What it was like working at AT&T decades ago .
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Yes we had healthcare and dental and eye care provided by the employer. We also got a team award of $2000-$3,000 every year. AND the team you worked with was helpful and cooperative. Not a team of 1 as it is now. This company has created a climate of disengagement and “just make the numbers anyway you can” (FRAUD)
Hired on with SBC in 1977 holding an Engineering Degree and a MBA - First job was as a clerk working for a minority woman who didn't graduate HS. Saw this numerous times.
1 WASP doing the work for 10 minorities that help positions but couldn't do the work.
Yeah, great place to work BEFORE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EDICTS!
Folks do realize it was not AT&T but SBC Communications that purchased what was left of AT&T when all things changed? After this purchase, SBC adopted the better-known AT&T name and brand, with the original AT&T Corp. still existing as the long-distance landline subsidiary of the merged company. By some these responses I really wonder.
AT&T was a pretty good place to work 10 yrs ago. 20 years ago it was a great place to work. After the buyout and mergers things progressively went down hill.....
who cares?
South Central Bell was a great place to work. BellSouth was a good place to work. AT&T is a complete $hit show.
prob more racist than it is now?
sbc was great - was like working for small company with big company benefits.
then they started all the programs where they hire people who are special and are marked for leaders and the place went to he-l because all us peasants were not smart enough or real so called "leaders".
then they started buying back all the baby bells and that was basically it. it became a cesspool very quickly and will never recover.
Things were good up until divestiture.
After divestiture, the layoffs, outsourcing got progressively worse each and every year.
There was a phase where I would see grown men sitting on the curb outside the front door crying on a Friday at 5PM. They got their word, "Your job is in (some other state) Monday morning if you still want it" Please don't suggest this to the Stink, although he tried that already with the collaboration zone BS.
For a while there, layoffs just before Christmas was a yearly occurrence. Merry Christmas!
But indeed we entered a whole new era when the Ratty wasted $100B and when the Megalomaniac the Stink was put in charge.
Has not been a good place to work since 1984.
It was good, no doubt about it. However, there has always been wasteful spending by leadership. Some examples are the new high rise building AT&T built in NYC, never really moved in, sold to SONY who still occupies today. Ameritech built a new campus in Hoffman Estates, spent a ton of money, not much, if any T employees working there now. Big waste of cash, now owned by a property leasing company. Moved T headquarters from San Antonio to Dallas, spent a ton of money on Akard. All that coin would come in handy today to help address the current debt load!
1975: As long as you did your job, you could count on a raise every year. Middle management vacancies were filled by internal promotion, so you could expect to move up over time. There were no layoffs, ever. Tuition aid plan covered 100% of expenses for anything remotely connected to your job, or one you said you wanted in the future. No deductible or in-network health insurance. No employee contribution to health insurance costs (100% company funded). People socialized outside of work a lot more, including dating and marriage. It was more regimented; there was more clock watching and a dress code. Everything was on paper as there were no computers. The highest tech you might see outside of a central office or wire center was a teletype machine. The unions actually went on strike.
to first reply Post ID: @ldx+1deBw75o
All the CEOs were/are SBC sourced. For Ameritech, disaster also started around 1998 when SBC purchased Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, & Wisconsin bells. SBC is a curse. The first sign was to back out of hotel contracts for the Ameritech Senior open golf outing. A classy event for our best customers moved from a 5 star hotel to a Holiday Inn. Down hill from their.
A lot more fun and less stressful for sure.
You wore a coat and tie to work and could smoke right at your desk! #GoodTimes
Started in 1998, mobility side SBMS, SBC Wireless, Cingular, then the Death Star came AT&T. Those were great days pre AT&T when local markets ran their markets like an actual business and were empowered to make decisions by. Once T sunk their claws into mobility side, ki---d speed to market and innovation. Just treated it like another BU on the telco side.