Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

those who survive at T will struggle every single quarter hereafter more and more to hold onto their job. L3 managers have to be at huge future risk, due to the fact that many of them I'm aware of barely have 1/3 the targeted minimum span of control under them. Perhaps L4's also, but I don't see that level of the stratosphere so I have no idea about them. They seem to come and go like the wind these days anyway. L2's have taken big hits already and more hits to come. Try to get some more education/certificates (not T cert's) if you can, pay down your debts, live within your means, and try to get your savings boosted. Update your resume and linked in. Keep your eyes open on the job market to see where you fit in. these actions won't remove all stress in coming months/years in your T job, but will help. Also, just remember that you and everyone you know and love is going to die some day. No one will remember or care someday to any extent what you did or didn't do on the job today. And T will cease to exist at some point in the coming decades- nothing lasts forever, except our souls (of course that's open to debate). That may help put things in the right perspective. 50 years from now, none of this means anything whatsoever. For some of us, that time may be this afternoon or tomorrow that it doesn't matter any at all. Count every breath and heartbeat as a gift, because it is. You don't have a contract or guarantee of any type that says you'll ever get another single one. We're all beggars, always expecting to be entitled to the next handout.

He got his degree it appears at an on-line University...….Bill Morrow, These exec's and their educations never cease to amaze me.....National Univ in San Diego established in 1971....
Born
William T. Morrow
1959 (age 59–60)
Alma mater
National University in San Diego
Occupation
Telecommunications Executive
Employer
Pacific Bell, Vodafone, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Clearwire, Vodafone Hutchison Australia, nbn™
Title
Chief Executive Officer (nbn™)
Term
nbn: 2 April 2014 – 1 September 2018
Predecessor
Mike Quigley
Successor
Stephen Rue
Website
https://au.linkedin.com/in/bill-morrow-3692a49

Just get it over with so we can leave this h#ll and get on with our lives.

Just get it over with and leave. Nobody is forcing you to stay.

Not sure why CO techs are viewed by some as they are. I was a Systems Tech with a CCNA as well as a CST and NCT, I am now a CO tech. This position has been the most challenging by far. These days, you really have to train yourself. So many platforms and systems. The legacy ones are the most difficult. Not many have a working knowledge of them anymore so you have to figure out yourself and documentation is sparse.Very little of my time is spent on POTS or simple frame work. On the weekends you may get slammed. Have to cover 20 or more offices. You better damn well know how to prioritize and use your brain. There is so much more to this job that I wont even mention. I would be accused of whining. But I love this job.

Why so hard on CO techs?? Ours in San Diego area Great! Plenty of Pots and ipdslam, hi cap customers out there!! These people have more time, experience & knowledge than you rookie trolls will ever have!!

The SWITCH is even OUTDATED..Park Forest IL was one of the first to get rid of there switch!!

why pay a old pot-bellied guy $70/hr to "cable/wire stuff" when a h1b young energetic dude can do it for $9/hr.

Dial tone, hahaha. Do people still use rotary phones? If yes, then co techs are in demand.

Doesn’t everything IP based still eventually travel into a fiber that runs to the CO? Doesn’t everything IP based travel through various routers, mux’s, and switch in the CO? Uh, I guess thats why so many with so little knowledge know what a CO tech does and how they can do the same. Go connect your single customer while I connect city and states together.

The obvious replacements for the CO techs are DEG techs that have remote HUB locations under their responsibility. They are CO tech but with field experience also.

@2ffl, IP is the new kid on block. The co techs and their POTS network are dinosaurs. With 5G roll out, everything telephony will be IP-based.

Dial tone is but one facet ( and a shrinking one at that ) of a CO techs responsibilities.

They're responsible for every piece of equipment within the CO space. They're expected to know how to turn it up and maintain it. This equipment varies from simple frame wiring to different flavors of high capacity fiber systems carrying all sorts of traffic types and everything in between.

They're expected to know how to work on equipment that predates them in some cases with, just like the rest of us, zero training.

On top of it all, they're not responsible for a single Central Office any more. One or two techs will handle up to one or two DOZEN offices, so they'll have to know all of the equipment in those offices as well.

AT&T wants to outsource as much as they can, but the companies picking this stuff up ( IBM / Accenture ) want nothing to do with the " hard " network ( Where the physical connection resides ) because you can't ship that off to India.

The problem is, much like everywhere in the company, is most of the workforce is in the 20+ year range now because the last hiring spree was somewhere around 1999-2000. I figure within ten years, they're going to lose the majority of their expertise company wide and unless they start taking that seriously, it's really going to bite them in the a$$ in the end.

Sorry pal, more managers are scheduled surplus anyway. No more twiddling thumbs all day. Upper management has decided.

Randall doesn’t have to force POTS customers to IP or wireless. Those customers switched on their own a long time ago.

I thought Randy’s plan was to retire the switch network by 2020. Said he would put his brother out of a job. (He is a tech). I think his brother was like what ever and would ride copper to the end. Obviously he knows more about the switch network and what it would take to retire it than his brother the account.
The CO switches were all to be retired and POTS customers switch to IP or fixed Wireless. I wonder how that’s going.

@1pwx

"Sorry pal but the switch techs that work at the mtso’s can’t be compared to the co techs. Co techs have to know many more systems than a tech at a mtso that just handles mobility equipment".

Wasn't comparing other than to point out they work in the wireless equivalent of the CO. I'd further argue (because I happen to know) that a lot of the equipment is similar or even the same, but that's neither here nor there. Guessing based on your response you don't know much about the Mobility side of things.

Sorry pal but the switch techs that work at the mtso’s can’t be compared to the co techs. Co techs have to know many more systems than a tech at a mtso that just handles mobility equipment.

“ Co techs are easily replaceable”. You don’t know what you are talking about. I’m not a CO tech , I’m a systems tech, but I can tell you that it takes many years to become proficient in that role. I know because some of my fellow systems techs have become CO techs for the reason one op stated: many co techs are retiring here in Florida and there are no one who knows how to do the work. The work is complex. They work on many different systems , not just dial tone as some say. Systems techs work on PBX and key systems so they are the logical techs to help fill in the role of CO techs ; still my former co-workers tell me it’s a lot to learn and understand. Those who think all a co tech does is dial tone is ignorant of the facts on the ground.

In Mobility, the CO tech is referred to as a "switch" tech, the folks that work in the MTSO's. The MTSO's have been being consolidated steadily over the last 5 years or so; as technology has progressed the footprint of the MTSO equipment has shrunk correspondingly, it has also been regionalized, etc. The company benefits from this financially by being able to exit these facilities where there are expensive monthly leases, and even by selling off the company owned locations. The switch techs in these locations are shuffled off to other locations in their market. There are less and less of them (locations). I am not anti-switch tech, I am not anti Union, but the bottom line is that they have been way overstaffed for a long time. No surplus has touched them (a surplus for them would of course be an inverse seniority type deal). Now you have multiple shifts of people with nothing to do cramming into these locations. Please spare me the "you have no idea what we do" flames, as I actually do. The honest among them (the more senior folks that know they are safe) will tell you that they don't have anything , or certainly not enough, to do...and certainly not enough to warrant their current headcount. I don't get it.

Co techs are easily replaceable, there are always a few good co techs in a area & the rest I don’t know how they keep their job.

Central Office technician. The CO is where the dialtone and most everything else that goes to the customer ultimately comes from.

It takes many years of experience to become a good CO tech.

noob here, what is co tech?

Clearly this is a sign randy and stankey are in over their and just splashing around on the surface pulling straws out of their behind hoping someone will help.

The part about retaining talent is definitely true. They can't retain talent because the whole management system is dysfunctional.

The strategy is clear. No need for a genius to understand. Just looking at the track record of this Clearwater gentleman, and you will know why Randy is bringing him onboard. Long painful 3 years await. Don't be afraid but Get ready. "The Accountant".

Att will find out the hard way just how much knowledge co techs have when they’re gone. It’s already becoming a problem in some areas where they don’t have enough qualified techs. Good luck getting wire techs to fill the shoes. Do you think the wire techs are going to care about doing a good job when they are already getting kicked while down and making less pay and benefits than core ?

A Services Technician with 20 or 30 years seniority is treated like they just started. Wire techs are lower in the eye of management and treated like dummies. That’s why the managers are fired all the time.

@1oxp....with the CO cuts over the years it seems like co techs may have hung themselves with their own rope to some degree since the trouble is always outside or in the next CO and "not in my CO" but it is a shame how T now seems to think that CO work is so easy a wiretech can do it.

Here is an area T can make a big cut in:

John Stankey, CEO of AT&T's WarnerMedia who has dramatically reshaped the businesses of Time Warner, saw his total compensation package increase 64% last year, to a total of $16.6 million. Meanwhile, AT&Tchairman, president and CEO Randall Stephenson pulled in a pay package worth $29.1 million in 2018, up 1.4%.Mar 11, 2019

Based on his record he could potentially end up causing real collateral damage if he actually makes decisions. I'm guessing he won't make any, more like a temporary puppet with thick skin to take the blame but at the same time making a lot of money.

Why not behave like a world class company and bring capable people who can actually bring something to the table an innovate.

Henchmen, fallguy, grim reaper

This 2020 BS looks like the end of the world, and the end of life, like the asteroid is going to hit the planet.

@11PQPnua-1rsk, I’m a manager in south Florida. Most of my CO techs are close to retirement and am concerned about not having qualified techs to replace them. Upper management doesn’t seem concerned that we are not training replacements.

I’m a manager in the Midwest, not in a big hub city but a solid tier 2 location. The thing that concerns me is the lack of younger employees beneath me. I’m in my 40’s, have over 20 years with the company and the majority of people around me are older with more time. I’d say most are in that 45-55+ age group with a few over 60. I’m honestly not sure we have more than one or two employees under 30around here. I understand technology changes will reduce headcount but not by 98%. I’m just wondering who will still be around in 5-10 years. Is this unique to the Midwest?

Heck, if they have to pay Morrow to tell them that I could have told them for free. Start at the VPs. Take the AVP, VP, SVP, and EVP levels and just have one VP level.

There is no doubt that Morrow is looking at span and number of reports. AT&T desires to reset the minimum direct reports number upwards. Look for combining some organizations under fewer senior managers. Very flat organizations is the desire. 2020 will be interesting. If you aren't ready; get ready now.

”Why place somebody with a negative track record in that position?“

He is a hatchet man, put there to make the cuts and take the blame.
Over the next three years I am guessing 50k to 75k less employees on the payroll from today’s numbers. Outsourcing, Voluntary offers force reduction in normal attrition.

Why place somebody with a negative track record in that position?

Don’t forget that after ruining those acquired companies in all those ways you mentioned, they blame it on that company when the spin them off for nothing.

Whatever. Just get it over with so we can leave this h#ll and get on with our lives.

JD gone - good riddance. Have to wait for Randy's golden parachute to open before you would see any improvements. Mismanagement shuffle to change up the hatchet men and further disrupt the company. The id–ts in the board of directors should be fired.

The articles conclusions are all BS. T wants to get to the same employment levels as Verizon but they will NEVER provide a severance like Verizon did. Why should they? Just outsource for free to you to Accenture, IBM, or Tech Mahindra or whatever for no cost. More $ for the execs golden parachutes. I remember the days where the severance was 2 years salary. Gone and forgotten.

But for the latest acquisitions it is too late. They have already ruined Warner Media and all the talent left. Like every other acquisition in T's history, they over pay for it, force all the acquired talent out, ruin it with their mismanagement, then sell it off for penny's on the $. Just like did to Terrible Data, NCR, McCraw Cellular, the cable business and others from the 90's.