Lots of IT people cut in Columbus
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I'm generally optimistic, I look at intent from the person and will assume it's meant to be good. However, the last few years at AEP has tested that to my core. I don't feel like anyone above the first line managers have anything but evil intent now. It could be from not having my back, doing what's hard, not necessarily easy. Doing what's right, now what might make waves.
When I ask for a hand up, I don't mean with a kn--e in my back.
The higher you go up the chain, the worst it gets. Nobody wants to put their job on the line so she it rolls down to the rest of us We're left picking up the pieces.
I actually hate this place now, I really do. When someone ask me who I work for, I tell them I work at Ahole Electric Power.
We the employees of AEP wish to inform our customers that a hedge fund tyrant has assumed control of our company and we are enlisting your support in deposing said tyrant at the earliest available opportunity. What once fraudulently appeared before us as a man shall be reduced to meat and bone.
Multorum inferiorum avaritia superiorum virtutem non subiget.
The sad part is we all know Bill is only a temp CEO. Maybe 3 years max, I'm thinking around 70 is when he'll leave. Even for a guy with no hobbies, how much longer do you really want to work? How many millions are enough? He has no long term ties to the company. It really looks like they bring him in to make all the nasty cuts and then leave. Bring in someone young, say around 50 and have them take over for 10-15 years. All the will be on Bill but the new guy won't change a thing.
I WILL see you at the office.
I WILL make tedious small-talk about the weather.
I WILL linger about 10 minutes longer than is comfortable.
I WILL loudly talk on my headset while you are trying to concentrate.
You WILL smell my lunch heating up in the microwave.
I WILL be occupying the stall at the worst possible moment when you have to go.
Bill is a gd genius. This is the kind of hard-nosed, old-school, tough thinking that we need. The pajama party is over.
How did everyone like your new pay cut, i.e. 2025 bonus targets? Based on the new criteria if they would've implemented those changes last year we would not have received a bonus payout for this year. And this was AEP's best year for EPS! We missed the midpoint of EPS guidance by $0.01. It's all by design. Bill said it on the employee quarterly webcast you just didn't hear it. The plan is to increase EPS. One way to do that is by reducing O&M. That's me and you. Make things so miserable that the tenured employee leaves. Replace with all new college grads as he stated on the call. This accomplishes many things to reduce O&M.
- Eliminate bonus payouts/O&M - done
- Reducing tenured employees with higher salaries lowers compensation/O&M
- Reducing tenured employees reduces pension contributions/O&M
- Reducing tenured employees reduces 401K matching contributions due to lower salaries/O&M
- New graduates are less likely to contribute to 401K so less matching/O&M
- New graduates are more likely to stay on parents' health insurance until age 26 so reduced company health insurance contributions/O&M
- New graduates are less likely to have families so reduced company health insurance contributions/O&M
The benefit to the tenured employee that stays:
- 5 days in the office work week
- no bonus
- you get to train all of the new kids
- get to work for a CEO you trust and have full confidence in
- office morale will be off the charts
Stay safe.
@1rae+1qB6FXi3 there should be a k or s form that was submitted on it. Yahoo finance should have them listed or MSN Money, just search for AEP.
I didn't buy I've seen them over the years for when they do anything that affects the stock.
For those mentioning parking, the situation is dire at 1RP with a certain sociopath parking in the middle of two spaces daily. Who would do such a thing? Another great question for Ask Bill.
Did anybody see an article last Friday where AEP filed with the SEC for a $7.5 billion capital raise? I thought that usually hurt the stock price, but I doubt the board would do anything to risk Carl’s shares.
It might be better if you pay for parking and just stay in the garage. Just remember to move your can everyday. I slept in my car overnight because I didn't feel like driving home for a few hours. Nobody bothered me but I did see one of the guards for a walk thru but he didn't see me.
If you snore that might be a give away or park on the top floor.
Since we'll be in the office and on Teams meeting, I saw a guy who showed how to film yourself for an hour and then use it as your fed for the meeting. I think I'll do that and use a personal copy of Grok on X to answer as many questions as possible on a daily basis.im going to put as little effort into this job as possible for as long as possible. As the old saying goes - you get what you pay for
I’m literally going to live in a van down by a river while I look for a new job full time.
I'm just going to get my ICP and then get a Google phone number that I can put in the system as my primary. From Friday at 5 to Monday at 8a I will not answer that number because the only people that will have it is the company. I'm done with call out, I'm done with weekend meetings on MY time You want.me back in the office then make sure you get with me in the office. Unlike you Bill I have a life outside of the job. It hasn't been a career for a long time. I'm good with no promotions, subpar pay raises and maybe no ICP but my time is my time. The company can get rid of me at the drop of the hat so I have no loyalty to the company.
March 1st is nearly here and the storms have been hammering the AEP distribution system. Management had better get out their big boy britches they are going to have a lot of work to do while we sit at home and laugh our as--s off. Bill and the two hedge fund cronies on the board, not looking so essential now, do they. Woefully inadequate and insulting ICP and cost of living raises are not an incentive to keep patrolling dangerous right of ways, rebuilding the distribution lines and keep the revenue flowing. It is hard to get rich when the meters are registering no consumption. At least the customers won't be complaining about their outrageous light bills.
To the person asking if FERS protects private sector managed pension funds. The answer is no. FERS stands for Federal Employee Retirement System.
But in theory we should be covered by PBGC (Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation). Despite the name it is a government-backed agency that guarantees private sector defined benefit pension plans. If a company with a pension plan goes bankrupt and can't pay benefits, the PBGC steps in to cover some (but not always all) of the promised benefits. PBGC coverage does not apply to defined contribution plans like 401(k)s.
Let's just hope it's still there before Elon and DOGE guts it all, and even if he doesn't there's no guarantee you'll get it all. So yes, definitely take the lump sum when you leave.
The enormous amount of labor and wealth we invest in restoring power to poorly maintained and neglected distribution right of ways is the most asinine waste of resources and risk of employees and the public's lives I have ever witnessed. How college and university educated corporate leadership repeatedly engages in this futile endeavor to the detriment of customers and employees well-being is obscenely stupid and appallingly criminally negligent. Then I realize they have repeatedly justified raising electric rates to improve distributions right of way trimming and then cut the right of way trimming budget to enhance the quarterly dividends paid to shareholders. If this is not criminal embezzlement and misappropriation of restricted funds specifically appropriated to improve the stakeholders experience I do not know what is.
This is an excerpt from The Columbus Dispatch dated Jan 21st, 2025.
According to the SEC's order, AEP controlled Empowering Ohio's spending and did so to "further American Electric Power's own interest." It said Empowering Ohio contributed a total of $1.2 million to organizations associated with Householder.
The order also noted that in March 2020 an AEP employee and the company's then-CEO Nicholas Akins met with Householder for lunch at AEP headquarters. At that meeting, Householder discussed an initiative to revise Ohio political term limits that would have allowed Householder to remain speaker for an additional 16 years.
After the meeting, Akins suggested the company consider whether Empowering Ohio should support the initiative.
"A few weeks later, at the direction of the American Electric Power Employee, Empowering Ohio contributed $500,000 to a newly-created 501(c)(4) organization associated with Householder to support the term-limit initiative," the order stated.
In its Friday release, AEP stated that the SEC found the company violated federal securities laws in connection with its relationship with a "social welfare organization."
AEP corporate actively and financially supported political and economic terrorism against the citizens and taxpayers of Ohio and the federal government knows it and they only paid a $19 million fine.
@1r0y+1qB6FXi3 and then you have the likes of George Soros born 2930
Carl maybe bad but at least we're not dealing with the the like that are actually
under the barrel.
Carl Ichan was born in 1936. And he's still raiding.
It's amazing how these evil freaks live so long. Must be part of the pact with Satan.
I really don't think we are out of the woods yet, there are always a bunch of looming stories of state-level congressmen drafting legislation to do something about the rates. Everyone I talk to says they are being crushed by their AEP electric bill. Many people say their electric bill is more expensive than their mortgage payment. There is a huge amount of anger and frustration among our customers and we are starting to attract government attention over this.
By keeping IT remote, it helps them underpay the IT folks who don’t want to live in Columbus. People will take the terrible salaries from AEP, if they can stay at home while doing it. Imagine if they limited the roles to just Columbus. The pool would be much smaller, so they’d have to pay more to be competitive. Now they can hire folks all over the country who will accept these roles for way less.
If you think he's going for the cash balance pension funds then the smart move would be to leave, take the cash as a lump sum and roll it over to an IRA. If he were to take the funds before hand, the company is still on the hook for the funds. Not sure if that plan is protected by the federal pension insurance fund, it's like FDIC but for pension. I do know it's broke so it may be on the company to come up with the funds. Either way, when you leave take it as a lump sum.
As for IT, yes Therace cut people because she wanted to control who left and who stayed. She's a control freak and told HR she would run IT as she see's fit and for them to stay out of her way. She's just a cu-t, plain and simple. May is her 5th year, maybe we'll get lucky and she'll leave. I know if she does, I'm not going to send her a card unless it says go to he-l
I think Icahn and his team covering utilities believes Julie’s focus on the regulated businesses was a mistake. The idea was that because interest rates were so low, AEP was able to invest a lot and stuff it into rate base. It seems very low risk, right?
AEP leadership at the time severely underestimated the risk of the state commissions pushing back on rising customer rates, especially as inflation popped after the invasion of Ukraine. So, then Sloat’s plan to sell off the underperformers like Kentucky, sell off the competitive businesses like Onsite and the competitive renewables portfolio, and invest those proceeds into the regulated OpCos was a huge blunder.
So AEP was stuck with some huge commitments to the OpCos without a safe way to get a return on those investments. Icahn saw this and jumped at the chance to upend the business.
First is to get the finances under control. The sale of Kentucky getting axed really sc--wed AEP as the company needed those funds to invest elsewhere. The FFO to debt looked bad and risked a downgrade, which would have made the debt way more expensive. The sale of the contracted renewables portfolio and now the minority sale of the transcos have helped. AEP will have to issue equity, but not right now. Maybe next year. The finances are under control.
And with the data center story now, the growth prospects look better for the company than they have since its incorporation.
AEP could be a gold mine for an evil capitalist parasite like Icahn, which is terrible for the employees.
@1qzj+1qB6FXi3
Hopefully the ones we have left are better at typing code than you are at making sentences (or friends).
You might also want to treat whatever exposed nerve triggers these fits, before you hurt yourself.
Um, hey there sport. IT was exempt from the voluntary layoff BECAUSE THYE HAD AN INVOLUNTARY LAYOFF A COUPLE MONTHS EARLIER THAT DISCARDED A LARGER PERCENTAGE OFMITS EMPLOYEES THAN THE VOLUNTARY ONE. Try to keep up an do some work instead of whining in here every day.
From the "citizen.org" article someone posted below. What I don't understand is how the board allowed Icahn to take control of the company with just 1% of the shares. This makes no sense! This article also puts our recent rising stock price in a completely different light.
"Activist investor Carl C. Icahn owns only 1% of AEP’s voting shares. For typical investors, owning 1% of voting shares grants no special rights or privileges, let alone control over two seats on the board of directors. But Mr. Icahn is not a typical investor. He is an activist investor—earning the colloquial moniker “corporate raider”[5]— specializing in engaging in protracted, hostile shareholder fights to gain control of target corporations for the sole purpose of moving the company’s stock price to a pre-determined target that bestows considerable profit for Mr. Icahn. Icahn is uninterested in providing long-term capital investment to assist a public utility in ensuring the reliability of the bulk power market or delivering just and reasonable rates; rather, Mr. Icahn exploits regulatory loopholes to transform companies into mere speculative commodities to serve his short-term investment whims.
Companies are eager to avoid the tumult that accompanies such hostile takeovers, and therefore typically accommodate Icahn’s requests and hand him control over the board despite owning a trivial 1% of voting shares. But AEP is not most companies: it is a public utility governed by the strong public interest protections demanded by Congress."
The mandate is BS, and how you can tell is that it does not apply to IT. The voluntary severance also did not apply to IT. Watch what they do, not what they say. He wants rid of most of the back office. That's the main reason for the RTO. This fossil knows the Accountants work crazy hours and across states with each other, successfully. Staring at the back of a traffic jam over an hour a day isn't an improvement. It's how you do more cuts. That's it.
@1qyb+1qB6FXi3 - It's because he's there to raid the pension fund.
Cook has always struggled to maintain a respectful workplace. The place had food trucks that have refused to come there becauses people are rude. That should tell you about the culture and is a reflection of leaders. The thing that is most concerning is that the bully leaders have always been there, but AEP had a culture that was based around employees. With a CEO who appears to be a bully and probably promotes bullying, the bullies that may have been holding back will come out and will not hold anything back.
All this cloak and dagger stuff is a bit much. There's nothing that happens day to day that is going to make anything but a ripple in the pond called Wall St. AEP is small fry compared to most companies on NASDAQ. What Carl is seeing in AEP is beyond me, he might make a few million at the end of the day but he's not going to make a ki-ling on this company. Our debt level is too high and most of our assets are not easily converted into cash.
If he was going to have made a move it would have been with the sale of the stake in Transmission. The board could have said they were using the $2b in a stock but back which would have given him a chance to cash out but that didn't happen. Still not sure what his end game is
https://www.citizen.org/article/icahn-aep-american-electric-power/
Might be old news... But, not sure if anyone has seen this. Everyone should email the guy that filed the protest and wrote the article, Tyson Slocum. If I were you, create a burner email account with some place like ProtonMail, and send this guy inside details of the craziness. Things like employee communication emails with the date, AEPnow articles with the date, and anything else that might be of interest to someone that ties something shady or wrong with Bill, TR, or other cronies.
Don't take screenshots on your work provided computer. Use a personal phone to take the image, go to Walmart and get a $20 hdmi to usb capture device, or remote into your work pc from personal pc and make sure to take the screenshot from your personal pc's OS.
Someone that obviously studies this stuff in depth might be able to piece together something that could really force some change. Seems like he might have a fairly loud voice too.
Tyson Slocum
tslocum@citizen.org
I know what you might be thinking, "it might hurt the company's image...". Uhh, the image is already the lowest it's ever been. In a world like we have today, it is very likely that the only way to affect change at the top, is to circumvent them all together. Now days, whistleblowing is the way unfortunately.
Bill will get his for sure, only problem is it'll be the Board giving him 1000's of shares for pennies. We may never get another ICP but Bill gets his.
Wait till Bill gets the municipality and county emergency response bills from the Fire Departments for all the burning tree calls they responded to because of primary contact. Good luck paying a dividend in the first quarter of 2025. It already costs more to ignore the problem than to fix the problem. Now local tax payers are going to rake back those rate increases through creative locality and municipality service fees since the rate increases went to shareholders instead of increased right of way trimming.
Rumor circulating ICP was .91 but Ferhman took 5% off top and is now .863. Supposedly, he didn't feel like we deserved anything the last 5 years. Sounds like with new metrics, next year will be almost impossible to achieve.
We missed by a penny but best the year. We should get a decent bonus all things considered. Otherwise, we'll see the company cut into the ICP as a way of savings money, pi----g more people off and then seeing how many will just leave. It really is starting to look like they want as many of the employees to leave. Replace them with lower salary employees and keep the dough. I may be jumping the g-n but I have a bad feeling about the entire ICP process right now. RTO will be an added expense and little to no bonus doesn't help with wanting me to stay.
Nope, we missed. Employees will now carry the burden. We'll be unburden by the burden we carry once our burden has been removed.
We'll know in a few hours which way the wind is blowing. My guess with the weather, we'll beat the best by 2 cents.
The real question is why don't they care? If RTO is having such a negative effect on morale and culture, the results they thing they are going to achieve must be worth it. What are the results, higher growth rate, less O&M cost, higher EPS?
Let's say the lose another 10% of the employees, that's 1600 people they don't have to buyout. That would help the EPS. Maybe it's all planned, they want to get to 14000 and if pi----g off the employees, so be it.
I don't know what the number is, it just seems, it's higher than what they want it to be but they don't want to spend anymore money to buy people out.
So AEP had a 7% growth in operating earnings, but Bill Fehrman had the nerve to say the forced RTO mandate is because of "performance" reasons. How does that make any damn sense?
Bill Fehrman is intent on destroying this company and it's culture. When everything is in ruins, the only thing left to ask is, "Happy Bill?"