Did you notice that AT&T has this special breed of managers who speak only in buzzwords? They will rumble for several minutes constantly repeating 10-15 different buzzwords that are completely unrelated (you have to be more AGILE because SYNERGY is important and will IMPACT our CUSTOMER JOURNEY...) and then they dismiss you all proud of the wisdom they imparted on you?
Imagine how much we could save if we got rid of all of them?
A place where you are allowed to descend to a level of incompetence, where the ignorant are promoted, and those who steal are rewarded.
This is one of the best threads I've read on this site. I've determined that you can't advance in this company (and many others) unless you learn to all the buzz words and are able to used them in every conversation. Extra points for using multiple buzz words in a sentence! The more buzzwords a person uses the less I trust them.
And give Santone a break, after all she was just a assistant a few years ago.
When you hear the word "Synergies," duck and cover.
The managers are using the buzzwords that their higher-ups use, thereby demonstrating that they have drunk the Kool-Aid—it’s a form of brown nosing.
And it’s a way to distract from the real issues.
Ann Chow, for example, speaks at 100 mph, most of it non-sense, but she’ll throw in one or two pieces of important information, in the middle of all the non-sense and unrelated to anything else that she’s saying, This serves to hide the important statement, but at the same time she can claim that she is being transparent.
I’ve noticed Chow do this several times, including at her town hall yesterday, when she threw in that the majority of work force changes will be announced at the end of September.
Corporate folks speak in buzzwords, obfuscate, and work on social and presentation skills. That’s all they are. They don’t know how to do anything else.
Innovators speak plain and simple. They know how to do things and get thing done.
I know that wasn’t in Steve job’s autobiography. All these folks worship Jobs, but can’t understand why they can’t replicate him. Reality is, Jobs was an a–hole. His people invented the iPhone not him.
When a level 1 misses a due date, they’re on the list for termination. Next time the supervisor will need to stay out with the technicians until all jobs are complete. Get ready for late hours and travel. If you get home by midnight, start looking for a new job.
First off corporate speak is not just AT&T , all big corporatations and many smaller ones speak with same way. It's mostly a fitting in mechanism by management and the executives, they all want to appear intelligent with their $59.99 management-speak words dressing up a $0.25 problem. . it's really a cultural thing in most corporations not exclusive to T.
Also a lot of times they're used as weasel words, instead of saying directly what they mean, they use this jargon to obfuscate by design because of legal and compliance reasons not to leak out any real information that the shareholders can hit management over the head with.
Level 1 managers don't have direct reports...just cogs in the wheel like anyone else.
Any level 1+ are mostly just spreadsheet managers. They're evaluated mostly based on one thing, PRODUCTIVITY. This is all they care about, most spreadsheet managers (especially @ATT) lack an advanced knowledge of the applications and programs they're tasked to used on a daily basis, so they're imparted this knowledge from the front line employees who do the actual physical labor who are probably much younger. In my experience, I've noticed that the spreadsheet managers are extremely deficient in having a basic understanding how to actually lead people. There is a HUGE difference in being a Manager and being a Leader. Unfortunately, ATT is only accountable to its shareholders and, to a certain extent, this puts pressure on management which in turn forces them to mange spreadsheets instead of lead people. You should hear my boss talk to/about customers and "upper management". I always think to myself "how the H3LL do they get away with this?" Most of them are just collecting a paycheck, waiting to hit that magic number so they can retire.
Only at AT&T, where No results are celebrated as achievements,
There is no secret, lack of preparation, and the inability to learn from failure. for a long time they have accepted all sort of excuses, ......and ZERO results