Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

The only time att had GOOD managers with technical skills were the ones that started as com techs. We worked on the frames, installed equipment, did all the CO testing and tested with the installers end to end to turn up service. Of course many in att today have no clue what all this is. In the old days we worked, walking the floors etc, not sitting behind a desk. I managed to stay employed for over 44 years, got promoted, and the union guys that worked with me and then for me took me out to celebrate my promotions and always invited me to parties after work or at ones home. Play football on weekends. You never hear of this anymore, due to a numbers game and it becomes you guys against us guys..Upper mgt took the life and fun of working together..it's really sad...

There will be a flattening of processes so that fewer employees are needed. We all know much of a day, especially for IT personnel involves non-IT busy work. For instance, the ideal of reporting time to anything that doesn't add value to the company (software capitalized work) is a waste of time. Yet tens of thousands of workers do this every week going through the mechanics of tracking the time and entering it.

There will be a general elimination of employees based upon a guess and then a more refined one when the processes are flattened.

"I am a below average employee. I work to better my life and my kids life. I spent a majority of my time at work doing personal stuff. However; I worked with some really great, smart, hardworking people. Guess what, we were all let go on the same day ... So, it really doesn’t matter how hard you work. In the end you will be fired right along with everybody else."

That's like saying you were a boat anchor around the feet of a professional swimmer, and you both sank to the bottom and drowned. Therefore, being a professional swimmer is of no use trying to stay afloat. That's some sound logic. Pretty despicable. Hopefully the folks in your next job find out about you before you drag them down too.

@-2afj, I believe you to be correct. Anyone who went out and earned a nano degree, often was It or IT like, and letting HR know that you earned one, got you on the list to be kicked out. Ratty and Stinky hate IT people. Proof positive, look at how they abolished it from the company, it was the first area of business that was attacked starting 20 years ago. I started into taking some of those various nano courses, and thought they were thin on material, and just plain c-ap, not to mention I got nothing new from them. I went out on my own, starting about 8 years back, and took a number of quality in depth courses on my own time and dime, and got boat loads more in a quality skill, either enhance, new or sharpened, that I was able to directly use and apply to my daily job. I'm glad I chose and stuck with my own path and have a nice portfolio to share with a potential employer, and not any of the utter Bull$h1t of any nanodegree of which would be laughed at and perhaps disqualify me.

The nano/microdegrees mean nothing - people have earned them only to be forced into contracting three months later.

@-tzf, basically you're right. No one that is L2 as well as any union person is valued at all, even though we are all quite valuable and highly skilled. All that due to the toxic elitists environment we've been stewing in for so long.

I am a below average employee. I work to better my life and my kids life. I spent a majority of my time at work doing personal stuff. However; I worked with some really great, smart, hardworking people. Guess what, we were all let go on the same day. I had already submitted my resignation and was finishing out my second to last day on the job when they told us our work was done. I was praised for having the foresight to go get another job before the layoff occurred. I ended up with a four day weekend before starting my new job. So, it really doesn’t matter how hard you work. In the end you will be fired right along with everybody else.

This company is enormously mismanaged starting with the 1st levels all the way up. The majority are nothing but numbers chasers that have no clue what the jobs of their techs actually entail, and the systems in place prevent them from actually dealing with problem technicians due to the managers jobs being almost entirely based on head count. Zero accountability and no plan whatsoever to fill the flood of oncoming skilled vacancies, however upper management truly believes these are unskilled positions that a monkey could perform, when in fact it takes most people darn near 5 years on the job to truly know and excel at their given roles. There are no incentives to perform well, or be an absolute worthless drain other than personal pride and integrity....which is very scarce these days due to the constant surplussing. Customer service has done nothing but tank since at$t was deregulated.

"But for the employees with the skills of an evolving company, 2020 is going to be an outstanding year."

If something I learned in 2019 was that skills, high-performance, innovators, intelligence, brightness, hardworking is not a factor to stay, its all about how expensive you are to the company or which group you are in.

It’s funny to think your skills or lack of skill, or your “value” to your department matters. It is not matter. If you think you are too valuable, think again. The people paid off are not always the slackers, and the ones saved are not always the hardworking high skills workers. Be careful asking for others to be judged harshly, you are asking for yourself to be judged just as unfair.

I think the 40K employees layoff is pretty close, where ever our employee count number is today, they want to get to around 200K, so yes, 2020 is still slated to e an absolute blood bath.

I never heard any rumor or anything else about Randy having health issues, can someone please elaborate more.

As far as Stinky not getting CEO, and Elliot canning him, please stop teasing me.

If your assumptions are true, it will be far more than 40,000 employees let go because there will be additional costs due to some of those positions and layoffs will be for work that is still needed, and they will have to hire some cheaper labor to fill the gap.

Skills of an evolving company - lol good one you mean all the useless micro nano whatever degrees - company has never been able to keep talent and will never know how to identify it. They wanted nothing but yes people and relatives.

For some of the slacking employees, 2020 won't be too good. But for the employees with the skills of an evolving company, 2020 is going to be an outstanding year.