinsider.com/workplace-loyalty-corporate-america-dysfunction-employers-employees-att-jobs-2025-9
OP here - what Stankey and any other CEO who follows this ‘market based culture’ junk doesn’t seem to get is that in a market economy, everyone basically looks out for their own self-interest.
The idea of loyalty is that you may sacrifice a bit of what’s good for you right now because ultimately the group/company will benefit and you will share those benefits. Stankey flushed loyalty down with his actions and finished it off with his rant. Since the company doesn’t care about my loyalty, why should I do anything but look out for myself, the company be d@med? Why go the extra mile unless I know I will benefit and see that right away? Not the best mindset for a company that controls critical national infrastructure.
And he wonders why his rant landed with a thud and we are ranked 567.
“Headed in the right direction” if that means down the drain!
AT&T's CEO isn't sure why his corporate culture memo went viral, but he says it has spurred 'the right kind of dialogue'
The telecom giant's CEO made his first comment on the reaction to his words on Tuesday morning on CNBC, several weeks after Business Insider exclusively obtained and published the document.
"You got a copy of that?" Stankey asked the CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin.
Stankey said that he wrote the memo expecting it could end up in the public eye and that he seeks to be transparent in his approach to running the business. Still, he said he wasn't sure why his comments attracted so much attention.
"The fact that people spent as much time on it for as many days as they did was probably a little bit of a surprise to me," he said. "I don't know why that is — I'm not an industrial psychologist."
Part of this transition involves a shift away from the loyalty- and tenure-based approach to employee relations in favor of a "market-based culture" that emphasizes performance.
"Maybe I struck a chord in some regards," Stankey told CNBC. "But most importantly for me, I think the memo was very well understood within the business, there's been the right kind of dialogue around it."
Internally, he said, the reaction has been mixed.
"I can't say everybody's happy about it, but I think the vast majority of AT&T employees understand the direction we're headed, and that's a really good thing," he said.
The memo sparked considerable discussion among BI readers, with about 1,490 responding between August 4 and August 26 to a survey that asked whether the memo was an effective way to communicate with employees.
Roughly 40% of those respondents said it was an effective message, while 60% said the opposite.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/at-t-s-ceo-isn-t-sure-why-his-corporate-culture-memo-went-viral-but-he-says-it-has-spurred-the-right-kind-of-dialogue/ar-AA1Lg7ue?ocid=finance-verthp-feeds
@dj Remember "Steve" is getting a severance check so he is actually experiencing the best possible endgame for an AT&T employee. Many of us won't when they start just firing people in mass for RTO non-compliance. It has not started yet, but that is the next inevitable escalation. Your severance check will pay for 3 or more employees on the subcontinent, so they will do whatever they can to avoid it.
100% FOR SURE
The Dallas SBC boys NEVER EVER cared about employees. For the life of me, I have ZERO clue why any person inside or outside of AT&T would use their product line. The T social credit score is less than ZERO. After 25 years working WAY beyond the required hours and four months prior to my rule of 75 T showed me exactly how much they cared about employees. The first thing I did was cancel all y T services and had family members do the same. Another thing I think is super sketchy is Fidelity and their relationship with at&t. I get emails daily from Fidelity with the T brand attached to the email pitching services. I'm not positive this is a relationship I want to be a part of where they seem to work in lockstep. I have NO trust for at&t or anyone who does business with them. Shop around and you will see in almost EVERY case they are the highest cost pusher out there. They loaded up with H1B's via there "preferred" contracting company that they can hide behind, to replace older skilled labor for script readers. If you have anything with T in your profile, you are supporting the behavior that will eventually bite you.
I think I know Steve, or at least some in a very similar situation.
They were part of the current RTO going on right now. They were advised weeks ago and their last day is at the end of this month.
Steve had enough of the disrespect and blasted the company by changing his profile photo in teams to an unsavory message, and then blasted the company on his own social media page.
HR had a call with his leadership and he gave them all he-l again.
So they locked him out and he’s gone a few weeks early, but at least he had the satisfaction of telling them exactly how he felt..
I don’t blame Steve a bit. Steve is right, no one should be treated like that by a company they served their entire careers. It’s utterly disgusting
Remember you’re no different than Steve. They will treat you the same exact way.
Stankey couldn't run a 7-11. He's a complete narcissist and his track record speaks for itself. Epic failure but in this company, failure is rewarded.
"Last month, AT&T CEO John Stankey sent an unusually blunt memo to his staff. There was a lot in his 2,500-word missive, but one part really stood out to me. "Some of you may have started your tour with this company expecting an 'employment deal' rooted in loyalty," Stankey said. "We have consciously shifted away from some of these elements." It's hardly news that companies have become less loyal to their workers, but I'd never heard the head of a large corporation admit it so publicly, and with so little remorse. In a quick write-up, I described the memo as corporate America's clearest attempt yet to overhaul the terms of the workplace.
The response was overwhelming. I received more than 100 emails and DMs from readers eager to share how their experiences shaped their views on the death of loyalty. Many laid the blame on CEOs who chase quarterly profits at the expense of their employees' jobs. Others accused millennials and Gen Zers of being entitled and unwilling to do anything outside their job descriptions. The clear consensus, as I heard over and over again, was that the corporate workplace has now devolved into a Lord-of-the-Flies dystopia.
One reader, a retired auto executive, put it especially starkly. Companies "try to give people the perception that they are a 'family' at work, but they'll gut you like a fish and toss you to the sea as soon as the metrics look bad," he wrote. "Employees aren't much better," he added, as they're "looking for the next rung in the ladder and will stab you in the back as they try to climb over your corpse."
The employer-employee bond, like any relationship, is held together by expectations of what each side owes the other. Management scholars call this the psychological contract. When those expectations are broken, one side pulls back — often then prompting the other to pull back as well. The evidence of that vicious cycle is now everywhere. After years of companies rescinding job offers, it's now common for college students to renege on the offers they accept. Workers skip the courtesy of giving two-weeks' notice because they fear getting fired on the spot. HR departments, meanwhile, cut off employees' email and Slack access before laying them off to prevent them from sending around angry notes, or the chance to say goodbye."
"For one longtime AT&T employee I'll call Steve, that moment was a long time coming. Over the years, he watched the company pull further and further away from its workers. Employees caught in restructurings got less notice before being let go. Insurance premiums rose. Retirement benefits dwindled. He and his colleagues started to joke that the business' initials stood for Always Take & Take. Yet he kept giving and giving. "There were times I went: Why are you working so hard for this place that doesn't value you?" he tells me. He still can't really explain it, except to say that he wanted to work hard. As a Navy vet, he didn't think he had a quiet-quitting bone in his body.
But last year, when AT&T decided to consolidate its hubs, his bosses gave him an ultimatum to relocate. Steve explained that he had a sick family member that made the move impossible. Still, they wouldn't budge. Something finally broke in him. "I busted my butt," Steve says. "I worked 50, 60 hour weeks. I expected that, in my time of need, they would be forgiving." From that moment on, he checked out, and he hated it. "I allowed them to change who I was."
Guys, they havent reached their numbers yet. So if your organization is strict 5 days, just know, either you have a lot of boomers they need to get rid of, or lot of employees in general that they want gone. Just look at workday and see jobs for senior IT auditor, they are 3 days a week. Certain position such as engineering and data science are 3 days a week. These are people they won’t be able to attract with 5 days. The likes of Corey and the rest of C-suites are trying to sell you a narrative. They are trying very hard and it’s about to hit them in the face.
The “freeloaders” are the C suite & BoD…those grifters are paid millions to destroy a once solid company.
“Stankey is running a business, not giving handouts.”
@aj “Running a Business”
Auto correct must have made this statement inaccurate, I think you meant RUINING a Business.
Stankey is running a business, not giving handouts.
DEI says otherwise.
Stankey is running a business, not giving handouts.
Karen’s gonna Karen.
I’m the product of Stankey and the yapping chihuahua, Legg’s new culture.
I’m home today, paid for by those two dude wipes. I woke up with a migraine and a case of the Monday morning ni-ple twist, Instead of jumping on three early morning Teams calls to serve this once great company, I informed my supervisor that I was taking a sick day. Spare me the AI metrics and fuzzy correlation drivel. I’m fresh out of “givafux”
They are building the culture they want. The one with the revolving door of talent and can’t keep anyone. The only people staying are those that need “just a couple more years” to retire. Everyone else is gone. In 3-5 years, just about everyone to the left and right of you will be gone, either retired, laid off, or found a better job. Only ones left will be those that doing have any other options. Sounds like a great place to work. Dont like it leave. 567 -
8 and skate
If Stankey doesn't listen, it is time to approach the shareholders and show him, who is ruling and if this doesn't help, then it's time to ask customers to boycott the company. This is market approach and he deserves same medicine he gives us!
wow, this is nuts, i like this article
@a7 - thanks!
Non paywall link:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/the-new-rules-of-workplace-loyalty/ar-AA1Nv8Uo
Depressing to see the decline of the culture here but it’s nice that they highlighted how pack your bags or get out really impacted people. Keep the heat on. Send them that Anthony recording.
Paywall