Thread regarding American Electric Power Co. Inc. layoffs

This episode of obsolete and clueless stars several people making negative, judgemental statements about various other generations and not understanding why they don't like being near you in person.
Huge mystery...

Oh I bet in 1918 when the Spanish fly was rampant around the workplace, there was very little getting done for the company!

Old Gen X that grew up with cherry bombs and Porky's. Could not pass that one up. You Gen Z kids can go look it up or just be confused.

On a side note, I see AEP stock is up above $100. Nice little run. Bill turns the sc--ws enough and gets that up to around $125 maybe you all can get rid of Carl. He can take his money and go bother someone else.

Employees no longer feel any connection to an aloof and indifferent leadership, who conspire to enrich and empower themselves at everyone else's expense and to everyone else's detriment. Promises implied to cajole employees to suffer and sacrifice for some future payoff or alleviation of imposed suffering have worn thin and employees realize their trust and charity has been abused, exploited and misplaced. The success that AEP once enjoyed is withering to be forever lost as loyalty was not appreciated, respected nor rewarded. Once our work was our passion but anymore our passion is anything other than work. The makings of yet another revolution when citizens value liberty more than laboring to enrich virtue-less tyrants.

Can we get corp comm to review the crony mug on the internal website?! I get nauseous seeing that every morning.

Corporate catfishing

I laugh when RTO is about culture. I worked ar AEP for almost 2 decades. None of the leaders above me knew anything about me. Why because they did not care. They had their selrct group and I was not in it. RTO has to occur because of weak management.

We, the virtuous few seized LIBERTY from abject and abominable tyranny and the Tory monarchist have tried to drag us backward from our forward progression for two and nearly a half centuries. If you are so eager for immense wealth authoritarian tyranny, return home to your motherland where Dukes, Earls, Princes and a King shall give you a full dose your own medicine.

Why in the he-l would you wait around another year to find out if you get sc--wed even more? What has Bill said? ICP too high, people not working at home so everyone RTO. What else do you need him to say?

To the person who said how did we survive before 2020.

Well, it’s interesting. We used to travel by horse, buggy, and carriage, and use typewriters instead of computers. We lit our homes with handmade candles rather than electric bulbs. We sent telegraphs instead of making phone calls or sending texts. Journeys took days by boat instead of mere hours by airplane.

But, usually, whenever humanity finds better ways to do things, we embrace them. Can you imagine going back to using leaves instead of toilet paper? Of course not.

We innovate, move forward, and take advantage of modern advancements that make life easier, more cost-effective, equitable, and convenient.

The fact is —the FUTURE of intellectual work is hybrid and remote. PERIOD

However, instead of moving forward, we seem to be going back (both literally and figuratively).

Next year will be really yelling where the company stands on total compensation. If March rolls around and there is little to no ICP, followed by low pay raises in April I think you can make the argument that Bill is only concerned about keeping costs down as low as possible. At which point, look for another mass exodus.

I would say manning up is standing up to injustice. I would say manning up is not being bullied and belittled into forfeiting workplace gains that made up for poorer compensation. The money saved by working from home kept employees from complaining about appallingly insulting ICPs and cost of living increases. Now, you want to take away the one incentive that saved the company paying more and not pay remote employees the catch up stipends to compensate them for losing remote status and the additional costs incurred.

Perhaps it is time corporate officers and shareholders leaned into the galling economic headwinds employees and customers must endure just to survive. When you know no sacrifice you cannot have empathy for those who must suffer your infernal existence or must we suffer at all?

Imagine being sycophantic on the level that you’re willing to sacrifice a vastly improved life, more time with loved ones, more money in your back account, a distraction-free and comfortable environment of your choice, less time in traffic, and a thousand other positives, all in the name of “manning up” because that’s the way society worked before 2020.

Employers now have cell phones, Teams, email and countless other technical advances that didn’t exist a few decades ago. Computers, webcams etc. The only group who doesn’t benefit from these advancements is THE EMPLOYEE. We have to pretend we still need to see each other 40 hours a week, in person. It’s like asking us to ride a horse everyday because “that’s the way we used to do it.”

People who support this “manning up” are generally in three camps. Stubborn boomers, people who have replaced their identities with their jobs, or people who have social lives that are so barren that they actually WANT TO BE AT THE OFFICE. I say Bill should let us choose. Those of us who aren’t adolescents, or stuck in the past should be able to work with our leaders to determine true in-office needs. And the 35+ sycophants who supported the “man up” camp and anyone else with a similar mindset should come in 6 days a week and be on-call on Sundays. Thats how things used to work before Henry Ford changed the workplace. “Man Up” and “figure it out.”

Sounds like a lot of people are going to figure it out by finding a new job that is hybrid or remote.

@1yfx+1qB6FXi3 you may be missing the point. As an adult you need to figure it out. Get off your arus and deal with it. Yes it is a pain in the arus but as an adult put your big pants on and deal with it.

@ “It’s beyond me…” yours is such stupid take on RTO. Can you not read? Lots of folks have stated this on this board: my life is better now and I don’t want to go back. People aren’t saying they ‘can’t’ reorder their lives for RTO. They’re saying it’s cr-ppy to have to reorder one’s life. It’s cr-ppy to lose the gains that remote and hybrid work gave them. Maybe you don’t work for AEP, were never hybrid or remote, or just don’t know…but AEP affirmatively created the remote and hybrid designations in 2021/2022 and had everyone sign telework agreements. Leaders all over the company smiled and nodded when employees told them they were making major life changes that assumed remote/hybrid work was here to stay. AEP didn’t have to take that approach. They could have been honest and consistently messaged about a goal to have full RTO in the near future. This is a major left turn, and people aren’t weak or wrong to complain about it. COVID was a major historical event and created a paradigm shift for a lot of people. Many people saw, to their great surprise, that they could be just as productive at work (or even more productive) while gaining back 5-10+ hours per week of their life. Who wouldn’t choose that? Want that? Sociopaths maybe.

Way to go no change. I cant beleive how any of us survived with out electricity. Believe it or not people figured it out.

It’s beyond me how any of you survived prior to 2020. Believe it or not, people used to figure things out like getting to and from work, taking care of children, paying for every day expenses, and not being home for Amazon deliveries. I know, hard to imagine but there was a time when people manned up and figured things out on their own and didn’t blame “the man.”

Two recent five star rating on Glassdoor from anonymous. Smells fishy.

AEP now sits at a 3.1 Star rating on GlassDoor and Bill has a 35% approval rating. Ouch. That's going to deter talented folks from applying, which will further amplify the growing problems here. For those not familiar with GlassDoor, a 3.1 star rating means, 'Stay the he-l away from this place'. For example, a few months back, a recruiter wanted to setup an interview with myself and NiSource, I was excited about the opportunity until I looked them up on GlassDoor and found they had a 3.3 Star rating. Needless to say, I swiftly declined the offer. This will take a long time to repair if it can ever be fixed.

No doubt most people are going to have a negative impact on their work balance. Bill doesn't care, he has pretty much said so because he has no life beyond being a CEO That said, everyone below him are going to tow the line he is pushing so get use to it, there is no VP and above that's going to stick their neck out because they know they can be replaced. You have 2 options, stay or leave, that's pretty much it. When the benefits of leaving outweighs the benefits of staying, get out, no one is going to think less of you at work because we're all thinking the same thing. The only difference is the when each of us will reach that point of no return. I'm at that point, I like my coworkers but I'm not staying just to suffer because someone else is suffering as well. I wish everyone well and good luck in your job search if you decide to leave.

@1yak+1qB6FXi3 Right, you don’t want to put the work in to negotiate your working terms. Would rather have corporate dictate it to you and ho-hum while finding other work (or stay because that’s ‘easier’ for you). That’s fine, just say you don’t want to work for it.

For the person asking about after school care. It worked out for us that my husband is on the opposite hybrid schedule that I am, so it worked for us to not have to get care. Now it will not. I know everyone has all very specific situations to them.

I completely understand the previous poster about increased costs and childcare - I'm going from remote to fully in office and our child was an infant the last time I was in office full time. Our child is in a private school for special needs which doesnt provide transportation so remote gives me flexibility to do daily drop off and pickup. My spouse is stay at home parent, however they can't drive due to a condition so if we do before and after care at school to accommodate my schedule, it'll be an additional $600 a month. And considering my "internal customers" that Bill wants us to interact with in person are across all of the opcos, I'll be on teams calls in the office chained to my desk. To me, the smart thing would be to keep a "hybrid" model that could look different for everyone depending on their need in order to accomonodate work/life balance.

For those talking about school after care costs, I’m curious - were you fully remote before? I’ve been hybrid, and I’ve always just enrolled in full time after care for my school aged kids. I don’t see how going from hybrid to full time office is a big change because you typically have to enroll in those programs for the full week. But if you are moving from remote to full time office, that’s a different story. That’s not to say that RTO isn’t awful. It is. Which is probably why “our culture” in the employee handbook has been replaced with “our core principles.”

Friendly reminder that RTO doesn’t apply to everyone. There’s a certain VP in our team that doesn’t have to come back in 5 days cuz she lives in Cleveland. Really bad look

They want you to feel like you are under a microscope while on the clock. I heard in Tulsa they are replacing the cubicles with those horrible ones that only have 3 sides and half the walls are see-through.

That email really stung. Bad timing. Just got on the afterschool childcare list for next school year for two elementary aged kids. After all current bills, our household typically clears around $2,000 in savings a month.

We went down to one car during COVID. After adding a new car payment which will at best be around $500 monthly and two kids in after school childcare which will be roughly $730 monthly, that now leaves us with somewhere around $700 left. This is before gas and other miscellaneous expenses. My taxes are also going up as an office employee.

I feel like I have no choice but to quit or find a new job. We can’t cut it this close monthly. I quite literally can’t afford 5 days in office. Does the company even care? I’d save more money working part time.

When prospective employees hear workers solely focus on how many decades, years or months they have until they can retire, that is the glaring indicator that they are better off seeking employment elsewhere.

Last email by EVP/HR Sounds like a load of bull with no flexibility. Heard our offices we get to supposedly choose are being denied, if it aint a main office and we have to "work with the limited space they have." Thanks again Bill and Executives for being "flexible". I am definitely out of here soon

Form a union? How about I just quit and work from home for a smarter/better company? Lots of engineering jobs out there my New Albany brothers and sisters. Senior management is going to have to learn the hard way.

"Just form a union bro" is even less helpful than the HR email.

You guys realize that you could form a union for all workers to negotiate your own terms? Stop being so passive like the company has been toward shareholders. It’s embarrassing.

“Pair employees with someone familiar with the facility to help them settle in.” “Come in a couple days a week to get used to coming to the office.” “Communicate with your team about your expectations…” Etc.

None of this was helpful, nor will it help with the transition back to the office. It feels like HR is rubbing our faces in this and talking to us like this is the first day of school. Like we’re children.

No one wants to hear anything else from HR about this. If there’s useful and actionable information, I’d much rather it come from my direct leader or the operating company. I find it hard to believe someone at the ivory tower thought this message was helpful.

They are not going to improve sentiment or rally the troops around this decision through over-communication. It’s like getting check-in information about your first day in prison.

“Building buddy.” Good Lord.

Gee I wonder what could be done to minimize the damage of people leaving… the concerned executives need to grow a pair and fight for us.

It's strategic vagueness. They can walk back the "flexibility" later on while also saying they never made any concrete promises.
I've heard it straight from executive leadership that they are worried about losing people due to RTO. They know people are going to leave over this, the question is how many and what can be done to minimize the damage. Painting these vague pictures about how it isn't going to be so bad is part of the strategy to minimize the damage. They just want to get you back on the plantation and get past that June 1st milestone.

Let corporate leadership wear an AEP logoed shirt out in public with CORPORATE EXECUTIVE embroidered underneath the AEP logo and they shall not be long for this world. Customers are just as done with increasing shareholder value as are employees when you spend $300.00 at the grocery store and have no meat, no beer or wine, fresh vegetables or eggs in the shopping cart. Eating a packed lunch everyday because fast food is nearly $20 without the drink and fries. Corporate had better come to their senses before they have a French Revolution on their hands. Remember the American Revolution inspired the French Revolution.

A whole bunch of non answers in the RTO email/FAQ just sent out. Getting tired of hearing that they’ll be flexible but not expanding on that. Guess it depends on how strict your manager is

The main thing I took away from the employee handbook update is that they deleted the "job designation" section. Job designation was whether you were on-site, field, hybrid, or remote. It seems strange that they deleted this entirely since some employees are being allowed to stay remote. Maybe their remote concession is only temporary?
And to the other poster asking if they are aware about how this will negatively impact your life, yes, they are very aware of everything you wrote. They simply do not care.
For all their language about how much they care about employees and how this is going to create "opportunity" (for whom?) always remember actions speak louder than words. They say they care about you while simultaneously doing things that worsen your life.

Anyone notice in the employee handbook that the S&H goal is "we care" that employees go home in the same condition that they arrived ti work (paraphrasing except fir the we care part). Been with company over 15 years and goal have always been taught that goal is that employees go home in the same or better condition that they arrived (wording may flex a little over time). Seems like leadership are softening with language- if goal is only that we care about it rather than doing it then feels like they really don't care....just my personal take

You know that's what I thought! It's easy for them to decide let's get everyone back and make "AEP Great Again". Did they ever stop and think how much more we are going to spend on time and money! Gas, finding a plce close to an office traffic filled hazards, time away from loved ones we watched while working from home, getting the little kids into somewhere during summer time when they are off school, car maintenance, or moving costs by June?!. Also the potential hazards of traveling on the highway each day in traffic. If something happens to one of us like a monring wreck, do they care? Seems unlikely since we're not even getting compensation. The executives are just looking how to bring AEP more money