It’s no secret inside or outside the company: Stankey is on thin ice. The board can only cover for him so long with stock price smoke and mirrors while the foundation crumbles.
Under his watch we’ve had massive outages leaving customers furious and regulators circling, along with embarrassing data breaches exposing millions of people’s personal info and destroying trust in the brand. On top of that, his tone-deaf RTO mandate tanked morale, drove talent out the door, and turned AT&T into a poster child for corporate arrogance. And how did he respond? Not with solutions, but with ultimatums in all-hands emails.
This isn’t leadership — it’s a slow-motion collapse. Employees know it. Customers know it. Shareholders are starting to realize it too. Stankey’s “commit or quit” email didn’t motivate anyone; it broadcast desperation. And with every outage, every breach, every resignation, it’s clearer that he’s not the guy to fix this mess.
Don’t be shocked if the board makes a move. At this point, the only real question is whether they’ll act in time to save what’s left of AT&T.