If enough people sign up - would the layoffs be significantly reduced?
Do you think moral would improve?
I'm about 5 years from retirement (just over 20 years of service). I doubt I can find a replacement job with similar pay - and certainly wouldn't get 5 weeks of vacation as I do now. I'd accept a 5% pay cut today and be willing to forgo pay increases to keep my job. Am I crazy?
33 replies (most recent on top)
I have the option to retire this year with full benefits, I would not work for a 5% pay cut, so with that, I'm out.
I took a level bust to get a job that took me the last 18 months till I was M75. Pay frozen for 6 months, cut 22% for a year. Still worth it.
If you worked in att 20years and kept invested 401k. It should be easy to make much more money in 401k than att in last year. I did it the year before last year and last year. Not likely this year. Pile up cash for winters
In your specific case, you're not crazy. Of course, the reality is that you will have a difficult time finding another job equivalent to this one at your age easily. However, the company will not reduce everyone pay by 5% to save jobs. The best thing you can do for yourself is just save your money so in case you get let go, you have a 6-12 months of cash at your finger tips. Even health insurance is expensive. We need universal medicare for all ages. Then companies will have a difficult time retaining talented folks and employees will be happier without being tied to one company.
Another idea is look for a part-time job on the weekends right now. And then when they let you go from your full-time job, you will at least have some part-time income coming in and when the part-time company has a full-time opening, hopefully you will get it due to part-time experience. I, myself, need to find a part-time job because my company is also downsizing. good luck to both of us.
Employee functions back filled with contractors is your best clue. They don't want your pay reduced. They want your pay removed from one column of their spreadsheet and added to the other.
The company would be glad to reduce your wages. It won't stop them from laying anyone off. They'll pocket the cash, laugh at you and expect you to work fast for less $$$ to make up for the person they laid off. You are either new or incredibly naive.
It all depends on how must self respect you're will to lose and humiliation to endure.
I've been a contractor for 15 years. I make less now that I did when I worked for T in 2003.
If push came to shove I’d do it. My passive income in investments, rental properties and doing sales for a different business dwarfs my T salary. I’m just hanging around to for the benefits. Which is why most people hang around to deal with all this BS.
Do a search for "constructive dismissal", for why management won't even bother attempting this.
This is like the fable that people accepting voluntary retirement saves other people's jobs - they want you gone. period. end of story.
For his long? Do I get to keep my job until I retire? Would there be additional paycuts?
I would consider a pay freeze but definitely not a pay cut.
5% pay RAISE might make up for the way the company has been working us for the last few years.
Who wants to take a 5% pay cut when upper management get that increase each year with a higher salary, bigger bonus & more stock
We already do with cost of insurance and the deductibles going up. Don’t give them anymore ideas.
As a craft person what does one gain from retiring from the company?
A medicare supplement? No that will be gone at the end of the year. Discount on u-verse, directtv?
what job title pays 40k more elsewhere?
The imaginary type.
I ended up making 40k more than I did at AT&T.
Wow. That’s a cool story bro!
When SBC merged with Ameritech, the Midwest RBOC, in 2000, we were asked to take a cut in pay. I said no. Who would do it?
And to the comment on 20% bonuses, Level-2 IT personnel did get those. It was a lot of money. Those were reduced and that was a pay cut.
If a company is on the verge of going out of business, maybe then. If it's T, never.
The only way that would work is if our pay cut was equivalent to what Randy pays his workers in India. If we make anything more than that, he wants us gone.
They would apply the pay cut and then lay us off or outsource us anyway.
I think most would do it if that were a long-term option to keep their job, but the company would never do it that way. Like many others here, I’ve had my share of complaints about working for the company, but my pay has never been one of them.
Don't we all take a pay cut each year when the raises are minimal? When I started with the company, our bonuses were at 20% and I took a $20K hit then knowing the aniticpated bonus would offset the hit. However, over the years, raises become less (hitting the ceiling in the range), bonuses were restructured and lowered and the cost of living increased.
So, no thank you ... I already took the pay cut.
Taking a pay cut would do nothing for the company. They want to reduce headcount, not head pay. Now a 5% paycut with giving up ALL benefits might make a difference. Of course all the international outsourcing cuts the pay cost by 3/4......4 of them for every one of us.
What AT&T needs to do is modify the "Rule of 75" and add an "at least 60 years old" with "at least 15 years of net credited service" category. This is the current rule noticeably skipping over the Age 60 group.
Minimum Age / Corresponding Term of Employment
Any age And At least 30 years
Age 50 And At least 25 years
Age 55 And At least 20 years
Age 65 And At least 10 years
So if you're between 55 and 65 you've got to have 20 years of service before you can retire. I bet adding this might entice some people to retire which may help reduce layoff numbers. I'm a good example - I'm 63 and have 18 years of service. With the new category, I could've retired already and not be part of this freaking mess. Instead of hopefully being able to stick around for another 2 years.
@133DKWbD-bgb what job title pays 40k more elsewhere? Cases like yours are likely rare
dumb, why ? T will get rid of anyone feeling worthless for sure, if you do value yourself, if you don't have anything to offer, accepting a pay cut put you in the incompetent list.. so long
I would
Why should you! Randall and Stankey aren’t taking a pay cut regardless of performance!!
I'd do it
I would only accept it to buy time finding another job.
I also thought I couldn't find the same pay anywhere else. You stay long enough and it almost seems like Stockholm Syndrome. Got booted and was willing to take what I thought the rest of the world would pay. I ended up making 40k more than I did at AT&T.