Lately, it feels as if AT&T has become synonymous with mediocrity. Why are people encouraged to not give their all by being commended for doing their bare minimum? It's hurting the company and it's hurting all of us who are actually trying to do better.
Why would you want your employees to not give it their all?
We don't encourage it, but we ultimately derive to it, buy finding a middle ground, and going forth with what came out of the toxic wash and there you have it, the best foot that we can place forth
It’s just not a competetive environment (at least when I left). I certainly saw more competition and a desire to be the best on the AT&T Business channel with direct sellers and such. It still was likely only 20%-30% of your team that was looking to outwork those around us. However, I’m sure non-union and commission based targets influenced that. Any part of AT&T I’ve been in has some type of bargained workforce - I’ve seen a Hell of a lot of complacency. I understand the intent of a Workers Union, however as many things, the bargained employees has used it as a resource to become entitled, complacent, and a way to push all blame onto the company. The Union brings (or brought) value by protecting worker’s rights and ensuring competetive pay - yet it also overly protects some of the laziest and most toxic employees in the workforce. It’s made it OK to do the bare minimum and blame layoffs and other shortcomings on the company while taking no accountability for their decline in productivity and overall value they bring to an organization. Additionally, this makes a company of AT&T’s size incredibly difficult to change direction for the better. Times change, needs of the business change, technology changes, and the way an organization utilized their workforce must change as well. When you have a large group of people trying to “run them out of money”, wanting to hold on to irrelevant jobs, and do the same thing they did for the past 20 years - it’s a recipe for mediocrity.
I have to dumb it down for my Management as I am concerned about job security. As the person in the above reply said I am trying to "stay below the radar". When I have come up with solutions, cost saving efforts, have tried to explain things in any depth or go the extra mile I get the feeling it is not appreciated or may just be others insecurities. I am not sure as maybe worried I will outshine them? It is one strange environment for sure where mediocrity is favored.
Try to run them out of $$$.
Don, is that you??? :D
It's a matter of keeping a balance of staying off the radar. Too good: you're cheating, yes man, backstabber; not good enough: you're a waste of skin, a drain, a problem child. The middle means you don't blimp on the radar as some type of outlier, there for just a median performer as in normal, nothing to see here, move along. There, that was some data science I applied in discussion that I learned from my worthless Nanodegree.
The "run them out of $$$" guy wins again. Enjoy his/ her posts, much wisdom there.
Because mediocrity is the cheapest route!! Costs to much to actually train a workforce! The whole company is smoke and mirrors!!
If a tech averages 5 jobs a day in a given month he/she is a great tech.
Someone who does 2 jobs a day that month is not.
Say the following month 5 job guy falls to 4 job average.
2 job guy gets up to 3 jobs a day.
5 job guy gets spoken to about his falling productivity.
3 job guy gets accolades for his increase, even though he is doing less than 5 job guy still.
It pays to be in the middle. That way when they flip the glass over, you're still in the middle.
Stop giving a sh–.
Try to run them out of $$$.
The last thing most of us are thinking about is being a top performer. It’s a matter of survival and avoiding the layoff list for as long as possible. It will eventually get the majority of us and we all know it. Morale has been crushed and there is no incentive to go above and beyond. It’s a shame because most of us are wired to want to excel.
We had a top performer on our crew. One morning the manager walked into the crew room and shook his hand for receiving the highest performance numbers in the district for the previous quarter.
Then the next day the same manager wrote him up because a report said he didn't precall a customer before leaving on a job. Even though the employee claimed that he did.
This type of pettiness is why employees lose their morale at this place and go from eager top performers to just another member of the herd.
You have obviously not been with the company long enough to know who Management works. As the previous posts have mentioned, it does not make you a better employee. You want to be in the middle and out of managements eye. Being on top and achieving or going above goals will only make you manager want more and mor and more from you. That’s ok, you will learn the hard way and understand that the middle is where you want to be. Conversely, being at the bottom isn’t fun either. YOU WILL BE TARGETED! Expect it and understand it’s happening. You can be recognized one day and written up the next. Believe it.
There is absolutely nothing to be gained by going above and beyond at this company, and in fact it puts a target on your back as management wonders what you did to achieve higher metrics than everybody else.
If someone wants to be promoted in their career path, that is achieved through the copious use of brown nosing your superiors. Actual performance required for promotions merely needs to be average.
The safest place at this company is to stay in the middle of the herd and not do anything that will make you stand out. Those that stand out, good or bad, are punished for it. A culture of mediocrity and conformity is not exactly a way to create an environment of overachievers.
Plus the company intends to lay us all off eventually anyway. That doesn't exactly help morale.
It's better not to over effort and risk getting hurt.
Oh I don’t know maybe it the quarterly layoffs no matter how hard d you work yet the company continues hiring new people. Maybe because you are perfectly qualified for jobs and yet never get them because they are already filled before the job is posted. That is just two off the top of my head. Att won’t get any more money from me period. Good luck to you all I just hope new college kids stay far away from this company.
Quotas create this inherent problem. You are saying there is a standard that when met, keeps you in good standing as an employee. In a union shop you get paid the same for exceeding those quotas as you do for just reaching the threshold. Tell me again why exceeding expectations should be the norm...
Metrics...
If you are a top performer, you are scrutinized for possible cooking your numbers. If you are a poor performer they think you are not doing your job. If you perform in the middle, no one cares and you are left alone.
This will permeate a group and set the tone for all future actions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n5E7feJHw0