Unfortunately, I doubt that we as employees can change something here.
At the same time, I do not think that employees should suffer in silence, everyone has the right to express their complaints, but we should not expect that anything will change for the better.
I gave up on that a long time ago when I realized that the only thing that you can change is the company you work for. Just my 2 cents.
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If things don't change in a hurry, there will be a lot fewer employees around to worry.
@1aeo+1b4YP0gS: well said.
Layoffs, disregard for employees, and shrinking benefits are now standard practice at almost every giant company - telecomm or other. Things may be worse at T, but certainly T is not an anomaly.
Like him/her, I also interviewed with a few mega corps after getting my notice from T. I interviewed with T-Mobile, NBC Universal, and Spectrum, just to name a few. I did my due dilligence as best I could, looking at Glassdoor, here on the layoff, and a few other places and read a lot of similar gripes and criticisms. It convinced me that I would only take an offer from one of the big boys as a last resort.
Happily, I ended up getting an offer from a local nonprofit organization with fewer than 50 full-time staff. I've been there for almost half a year and I love it. The money isn't as good as with a megacorp, but then again I don't deal with the garbage either. Plus, working for a place where my effort actually helps people rather than just give some total monster like Stink a bigger bonus is a huge relief.
This isn't an attempt to absolve T all their hateful and horrible practice. But the really sad thing is T is not alone. Yeah, they may be more mismanaged and Stink may be the biggest arseh0le around, but the others aren't that much better.
Each person has to make the calculation for themselves. For me leaving the world of global conglomerates and staying small and local was the best choice and I have absolutely no regrets.
"Maybe it's like that at every mega corporation. But certainly T has had more spectacular failures, more extensive layoffs, and more lying than most"
with all these consolidations with media/tech/entertainment companies creating these mega corporation conglomerates, they all get worse and worse as they grow towards employees and often towards consumers. went though it for a smaller, but still large multinational media conglomerate. 20 years experience, saw some shady stuff go down in that time. so many problems. unfortunately as I interview with other big corporations within this business after my turn to get downsized, I see the same dysfunction just from how they conduct interviews. the look of misery on current employees, front line supervisors, you know, ones that actually work as they take me on tour of facility. the body language reminded me so much of place I just left, beaten down employees. it is VERY disheartening as it feels like just trading in one bad mega company for another. reason I am posting here was looking at ATT and all the subsidiaries under their umbrella as my job hunt continues. since they were all over news, with latest developments. use this page for a bunch of prospective employers to gain some insight of how workers feel about their employer. now, obviously going to get a lot of negative feedback from recently laid off folks, but still have insight, which I feel I could write EXACT same thing about my previous long term employer. that and insight from folks still in it. it's pretty funny, went on interview with a division of a mega media corporation.I really had no intentions of taking position but wanted to hear them out, I worked some of issues discussed on this sites board for that company. it was a 2nd in person interview so knew an offer was most likely coming, when I conversationally brought up some of the issues, the person was so flustered, simply left speechless, never addressed my questions. needless to say, did not get offer after that. like i said was not really wanting to work for the division but was willing to hear them out. this just a long winded reply to say, they are ALL the same. Best to look at smaller companies, and just hope they don't get absorbed into one of the top mega corps in this field. good luck to you all.
just keep stashing the pay checks in the bank and investing, you'll be glad you did when your time comes.
Like my Sr. Director told me one day..... "We are all leased employees". What an attitude ki---r.
Keep repeating the same complaint over and over. It will change soon.
nothing will change - att seems to have so many government contracts it doesn't matter how many retail customers they lose. pretty disgusting and shouldn't happen in our country.
but att is still a cesspool and will never change.
The OP makes valid points, certainly. The problem is that I (until I was laid off) really loved my job, even if I hated the company. And that sentiment was shared across my entire department. We all really enjoyed our work, we all got along, and we all did our very best every day and frequently taking on extra work voluntarily.
But as much as we all liked our team and our job, we also all despised the senior executives and how their grotesque bumbling and jaw-dropping attitude to the employees were creating such a horrible environment. Every quarter we had to suffer through layoffs, with someone being let go each time. They weren't poor employees, loafers, or made a lot of mistakes. They were let go because of 'business need' which really meant that they were sacrificed because of Randy/Stinky's screwups. Last year it was my turn to win the lottery.
We all gave up hoping for positive change and stopped believing Randy/Stinky's lies a long time ago and realized that T is a place where people enjoy their colleagues and work but hated management.
Maybe it's like that at every mega corporation. But certainly T has had more spectacular failures, more extensive layoffs, and more lying than most. As a result many of us have changed companies - some voluntarily others not. Unsurprisingly, every ex-T friend I have has said the exact same thing: they are so much happier, satisfied, fulfilled, relaxed, and optimistic after they left the toxic pit of T.
The love the job-hate the company dichotomy stays with you after you leave - partly because you are worried about the friends who are still there and partly because although I hate the management, I really do want T to succeed. But I know that as long as this group of execs remain, T is doomed to fail.
This site, at least, allows current and former employees to gather and let off steam because we know criticism isn't allowed at T. If anything, T under Randy/Stinky is like scientology - they want everyone to follow them blindly, be grateful for every blunder, and never dare to say anything bad.
Well written, good advice.