Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

Yeah, L1, L2 managers in the datacenter are the guys doing the work. The sys admins, the storage folks, the network folks, the application folks, the DBAs.

I worked for T for almost 20 years I was an L2-B ( A Principal level specialist, I won't say for which technology ) and was thrown out last year and rebadged over to IBM... It's been less than a year and IBM has notified the group that I was working in at IBM that 1/2 of them will be terminated at their anniversary. Some of them have to train their foreign replacements. I left IBM not long ago before the IBM layoff announcement and have found something much better but, everything T. and IBM are doing and continue to do is just flat wrong.... I would have been happy to retire from T... I loved what I was doing and, I was good at it. Now, I'm good at it somewhere else but, that's not the point.... The point is that I wasn't job shopping, I was loyal, I was a good employee that was getting service awards.... the booted me, my director, his director and my avp all over to IBM where they're all in the process of being thrown out on the street.

@1ecu+15Qi3BAC - I agree 100%

They are all salaried management levels. L1 and L2 do the actual work, L3 poke them with cattle prods and threaten them to do said work ever quicker, and L4 remains hidden in an actual private office and decides who gets to keep doing any of the above. As for what happens at L5 and above, you must sign a non disclosure agreement before you are told.

Sorry. Whoever asked this question is obviously not within the company. Anybody within would know where to look for the answer.

Anybody else concerned about all of the "company jargon" in a lot of these posts?

There seems to be a lot of trolling activity and misinformation posts that are rendering this website almost useless when trying to get some legit insight into pending layoffs, etc. I'm not saying the OP is a troll, but there are more than a few. The ability to throw in a couple of buzz words makes the post appear legit when it is really c-ap.

I'm not even going to mention the Cyber security risks. It's a treasure trove for phishing scammers.

Just saying...

Do not worry, from what I am hearing, Level 2's, especially the ones that are individual contributors, not supervisors, will be a dying breed after this week. Make sure you have a plan B and plan C ready, as you will not have much time if and when the door closes.

As with everything AT&T there is no one correct answer to this. What L1, L2, etc means depends entirely on your job.

So those L2s in an office are different than L2s in the field are different from L2s in retail are different from L2s in call centers.

The take home is that unless you are a Director or above, you're an L1 or L2.

If you're confused then T has succeeded in their goal.

So many commenting on this have no clue how retail stores are categorized. The Level 1,2, and 3 have nothing to do with job title. Here is how stores are categorized: Level 1 (lowest) are stores that have low traffic and as a result have lower sales volume. Level 3 are the busiest stores and do the most volume, Obviously level 2 is in between. Store level impacts store manager (RSM) salary and employee quotas, A level 3 RSM earns more than a level 2 and a level 1 makes the least.

With that being said, I can see how it would be confusing to some since manager titles are ranked by level as well, but the OP was asking specifically about store levels.

No. If you are a retail seller in retail here is your chain.

L1 store manager and assistant manager
L2 area manager
L3 director
L4 VPGM
L5 Region President

In the business side you can be a direct seller and be an L1 or L2

There are thousands of employees that have some version of VP, Chief of Staff, CFO or President in their title. The company is too top heavy with bad decision makers. Too many redundant processes, too many contradictory functions. In essence a lot of these upper level functions have become ceremonial to feed egos. Not only is salary a drag but the perks it takes to service all of this dead weight!!!

If you have good seniority/longer than most reps in ur store as you will be offered a call center job/work from home. If you don’t have much seniority more than likely you will be let go per the Union guidelines as not everyone will be offered the call center job.

They are pay grades in the non-craft and non-retail parts of the business. They are called "managers" but in many cases (especially L1-3) they are actually only individual contributors that do not manage any people whatsoever - it's a ploy for anti-union purposes to prevent those office employees from unionizing and to force them to step into craft or retail roles during a strike.

Level 1,2,3 and so on are management, bargained for employees are union represented employees. Core/bargained employees are the skilled workers, if your not a skilled employee your probably gone:( unless you have enough seniority. Sales are bargained employee’s and so are call center reps. Just learn your org and your position and you will know!

L1 is 1st level manager, could be 1A or 1B but there is a multitude of actual job titles at these levels. L2 is a second level manager, like an Area Manager or possibly a senior title but again quite a few job titles at this level. L3 is more limited, mostly Director title or possibly select Professional titles but rare to be level 3 without direct reports. L4 is the AVP or Assistant Vice President, then just goes up from there to VP, Senior VP, President, CFO, CEO and Board Members. I’ve been a L2 manager for quite some time and it’s been my experience that you have to get above the AVP level before you find real decisions makers that impact the direction of our business. So much of the business unit structure, headcount and budget vision comes from the President level and up then trickles down. Someone once told me that L2 and below make up 99% of the company, just too bad we don’t make the big decisions.