Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

@Former Indirect Account Executive

FINALLY, somebody gets it! Thanks Former IAE, and well played on your end as well. Lighten up people, the job was as cush as it comes. Sitting around acting like you carried NR by selling in BB until 9pm is hysterical.

OP and Return of the Mack make some valid points about the NDAE role, a role that I also held for more than a decade. I believe that what many of you are interpreting as a salty attitude or slacker work ethic is just a realistic commentary on the small demands of the job, spiced up with their own humorous verbiage and anecdotal experience. The position had purpose at one time but it evolved into ever-smaller modules that were heavily influenced by a few high-volume performers, mostly Best Buy, but perhaps you had one of those strong Sam's Clubs or Target stores that my market heard about in legend; Our entire state did not have any Target or Sam's Club's that could sell more than a couple gross adds in a month. And those were the top performers. So what do you do when the majority or your stores have a long history of demonstrating that they can not, or will not, produce high volume sales? I mean my quotas were 1's and 2's (sometimes even ZERO quotas at Wal-Mart) so the company expectation was obviously realistic that nothing was going to happen in these doors, right?! I am actually surprised that AT&T kept the position around for as long as they did!

The reality of my job is that 15-20 National retail stores were not enough to keep me busy. Perhaps I was the exception and I just had a cherry module...but I expect my account mix was very average: at least 1/3, maybe 1/2 Wal-Mart's, toss in a Target or 2, sprinkle on a couple of Sam's Clubs, and 2-4 Best Buy stores which, if you are lucky, include a high volume big-box with the AT&T expert pad. For the last several years I had anywhere from 10-15 walmart stores that produced a COMBINED 10 gross adds ANNUALLY. So what do you do with all your time when the monthly required visit to Wal-Mart is just a check-off that can be completed in 20 minutes? Well, I would head to Best Buy because they are the only ones selling anything. One can only visit Best Buy so many times in a week before the welcome is worn out, and there is no more training or new material to discuss. So this is where even the best of us look at our watch and say "I guess I can schedule a 3:30 haircut before I meet my buddies at Happy Hour."!

OP and Return of the Mack are giving a humorous commentary on the reality. I honestly don't think it is a reflection on their work ethic, I would bet they were just bored like me, and disappointed that nothing was changing to redefine their roles into something more meaningful or challenging. They didn't exploit the system, they fulfilled the requirements of a job that didn't really have a lot of requirements! Like me, I imagine some of you were BEGGING for more responsibility, but what we got over the last few years was smaller modules, Target mobile stores that never took off, and more Wal-Marts.

If you were legitimately working 8-10 hours in the field I applaud your commitment but my team seemed to hit diminishing returns at about 4 hours. There was simply not 8 hours of work to do in my days. I got everything done, won summit more than once, took on projects to assist my ARSM, and still only needed half-days to do it. I did not break the code, I just got realistic about the job expectations and stopped camping out in stores until 6pm to justify to anyone that I deserved the job. It absolutely became a gravy train that was bound to fall off the tracks. I do miss sleeping well past 9am....

@by you are att mgmnt material...

No amount of work would have saved this channel, its been doomed since the loss of Radio Shack. Unless you were a hot looking chick the likelihood of anyone actually "trying" to sell for you was nil. Again, how many times did you watch a vacant territory outperform 3/4 of the state for 2 months.

Get over yourself chump, you rode the train straight in to a brick wall.

with your poor work ethic, you should have been fired long ago, along with your manager and director. Perhaps if att cut the worthless fat like you, people who worked hard over an above would still have jobs. find another teet to s---le on, you leech.

From years of service sounds as if that OP is a typical old time RAE Gen X slacker or stoner who is too smart for the job but super lazy and figured out quickly that it was a job you could do as little as possible and make it work around his or her schedule with pretty good pay.

@Le4vqaM-1bmd how would he be butt-hurt when cuts were made? He made it until now so he was obviously kept on board while other hard workers were shown the door in 2015 or 2016

You're right this round is different. You've had a heads up since the last round when plenty of excellent employees were sent home. You saw it with your own eyes. Nov 2015 is when the slackers were sent home. You waited it out to the last minute and rode the ship to the bottom of the sea. Anybody cut in this last round had a year to prepare and got caught holding the bag.

Unlike you, there were many RAEs that transformed what this job was about and actually put in the work. Many nights in store until 8-9pm working the front lines with Best Buy employees because it was the right thing to do. Sounds like you are the one that is butt hurt because you were one that was identified as an under performer last year when the initial cuts were made. This round is a bit different. Some of us actually doubled our productivity year over year and worked really hard...I hope you are enjoying whatever cushy job you have now.

OP here.......Just so you know, 6 hrs per day was enough to do 4 quality visits per day, I was liked and respected by my stores, co-workers and managers over the years. I was there 12 years folks, that wasn't by chance. Worked in 3 diff markets and was always in the top 10.

For all those butthurt RAE's out on their a-- after "working so hard" let me give you a clue, save you're righteous BS. You don't know what hard work or long hours even means. You're spoiled rotten like every RAE I ever knew. Only difference between me and you is that I admitted what my schedule was and you put up a front to make yourself look or feel more important. I always got my job done.

And you went to Summit why? Cause you had great performing stores in great areas? My grandmother woulda gone to Summit with a prime store module. How many times did you see a vacant territory in the #1 spot or top 5???? Think about it big shot, get the picture?

Glad to see NR from Atlanta on board here, blaming me nonetheless. Did you fools ever innovate a promotion other than copy VZW at the last moment except for having no POP for us? Ever? Look in the mirror for the real NR channel failure......

@1bbo you are going no where in life 🤣

I don't think everyone is defending the company. I think they are defending their personal integrity and their personal work ethics.

@1lmy AT&T doesn't care about top performers with RAE's because everyone knows they have extremely limited influence on how much the dealers produce. Being a "top performer" as a RAE means you were purposefully placed with high performing doors to make you look good (probably to try and weasel your way to another job) or you just got lucky. You can't coach or discipline any of them so anything you say to them is in one ear out the other.

It's not about viciously defending...

It's about being angered at obvious abuses. I'll be the first to say that the company has been ruined and a lot of this created by Randall's sick culture.

What pisses me off if that top performers get folded over into this b.s too. Start with the obvious time theives and slackers.

Not sure why everyone's so viciously defending the company... the OP is completely correct ALL RAE's I know did pretty much the same thing with no accountability whatsoever. Don't hate on them for using the system in their benefit. Small business reps do the same thing... get paid tons of money to do NOTHING... just like many DOS's VPGM's ect. AT&T is way too top heavy with high paid managers that contribute nothing meaningful to the company.

The OP Sounds like the biz reps in my area... do nothing, get paid mileage they never actually made, get paid for sales they have absolutely no part of, sit home all day getting facials, that channel needs a revamp.

Just another troll with no soul or heart, spewing the corporate lies to confuse people.

No OP just state he has no work ethic. He obviously stayed 12 years. So either he is just getting by in life being lazy or he never got promoted and became a salty individual towards the end.

Bottom line he's just lazy, not saying what he did didn't go on and is the reason the program was cut. What I'm saying is he chose to not learn and grow. It doesn't matter he ended up same place as hard workers. It's like saying I have this busted a-- Ford Focus and I ended up the same mall as you with your Lamborghini.

Same place different experience.

OP is right, the hard working individuals get layoff more often, no need to kill yourself working for this company, just milk the cow dry ... While you can

That type of behavior was not my work ethic. I did my job, was where I said I was and WORKED for every penny I made. I was rewarded for my work with multiple trips to Summit so I am leaving knowing that I did my job and did it well. Being a d---beat AE certainly isnt something to brag about..and dont assume for one minute that we were all like you..that is NOT the case!!!!

I forgot to mention I picked up my kids from school everyday at 3:50, logged in to a store and went food shopping on the regular. Unfair how we landed in the same spot huh?

What a Idiot....brag about being a lazy punk!

Being an underperforming slacker isn't anything to brag about almost makes me think this is another (yet albeit ironically strange and twisted) pr post for att. To highlight the undesirables of att.

Whatever the agenda it's still the sick/perverted culture Randall cultivated.

What sort of innovation does a person like this create?

What a jerk!

How does it feel to have no integrity? I worked hard as an RAE. My whole team did because we cared about our stores and they knew we were there for support. You may have a great job for now but you can't change character. I'm sure you'll screw it up!

Listen here you pos, You might not have the integrity that most people have and a moral work ethic that most of the AEs had. I worked from 2007 thru now and I never left early unless I had a reason and my arsm knew why. I did my store visits,took my calls and worked 8 to 10 hours without a lunch like a damn responsible adult. Many of us have families to support and wouldn't risk doing half the crap you didn't cause we had some damn common sense. Most of us took this job and made into a career and are leaving on a good note with probably glowing recommendations from arsms , and several of the retailers that we supported which I take pride in and I know several of my fellow AEs feel the same way.

Simply put, OP, you are too immature to handle a job that doesn't have supervision. Taking advantage of the job and what the job was are two different things. You are just lazy homie.

Hey OP, the worthless morons in Atlanta that you speak of handle operations of over $2 Billion in revenue and work their asses off. The annoying calls you were on were calls to make sure the channel was running smoothly and the NRs are getting what they need. You working part time in the stores and "getting one over" is the reason your a-- got cut. Good riddance to you and your "better job". You do realize that there are people out there that lost their jobs and put their families in a world of sh-- because of people like you right? You're worthless and on top of that, you are a straight up a--hole.

True. Such a d---beat job. The gravy train had to end sometime.

Who needs integrity when you work for scum of the earth AT&T? They rape their customers all day long!

Wow! Guess you didn't have much integrity if you think that was 'cool'. I get it that your angry, but do you really think taking advantage was right? AT&T still has many with that attitude and they also get away with it so guess some of you are getting the best of A&T if that's your measure of success and integrity!

People in COR were always so jealous. They didn't know we actually did less than what they imagined. Poor COR, they're next too.