Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

New Jersey is actually 90 days' notice requirement. Google the NJ WARN act. Different states have some different rules and NJ is one with a 90-day requirement for a layoff. and NJ publishes a list of what companies gave announcements, how many affected, what locations and the effective date of the layoff. better than most other states. The WARN act is federal but NJ has its additional requirements.

ATT is not interested in work getting done, don't show anyone anything...the YOUNG can just figure it out like how they figure out who's male vs female

𝑚𝑎𝑦𝑏𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑓𝑓 𝑑𝑜𝑐𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦.

That's a priority set by management. I had a 2nd level years ago who tried hard to get everyone's processes documented. We worked hard at it until one morning she announced that she was getting RIF'd. No one followed up on that, or made it a priority, ever again. Today. no one truly documents their workflows end-to-end lest senior leadership step in and try to hand it off to someone cheaper or just plain favored by the management chain of the week.

Now that I am in Wave 1, I'm trying to document all I know and the workflows I put in place, but I can see I'm not going to make it. For the first time in two decades, I really will put in just 40 hours per week until the end; no pushing through the weekend to have everything done on Monday.

I struggle with how much difference any of this makes. Clearly John Stankey and his cohort don't think it does. Why should I? It's hard to give up on the commitment, but anytime I think about the long term implications of what I do or do not document or cross-train, I remind myself "Not my problem."

Surplus status used to imply it's time to release your current work and search for a new job internally. Not doing that, as the only thing for me would be regional sales work and they are getting cut, hard. I'm also not spending my company time looking for a new job outside, after all they are still paying me to do the job (now strictly within the 40 hours expected, as if I'm in the office).

I'm overthinking again. Silly rabbit, once again, job reduction trix are for kids, specifically the ones running the company and trying to save cash flow. It's not "collaboration" or "efficiency." Next year they will (or think they will) figure out the process mess left after so much institutional memory disappeared.

“ You are looking at these RIFs like they were orderly retirements or garden variety reorg—they are not”

Well the majority of employees are not the brightest in the box…

Most have the emotional mentality of a 4 year old.

Critical thinking is about the same level.

The responses to this post will verify my statements.

You are looking at these RIFs like they were orderly retirements or garden variety reorg—they are not. This is a massive emergency jettisoning of $1B of headcount, probably 10K. Saving the $1B recurring expense is critical to make their Free Cash Flow bogie, so they can pay the dividend, service the massive debt, and pay cash taxes. Institutional knowledge or BAU files are merely collateral damage, that is not even on their radar. Given they are chopping lawyers, lobbyists, accountants project and product managers by huge proportions. The lucky ones are leaving now with the severance. Pity those left behind to try to hold together until the next RIF in what is likely to continue until T match VZ and T-Mobile Revenue per Employee. It will get worse.

RIM compliance ... how can I transfer years of Institutional knowledge of past projects. Company policy says I should delete those. I've been trying to pass that information on to my team for a while now, but nope, let's just surplus those people.

For our Mexico peep, they get no notice. Have to tell them same day and immediately gone.

Oh no, not asset protection. Say it isn't so. Management should have cross trained and documented a long time ago. But I guess no one told them too.

I'm not handing anything off. If the knowledge & skills I've developed over two decades isn't valued enough to be retained, then my work content isn't important either. They can recreate everything from scratch after I've gone.

Not your problem anymore. Once I get my layoff notice, my job is now to find a new job as quickly as possible, I don’t want to be dealing with my old job. I’ll say who do you want me to hand this off to, I’ll setup time to meet with that person, walk them through everything and hand it over. I’m here for the next few days if you have questions. Be polite, be professional, hand it off and move on. Whatever job it is or how it impacts the company are not your concern anymore.

OP—
Let’s be honest. Your primary interest is not with ensuring proper turnover. If this was your main concern, documentation and cross training would already be in place.

“I personally relish the thought of certain things breaking beyond repair once a bunch of us take our leaves.”

You are important only in your own mind.

This whole discussion is unrealistic.

maybe your coworkers should have their stuff documented better for disaster recovery.

No one can "document" 20 years of work on a software application. And even if they magically could, there is no company policy that says they should - in fact policy is NOT to do so. There is no project code in CMPM or E1 that they could use for that kind of work.

Everyone does precisely what the company expects via its policies. If it doesn't work out, it's not on the employee.

I personally relish the thought of certain things breaking beyond repair once a bunch of us take our leaves.

So you feel you should destroy all the documentation which you produced on Company time, and were paid while doing, which is company property, if you are surplussed? Years ago I had direct report that did that and I turned over the case to Asset Protection- not a happy ending for the employee. Think twice about your actions! Destruction of company property is a serious offense and illegal, regardless of anyone's feeling about termination.

Naw, I'll just leave my training documents I received, there are none. I will also leave with the knowledge I've acquired after 25 years. If you want any of that, call 1 800 463 825x

So you feel you should destroy all the documentation which you produced on Company time, and were paid while doing, which is company property, if you are surplussed? Years ago I had direct report that did that and I turned over the case to Asset Protection- not a happy ending for the employee. Think twice about your actions! Destruction of company property is a serious offense and illegal, regardless of anyone's feeling about termination.

What are you going to do Asset Protection Boy?? Get someone fired? A lot of that is going on now, and for precios little reason. Go Ph--k yourself. Not a happy ending for that employee?? What, did they get fired?
If Randell and Stankey's malfeasance has not been prosecuted, then you are neutered. You are a clown and it has become more directly exposed.

No one cares about gracefully turning work over, and “training” a replacement is something not remotely possible when you’re off payroll in 2 weeks. They know this. They don’t care. So I sure as heck don’t either.

Produced a lot of excr-ment on company time, I’ll be sure to leave that too.

So you feel you should destroy all the documentation which you produced on Company time, and were paid while doing, which is company property, if you are surplussed? Years ago I had direct report that did that and I turned over the case to Asset Protection- not a happy ending for the employee. Think twice about your actions! Destruction of company property is a serious offense and illegal, regardless of anyone's feeling about termination.

Passing along your experience is very nice, and while it seems in the best interest of the business to do so, THEY don’t care!! Don’t you get it yet? You are a number, a dollar sign, that is all. Someone will figure out how to get the work done one way or another without your help. Su-ks but that’s reality.

I have documentation for everything I do, on my hard drive. If and when I leave ON MY TERMS (retire, move on by my choice), then I will happily share documentation, knowledge, tips, etc, and train my replacement to the best possible outcome. That all disappears if the brain trust decides that I am just a useless eater expense and that my skills, knowledge, and workflow are not in their best interest to keep around. No point in sharing with anyone that which the company itself does not find valuable. Not that my absence would crash the company, but what I do would then be the company’s problem to figure out and recreate the work and processes. In a layoff/surplus situation, you owe NOTHING to the company from the moment you are notified.

It’s hilarious that one would think that the company would have a succession plan for mass layoffs. Until the recent quarterly LOD training, there hasn’t been any training of consequence for years. They have relied on co-worker job shadowing and then only for a short time, everyone knows PLE and university is mostly useless high overview without specifics, training.

Leadership is going to find out there will be major consequences for breaking the long chain of continuity for a lot of these niche jobs. Even if they contract back some of the talent, most are near retirement. Going to be a bumpier ride going forward.

“So employees with 10, 15, 20 years of experience are tossed out with as little as 9 days to pass their accumulated knowledge, not to mention files, relationships, insights, shortcuts, efficiencies... to the employees who will now assume their duties, along with their own.”

If you haven’t documented your workflows to ensure business continuity, this is a failure on your part. Your management chain should also be held accountable. It has been widely layoffs are continuing. You have known for months if not years. Why would it be a surprise when the call comes? So the negligence would be in your part.

Different states have different laws the company has to adhere to. For example New Jersey requires companies provide 60 days notice. A team with employees in New Jersey and states that don’t have that requirement will have everyone off within two weeks per company policy while the New Jersey employee gets to stay the 60 days per state law.

maybe your coworkers should have their stuff documented better for disaster recovery.
Any one of us can be hit by a truck and the business needs to continue to run.

Its also kinda funny to me that you propose being forced to train your replacement as a good thing rather than an insult.

(we're long past incompetence)

damn spell check