I'm deciding whether I should accept an offer to join AT&T as a CSS, but after going through Glassdoor and this page I'm starting to lean heavily towards the "stay away" option. From what I gathered from all these posts, there are constant RIFs, working conditions are horrible and benefits are getting cut on a regular basis.
The guy I spoke to talked it up as a great position with a chance of advancement. Now I'm not so sure anymore.
Is it really that bad?
Post ID: @10PZsBZe-1vcz
Great post just 1 question: Why the hell would fiber maintenance be given to Repair? Wth do they know about fiber?
As part of your decision read some of the 2018 10-K Annual Report on file with www.sec.gov at https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/732717/000119312519045608/d705958d10k.htm.
After opening, search on "Business Operations." Reading that won't tell you anything about the company culture (see other posts on this page for that), but will give you the company summary of what it says they are doing as of end of last year. The later quarterly reports only give financials.
It’s totally awesome and gnarly dude!
As long as u can ride the wave and know a head hunter if things go south.
Work for a big a$$ company get some benefits. Don’t try to make any changes please
It really is that bad. Anyone who tells you different is either lying or stupid.
if you work here you need to decide if you want to stab people in the back for your own benefit or get your back stabbed - it just depends on how much toxicity you can put up with
Take the job, get as much training you can, you can move on in a few years.
I don’t see much advancement taking place at att.
Do not come here, unless desperate.
You have your answer. And your are welcome.
If you are going into management don't! run away and don't look back. It is a terrible hostile work place period. Can't talk for the craft positions.
1vcz, your post might be the best and most accurate post I’ve ever read here. Thanks for breaking it down so well. I think you nailed it.
I’m a systems technician in southeast and we’re part of TFS-business services. Like you said , its probably the safest place to be in craft. It’s also the busiest. If you want all the OT you can stand and then some, this is the place to be. You’re also right about the metrics and the pressure. All eyes right now are on the BOA and advance auto part projects and they are scrutinizing and micro managing every little aspect. On top of these projects , we still have plenty of legacy tdm pbx’s to maintain. So yeah, super busy , super rewarding but also super stressful
Thank you all so much for responding, it has given me a lot to think about. I'm really glad I asked.
CSS = Customer Services Specialist if you are referencing a union job in he Midwest region. That single title covers many different work functions and your happiness will depend greatly upon which one you land in (assuming you don't know....).
C&E DEG: You'll love it. Best "Outside" job with the company. No climbing and no customer contact outside of big business customers (when turning up/repairing network electronics onsite for them). 50% of the time is spent working equipment alarms and power/battery routine maintenance and the other 50% performing new equipment install/test & turnup (SONET/OTN/ROADM/DC Power/DSLAM) and working DLC maintenance (including T1 span lines). Not quite as good as a Central Office job, but damn close.
C&E Splicer: Another fantastic job which now entails mostly new fiber construction splicing as F2 fiber maintenance (and soon to include F1) has now been shifted almost exclusively to TFS-IM. I can't remember the last time I met a disgruntled C&E splicer.
TFS-IM: Depending on where you work, who you work for and the role you'll be in, could be good or really bad. The bad = running single shot POTS/DSL troubles and doing legacy and IPDSL copper installs. The good = being a dedicated AP (air pressure/pneumatics) or cable maintenance technician.
TFS-Business Services: Probably the safest craft job right now. The good = Huge growth area with little to no surplus activity projected for the next 2 years. Work includes designed DS0-OC192 SONET, OTN, Business Broadband, Switched & dedicated Ethernet, 911 (host/remote), complex CPE (Avaya, Nortel, Mitel, Cisco) and managed services (MIS/IPFlex/ADI/AVPN/SDWAN). The bad = Lots of pressure to meet metrics, near constant overbearing oversight from management and a product portfolio that includes almost 60 years worth of technologies that you have to learn to work on.
Good Luck!!!
I don’t know about CSS , I can only speak about my job. I’m an outside tech and I love it. I don’t have to deal with office politics. My office is my truck and the outdoors. I don’t let the pressure of “making numbers” get to me. The key is to just focus on good customer service and the rest happens organically. I don’t have the best numbers but I don’t have the worst. That’s where you want to be in this company. I’m invisible. I fly under the radar. I make no waves good or bad. I come in , do what I have to do. And go home. Period. In return I get a great paycheck , good benefits. I have no grandiose illusions about self importance. I’m just a pee-on. A small cog in a clock that’s only right twice a day. Have that attitude and you’ll be fine. Many here are stressing themselves out worrying about things they cannot control. Work the job until they fire you or You decide you don’t like it and quit.
Of course the guy is going to "talk it up" as a great position & place, management is trained to lie. If you're desperate, take but continue to look elsewhere. The environment is toxic.
If you already have job, don't give it up to take a job here. Keep looking. If you don't have a job and are desperate for money, take it. But keep looking for another one.
This company is AT&T in name only. The culture is SBC. Which s*cks.
This company isn’t worth the blood sweat tears and toll on you and your family. Look elsewhere if you have other options. You will not be mentored. Your training will be online only. You will have to pay for your own office supplies. Maybe be a CWA represented job would be ok. But definitely don’t aspire to management. 1st level managers have all the responsibility but no authority. .
Is it really that bad?
Hi OP! No it isn’t all that bad. The majority of the posters here make up less than 1% of the overall number of AT&T employees. They’re pretty much the typical disgruntled ones who are making the most noise.
I’m not sure what a CSS is but if they’re like any other job with AT&T you’ll get a 401K, pension, vacation time, health care, and tuition reimbursement. The overall package of benefits is actually quite good.
If you don’t plan on staying long or find you dislike your job and can’t transfer, use tuition reimbursement to get skills or degree/degree advancement and then jump ship if you can find something better.
So far the only technical jobs I’ve found with comparable overall compensation are government jobs or major tech companies.
Good luck with your decision. Like I said, you can always quit if you don’t like it.
I am now retired with a pension and 401K, along with company health care.
The company you retired from no longer exists
My experience is, where they're hiring, they're not laying off. I'm guessing that this CSS is some kind of Rep job? If being on the phones is your cup of tea, then good. They'll be metrics like talk time, your sales, etc that you have to meet.
Once you have your foot in the door, you'll have to work a certain amount of time before you can self-nominate for other positions in the company. My guess is, it's 18 months. To nominate for other jobs, you'll have to pass employment tests for the particular job title.
I got in years ago on a lousy job, (but not on the phones), passed a few tests, and got myself a high paying tech job. I am now retired with a pension and 401K, along with company health care.
It's not like you're enlisting. You can work for them, and if you don't like it, leave. I would give a 2 week notice and not burn any bridges, because maybe later on, a job that is a better fit could surface. AT&T jobs are located in a lot of states.
If you aren't desperate for an income you don't want to do this. Layoffs and now outsourcing are part of the business model. Ask your hiring contact if the position has any kind of productivity tracking. If it does, you will hate it.
Know how to humanely k–l a frog?
You put it into a nice pot of cool fresh water full of hopes and aspirations.
Then you turn the stove burner on underneath the pot.
Really low at first - not even a simmer.
Let your frog get comfortable and start thinking about its froggy future and how great things will be.
Turn up the heat a bit.
Frog gets excited, thinks things are starting to happen in its career.
Heat goes up to medium.
Frog is working its rear off - OT, 6 days, yeah, Frog be jamming.
Heat goes up to high.
Frog thinks this is my test to see if I'm ready for the Big Times.
Water comes to a full rolling boil at which time your froggy life will have ended and you become a bubbling corpse.
If this sounds good to you - then by all means "come on board Froggy!"
Run run run away. Do not work there it is a horrible environment and you will regret it. Leaving there was the best decision of my life and I wish I did it sooner.
Stay away if you have value it will not be recognized here. Go to a place with a decent future. It is not here.
“Abandon all hope ye who enter here,” Dante wrote a poem about his journey through Hell, some of us live it (not all) but you can avoid it. You mentioned the term “RIF” often used on the Verizon board so let me ask....should we think about applying there?
Regardless, you have been warned.
We all float down here
It depends on which CSS you are going to be. That job title in the SBC area is an outside tech, but that same title in other areas is an account rep in a call center.
@nxi...crabs in a bucket lol. No this isn’t “corporate America”. This is at@t corporate...it’s unique and really messed up. Stop trying to spin bs, stay away and continue to lick crayons.
If you have other options, consider them heavily.
The biggest lie you were told is that there's any kind of career mobility within AT&T. In my experience your best chance of moving up is when a more senior person leaves your team, because you're gonna be stuck in whichever team you join for a long long time, even if you're willing to relocate. But once you are a level 2 employee, you're gonna be stuck there unless you have friends in high places.
Won’t you come into my parlor? Said the spider to the fly.
If you have family or friends in high places take the job. If you don't, then don't. You wont get promoted, you wont advance and you will get skipped over. Its a boys club over here. If you do take the job, take it knowing you'll be let go regardless of how hard you work or how knowledgeable you are. For those that disagree look into district 9 a level 3 promoted his son to a level 2. And thats just one example, of Ts culture...
Don't just walk away, run! This place is a completely mismanaged, toxic work environment.
The people complaining on this site are doing so for good reason. If you join this company, you will be miserable your entire time here.
Your career will be what you make it. You will have challenges to face as wave after wave of layoffs hit, and people try to convince you how horrible it is to work here. Welcome to corporate America. Keep a positive mental attitude, do the work you’re paid to do, and let the chips fall where they fall. You’ll advance if you give them a reason to advance you. If you follow the status quo, you’ll be the status quo, and will likely never get anywhere. Be mindful that the “crabs in a bucket” thing prevails here. Stay away from the crabs, and don’t let them drag you down. Most importantly, go with your gut on this. If you think you’ll flourish here, you’ve got a good chance. If you don’t, you won’t.
Come on in, the water’s fine
Unless you are about to be homeless stay away. If you take it remember these warnings because you will look back and ask yourself..what the f— was I thinking.
You’d be one of the first to go in another round of layoffs regardless if craft or management. New hires never last long here.
Hell would be a vacation from this place.