I am working on a project with a very large revenue for AT&T. I have been putting in 12 hour days and for the past few months. The problem I am having is the Team I am working with from Sales, Product, PM's and Engineers are extremely unmotivated, It is becoming more frustrating each day. Granted some older folks on the extended team are retiring end of year and their hearts are just not in the job. Others we hired are Contractors, prior AT&T employees who were let go or outsourced and frankly do not seem to care about the work or working. I can understand this on some level but they are getting paid. I feel I have to manage everyone to ensure even the most miniscule of deliverables are getting done. I compliment and thank everyone for any and every thing they do. The LPM is bothered if one asks if he did a task he is responsible for and keeps mentioning he can not get in his daily walks in two times a day which I do not understand as he is MIA for hours on end. I mentioned to my Management that maybe a talk to the Team to let them know how important this project is, it's benefit to the business and that we have to all work together and deliver etc. might help motivate folks. My Management seemed just as unconcerned and actually somewhat bothered that I even brought this to their attention. The curt response received by Management was that they are busy and then I got slammed for not entering more goals in Quantum?? I can not even get a break in to eat lunch. I just can't wrap my head around the behavior at all levels. I probably have not had a good night sleep in the past few months with stress and worry. Every Monday I have psyche myself up to be positive and keep a positive attitude and by Wednesday I am burnt out all over again and my bull sh** barometer is maxed out.
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I put in 12 hours a day for AT&T covering three time zones for 7 years. Got a new Manager in 2020. They were based on the East Coast and had never left NJ in their 20+ year career. Layoffs came along and poof! I was eliminated and the NJ folks all stayed. To this Day, I get calls from previous clients here on the West Coast complaining that they have no support and are mostly leaving for the competition. 10's of Millions in revenues leaving AT&T. No one cares about the Company. Their only concern is to stay employed. You should follow suit.
A different thought, are you new? loyalty to a company that sacked 20 plus years of service employees, eliminated pension, ... I wish I had time for walks, but I was as hopeful as you are foolish. Pointed out below, this is the environment created by upper management and inflamed by costly purchases and mistakes. (home security, T mobile, Direct TV, ...). If a project is important, the team has a bit of job security.
Or are you a troll?
No one said I am leading any Team as I am just a member like everyone else who gets a paycheck and is trying to do a decent job for a decent wage.... I see you too have attention deficit disorder. I am worried about my Team as that was the crux of my concern. I listen all day long to how folks were done wrong by T and let go and can not wrap my head around why then would they come back as a Contractor other than they need the job which I totally understand...only to complain and put in in the minimum effort. The cause of the poor morale is that these folks are I assume fed up. Some were outsourced and other laid off from T and then others upset about losing benefits, vacation days etc. I can relate and understand their frustrations but I do not know how to change the morale. You seem to have a lot to say in this regard. Maybe lend some words of wisdom instead of bad judgement.
To you: "stop thinking about yourself and more concerned about your team that you are leading. Best leaders are listeners. Maybe by listening you can get to the root of the cause and improve morale."
With all due respect Sir you are an id--t. No one is badgering anyone and I am not leading anyone as I am just a member like everyone else on the Team. I am not thinking about myself only the impact to the company. I am sorry I am not that bitter or jaded yet where I want to see the company fail. I do not badger anyone ever. You are making a lot of assumptions but no nothing of the situation. I feel if a person is getting paid they they should due their job even half a-s and not put others in a position who have a dependency upon their deliverables. Obviously you do not retain what you read. As I said I tried speaking to Management .......
"As I said before, you're a lot to deal with. People HATE being badgered. Once you have a commitment from them, expect them to deliver on it and leave them alone, other than maybe an occasional check in. If they miss their commitment without a reasonable explanation, and it's affecting the health of the project, escalate,"
stop thinking about yourself and more concerned about your team that you are leading. Best leaders are listeners. Maybe by listening you can get to the root of the cause and improve morale.
must be terrible to let a job rent so much free real estate in your brain.
I could have been you years ago, putting in those 12 hours days, getting projects done under budget and early. And then my job was outsourced. That's how much my services were valued. I contract now and if I work one minute over 8 hours, I get paid for it. And I sleep like a baby at night.
" No one said I am important and I do not need schooling or grammar lessons. I am very well educated and assumedly higher educated than most execs."
" I feel I have to manage everyone to ensure even the most miniscule of deliverables are getting done"
As I said before, you're a lot to deal with. People HATE being badgered. Once you have a commitment from them, expect them to deliver on it and leave them alone, other than maybe an occasional check in. If they miss their commitment without a reasonable explanation, and it's affecting the health of the project, escalate,
dont drink and text
This post was real. No one said I am important and I do not need schooling or grammar lessons. I am very well educated and assumedly higher educated than most execs. I was Just frustrated when I wrote this after a few glasses of wine at dinner with family and friends on the weekend. Obviously seeking input in the wrong place...but thanks to those who were humane and not hostile.
Greeting OP,
Hate to be an English professor and rain on your parade,, but in the future use paragraphs and organize your thoughts prior to posting. By doing so prevents having a blob of words going every which way.
Thanks in advance,
Mr. Knowitall
Sales people suck industry wide . No virtue or honor anywhere to be found ! Sales people are glorified prostitutes , in my opinion .
Don't try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig
The person that posted this is screwing with all of you who believed it. I have noticed that more and more postings are done to try and keep the topic off of what this site is actually meant for. Kudos to T for figuring out how to keep people from talking about actual layoffs on this site.
This sounds like one of those situations where AT&T rebadged the people with all of the domain expertise. Please keep in mind that their interests are with their employer, not AT&T. Those small sacrifices like working overtime to squeeze another revenue–generating feature into a release are not going to happen and should not happen. Their employer needs to be paid for the extra work of AT&T needs extra work to be done.
By the way, if they are not billing your project 40 hours per week, they are not able to focus on your project.
In your current situation, this means you don't have much to worry about until they miss the agreed–upon, contracted deadline for their deliverable. This is not something that you need to spend 12 hours a day on. Your role shifted when they outsourced those jobs. Now you have to explain the contract to management, and start explaining the penalties to the contractors if they miss their delivery.
They pay the position not the person. No matter how hard you work, you will make the same as someone that does nothing in the same job grade!
There is no reason to anything but the bare minimum. Drag out the project as long as possible. I need to get my walk in too.
I'm the only guy that does anything around here
Just give them your paychecks then they will become motivated for couple days.
"Team" ain't working out so well is it?
Who hired your "team mates"?
The same people who don't care.
Trust me, your project is important to no one but you.
As they have shown you.
Yea, I'm an ex employee. Retired at 56 after 38 years.
Not bitter in the least....just sharing the mindset to win.
I cared until 1994. 14 years in.
Then realized, they'd just as soon I got hit by a bus.
So I morphed into a "look out for number one" employee.
Still did a good job, but divorced myself from work.
Life suddenly improved. Slept better.
Nothing, NOTHING you do or say will make an iota of difference.
Realize it.
Smile, wave and cash the checks.
You can not care more than they do...why do you?
One can tell from this post that you’re a lot to deal with. Relax. The work will get done. And you’re not that important.
One– stop working 12 hour days. I could write a book on why but trust me, it isn’t worth it for you in the long run. Two– if you’re serious about motivating the team, there are a million articles online to get some ideas. Do some research.
That Clapping Comment! Hilarious. Spot On
Great question, but as you can see from the overwhelming rabid, disgusting, angry and totally worthless comments...this isn’t an appropriate forum. Here the posters only hope is to find kinship to spew hatred yet they wonder why they’re no longer employed. There is hope....T is filtering them out slowly, one by one. Bravo to that! That’s right, hit the down arrow—grinning back at you. Clapping.
The secret at this company is to find the one person who can do all the work and make them your personal slave. Then you can act like it's just a job, collect the pay checks, take credit for their work, and coast.
Are you a high level executive or owner a majority owner of AT&T ??? No... then stop giving a fck .. your're just a small cog in a big organization. And the obvious fact that executive management isn't concerned about the pace of the project tells you everything you need to know.. Your project is SMALL POTATOES or otherwise irrelevant.
So Why do you care again??? Don't be schmuck and just do the bare essentials... yes I know it probably goes against the grain of "hard work ethos" but if you've been around this place long enough you know that doesn't mean sht here.. there's no lollipop for hard work...
Trying to worry about a massive corporation from a position where you have ZERO authority to make changes is fruitless, work smarter not harder.
that is the world stank and rand created. only advice I would have for you is to find a better company. it will never change because the board and senior management are keeping their dividend and as long as that stays and they keep getting that free money nothing will change.
sorry for the bad news but don't blame your coworkers the human spirit can only take so much demoralization and eventually they check out and are just doing what they can not to get fired.
as whoever keeps saying this board
it is just a job you get your paycheck and you do what you are told so you don't get fired and keep bringing home the paycheck.
great environment – att is such a cesspool so glad I left on my own and now I took the pension buyout and I will have more money just from the pension buyout than if I kept it in the pension.
so leaving is a win win for you if you can. so many great companies out there to work for and people are so much nicer.
so in the end take it easy on your co workers they probably have been through a lot.
Unfortunately this is not an uncommon scenario....First, you cannot manage the members on the project or inspire them to work at the pace you desire. You can, however, engage the stakeholder, that’s usually the sales organization, who has the most to lose if the project does not ultimately succeed. Often the sales leadership can light fires under various organizations who don’t or won’t see the urgency in doing their part to move things along. You may need to ask for their help confidentially. Tread carefully to seek out your allies for assistance because there could be repercussions if your goal to get things done is perceived otherwise....
Good luck!
“My Management seemed just as unconcerned and actually somewhat bothered that I even brought this to their attention.”
- Obviously your project isn’t important.
So stop it. You are working too hard.
Keep caring.
Let it consume you.
Allow it to destroy your life–as it is.
Or, fly low, look busy and just make $$$.
Why do you care so much? They don't.
Dear sir,COVID–19 has changed a lot of attitudes as so has time.We all were considered essential workers during this pandemic and those that got to sit home and do as they pleased to draw almost as much money as your crew, showing up to do a job is awesome!Relax a little and just trust in your guys to get it done!The old timers always pulls it out and make things happen!
your problem is that you aren't working more hours. If you did, you would have it done it done by now. You should be working faster and as one.
J Stinky
ps: we'll let you skip your PLE classes because you won't get a raise anyway because of your attitude
Keep up the good work OP.