All points to the fact that 2020 could “outperform” 2019 in terms of layoffs, and the real question at this point is which parts of the company are going to be affected the most. I know that there is no official plan or anything, but has there been any word on what divisions are in most danger?
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As a tech in a small/medium sized town in the midwest, we have just enough work to stay busy. It could be busier if sales force would be activated. Do we still have a sales force? Anyhow, tech numbers are to bare bones now. Bigger cities have higher numbers of techs. If surpluses hit, I can only imagine it would affect bigger numbers of techs. Any thoughts?
Everything But mobility. The union has helped to inflat the core techs payscale so much that they would be first targets and thus bumping prem/wire tech so they pay freeze core.
Not the company pilots that have to fly Randall to Pebble Beach, The Masters and the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo!!
No place is safe
I have been a DTV customer since 1997. I sure pay a lot less for it now, but the customer service of this company has tanked after being bought out by AT&T. Customer service at AT&T as a whole has tanked. We will continue to get our backside’s handed to us unless we turn it around.
DTV - just a dying business - it was a bad acquisition pure and simple. This is not about DTV employees - AT&T paid too much for a DBS business when consumer video consumption was changing ... just bad business - I don't blame anyone at DTV. It's was AT&T's and Stankey's fault and he should be fired for it - I wish he could be prosecuted for mismanagement and pay for what he did.
TL;DR
@1xyr+13kHOlmv This is typical of the AT&T business model that has been in place for years. If you can't be a viable competitor, buy the competition or make it difficult for them to succeed through bullying. Look at the numerous companies that have been purchased in the past yet no longer exist.
They are using the same game plan with DTV and Warner. They bought the DTV competition when flavor of the month was U-verse so they could get the rights to video distribution and k–l the competition at the same time. Now they are limiting licensing to some Warner content in order to make people buy their service to see the programming . All at the same time they raise prices to the point of consumer breaking points so the get mad enough to leave and take their business elsewhere. Unfortunately these types of customers rarely come back. The goals are always very short term with little follow through and commitment.
Instead of building a better platform with competitive pricing and support, they choose to be greedy and buy the competition, raise prices, create an angry customer base, and lose out to their competitors.
@1xyr+13kHOlmv Totally correct and makes me wonder if buying it was just plain old k–ling the competition by takeover.
The automation for field operations is already in place believe it or not. Nearly all outside technicians dispatch via WFE (Work Flow Engine) of some kind today and 2020 and beyond will introduce automated geolocation, routing and assignments via intelligent dispatch automation. Were not to far off from being able to hand a new tech a laptop/iPad, vehicle, tools and materials and they could go out and work efficiently right out of the gate with little else.
@ayk+13kHOlmv, JD left because he wanted to roadblock the union in 2019 and Randall didn’t. It’s that simple. 2019 was the year they wanted giveback on some of the nonsense Cadillac language in the bargaining agreements. JD was more than willing to wait the Southeast work stoppage out for the duration specifically, no matter how long it went on and Randall wasn’t. Only one of them was the CEO. Do the math.
There was nothing wrong with DTV until the death star purchased it. Period. They never had price increases, they HAD the best customer service. Then Vader bought them and ran them into the ground. Sure, eventually technology would have put DTV to rest ; but not at the rate Vader is doing it and it would have been handled much differently. Instead, the Death Star took something good and ran it into the ground.
One group that will not be affected are those in upper management making over $250k!
every part of the company will be effected - remember your fearless leader said no place is safe.
They need to close Loyalty/Retention. They have, like, 15 offices and since the majority are UVerse based services and DTV, which means they will most likely go by way of overseas call centers or contract call centers. Besides, most have a high turnover rate and anybody there with any time is only there to retire soon.
Network operations has been affected by layoffs every quarter for the last 2 years and the network is far from being automated. Sometimes I wonder if JD left because he talked big about how much automation was in place when the fact is there has been very little progress made in automating the BB infrastructure. Now we're facing more cuts because they assumed we could surplus people due to automation but that just isn't reality.
You do realize that Dtv has basically no upkeep except for the occasional srv call for alignment issues?.....this hatred for Dtv employees who NEVER asked to be bought is unwarranted and tbh you are probably the type of b@;$h who would never say that to ones face. The fact that we still do on average 3-5 jobs a day in rural areas and still have our service/customer srv numbers above you’re preferred ranks should say something....
DTV is also causing significant pain to AT&T - they either need to find a buyer for it and quick, or unfortunately, let a lot of people from legacy DTV go. Stankey needs to be fired first though for the acquisition of DTV
"There may be cut backs in network operations when the network becomes fully automated. "
While no doubt there will be more cut in operations, it is a pipe dream that "full automation" will ever occur. The holes in the automation seen now are huge enough to drive a aircraft carrier through. And now there is no capital to fix any of the identified deficiencies. And it has gotten much more expensive to fix any of the outsourced systems thanks to Ratty's and JD's rebadging! Time to pull the rip cord on your golden parachute Ratty!
There is an official plan announced years ago, called 20-20. The layoffs will occur in areas with obsolete technologies, namely wireline. There may be cut backs in network operations when the network becomes fully automated.