Just informed I was suspended without pay because I had 8 lines last year that aren’t being used by a customer and now I’m in trouble. They called it no usage or zero usage lines, something like that.
My question is how long can I be suspended for?
3 months? 6 months?
L M A O
Finally
They told me 8 lines last year total over all my accounts I’ve sold to had zero usage. I mainly hunt white space, which is brutal, but these 8 lines consisted of 4 zero usage lines on one account, and 2 on another and 2 on the last account. All these accounts were white space. When they asked me I said “I don’t know why they aren’t being used” because I truly don’t. Honestly it’s none of my business. By the way they also took my laptop and cou. I’m suspended until they complete their investigation.
When I made this post it was to try to understand what’s going on, not to ask your opinion if you think it’s legit or not.
I don’t care what you think, I care what the people investigating me for this witch hunt thinks. Ever had your job on the line for something that you can’t control and where nothing was done wrong by yourself?
It su-ks.
8 lines with no usage? You really expect me to believe that's legit?
That is terrible. I heard Asset Protection is trying to find every little mistake to fire salespeople. They are now finally after a decade making sure no one counts fiber upgrades as new sales. All AVPs never said anything about upgrades so they could be on top of reports. Wireline revenue was never growing. It was all fraud. Many of the fiber upgrades were going to Solution Providers who were counting these as new sales and were making tons of money. The leadership was finally smart and got rid of dual comp between the direct teams and Solution Providers.
30 days then you will be removed from payroll.
AT&T does not suspend people, they fire them. Suspension is just the first step in the disciplinary termination process.
..... They fired everyone in Orlando over that. I was wondering why the manager was still there then he surprisingly "RETIRED" without a notice.
I work in Orlando (Research Parkway) and never saw this. Facts? When did this happen? What Director? Please backup your posting with more data.
Sounds like a summit winner to me
You all are correct, SBC/AT&T leadership created the environment for bad behavior when they went to the individual contributor (put a % of salary at risk) model and unattainable metrics that are constantly changing. It’s become the proverbial of out running the lion scenario, where one only has to outrun their competition to survive. It doesn’t promote pulling together as a team for a common goal and taking care of the customer who pays the bills. It has made a toxic work environment, especially for direct reports.
Managers now are forced to only care about making green checks on a dashboard for ratings, making bonuses, doing better than their peers while being pressured by their manager to do whatever it takes to make the bonus. It creates bad behavior to survive the lion’s den so, the customer, employee and ethics aren’t part of the equation. It’s created a cancer that has grown bigger every year, as surpluses have accelerated so has bad behavior.
As stated this is such a common and unfortunate cycle. So many feel pressured to play the game they mostly know is wrong, but it is so common in that quotas and targets are usually built on historical data which has all these fraudulent lines in it.
Sellers get put on performance plans when they don’t achieve high enough results. Many end up playing the game because they feel they have no choice. Many justify it that the quotas almost dictate the behavior in order to achieve them. This isn’t just mobility either. This trend is all across most sales parts of the company. There are versions of it in the various fiber/wireline segments with constantly churning technology claiming new revenue sales in order to find ways to hit the targets. Targets many believe have this behavior expected built in.
It is part of the overall death spiral we are in from failed leadership and such internal 3th-5th level leadership struggles to stay “valuable” as that whole group knows we have WAY too many 3rd and 4th level people. They don’t care how results on spreadsheets are accomplished, just as long as they aren’t at the bottom for performance. It would be fun to hook them up to polygraphs when audits hit and they are asked tough questions.
The only way to rid it is set some type of rule where if a certain percentage of an area is caught in questionable sales/reporting, or has a certain huge amount not hitting targets that were set, then 3-5th levels are terminated. Force those people to really try and get things right, or they don’t have jobs. Rewrite everything and figure out what level of targets can be a stretch to work hard, but not so impossible it causes significant volumes of the workforce to create fraud, and where 70-80% of an organization is not hitting targets. Then step up aggressive audits.
If targets still create fraud, wipe out that upper leadership, promote some lower mgmt, and try again. If almost all the organization is below target after 6-12mo, then wipe out that upper leadership and try again. If it takes a couple cycles so be it, but the ship will begin to right itself and stop sinking, or at least this area of it.
It’s the only way this place can get back to sales actually trying harder to properly do their jobs, leadership asking the right levels of activity/work from their people while DOING IT RIGHT, and help try and save this company. There will always be a level of weeding out poor performers or lazy sellers, but that should not be a large percent. May all be in vain anyways after a few more years, but this is how I would try to right this section of the ship.
Company only cares about this when an official agency or lawyer catches them with their hand in the cookie jar. Until then the management team promotes or looks the other way for cramming until caught because they are making numbers and getting bonuses. When caught, all of sudden they are shocked and surprised that their reports would do something unethical, even though they were complicit all along too.
Moral of story; Don’t do it! No matter what they say or how hard they push you. If ordered get it in writing or an email and save it forever. Not hard to figure out, this is only the 1,000th time it’s happened, Groundhog Day. Is a few extra $$ worth your job?
They fired everyone in Orlando over that. I was wondering why the manager was still there then he surprisingly "RETIRED" without a notice.
They may have done you a favor, get an earlier opportunity to leave and find a job before they surplus a lot of your peers.
Consider yourself the canary in the coal mine. Everyone caught after you will receive the same treatment that you receive.
We had training in this earlier in the year and my manager has been super focused on it. I understand Compliance is very focused on it. Word on the street is that T-Mobile pads their numbers by tricking Spanish speaking people to buy multiple lines at discounts not telling them the rates will go up after.
They would need to let go of 50% of Platinum and BAT sellers for the exact same thing. Managers and Directors endorse the activity.
Suspensions = pending termination. Boss is waiting on HR and Legal approvals to move forward with separation meeting.
I don’t understand how this is getting thru legal… Zero usage is after I sell it…. In order to prevent this I’d either have to be psychic or have the customer send me something writing everytime I place an order swearing on the Bible that they will be using the lines I send them…. The latter has never been expected of sellers nor have they been coached to require it….
Am I naive no are there sellers out there who probably have 25-50- even a hundred plus absolutely. They should absolutely be held accountable but hemming people up for 4 and 8 is a joke…. It’s like giving someone the death penalty for “suspected” jaywalking….
If T wanted these lines gone they could put verbiage in the business agreements that 90 days of no usage we will cancel a line…. Plenty of time to still charge back the seller and coach where needed… But thats not what their after… They don’t want those lines off the network that’s revenue with no strain on the network… What they want is employees off payroll… No different than the cop waiting down a block down from the bar trying to hem you up for DUI. If they wanted the roads safer they could provide free breathalyzers outside the bar…. Instead they allow you to do it for the sole purpose of locking you up… We are going to lose some good folks behind this cop out and you won’t be able to save them. A shame we have to resort to this foolishness to get people out instead of managers doing their job and coaching bad apples out the right way.
PS at the 4-8 line mark going back all the way to 2022 if they truly did this fair across the board mobility may lose close to 50% and the ones left lol our companies doomed. Either new hires or they sold little to nothing in 2022 or 2023 so can’t be on zero usage with basically zero sales
There is no suspension time frame unfortunately they don’t run this like the NFL…. You’re only suspended while the official papers are drafted and approved by legal to terminate your employment…. 8 lines isn’t egregious unfortunately wrong place wrong time…. They will clear out a ton of folks this way vs paying severance packages when they consolidate BAT/Fiber
1st order of business…. Go to every doctor/dentist medical appointment you can and refill all meds while you have insurance… Even if you leave voluntarily at this point it’s too late you’ll be marked non-rehireable… Throwing you manager under the bus isn’t going to help either even if you have something in writing. They’d likely come back with you’re a management employee and you didn’t report it and you knew better…. Start applying outside immediately and don’t answer your personal phone or come in if they call you in lol… Make them keep trying to contact you until they resort to mailing the term to your home address may buy you some time with insurance…
I’d call COBC and report your supervisor who coached you on adding value by activating additional lines. You’re still being fired, but you can try to get your boss that coached you fired as well. Don’t bother reporting L3+, they just used you to hit their numbers. They’ll hire a new pawn when you’re out on your duff.
haha
Bye!
So you were cramming lines to make numbers and they caught you. We are suspended until they get the necessary HR sign offs and then you’re fired.
If they think you’ve been cramming extra lines onto customer accounts I suggest you start putting out resumes so you can leave ‘voluntarily’.
How many years you got? Is it worth the fight?