Thread regarding American Electric Power Co. Inc. layoffs

Stakeholders are going to take back their dignity and shareholders shall have none.

Former 8 year AEP employee here. Left 2 years ago and it was the best thing I have done for my career. Even so, it hurts to see the company in shambles like this and I wish everyone here the best luck in finding a new position or adapting to the "changes" at AEP. Please, don't stay out of some sense of loyalty to the company; I almost did and looking back it would have been a huge mistake. Side note, is anyone willing to post a copy of the current SP20 salary chart on imgur or somewhere? Really just curious how much (or little) it has changed since I left.

"They take 3+ years to train on extremely niche subjects that no one else knows about and are imperative to our grid functioning"

Good luck finding someone from who is left to train new people

I accepted an offer at another company and put in my notice at AEP. I just couldn't justify staying with this company any longer. AEP today is not the AEP I signed on with 10 years ago.

My new position is a 30% pay bump over AEP's salary. To those who are stuck because of this brutal job market, my thoughts are with you. To those who are able to find new positions, get out while you can, and best of luck!

It is not just RTO. Let's make a list.

1. AEP pay is below standard. Say it is comparable all you want pointy headed bosses but it is not. People are making large gains in compensation when they leave AEP.

2. Management is too slow to increase pay as engineers progress. Always a tight pool for raises and they leave new engineers at lower grades too long. This in turn means that once they are getting more self sufficient/trained they can leave for better pay at any one of the OECs.

3. Pay banding means that anyone with experience/time in band is getting less % of money every year. Less experienced employees get a larger share as they are lower in the pay band. While it is not a huge difference, it is a percent every year that you losing and it compounds over the years of service.

4. ICP. One of the things that AEP has had right in the past. It helped with the lower average pay getting that money in March.

Well that $ won't be there in March of 2026. Bill is giving that money back to investors as returns as Bill thinks you are all overpaid! And I mean look at the evidence. That overpayment is why it is so easy to hire replacement engineers. That is why there is always 30 applicants with every P&C job posted and supervisors can just pick the cream of the crop. Management can replace any Principal or Staff engineer in what maybe a week?

Feel free to add other things to the list. Maybe Bill will read it at lunch.

Transmission P&C is absolutely wrecked now and this is all RTO’s fault. Really not sure how AEP can handle the footprint without enough in house P&C engineers. They take 3+ years to train on extremely niche subjects that no one else knows about and are imperative to our grid functioning

I have no options. I have been cornered like a rat. I am being humiliated. I am too sweet for this world.

You know that is what they are doing so vote with your feet. It is that easy. Last person to leave can turn off the lights.
Management wants to continue to turn the sc--ws on everyone so respond by firing them and going somewhere else.

I’m so buried in work I can’t breathe. They keep dumping more and more on me and I feel like it’s being done on purpose. Somebody needs to know that AEP is quiet firing.

I retired from AEP with one of the cuts last year. Best decision ever! But as I watch so many companies RTO I realize that it impacts more than just the employees. As a grandparent we are more than glad to step up to the plate and help when needed to get kids off the bus. But i am thankful it will not be a full time or every day commitment. I enjoy the occasional need, but i feel for families that now have to change everything. It reaches far beyond just the employees

Worst company I’ve ever worked for (8 yr), I’ll be leaving soon- management is a joke

I left AEP. It was really hard to do. I thought I worked for a company that CARED for its employees. I know now that my biggest mistake was staying too long. I never really had great management in my almost 2 decades of employment.
They treated me like sh-t after I resigned too. It tells me they have no ability to reflect on how they treat their employees the past few years.
I really thought it was me, but seing this websight I know I was not alone. I started hating my country and all my decisions in my life and serving the country. I listed to God Bless The USA the other day and realized, I oicked up and started over again with only my wife and kids, but I am blessed because I live in the USA.
I would say if AEP does not match your you anymore leave. There is nothing worse then working for liars. AEP is not the only utility. I have increased my wages and knowledge in less than a year. Dont be afraid to take a risk. You are leaving with all your knowledge.
I am also not so sure if they are making the company fail. This way they can break it up and sell it. There is no way they can pull of this once in a lifetime growth for AEP with employees being so upset and dis engaged. The once in a lifetime maybe their plans to break the company and sell its assetts. AEP has great assetts for sure.

I had an interaction today that I hope will be encouraging to some of you. I’m struggling with RTO and it’s not because I’m lazy or rebellious. If you’re not a churchy person, I’m sorry. I think there’s something here for everyone though.

I had Sunday School today and the teacher, who is also our pastor, asked several of us to share something we’re struggling with that would not be too personal to share. I mentioned RTO and the negative impact it will have on my finances, my personal happiness and quite frankly, my ability to be a good parent. Before I even got two sentences out, the teacher started laughing and said this was apparently something people at other congregations had been sharing with their pastors, and something he had counseled a few people on at our church as well. Surprised me, but he then spoke about his time in corporate America, and how companies are nakedly showing themselves as anti-family, anti-community, anti-employee etc with their actions over the past few years, including RTO.

His thoughts were that companies requiring RTO for people who don’t really need to be in the office, are ‘shameful’ and asking you to place more importance on your work than the rest of your life. He then compared them to churches who ask elderly and poor congregants to tithe, knowing how damaging it is. And that based on his reading of the bible and even books from other faiths, our society has placed an unethical value on “work” that does not align with how humans are intended to live. His words really struck me. I know this will have a negative impact on my family, but knowing that our company leadership ALSO KNOWS how this will impact our families, truly stinks. They just don’t care.

Another woman mentioned her employer backtracked on RTO after employees showed the impact it had on their children’s scores and behavior in school etc. I didn’t even consider that but it’s now something else I am concerned with.

All this to say, if you’re struggling with an ethical component of this RTO, I am with you and starting to apply to places that don't require this, even if it means a reduction in pay. We have to put ourselves first people. My kids are not going to remember my bonus or performance review 20 years from now. Even if I did not have children, I would seriously hesitate to give AEP untold hours of my life back (and money), knowing it would impact my ability to do things I care about. I’d have taken a paycut to stay remote if it was an option. Start looking!

I had an interview lined up that I cancelled like an id--t because a wave of delusion washed over me about being hopeful for AEP's future.
An hour after I cancelled the interview, we had a staff meeting and I realized I made a horrible mistake, AEP is crashing and burning from an employee perspective. I started reaching out to the recruiter begging to unwithdraw my withdraw. I was even going to get a sizable pay bump. Don't make the mistake I did, get out if you can.

There’s a fair amount of people interviewing with other companies, including me. And contrary to what we are being fed by our management, still a lot of companies offering remote and hybrid work!

Every time I think I'll try to come back in, just because I've been here so long, and we have such great front line managers, the top level does or says something incredibly strange, weird or stupid that makes ZERO sense next to their stated objectives. I keep making up my mind, and then changing it. I think my subconscious is doing the right thing, and maybe I just need to also.

I'm curious how many other people are actively interviewing with new companies. I fully expect to be out of AEP before everyone returns to the office in June. AEP now has a GlassDoor rating of 3.3. That's a horrible score that would be even worse if it wasn't for the thousands of 5 star reviews from years past. I would never go to a new company with that low of a score. They will struggle attracting good talent because of this. Realistically, AEP is a low 2.

Looks like you will be walked out the same day you resign. They will pay you for the notice period. Give a 1 or 2 months notice just to rub it in.

NON OLIGARCH SUPER POPULUM!

The Spirit of 1776 RESOLUTELY ENDURES!

AEP's moto should be Rich people helping rich people become richer.

No sane human being can endure this whipsaw leadership much longer, First we involuntary and voluntary severance over a thousand employees in a ploy to diminish compensation for new hires and now we are offering bonuses because no sane person wants to hire into this insanity driven by unbridled rabid greed. Pay people to leave and then have to turn around and pay people to join because of the diminished compensation and toxic work environment that is driving employees to quit, retire, engage in substance abuse to cope or come to work with a fatalistic outlook on the future. We are being led to sla-ghter by a wolf posing as a shepherd. It is time for the livestock to stampede.

No amount of monetary incentive shall entice qualified potential employees to wade neck deep into this chaos addicted, soul su-king cesspool of vainglorious shareholder aggrandizement and the drama king leadership that revels in the torment, anguish and misery they deliberately and gleefully impose upon their employees and customers.

Ridiculous..they give sign on bonuses and bringing even more contractors to help, but can't even compensate those of us going back to an office after being hybrid 5yrs or busting butt for these new assembled teams out of knowhere?! Also having to move out of family owned homes for a high price housing and apartment renting market in a few months?!. AEP about to lose more of us soon. I'm already job hunting since we lost the remote and hybrid flexibility. AEP is going downhill for sure now

Why are we doing sign on bonuses? You want to attract new hires? How about offering them....hybrid schedules???

I have heard the $1500 will be paid after 6 months. If they think that will lure experienced people then that shows how much they care. I agree experienced engineers will be pretty much gone before RTO date. 3 staff level people resigned in my department on Friday.

$1500 sign on bonus is laughable. Better off not even offering that. It shows you are desperate enough to try something to lure people to engineering but don’t really care at the same time. A lot of people left right after the bonus Friday. It has begun. Soon there won’t be anyone experienced left in engineering except for management.

One calamity after another. The competent ruled over by the incompetent seems to be a reoccurring theme. My how the worthless value themselves above all others. The clique inflates egos to the point of bursting. So many strutting peacocks with their plumage on full display. Taylor Sheridan's Landman is a cautionary tale about the perils of working in the energy sector, not afraid to portray the ugly and inconvenient truth about wealth and power. See if you recognize Bill and a few of his underlings.

"I am sure the new $1500 signing bonus will bring many senior/principal engineers to Engineering!"
Not sure if planning can offer $10,000 for the same person. Move to planning if you still work in transmission engineering.

"Most of the good ones in transmission P&C resigned today. It will be fun how they will keep it afloat."

I am sure the new $1500 signing bonus will bring many senior/principal engineers to Engineering!

Ok, I could not say that without laughing. On the plus side, if most of engineering leaves we can all make 30% more working for the OECs that AEP will need to hire to get the work done.
Good luck to all of the people that jumped into the pool today. Come on in, the water is warm.

Is it true that the EVP from Cook was moved to corporate job because he allowed s-xual harrassment?

Most of the good ones in transmission P&C resigned today. It will be fun how they will keep it afloat.

Not sure why everyone has an issue, we have Best Friend Friday and Sammy Bear, the culture is outstanding!

I can assure you that I didn't nail Karl to a cross. He put himself up there. I have better things to do. I am going to take my ICP and go buy some bargain stocks.

He was poor, oppressed and exploited too. Your kind nailed him to a cross for being a virtuous contrast to their virtue-less oligarchy.

Political campaign financing is immense stolen wealth invested in a corrupt and unjust system of government as a we-pon of mass oppression, exploitation and abominable subjugation. PAC money is raised to enrich and empower an immensely wealthy PAC of capitalist oligarchs, criminals and thieves, who swear allegiance only to themselves and their insatiable greed. Remember the Pledge of Allegiance we all recited in public school? They didn't attend public schools.

Bill Fuhrman can kiss my fat a$$ if he thinks I’m giving even one red cent of my measly ICP to the AEP PAC. Let’s see him give up his $14,000,000

F.... Bill, I'm not giving a dime to anything associated with AEP. Don't ask me for donations for anything, I'll give to organization outside of AEP and F... United Way, Not a dime, don't ask.

How about you just keep your money and not give it to a PAC or a Union?

Therace's stock bonus posted on AEP.com was 20,500 shares at $107 a share. Totals just under $2.2 million.

We are better off supporting a union instead of the AEP PAC. Who gives money so their employer can bribe their elected representatives to empower and enable the company to oppress and exploit its employees and customers? Dum--ss conservative boss's butt smoochers and wa-kers.