Thread regarding American Electric Power Co. Inc. layoffs

I was apart of the very first wave of layoff and felt it was funny that during the very first all hands meeting they had this slide that said all l2 and l3 services would go to TCS. Then pretty much every meeting after it was a smoke screen nobody is losing their job and blah blah blah. Yet anyone like most of us could us the internet like now and find this or her past history which is the same one playbook. How does the same contracting firm get the contract every time where her and her id--t management goes? Which brings up sp many other ethical and personal interests violations that are all so relevant everyone who worked in IT. You can't tell us you have to interview in front of a committee to get a job or promotion and yet somehow someone who had some past work experience or history gets the management position after you ran them out. It was a laughing joke amongst us as we didn't care who the person was and just went to where is it at history wise oh there it is. I gave my life to this company and was actually almost overlooked for a promotion because where I lived, even though I made a 3 and a half hour round trip at best 5 days a week. Was actually like 4 or more depending on traffic but was never late nor called off. I worked there for 10 years and was promoted numerous times because i loved the company and would've done anything for it like I felt it had me. Lessons learned never again will I give my life to a company even when I'm on call or not. Company's need to realize that you can hire cheaper labor in a bid to please shareholders and all that but this is the lesson to be learned and why aep chose this especially given this id--ts track record from all the other companies she came from bragging about doing the same, which failed beats me. Also why hire an someone who displays such inability of times with technology as her who has some 2000 wired apple air buds u hope, given the benefit of the doubt they are at least apple and not some pos 30 dollar pair room the gas station considering what she got paid. But who the fu-k is a big shot of IT and had wired earbuds and hold the wire to talk into it lol. Come the on let's get with the program you are director and big sh-t of IT lol. How embarrassing to us all who actually work in IT and make these people look like their intelligence. Let's being in someone from retail that's literally applied the same playbook and had been outside. Whoever was in charge including shareholders should ne assumed and replaced. Also AEP stands for American Electric Power....I for one believe they need to be forced to change their logo to IEP "India Electric power" because their policies and future decisions is sc--w the American worker in favor of cheaper labor which is actually costing them more so they need to lay of more American employees. Let's not get rid of these id--ts and the people they brought in with their failing promises to the board of whoever. Let's hang them out to dry and never let them do this to another good American cultured company people loved to be at. Let's send this id--ts to India and they can support their IT and live their. Also weird the one person they let go who was a big shot and said oh his family was sick so he was leaving to take care of his family. Bullsh-t that pos now has his own consulting business who contracts to TCS lol. Where has HR, ethics, or anyone been with the bullsh-t happening with this public traded company. Sick sick sick

Based on how much money is burnt in some of the business units, it's not a surprise. Managers throw money at problems instead of looking for solutions internally. Cybersecurity burns money.

Any ideas on how to share these comments with AEP leaders, including Therace and the board?
Who wants to volunteer to submit to “Ask an executive”. lol
Share this thread with people you know were sc--wed over by Therace and her cronies so we can keep the stories coming.
#canceltherace

Since the day Therace came in, it's been about offshoring as much as possible, even though it's been a shitshow and the offshore teams don't deliver, or what they deliver is garbage. I've seen a single developer out-code an entire offshore team. It's ridiculous how little work they push through on a week-to-week basis, yet offshore workers are still being hired/added even as this RIF is happening.

She's been dishonest with us since day one. There's no reason to trust her or anyone in leadership. As soon as she fired the CIO shortly into her tenure and then shut down the Charge org, she lost all faith from me. Lied to our faces for months. Most of us stuck around on account of our teammates and managers, who for the most part made the best of a bad situation for the last few years.

The fact that they didn't even consult with the managers is an extra slap in the face. They cut people that made absolutely zero sense to cut. So many people are angry and confused, it's really opened the eyes of many to the true nature of the company.

Interesting no one is talking about Julie Sloat's "we will be fully transparent" save-face a few months ago. "Leaders" use that word like a STD no amount of cream will get rid of.

It really saddens me to read these post and hear just how toxic the culture has been allowed to grow within AEP. I had a 4 decade career at AEP and took the early retirement incentive in July 2020. While I only worked in Therace's organization for a few months it was apparent back then it was not heading in the right direction. Now 3+ years later it seems to have spiraled right down the drain. Many of us retirees used to be proud to say we worked for AEP and even more so that you retired from such a good company. Now I rarely tell anyone where I used to work because of the negative impacts to the good people and outstanding employees that I used to work with. I wish everyone the best whose lives have been turned upside down by these disastrous and ignorant decisions.

Toward the end of 2023 it was announced that Therace and her Target team had overspent the IT budget by $250Million Dollars for 2023. Therfore all projects were being stopped. You try to overdraw your bank account by $1 and see what happens to you. But NOTHING happened to this incompetent bunch of bo--s. No action was taken above her either.
Now that 2024 rolls around the business has said NO we are not allowing this to happen again and what is the result.... We all loose our jobs. But Therace and company will continue right on with their fat bonus and big pay checks.
What is wrong with management and boards that allow this stuff to occur. Very sad. But look at the stock price tanking as well. Wall street knows. What a shame.

I just finished working 2 months to get a 2024 budget for a major project refined and APPROVED...the APPROVED budget included my position....which was part of this sla-ghter. Make it make sense.

I was also one of them that got cut. Wish they had an effective short transition plan. My colleagues will have to figure out bunch of stuff the hard way. Best of luck folks in your new careers.

I wonder daily if Theraces hiring and destruction of AEP was an understood plan of attack by the board. Why else would AEP leadership and the board let it occur otherwise?!
It should also be telling how bad the culture and leadership is with how many senior and executive leaders that have left recently.
Beware, if you get “reorged” into her org, your life will go downhill fast. It appears she was hired to bloat her org and be an executioner for AEP legacy of knowledge and culture.

Sorry for all those let go. I am still hanging on.. Just praying that Therace is let go before she completely destroys the company. She is at least half way there. Our Board of Directors need their heads checked.

Since Therace and her Target team came to AEP , the culture has nosedived. AEP went from a place people were happy to work at to one that causes employees dread. They won’t even release the results of the latest Gartner survey so now they are “ seeking new ways to evaluate culture”.

The layoffs are the Target team’s way of covering their butt since the outsourcing to TCS has cost so much more money with worsening results as opposed to the promised increase in savings and improved results. A regulated industry is different than retail, imagine that. No matter, I’m sure Therace and her team will soon move on like ticks who have drained their victim

And as long as the dividends etc are good, no one high up cares. It’s criminal how loyal, long term employees were treated yesterday. It’s sad what has happened to a good company.

Therace destroyed IT support at AEP. Everyone now hates calling the helpdesk or IT support. I don't know anyone who has called the helpdesk and had a pleasant experience. She moved the call center to India and the language accent barrier makes the phone call unbearable. Many people just hang up and call again hoping to get someone that can speak clear English. They are not AEP employees so they don't understand our structure or the physical locations.

All top performers, essential, and loyal employees who were let go. Colleagues who dedicated between ten to thirty years of their career to AEP only to be kicked in the face as a thank you. Mass meetings held with a monotone and a “EFFECTIVE EOD” to close it out. From what we’re hearing, it’s more like 400 that were terminated. I have lost faith in AEP and leadership.

No one higher than VP was impacted by this latest cut. Very puzzling of who was kept and who was cut as the cuts and loss of quality, knowledge people is quite deep.

They are also laying off some non union lineman and some line crew supervisors as well

Any Companies financial performance is directly related to Leadership. When a company makes these sort of drastic measures to cut costs it is clearly time to bring in new leadership. This is a result of bad planning, poor strategy, and/or poor execution.

I started there in 2015. It was a target company for me. The culture was better than where I was. It slowly got worse. The protected bad actors and problem employees. I actually had to go to Ethics due to management not addressing toxic and aggressive employee actions.i left b shortly after that

I've heard that those people are still there. Not impacted. It's no longer a place for performers. Just pretenders

I was one of the employee’s let go as well and I also got zero notice. I had been at AEP going on 10 years and was in project management for my last two. I also was in my department longer than the other four yet I was axed. AEP does not care about their employees at all, they are all talk with zero action.

Therace Risch has to be one of the most ruthless and cut throat people at her level. She should have never been hired. She cares about no one but herself. Any company who would hire someone who doesn't live the values that the company claims to cherish should be removed effective immediately. She would be first on that list.

If you want to let the world know what AEP has become you should post company reviews on many job and company research sites like Glassdoor.

Staff reductions have been underway since last year. The fuels guys were cut too. They are selling the retail and onsite businesses to reduce headcount further.

I noticed this morning that the Innovation team was gone. That’s terrible. They are basically the only group thinking about future strategy at the org. Really shortsighted because I’m not sure who picks up the slack.

AEP was the biggest mistake I've ever made in my career. Never in a job have I felt less important, used, or thrown away. How they still manage to retain employees at all is nothing short of a miracle. If you are a current AEP employee reading this: get out while you can, of your own accord. There are so many more employers that will value you and have a healthy work culture, where you can grow. AEP is no longer the place you can do that.

I’m curious as to who else will be impacted. Is this going to be the trend for the year? I’m assuming more than IT has been and or will be impacted.

Wanted to share a conversation to demonstrate how our leader justified bringing in their old retail team that had no utility experience. He said to me "do you watch sports. So just like in sports when a head coach leaves a current program and goes to another one, they bring in their old staff (that they can trust). Similarly, she brought all of us to AEP." And yes, the Managers, Directors or VPs were untouched by the layoff.

Amazing cost cutting plan. Outsource to TATA which increased the TCO and reduced service levels starting the mess she (Therace) created. She ten eliminated the CIO and the all his direct reports and brought in a group of yes people from her previous companies with no utility experience. Running the IT and tech group into the ground and I would never work for her .

Honestly the trend is to replace people. With what they want. The more bizarre and woke the greater chance you will remain. They will get their DEI numbers and just outsource everything . DEI will change to include things that you had nightmares about as a kid.

Really sad to hear this news. A lot of great people impacted. However, I knew this was coming. Therace brought in a large number of senior leaders that she knew from Retail drastically increasing the cost of IT with the promise of outsourcing and cutting costs in the long term and improving services at the same time. My speculation is that those cost savings never materialized, nor the service improvements. Now AEP is struggling and Therace and her leadership team team are being held accountable to reduce the costs. The sad thing about it is that it will further degrade the services provided by IT. I bet none of the senior leadership team was impacted. That is where the reductions should have happened. May be the Board of Directors will recognize this and make the needed changes. It will take years to fix at this point in time.

I was part of the layoff yesterday. My group had around 20 people. The VP on the call casually read out a script for two minutes and announced "all of your positions have been eliminated effectively". This is a case of leaders failing to plan effectively.

I was including the 60 IT people lay off on Jan 16 2024 Very devastating and shocking. Notice was conducted in a meeting by a IT VP with 30 of the IT people being laid off. AEP has not hired much at all in our area the last several years and for many teams in my area it is puzzling to see who is going to do much of this work now. I knew several of those that were laid off and these people were good employees and performers. I am puzzled by how they decided who would be let go. Talked to my manager and he was supposedly not aware of who was being let go. So how did they decide who got let go? Anyone have any idea? I myself have been with the company for a very long time. I did notice that those let go were mostly senior level in their job families. Praying for all those including myself for better future ahead.

The number of layoffs is higher than what they are reporting and it’s not just in IT.

I was part of the cut as well. My call had about 8 or 9 in the group.

It got me today too.

I was hit by AEP way back in 2002. It turned out to be a great thing, but it sure didn't feel like it at the time. Then, as now, empty suits carry no heart.

No notice period was given. Termination for those employees was Effective EOD. Two weeks would have seemed more appropriate.

How did severance look for those affected?

I got hit. 15 of us on the same meeting let go simultaneously. So rude.

Yep. I worked with many. Never a fun time. Columbus Market is good though

Shocking news to see folks axed. I knew a few of them. Lots of good people.