Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

" It was part of her termination notification that her future earnings from ANY other employment started within the next 6 months would be subject to 50% garnishment for up to 2 years, at the sole discretion of AT&T. She was not given the opportunity to negotiate or decline this and is in the process of retaining a lawyer to explore her options. So far the ones she has consulted with said this is fairly common and that she has no legal basis for contention."

Okay. I'm not playing 20 questions. Typical T employees don't have this info in their terminations since it now sounds like some kind of non-compete verbiage. Some sensitive groups or contracts may need something like that. The corporate counsel person I knew with T, who I thought would have a non-compete didn't when she got laid off a few years ago. Good luck to her; don't think the bulk of us will be faced with the same restriction.

Not EVERY employee will be asked to relocate.

Many will just be surplused. Yes if people on your team have been asked or told to relocate then they are essentially being offered a job.

Unless you happen to be in the proper location already I believe you can see that YOU are not being asked to follow your work.

There will be a massive reorg after this RTO exercise. Those that stay may not be in the same roles. They will be doing reorganization to fill holes on teams where people did not relocate or were not asked to relocate.

This RTO is worrying me????

Are people friggin deaf, ignorant or just plain stupid????

People….. the company is a cesspool. They care about NO ONE!!!!
You decide to relocate, then relocate….and hope you don’t get surplussed when you get there!
Everyone whining and whining. You have NO SAY…just a choice,
Life is about choices EVERY day. Now go make it.
So many good people bled and died for this company' me included….and it got me NOWHERE!
If you choose to stay and ride it out, then stay.
When and if the RTO letter comes, make the call. Stop bi--hing or worrying.
Just make the call and stick with it.

"I was specifically addressing the 180-day thing, so A) She had to have gotten SOMETHING from AT&T to be able to garnish to recoup, and B) and which is highly likely and what I was addressing--the 180-day garnishment clause has to do with being rehired by AT&T or any of its subsidiaries and the recoupment of any funds (severance, retirement benefits, buy-out of vacation, etc) she may or may not have been paid when she left."

I posted that original comment. This does not have to do with recouping payment from AT&T nor being rehired by T or affiliate. It was part of her termination notification that her future earnings from ANY other employment started within the next 6 months would be subject to 50% garnishment for up to 2 years, at the sole discretion of AT&T. She was not given the opportunity to negotiate or decline this and is in the process of retaining a lawyer to explore her options. So far the ones she has consulted with said this is fairly common and that she has no legal basis for contention.

If you get the RTO notification you are puzzling what you should and how to keep your job
And if you didn’t receive it yet, why only me? Am I going to lose my job in next surplus?

It is stressful situation

How did he get paid before doing the work? I have to wait after I worked and submitted my timecard before getting paid. Something suspicious here.

But we are doing our work normally
I don’t know why we need the RTO especially going to a place hundreds of miles away from home and taking all this nonsense expenses

I think there is a surplus going to happen soon before September
This will explain many things including why some people didn’t receive any notification yet and some others did

“I didn’t receive the RTO notification yet, most of my coworkers did last week
Should I be worried?”

In my team no one got the RTO notification, but my manager got his RTO notification for him last Monday to go to Atlanta on September
I don’t know what does it mean

This RTO thing is worrying me

"And the chick with the 180 day thing--that sounds like a clause for rehire to another position in T. Probably has something to do with either severance or benefits paid. "

I don't think you understood what she was saying. "A coworker was in this exact same situation" would mean that her coworker was terminated and did not get severance.

We don't even know exactly what the first guy's situation is, just what his coworker said. So how can someone know it was the "exact same situation" and quote some out-of-context, without-all-the-details clause about not being able to get a job...any job...for 6 months or you owe AT&T money. That's cr-p. Her "exact same situation" is that she declined a relocation on Monday, was walked out of her exit interview on Friday, was not given severance, AND owes 5 days backpay? Wow; that's quite a freaking coincidence.

Or maybe you don't understand, or you are assuming the "exact same situation" only refers to the severance, or if you were the author of the stupid "exact same situation" comment, you wrote it poorly and it's not the "exact same situation" at all, apart from perhaps not being eligible for severance. I was specifically addressing the 180-day thing, so A) She had to have gotten SOMETHING from AT&T to be able to garnish to recoup, and B) and which is highly likely and what I was addressing--the 180-day garnishment clause has to do with being rehired by AT&T or any of its subsidiaries and the recoupment of any funds (severance, retirement benefits, buy-out of vacation, etc) she may or may not have been paid when she left.

"And the chick with the 180 day thing--that sounds like a clause for rehire to another position in T. Probably has something to do with either severance or benefits paid. "

I don't think you understood what she was saying. "A coworker was in this exact same situation" would mean that her coworker was terminated and did not get severance.

Your manager is not being honest with you

“I didn’t receive the RTO notification yet, most of my coworkers did last week
Should I be worried?”

This company is so missed up

My manager has one single answer about the RTO
“ I only carry the message to you, I know as much as you do”

I sent email to the HR today morning, no answer yet

"Should I be worried?"

I would definitely be asking my supervisor: "what the heck, man?".

“I didn’t receive the RTO notification yet, most of my coworkers did last week
Should I be worried?”

Did you ask your manager?
I think you should be worried

I didn’t receive the RTO notification yet, most of my coworkers did last week
Should I be worried?

" A coworker was in this exact same situation and her termination letter also stipulates that if she finds a new job within the next 180 days that 50% of her new wages will be garnished by AT&T for up to 2 years."

There is a stipulation in the Severance policy that says if you find a new job at AT&T (!) or any of its companies, you might have to repay some of that severance back, it prorates as time goes, up to 6 months, but AT&T will never be involved in you getting another job anywhere else. Well, maybe other than your supervisor giving some references or HR sharing employment history, if they even still do that kind of thing, but they're definitely not garnishing jack...

Where's Paul Harvey when you need him?

Perhaps the 5 days he's being asked to repay is for vacation that he had taken but not yet accrued. A former employee once wanted to quit in March, but she had taken her entire vacation allocation for the whole year since it was given upfront. The deducted what they could from her current/last paycheck, but she still owed.

And the chick with the 180 day thing--that sounds like a clause for rehire to another position in T. Probably has something to do with either severance or benefits paid. They had to put all sorts of stipulations in there years back when folks were taking a package, getting paid their retirement benefits AND coming back very shortly thereafter.

Since last year my friends keep asking me what is wrong with your company?
Stock is bad, services is bad, PR is bad, commercials is bad
They don’t know how bad it is from inside

" A coworker was in this exact same situation and her termination letter also stipulates that if she finds a new job within the next 180 days that 50% of her new wages will be garnished by AT&T for up to 2 years."

This may now be the most ridiculous thing I have read here. And that's saying something.

You honestly believe that T somehow has the power and authority to garnish wages paid from another employer?

"Policy here:
“including as a direct result of force surplus, technological, operational, organizational and/or structural changes affecting AT&T, any Affiliate, or a Participating Company, or special eligibility for certain of such Eligible Employees to receive retiree life insurance and health benefits"
Not if you get terminated
You get nothing"

The sheer level of dim wittedness on display here is just astounding. Here we have a zi-------d who actually looked at the policy (points for that, most of the mouth breathers here wouldn't know how to find it) and sadly is unable to comprehend what they read.

You are involuntarily terminated AS A RESULT OF "organizational and/or structural changes " when you refuse to relocate. It is right in the policy.

Ex-employee here. Without comment on personalities or corporate culture or behavior all I can say is this that from the outside this entire relocation to hubs thing is not a good look.

Optics matter, and this entire charade is very unflattering to T. I am so indescribably relieved I no longer have to contend with this level of atrocious management.

A coworker was in this exact same situation and her termination letter also stipulates that if she finds a new job within the next 180 days that 50% of her new wages will be garnished by AT&T for up to 2 years.

" I agree, most of the employees in T are 45+ doing the same thing for the last 20 years
Losing T job mean they will never get a matching pay again So the panic and anxiety is very high"

Disagree, to a point. If you have a high school diploma, and have been here for decades, doing the same thing...this may very well be true.

That said, if you been here decades and maybe earned a bachelor's degree during that time, or maybe you earned some industry certifications like a PMP or a CAPM, maybe some Cisco certs if you're more of an IT type....those have value in the marketplace.

Those who will p-o p-o and downvote this are the ones that I speak of above with the HS diploma, a bloated salary, and a sense of entitlement. Yes they may very well struggle.

"since he was terminated before finishing the two weeks"

This isn't a pre-paid mobile plan. You only get paid after you work. Pure BS.

Termination can result from people not returning to their current office after being told to. It's called job abandonment.

As far as work moving to other locations, there is no difference between now, and what has happened over the last decades. There will be a surplus at the current location, and some people will be able to follow the work if they want to. Otherwise, it will be a standard layoff with the standard layoff deal.

"So what should we do?
Accept the RTO and go to the assigned location? Do we have other choices?"

To be laid off in a few months anyway? I don't think anyone should be telling others what they should do, so I can only tell you what I personally want to do... Get that severance package and get the he-l out before it's too late.

"Just reading this conversation makes me feel this company is only for losers
Who want to get hired by this company if he has other options?"

I might agree these days, but when I first got hired, many years ago, it definitely didn't feel like it. It was exciting to join such an iconic American company, with its history and reputation. It wasn't easy to get hired, too. Several interviews, very long wait in between, tests, assessments. Took months, and finally getting the offer was worth a celebration.

We're definitely not dealing with the same AT&T now.

So what should we do?
Accept the RTO and go to the assigned location? Do we have other choices?

Working for T in this toxic environment becomes emotionally exhausting
I should looked for a better place when the economy was better

“ I agree, most of the employees in T are 45+ doing the same thing for the last 20 years
Losing T job mean they will never get a matching pay again
So the panic and anxiety is very high”
Experience matters, knowledge matters, hire fresh graduates that need a learning curve come at a price as well
But I wold agree with the point of losing this job is hard to get equal pay in this market

I call BS... Many orgs don't even have the final plan due.

As far as payback... we now accrue PTO as the year progresses. We are allowed to take all of it before accrual, but days taken that rea not yet accrued are deducted from final payments. Read the policy on HR One Stop, it's very clear.

“ I agree, most of the employees in T are 45+ doing the same thing for the last 20 years
Losing T job mean they will never get a matching pay again
So the panic and anxiety is very high”

It is sad but true.
We don’t have confidence of finding equal job with equal pay with our age and skills

I agree, most of the employees in T are 45+ doing the same thing for the last 20 years
Losing T job mean they will never get a matching pay again
So the panic and anxiety is very high

I can’t believe the situation AT&T is at
Just reading this conversation makes me feel this company is only for losers
Who want to get hired by this company if he has other options? Highly skilled people won’t accept to work for this company
The moral is so low and the environment is so toxic

Culture is the single best predictor of the performance and viability of a company. The fact that this conversation is even taking place here illustrates THE problem. There will be no investor confidence until leadership gets their act together and leads us out of this mess. Mr. Stankey, THIS starts with YOU.

If you think T will stop playing tricks to get you out you are wrong
For T to start making good revenue and give good return to the investors, T has to keep letting people go and if they need to hire they get fresh young people at half of your pay or less

“ For your surprise, we actually get paid in advance”

You are incorrect. Your June 6 pay Check covers pay from 5/16 to 5/31. We are paid in arrears for work we have already completed not in advance. You may want to go out to the car and take a look at your check date versus the pay period dates listed on it.

BS post. You people are being played.