Lots of IT people cut in Columbus
2636 replies (most recent on top)
If he kept the workforce hybrid MAYBE employee retention rates would be better.
I believe NOTHING Bill says.
What a JOKE of a meeting. So it's a big gaslighting session about how you should be excited to RTO.
My interpretation of this is that Bill is feeling the heat from the backlash to RTO and doesn't have the cred to defend it since he hasn't even been here a year.
A lot of talk from Bob about accountability, consequences, discipline, austerity. "Performance tracking." He's putting Bob in charge to be his attack dog because he has the seniority to make people shut their mouth and stop complaining. He's been here a long time so Bill thinks he can step in and be the bad cop.
Sorry Bob but shareholder value does not fire me up. And no amount of corporate word salad can brainwash me into feeling excited about commuting 5 days a week.
Bob is as delusional as Bill. No one is that room had a face filled with enthusiasm about collaborating in person.
I love Bob mentioning the energy in the room and how wonderful it is to be together in person, then it cuts to the staff sitting with blank faces and crossed arms being completely unconvinced. Incredible work guys.
Wasn’t transmission under Shawn Robinson a few years ago?
What the heck is he saying?
This is such good news. I’m glad to be Transmission again and get back to where we were many years ago.
Interim Transmission President announced - Bob Bradish and transmission organization changes announced
Looks like Risch is leaving
If it is only announcing the new President of Transmission and org structure, that’s putting my mind at ease. But seems silly to have a mandatory meeting for that? Everyone has been shuffling meetings around to attend. Why announce it so last minute?
Meeting with Energy Delivery is probably announcing new President of Transmission and new org structure
Not surprised about Therace. She had no desire to be in Columbus.
Therace is out. AEPnow
the meeting is to tell everyone they have to lock your cell phones in a faraday box while at work
Re: March Madness
I have a YouTube TV window up on my monitor now.
Probably to tell ppl that there shall be no checking of March Madness scores during work hours
Mandatory meeting with Bill at 3:30 today for all Energy Delivery
What changed in less than 2 months from the original RTO announcement stating IT was exempt to now they have to come back?
AEP is far from a stable company.
There was so much more Bill could have done to get the “collaboration” and “togetherness” he was allegedly looking for in an innovative way, that would have kept engineers, IT and other talented people from running towards the exits. AEP could have implemented dedicated in-person hours from say 10-3, 4 days a week. That is more than enough time for the fake in-person magic leaders claim to be looking for, while allowing for people to have flexibility to independently do important work without disruption, while still having time for personal and family duties. He could have implemented a seniority based system allowing individual contributors with 5 or more years in the company to work with their manager to determine their true in-office needs, after hitting that tenure mark. There’s so much they could have done, and he’d have been viewed as an innovative leader. Now, AEP is just a stodgy old utility that pays less than the market rate in a number of key roles across the company.
I just think Bill is stuck in the 80s, and other leaders at the top who are supportive of these moves don’t know how to manage employees they can’t see, or see the office as a place for social interaction. An adult childcare center.
The company-wide RTO itself is arbitrary. Many senior level employees already secured remote designations and are exempt from RTO according to Bill's order, which defeats the entire purpose of RTO, since the point was "collaboration" and the senior level employees are the ones who's presence would be most critical for collaboration.
I don't begrudge them for finding out a way to stay remote, I would too if I could, I only point it out to demonstrate how d-mb Bill is and how his messaging doesn't even make sense.
I don't think the Energy Delivery engineering management has a clue what to do. The top leadership doesn't care and gone are the day when good engineers never left AEP jobs due to so called stability of working in a utility. These mid level managers/directors don't say no to the top but don't know how to keep a team together with all these resignations. I think engineering will have to outsource more than in source.
The IT RTO will most certainly provide a convenient arbitrary exemption for the CIO and her direct reports. If it is arbitrary, it’s meaningless. It should be all or nothing.
This discussion was started with IT as the main focus. It’s hard for me to understand why IT people are still working for AEP. It’s all off shore now. This isn’t anything new. It’s the way of the world. The bigger issue is the massive lack of knowledge, talent, and most importantly the compartmentalization on the capital projects. We are a joke when it comes to executing projects. No other industry would tolerate the inefficiency. And that’s where AEP makes the money. Embarrassing to say the least.
Hey maybe that is the plan. Replace us all with Indian outsource people. They can then say their trademark only answer for every IT problem, "I will elevate this trouble ticket" in broken English.
"Get back in the office and stop complaining!!! Be grateful you have this job and that it is stable and provides a means to feed your family."
George Warleggan could not have said it any better, of Poldark infamy. George Warleggan is a vile and wretched creature masquerading as a gentleman.
The thing I don’t understand about the “new” RTO policy is that prior to COVID, AEP had a lot of staff already on work from home status. During COVID a lot of people were hired out of state or definitely not local, what is now going to happen with them.
The bigger question for IT then becomes, if employees have to RTO, how are they going to justify all the cr-ppy contractors in India?
Heard about the RTO, seems the rumors were true. Sept/Oct. There may be a carve out for some but haven't gotten the details yet. Guess will wait for the call tomorrow, I'll bet Therace will be exempt.
There will be an automatic 30 day hold on rolling over your cash balance pension fund to a traditional IRA. As the other person stated, DO NOT take it as a lump sum cash pay out, you'll be in the 37.5% Federal tax bracket. You have to roll it over, after that, you can move part of it to a Roth or just invest it as recommended earlier. There is no hold on the AEP401K, you can do that at anytime.
I don’t believe there is a pension penalty. There is a 401K penalty. Two separate accounts.
IT RTO to be announced tomorrow. This fall.
AEP employees have made shareholders millionaires many times over and yet they insist on stealing our wages, bonuses and benefits we earned. Common thieves, who deserve the same punishment they impose upon criminals, who steal their ill gotten gains from them.
Don't cash out your pension as you will pay penalties unless you are old enough. Just do the paperwork to have that pension money rolled over to your personal IRA. Then you can invest it as you see fit. Get yourself a nice broad market index fund. Then earn your market average up till retirement vs the 4% AEP was giving you to hold your $.
Make sure to cash out your pension to when you leave. That thing is going to get raided, and you’ll make more back investing it yourself.
I already landed a new remote job and put in my notice. The pay is about the same, but it’s a no brainer since I’ll be saving tons on commuting costs and all those extras like lunches at the cafeteria with coworkers. I was lucky to time it perfectly and keep the ICP. Looks like they have to pay out unused vacation to per aepnow. It’ll be nice to get two “bonuses” on my way out. GLTA looking for new jobs. The market is not as bad as they say. There are still plenty of hybrid and remote opportunities.
I wonder what our investors, customers and utility regulators would think if they knew that AEP outsources 80% percent of the workload and pays those outsource company Sr. engineers a rate of $200/hour and Project Managers even more! That's over $400k/year for a Sr. engineer verses $100k/year for an employee. And no competitive bidding! No controls in place to ensure they are getting the best price for their customers. No one or even a process to question the invoices submitted by the OECs. Customers, want to know why your rates have increased by 50% over the last 5 years? There you go! AEP doesn't care, as the more money a project costs the more money AEP makes because you, the customer, pays for all that cost plus 10%’ish in the rate case increases they present. At the same time they rob their employees of compensation and have created a revolving door for employees and scraping the bottom of the talent barrel on incoming candidates. We’re gonna run this company with fresh college grads!!! Go Bill!
Don't forget to donate the required NCOE hours each week when you work that OT! You are paid so well that management expects you should do some extra work for free. He-l, if you are a principal or staff engineer you should just do all the OT for free.
Nevermind it is their fault we are short staffed because of their d-mb RTO policies and compensation. They can't compete in the marketplace for employees but that is the employees fault.
If another 10% leave this year, that would push AEP down to about 15,000 employees. When I started, there were 21,000. AEP really has not gotten that much smaller, maybe in terms of operating plants but the work load hasn't been reduced at all, if anything with the lost of people it's gotten worse for sure. Boss says to work on the higher priorities projects but if the smaller ones are not touched, they get moved to the front. So the solution, they're all high priority and you'll just have to work overtime but I'm salary. I know, you'll get comp time but I carried over a 100 hours last year and I lost 10 hours because I didn't have time to take them. I can give you comp time. So what do I do, I work but code it as comp time and the projects don't take the hit by going over budget. I really hate my job.
You know what was really a slap in the face giving us less than half a year to prep and move back!! Not all of us can just afford a down-payment on a house or all those apartment fees!! I live with family but damn the commute is going to ki-l me again. Already looking online for better opportunities since AEP wants to bend us over on all these "Changes for the future" . Bill and Executives thank you...