Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

“You can always rent a cheap room near the office. Go back home on your off days and tell your family members to find work to make up any take home pay deficit.” I don’t think anyone can make you purchase a house. Do what you have do to. Thats all.

“You can always rent a cheap room near the office. Go back home on your off days and tell your family members to find work to make up any take home pay deficit.”

"Our group was told explicitly this will not be allowed. There is a good chance higher leadership saw several posters here mention planning to do this."

The company can't dictate where you live in your off time. As long as you have a mailing address "near" a hub and you swipe your badge. It doesn't matter if it is a flop house, a long term stay hotel you stay at a couple days a week or a full time residence.

VPN logs aren't good enough to prove your location. My ISP shows my IP is from Minneapolis, other times Atlanta, other times Chicago, other times Nashville. I live nowhere near those locations.

OP Here - Let's clear somethings up, shall we.
I already went through this situation years ago (different telecom provider). I was the top sales rep in the company (I have the stupid Winner's Circle glass trophy to prove it). Shortly after I was told my job was being handled by a hub out of state, and offered to relocate to Arizona- the other side of the country, or leave. I was 38 with two kids. Owned a home (and didn't live in my parents basement). I struggled. I was loyal. I had been with the company for over a decade. I thought I had value- and I did... just not to them, to myself. I left - struggled more, drained my 401k, found another job, got back on my feet. Today my family and I are better off than we ever were. I never quit. I never gave up. I learned I was more than just an employee and even though I thought I had a career, I was really only working a JOB (ALL CAPS... because EVERYONE is replaceable). I'm not union and don't work in a hub. Just trying to add some perspective and speak from experience that you will all be okay to this hostile message board... but you do you. Back to your original scheduled misery I suppose. Carry on and fret. Or don't. It's your choice.

"Our group was told explicitly this will not be allowed. There is a good chance higher leadership saw several posters here mention planning to do this."

...which is crazy. If it is more feasible for an employee to stay in a low mortgage, or to let a kid finish high school, or to maintain a home near an elderly parent, a spouse who has a job they don't yet want to leave, or heck, just cause they don't want to spend a couple hundred grand more to buy a smaller house in another state for <10 years, wth business is it of theirs where the employee goes every weekend?

“You can always rent a cheap room near the office. Go back home on your off days and tell your family members to find work to make up any take home pay deficit.”

Our group was told explicitly this will not be allowed. There is a good chance higher leadership saw several posters here mention planning to do this.

You can always rent a cheap room near the office. Go back home on your off days and tell your family members to find work to make up any take home pay deficit. At least you’ll still have a job in Biden’s poor economy. Don’t vote for inexperienced people like Biden. You’ll make it until retirement.

"Why are you confused on mr75 benefit? Huge pension increase, nothing to do with discounts. We have some d-mb people working here"

totally agree - I'm shocked at the ignorance on this. I get that there is variation in the pension plans (if you started with T or BS, ect) and I'm not familiar with union plans. If folks want to argue about this, go to the fidelity pension estimation tool and put in different dates. If you're not MR75, then put in a date where you will be and the difference in the lump sum and annuity will be significant. Yes, the other benefits of MR75 went away in 2021, but I hope people don't neglect to understand the pension ramifications based on this board.

Are you reading any of the other posts here? Either you sit in a hub already and/or you don't have a lot of time invested in this company. Of course people can find other jobs. But some people actually want to stay with the company for reasons that are personal to them. Please consider putting yourself in the other people's shoes before cheerleading.

Why are you confused on mr75 benefit? Huge pension increase, nothing to do with discounts. We have some d-mb people working here

I believe the OP has good intentions, so I'm not sure why all the dislikes, but I also understand, completely, why for so many it doesn't feel like "just a job", especially those who are older and close to retirement. Personally, like many, I felt for years that while not perfect, this is a career I can dedicate myself to until I retire, and it's very disappointing to face this kind of action from the employer that you were loyal to for many years. Still, I believe the OP only wanted to post something positive and motivations. Let's give him/her some slack.

'Tell us you’re in your 20’s and live in your parents basement without telling us."

tell us you are in your 50s or 60s, got an easy, overcompensated job at att when you were young and thought because of that, they should take care of you forever.

When people say dedicated or loyal.. you were able to get a better job with better benefits but out of loyalty stayed with T? Or, was it in your best self interest to stay ?

This is greatly said! As a former T employee, I had to leave after 28 years due to toxicity in the workplace and much happier doing what I do now!

“6 months shy of meeting the Modified Rule of 75. That was a benefit many people were counting on reaching; I know I'm not alone!!!!”

You are really behind on benefit reduction changes!

In response to:
"It totally matters when you have dedicated your work to a company for over 22 years and they let you go just 6 months shy of meeting the Modified Rule of 75. That was a benefit many people were counting on reaching; I know I'm not alone!!!!"

What exactly are you expecting to get when you meet MR75? Discounted data plan? That's the only benefit you'll get. I left with 1.5 years before meeting MR75 and switched my mobile to another provide and still pay less than what I was paying with the discount I had at T.

Trust me, life is much more than T. You will be fine.

I will also be about 6-7 months from MR-75 but it's not as meaningful as it was in the past.

It totally matters when you have dedicated your work to a company for over 22 years and they let you go just 6 months shy of meeting the Modified Rule of 75. That was a benefit many people were counting on reaching; I know I'm not alone!!!!

Timing matters. We are heading into a mild recession, force selling a house in the market is hard, buying a house at high interest rates is hard, forced to cash out you pension when rates have shaved 30% off is hard, and believing that we can climb out of the hole that $130B in debt from third place in wireless with this leadership is hard. Yes it’s a job, but does it have to be on a tightrope, blindfolded juggling eggs on a unicycle while some senior exec throws more eggs at you? This would be easy if they had not announced a solution for RTO but had demonstrated the problem: lower productivity. RTO was not the goal, rapid attrition was.

People switch them all the time

OP likely changes jobs more often than they change their underwear

But for most people, surveys show it’s up there with the most stressful things in life

The only people who dismissively refer to a job as an all-caps "JOB" are union sc-m who also run MLM/pyramid scheme businesses out of their homes.

loss of benefits, managers working to motivate employees to leave, unskilled new co-workers, lowered wages, lowered salary brackets, ...

the only tolerable part of the job was avoiding the travel time and cost.

See how happy you are when stock drops 50% of what your 401k paid for the stock.

Obviously OP hasn’t been here long. For some people sure it’s just a job. For others it’s family and they have actually cared over the last 10+ years. Some people have a lot of money tied up in pensions that they will now have to change their financial plan and yeah layoffs happen, but this is a cowardly forced reduction masked as RTO. This aside, the amount of legacy knowledge and high talent AT&T is about to lose will be crippling. Those that are left will be going even more work (already took on a ton of extra work with the retirements) and will be left with inexperienced coworkers. Sorry OP but this was a hostile move against the people who built this company and an incredibly stupid way of rolling out a reduction in workforce.

True OP, BUT the reason for all of this is hard to swallow. RS and JS made/make horrible decisions and go on with their jobs earning millions but all of us peons will pay the price for their ineptitude. That they have no consequence for their complete incompetence is infuriating. Since 2018, T has reduced headcount by over 75,000 plus employees, and they are not even done. We are in the middle of a $6B cost reduction effort because of all of the debt THEY acquired. $4B was lost as a breakup fee in the failed TMobile acquisition alone. Did I make that d-mb decision or any of the other failed M&A decisions? Nope, but I’m about to lose my job because of it as many before me have and will continue to do so. And the a$$holes who did this to the company keep their positions and get paid their millions.

Tell us you’re in your 20’s and live in your parents basement without telling us.

I think this is the best post I have ever seen on this site!

OP -your oblivious..this about more than a job, or a regular layoff for many this is a serious life-changing event impacting not just themselves but their families -even if one chose to gamble and move- the time-line given by T for someone to make the move is impossible for the average person/family to achieve-2 incomes, a home, children in school, elderly parents-support networks, single with a partner and friends who live and work in your current city -renting with a new lease you can't break, etc, do you sell your home and up-root everyone's lives -to and take a gamble that T won't sc--w you over 2-6 months after a move.

True yet doesnt account for that the fact this has been a CAREER job for generations now. You got the job and knew youd be there for 30+ years and retire. Many people watched their parents relatives friends do this and came to expect the same. This has been the only job many have had and now at 40, 50, 60 years old are going to be cast aside. Imagine how devastating that can be mentally to those about to ne affected. Only people who are good workers are left and none of them thought theyd ever be affected but now will.