The west has seen a big jump in PM's that work from home and do not have direct reports. I wonder if any other markets are seeing this? It also seems they have no work just forwarding emails....
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@2aav - I doubt that most PM jobs at AT&T or the baby bell companies required any software knowledge in the year 1995, which was the height of human civilization (and the fact that that was the year that I was watching Nicktoons and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in my pajamas does not make me biased for saying that.)
The first people who need be fired at this place, From L1 all the way up to the C-suite, are the ones who even entertain the idea of following in the footsteps of Evil Google and Evil Amazon. To try to go from being a telecom to a software company in a complete 180 degree turn is the equivalent of telling your 5 year old children that they have to bench press a 350lb weight for 10 reps or else you will bury them alive in a hole beneath the basement floor.
Software is hard and time consuming to learn, and therefore evil and anyone who is good at it is evil too.
If we were doing things the right way, we would still be putting twisted pair copper in the ground, with 1 foot of fiber for every 500 miles of copper placed.
I call them PM= Premature mo--ns@T, in software development require the project manager to provide technical leadership to the developing team. In this case not only the PM must know how to code but he/she must also be good at it. The PM also needs good software architecture knowledge and also must have good technical leadership skills. Unfortunately the don't, a PM certification is as good as the individual, FEW ARE GOOD, MANY ARE TERRIBLE.
Mi*e stop the subliminal messages
There is no project manager in SAFe - you just go get on the train and go work. LOL
Tech Dev will be outsourced, like Verizon. Offshored, take the money and run.
whatever donovan says is total bs ..... - 1fwb is totally correct about getting the lowest bidder in india . shows you how much he has run his group into the ground for being so out of touch with what goes on beneath him.
PM's are a joke out of the 12 I work with 2 actually do the job the others never have calls, no updates , let projects get behind schedule only reach out for information when trying to cover their a@@ then blame those in the field....lie lie lie
I love all of the PM bashing that is going on, it's hilarious. Sure there are some bad PM's, as there are also a hell of a lot of lazy craft type folks, other management etc. In my experience as a PM (and I guess I am the only good one) is that lazy people, people that spend most of the day hiding, going to lunch, banging out early, etc. really do detest PM's. PM's exist at least in part due to the fact the someone needs to be the primary point of contact between the dead weight as described above, and other organizations that need actual work done. That gap needs to be filled in large cross functional organizations. PM's set the expectations that multiple groups agree to up front as to progress expectations, and when those aren't being met, the PM is the one responsible for reporting on that and escalating as necessary. Those lazy folks absolutely HATE that. Thus, they hate PM's, and all PM's s---. Bad PM's are slowly being weeded out via surplus activity. If you hold a Project Manager title and do not have your PMP certification, you should pursue getting it because it remains a valuable certification here as well as externally whether you choose to leave or are surplussed.
The next epic failure: SAFe. Lol.
There are very few very good true PMs at this company. Even the ones who are certified. Even they are incompetent. The overall culture of this company reeks of incompetence. And that comes from the top.
And to Donovan’s mo--nic point about wanting more software and high tech people- well maybe more smart people would be interested in pursuing that line of work if you stopped auctioning that function off to the lowest bidder in INDIA! In high tech, it seems like it is a drive to the bottom- with ever increasing pressures to do more with less and ever decreasing pay with constant outsourcing, offshoring etc. No wonder there is a “brain drain” in those fields!
PMs, Sigma Six, MSOC, are the new casulaties
I remember a year or two ago on one of John Donovans town halls where he said there were too many people taking project management related training on PLE and not enough software/data analytics training..
The executives seem to miss the point that people generally would rather not have to re-tool themselves in a field they never worked in in order to remain relevant, especially a field where you basically need a 130 IQ and psychopathic work ethic to excel in, which software and data science are the epitome of.
It isn't the average, everyday worker at AT&T that should be blamed for the so called "skills-gap" at the company, just like it isn't the average, everyday worker in corporate America that should be blamed for the "skills-gap" on a national level. Rather, it should be the CEO and billionaire elite class burning at the stakes for ever having the nerve to force this technocratic Brave New World upon us in the first place.
The world needs to go back to the way it was in 1995. Plain and simple.
“PM's a total waste a money as resources”. This is a dumb statement, likely made by a dumb person. I would concede that there are still too many “project managers” in title only across many organizations in this company. Many of those folks have managed to hang on through all of the reorganizations and this seems to be the “catch all” Job title. It’s unfortunate because the employees that are trained and certified in project management do bring real value to the company...
Don’t worry they will all be outsourced to... India
We have very little work yet the admin pool that works from home keeps growing! same in CA
You shall have admins - Located in India
We need more Admins, more, more...
Mobility also has had a big increase of admins under level 2 managers in the last 6 months...
What orgs?
PM's a total waste a money as resources.
Individual contributors exiting in drowes.