I’ve never seen a CEO so completely disconnected and miss the message employees were trying to send.
Thousands of employees were saying the same thing- morale is declining, flexibility matters, talent is leaving, and five-day RTO is making a bad situation worse.
His response? Employees were told they’re wrong, he’s not, and there “might be a disconnect between you and your current professional choice.”
What really stood out was the characterization of the feedback as “more outliers than we’d like.” … Outliers?
When it’s most employees saying the same thing, it isn’t outliers at all. It’s the majority. The same concerns were being raised across all organizations, teams, and locations. That’s not an “outlier” problem. That’s a leadership problem.
The email read like someone who was genuinely shocked by the feedback…. But maybe that’s the real issue. When you’re surrounded by direct reports blowing smoke up your a$$ telling you everything is working, everyone is aligned, and the policy is a grand success, eventually you start believing it.
Then one day reality shows up in a survey and your mind is blown.
What made the email so damaging wasn’t just the double down on policy. It was the authoritarian mindset behind it.
Instead of asking why most employees felt the same way, he seemed determined to explain why employees were wrong instead of him. Instead of adapting, he doubled down. Instead of listening, he lectured. Instead of taking responsibility, he shifted the blame back onto employees.
That’s not leadership.
Leadership is about recognizing when a decision isn’t producing the intended results and having the humility to change course. What we’ve seen instead is a stubborn refusal to acknowledge reality and accept responsibility, no matter how much evidence piles up.
Since Stankey became CEO, the stock has delivered a negative (-25%) price return. Morale has deteriorated to all time lows. Talent continues to leave. Outside rankings of culture, morale, talent, future readiness place AT&T at the bottom of its peer group and near the broader field bottom as well.
Yet somehow employees are still treated as the problem.
At some point, the board has to ask a simple question- if the strategy is working, where are the results?
Employees are paying the price for decisions they didn’t make- longer commutes, less flexibility, less take home pay, lower morale, increased uncertainty, and the departure of talented peers.
The company doesn’t need more presence reports, more mandates, or another angry manifesto explaining why employees are wrong and to blame for the company’s failures. It needs a leader who listens, adapts, and can admit when something isn’t working.
The most dangerous thing a CEO can do is become so convinced of his own correctness that he stops hearing what everyone else is telling him, and that’s where we are. That’s the disconnect employees have been talking about all along.