On John Stankey's last Townhall he commented "New employees don't come here to work 30-35 years and frankly we may not want them to either" His next comment on subject was "The benefits need to match the tenure". The only benefit related to tenure are the Pension Plans. A Pension freeze would give you what you have earned up until that point of the freeze (plus interest) but not the promise of 5,10 or 15 years from now on what AT&T has already promised you. He claimed it was one area Morrow was looking at and you would hear more later this year. THIS IS A BROKEN PROMISE if my premise is correct. Verizon froze their pension plan for managers around 2005 and Morrow claimed on a previous townhall they were years ahead of us on cost cutting measures. If you see either one of them in an elevator or townhall meeting respectfully tell them your family is depending on this pension promise during your retirement years.
19 replies (most recent on top)
John Slinkey took over Time Warner and Never Moved from his Dallas Home and Family
One can imagine how much Randall allowed per diem and Private Jet Service around the country
And chauffeur service all at the expense of Shareholders and laying off of thousands
One can assume he wasn’t staying at “Motel 6 “
Greedy corrupt selfish individuals
Both were the same way in San Antonio before moving to Dallas
These so called over 30-35 year employees built this company and are proud to provide service to our customers. Stankey ran PAC Bell into ground, and made it easy for SBC to buy them. Now he is going to do the same with ATT. There is something wrong when a New CEO makes 500 times more in salary than the average manager. After all he did not build ATT, we did, he came over in a buy out. Going after the lower level managers who have been more dedicated to serving our customers will now receive a freeze in their pension which is half of our retirement and our pension calculator is how we planed our retirement date. This is criminal!
"What they do is lift it up the pension, if you have one, and then apply the various penalties and fines, etc. that would apply to you if you tried to take it and run, then cram it all into your 401K. They made give you a little something something much of nothing for the penalties and fines applied as they repurposed the pension into the 401K, and for being a good sport about it"
There wouldn't be penalties or fines if you direct transferred the lump sum pension into your 401K.
@nab, I thought that no pension has been made available with new employee hires since 2000/2001, for L2 and below, I think those levels. ATT employs loads of folks still, who have that good olde time pension. For which they have to keep funded. Also, I think that depending on your level hired, like maybe L5 and above, when hired you get a pension.
Most large corporate American companies that had the old-time pensions like that AT&T, the rare bird, still has, got rid of them. What they do is lift it up the pension, if you have one, and then apply the various penalties and fines, etc that would apply to you if you tried to take it and run, then cram it all into your 401K. They made give you a little something something much of nothing for the penalties and fines applied as they repurposed the pension into the 401K, and for being a good sport about it. They will try and sell you on the fact that's it's all 401K, you'll turn it into a IRA, you're 100% in charge and in control and can invest, etc how you want, and it's not an annuity and all the evil constraints that can be tied to it, it's fixed, etc. See how we did you a favor by getting rid of that nasty ole pension. That's how it is done, even to Fidelity employees, who handle our 401K, it happened to them just like that over 10 years ago.
Craft here: old Legacy T and do remember when they converted the management pension into Cash balance shortly after the VRIP and was then frozen but unsure for how long though , and then the SBC acquisition occurred. Are management pensions currently frozen and if so how long has that been the case? Of course I’m referring to managers previously vested with a pension I have the option of a defined benefit or lump sum and believe we just received a 1% increase in our pension from our last contract Just curious. What’s the difference between the lump sum and cash balance if there is one
Clearly employee retention, happiness, well-being, growth is not his priority. Why are they coming up with the whole "culture" program which contradicts everything he says. Is this just a temporary attempt to raise scores for the "culture survey"?
How out of touch are you OP?
Pensions are not offered to new employees. That is all. That is literally all this statement says.
This has been par for the course since... 2013?
Freezing current pensions ,....not Management’s cause theirs have been frozen for years.
New employees. NEW employees. Hello? He said new employees don’t come here expecting a life long career. He didn’t say MR75 employees. None of the replies here make sense. New employees don’t even get pensions.
I’m almost certain that Stank would like to have zero American workers. Just run a chain of command in WebPhone on any organization in AT&T. Most are at least 85% obvious H1B. Our ancestors, who built these once great companies, would be disgusted. These jobs should be for Americans, period.
stankey just keeps one upping himself all the time. what d-bag he can't run anything and I hope they continue to lose customers and then stankey can be in charge of the bankruptcy.
why any one would buy anything from this snake oil salesman is beyond me.
he makes snake oil salesmen look good.
"New employees don't come here to work 30-35 years and frankly we may not want them to either"
Says Stanky - the "AT&T Lifer".
Sorry Johnny - I know your executive wet dream is to run the company treating employees as interchangeable and disposable widgets, but as long as our personal benefits are based primarily on employer-sponsored programs, there's going to be an expectation of employment stability. Surely you're smart enough to know that, Johnny.
Talk about wanting to have your cake and eat it too - They lobby and scream for lower corporate taxes while also trying to offload responsibility for worker's welfare to the State and Individual - who's pay they are trying to suppress through outsourcing.
And people wonder why the wealth gap has grown so much over the past few decades. Corporate "leadership" and government policy are turning the US into a 3rd world country.
This actually scares me into thinking so many people jump ship that the survivors have nervous breakdowns due to the onslaught of work. I have MR75 but way too young to retire.
Changing/freezing benefits for mid-career, middle-age employees is immoral. Employees make plans and take certain financial actions based on the promises they have received from their employers.
Unfortunately, employers have been getting away with this for some time, especially for management. For example, legacy T converted their traditional management pension plan to a cash balance plan in the late 1990s and it effectively froze the growth of the pension for many years for mid-career employees. Verizon froze their management plan in 2005 - meaning employees wouldn't accrue any additional pension benefit going forward. T-Mobile has no pension. Since companies seem to benchmark against competitors with lesser pay/benefits for the lower levels while they use the highest comparisons for executive compensation, it won't be a surprise if T freezes their pension at some point as a result of Morrow's recommendations.
Don't expect to receive any now-offered benefits by the time you reach retirement. They are being constantly chipped away at and will eventually all be gone. It's how companies that can't grow revenue keep Wall Street happy. Plan accordingly by saving as much as you can.
Loser Starky will cut benefits soon.
@dfe, yes indeed, this place has truly devolved into an absolute unmistakable toxic poisoned $h!thole of a so called ‘environment’. They call it a CZ (Collaboration Zone). Talk about another toxic dump. Which now sits empty.
And with what the OP has pointed out, and what @dfe said, is why I'm now begging to become surplus by or before and off payroll 12/31/2020. 25 years, 50+, met MR75, don't want to retire, too many years away from Medicare.
However, with the leadership now constantly talking, eluding, or even veiled threats to screwing with the pension in any way, coupled with the continued loss of all sorts of financial related benefits, it's time to jump and pull the cord and take up golfing, fishing and gardening.
If you are 1 - 3 years away from a planned early retirement, and your mid 50's, have the free and clear pension, I propose you're going to feel like a real straight up dummy to stay on and wind up get whacked for sure in '21, or '22. You’ll end up with far less for retirement financials than if you left by or before 12-31-20.
So there, I just talked myself into early retirement, out of here in 2020, just like what Stankeys trap was laid and set to do.
Not that any of these m0r0ns have any common sense, other to line their pockets, but they are too stup1d to realize that if they froze the pension, they would almost instantly exceed their layoff targets with the rush of retirees going out the door?
No point anyone that MR75 eligible staying in the $hithole in this toxic poisoned environment.
Or maybe the do realize and they cannot borrow all the $ needed to pay out the lump sums everyone would take!