Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

Whoa grandpa........tell me 'Bout the good ole daze.

Google AT&T 1996 layoffs

Just to be completely clear, it was called "cradle to grave" for good reason.

@ac hospice is calling and we need more open desks

T was the most valuable company in the world for serval years over the century, now we’re #3 in telco market cap. Ranked 70-80th in the US market cap. Weak leadership and failure to embrace innovation have hamstrung us. Be bold again.

Queue up Archie & Edith singing “Those Were The Days”.

You still have the option to do the switch part..

was a total bait and switch. I could have gotten a job at a startup with higher pay but definitely less security and way less benefits. But those benefits gotten taken away after the fact and they wonder why some people are bitter about it.

Even some of us old people saw a good portion of that slip away when they froze/stopped the defined pension benefits years ago. Luckily you got to keep what was contributed up to that point. Understand that is better than nothing but definitely a shock when it happened.

@at It is called sacrificing for four or five years like I did 33 years ago.

I did that. 33 years and out. Loving it.

Now the only ones that are set for life is the 💩 Stink, and his minions on the BoD.

The 💩 are paid well to mismanage and pad their pockets.

Well, being "retirement eligible"... one way or another I WILL be retiring here.

It just doesn't mean what it used to.

I am on my own to figure out healthcare until 65 being the main thing.

There really are no other retirement benefits worth anything (for management folks at least).

The rest of us are young enough that we never saw the good old days of any company or job path. As we were told to do, we went to college to be educated and worked hard to land a job with a major corp like T. We did all that just to be met with the barely smoldering fires of what once was. A total bait and switch with zero of the benefits the gen before us enjoyed.

All that to say, I’m sorry you had to watch it all slip away. We never even glimpsed it.

Yes, I remember those days. I specifically came from the Bellsouth Cellular family (that became Cingular and was later 'acquired' by AT&T.) We got lots of perks, real perks - like pricy jackets, computer bags, nifty hats, free tickets to baseball games at the stadium, free meals, etc! We used to have extravagant Christmas parties with a price tag of over $1 million dollars. The events were held in downtown Atlanta. Leadership rented out a ballroom or two, set up huge buffets full of all sorts of amazing foods, and brought in bands play live music for us. They even had ice sculptures, until the employees got drunk and tried to ride them. After that, the booze was no longer 'unlimited' but we got 2 tickets per person. (People would still get 'extra tickets' from their non-drinking 'friends'.) And the biggest 'reward' came after the 1996 Olympics when our director took the entire organization on a trip to Amelia Island to celebrate a successful launch of many cell towers for the big event. These are examples to show how far we've fallen. We were treated like royalty and yes, felt we would be employed for life as long as we performed well. We've now become peasants with no guarantee that our 'rulers' will keep us employed.

You mean the old days when price increases had to be approved by the PUC?

When we were a monopoly protected by the govt and could dictate prices?

@a6 Please have some respect for those of us who do remember this. Sorry you're too young to understand.

Ok grandpa time to get you back to bed. You’re talking crazy now

@OP That's Corporate America anymore, unfortunately. In the 1980s Corporations were basically given the green light that the only duty was to maximize shareholder profits. That's it. Before that, most corporations had a 'social contract' with employees and communities. Not any longer. AI will wipe out many jobs in the near future.