AT&T does have too many employees right now, that's a fact. However, instead of cutting those who contribute little to nothing the company keeps laying off people who are actually making it money. Honestly, how many managers do you know with just a few direct reports? What's the point of them when the job of five could be done by one person?
13 replies (most recent on top)
We have too many admins. Rather keep those folks installing fiber ... that’s the ticket.
We are all fat. They might as well lay off everyone. Isn’t that what people are saying. Well everyone is useless except me, isn’t that what they are saying. No one is worth a liveable wage except me, no one deserves healthcare except me? Really isn’t that what people are claiming. We are all useless costs to the guy above you. Yes that’s you. Be careful what you ask for.
The company needs a bankruptcy to clear itself of the old, costly pension obligations so it can move forward. It worked for GM 13 years ago. It will work for us now.
Yup, they outsource, re-badge, layoff competent folks and then end up hiring back these same folks later as contractors when re-badged vendor cleans house etc. The ex-employee by this time has had an attitude readjustment and now takes lunches, are out of the office by 5:00PM, not avail for weekend deployments, leave for Doctor appts etc. but who could blame them? Just an observation/
yeah when I left I saw two directors in phone with no one under them WTH? I could tell where the company was going and so glad I jumped ship.
why att keeps so many employees is beyond me - I think part of the reason is to have employees fill in for the union when their contracts expire so they have some negotiating power with the unions.
Lots of technicians are needed to do work they keep saying is coming , but so far nothing has materialized. At this point techs are doing only one job per day which takes 3-4 hours then laying low for the remainder of the day. We’re hoping management is accurate about the work coming cuz I suspect T won’t keep us all on the payroll much longer if this work scarcity remains.
Which group's town hall said they were hiring?
Yesterday’s town hall said they will be hiring because we don’t have enough to get the work done.
Senior managers would like to lay off the dead wood, but the problem is that senior management doesn't know who is dead wood.
So they delegate that question down to the mid-Management level. Choosing to lay off someone who contributes a lot often helps the AVP/Director because in their absence there will be visible damage. Yes, that's "a good thing", because when the AVP/Director is questioned, they can say the problems are not their fault, rather they were caused by these devastating cuts they were ordered to implement. Oh, and BTW, the problem can be fixed by giving them more headcount.
On the other hand, if dead wood gets laid off, there's no impact to the business, so the logic above doesn't work.
Hope that helps.
Here this clip explains what most managers and other do at T: (Officespace )
https://youtu.be/U0tpjs8zflQ?t=10
The truth is the fat is mostly at the AVP level and up. While it's true there are still fewer of them than there are actual worker bees in absolute terms, their numbers have not been reduced as quickly as headcount at lower levels, so there are now proportionately more of them than ever. What they do seems largely to consist of making PowerPoint presentations to their peers about what they (the actual workers in their organizations) are doing, acting as middle men in a long communication chain that extends from the top of the pyramid to the bottom, and making occasional decisions about trivial things they know little if anything about. The frequency with which they move between seemingly unrelated jobs is a good indication that the jobs do not require and they themselves do not possess any particular skills other than fluency in corporate-speak and a cllection of tasteful corporate casual attire. If the bean counters ever did an analysis of what the company actually gets for what it pays these people, they'd surely find the company's return on investment to be somewhere between, DirecTV (at least it generates some cash) and ATT Mexico (some large negative number). There certainly are a few good ones, but they're definitely a small minority.
In Mobility, I don't see many managers with just a couple directs anymore. The span of control at L2 has grown steadily with all of the layoff and reorg activity, and many have around 20 or more at this point.
Data Center in hoover finally got one that has been sitting there for years, s—ing them dry, almost 70 years old.