Although this article was published a while ago, it describes exactly what's happened at AT&T, and the loss of middle management jobs, which losses are in turn decimating the middle class, as the same pattern is repeated throughout corporate America.
In fact, it's still happening today at AT&T and at other major corporations, at an accelerated pace.
https://amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/605878/
I was once told that it is based on the harvard school of management. You don't have to know how to do something if you know somebody that can do it for you. No one has a clue in the upper management so that is why they have all the consultants and contractors. But they have taken that to an extreme.
Yes, this has been happening a long time, and still is. I'd say it started around '96. It's was embraced by RS and more so by Stankey. When you take a step back and look at it, you will see a model of Communism applied, at the very least Democratic Socialism. RS, I suspect Stankey and his henchmen too but we'll see more clearly soon, but RS is a big time Socialist. Take a good look at what all he has done that ultimately ruined the company. We won't fail, though we're doing quite terribly, however we'll be saved, by the government, and become a member of the state, like a Section 8, and be a government owned and ran entity. I hope and pray for us all that is never going to be the case.
there is no corporate oversight and the lobbyists are running washington with money from the corporations to fill the corrupt so called best and brightest leaders in washington.
getting rid of lobbyists and/or vote for leaders that have some morals that don't accept the bribery from the lobbyists is a great first step.
I read with amusement that AT&T Aims to Repay 1.2B Debt to Improve Balance Sheet Position?
DIDN'T hey borrow 7B in the past 6 months?
LOL
in the Past 4 years alone the top the Swamp 1% cashed Big, with the biggest wealth Redistribution in the history of this country
Meanwhile, if your concern is about “us, the 1%,”.
directed your fury at the Federal Reserve, whose policies during this century have vastly enriched that small group (really, the top 0.1%) while real incomes for nearly everyone else stagnated or even fell.
while they rip those benefits the created debt is socialized, and future's generations responsibility
As far as AT&T'S buybacks are a bad deal, They are financially in the same place before the mergers. they were done just to manipulate earnings per share. (As AT&T immediately reissued the retired shares after the suits in Dallas get their big payday!)
AT&T hasn't decimated middle management. For as long as I can remember, AT&T has had far too much middle management in some areas, mostly technology, finance and legal. Span of control has been reasonably large in tech services and customer service forever.
It’s all about greed, cronyism and mediocrity. The focus has become second homes and imported luxury vehicles!!