Thread regarding American Electric Power Co. Inc. layoffs

Obviously other utilities have leaders worthy of the title. Us, not so much. Shared sacrifice equals shared reward. Maybe it truly is time to seek out professional employers instead of the 3rd tier mediocre leadership that gets the most for doing and being the least. The diminishing carrot at the end of a very long stick got old a long time ago. Based on the failure of the Kentucky sale, botched rate cases, and a $19 million payout for Ohio HB6 Scandal settlement I am shocked corporate got a penny of ICP, if the same standards were applied to them as they apply to us. They have failed the shareholders and we are the scapegoats covering their financial failures.

He didn't just ask for us to give to the PAC, he hinted that this is what our ICP money should be used for.

https://www.wymt.com/2025/03/13/complaint-filed-against-kentucky-power/

Just got an email from Bill Fehrman advertising the AEP PAC. It is a really bad look for the company to be asking for PAC donations when AEP just settled that SEC lawsuit around HB6. Talk about poor timing. This company just keeps getting worse and worse!

The hardest part about working at AEP?
Figuring out how to use the stupid timecard system.
Why do I have do to this anyways, isn't the only remaining benefit of being salary that you don't have to fill out a timecard?
Why is it so tedious? Why are there thousands of different possible codes to select from? Are they just hoping we give up and don't enter any time in?

My issue with the ICP structure is it’s not just something extra to be given away as bonus money. It has been defined as “pay at risk”. If you su-k you don’t get it, if you do what’s asked of your job you get your pay, if you do great you can get more.
But what could be used to say we as a company did what was expected of us? Maybe hitting the midpoint of EPS. That sure seems like doing what’s asked of us and should warrant our full pay, not just half.
If ICP is truly too much to payout when the company is meeting its published goals maybe the obscene percentages in the top third of the pay scale should be reevaluated. Other utilities also have an incentive compensation structure but from what I’ve been able to find the higher end of our pay scale is much more lucrative.

How about this, if the majority of the work is done by 80% of the people, shouldn't 80% of the ICP go to said people? 20% can go to upper management who's real work is just to sit around waiting for the 80% to complete their work?

Use the random generated id @1vc2+1qB6FXi3

That was from your posting. Problem is, most people are not going to go back and look to see if it was them.

Wish I could figure out how to reply directly to a message.

I’d reply to this one:

“Did Bill really call employees parasites? Or is that more made up stuff?”

I don’t know about that but my supervisor refers to everyone on the team as their employees. Not teammates, co workers or colleagues, employees.

This is your reminder to go to GlassDoor and give your honest rating on AEP.

Culture has nothing to do with RTO. Work balance has nothing to do with it. Productivity has nothing to do with it. When I first started at AEP we had 5.5' walls for our cubes. Then they removed those and replaced with 5' walls with a foot of glass at the top. Then we were moved to a bull pen, 4 people sharing one common area, if you were lucky, it was only another person. Then we were moved to an area with a string of desks facing each other. There is only one word that sums it all up, CONTROL. Plain and simple, it's all about control. Make a comment on social media that corp doesn't like, you can be fired over it even if you did it on a Sunday from your own PC. Control, nothing short of total control is at the heart of this RTO. Bill hayes the fact they have less than total control when you're at home even if you are working your tail off.
I am at the end of my career with AEP - Anything Except Productive. Good luck to all who decide to stay, may God have mercy on your soul.

I don't work at 1RP, is Bill even accessible or visible at all or does he just like land on top of the building on a helipad and ride a special elevator to an office suite that isn't connected to the rest of the building?

Did Bill really call employees parasites? Or is that more made up stuff?

Agree with Aviation...curious how much it costs for a certain EVP and his cronies he promoted who take the private jet back and forth from St Joseph Mi to Columbus each week like it's an Uber service...if they need to be in the Columbus office full time, make them move....if they can't be in Columbus then maybe they shouldn't have been given their positions...

Get rid of AEP Aviation if you want to save some real money

White male here that doesnot want to return to the office because all those people will think i am only thrre because of my privallege and if I say anything that goes against someone elese beliefs, i will be accused of being a racists, anti- women or a moongoose whst ever that means. Culture means everything. The compant became divided before Bill. All utities face the same challenges and not all utilities are goingvthrough whst AEP is going through.

Corporate institutional leadership embracing and preferentially selecting individuals from their own clique for promotions enabled mediocrity when interest rates were low and cruising on auto-pilot is what got us to this point. Everyone knew interest rates would not stay below 4% forever and corporate institutional leadership had ample time to formulate a plan for when the headwinds returned to our industry. We as employees do not have a petty cash account, (employees, retirees and customers) we can fall back on when we make bad financial decisions to cover our loses. For the very definition of a parasite, Bill to have the unmitigated gall and audacity to call the employees of this company parasites is defamatory and infuriating.

The immensely wealthy want to live in America and never have to sacrifice TO BE Americans. Enjoying our way of life requires immense sacrifice of our nation's military members and first responders and their families. Virtually every American, who is not immensely wealthy sacrifices to preserve our way of life. Paying taxes, donating to charities, donating to victims in times of natural disasters, donating time to help others and just being virtuous, decent human beings, who live and let live make America great. Being a greedy, self-serving pr--k exploits and diminishes America's greatness to the detriment of righteous citizens for the vainglorious self-aggrandizement of parasitic immensely wealthy American freeloaders. The Second Gilded Age shall end the same as the first when the Inevitable Virtuous American Reckoning re-imposes virtue upon our virtue-less parasitic inferiors.

What is the most innovative product or process AEP has created in last five years?

Zoom out, what about all of AEPs history?

If they really wanna save money they’d do away with all take home vehicles especially for the non managers. Especially now with being in office five days a week no reason for people like engineers to be taking them home. It’s a nice perk but it would save some money so might be less pressure on people to leave or alleviate other major negatives.

AEP’s leadership is over 90% white male. More than 70 of the 80 or so leaders are white males. That is a proven fact, not an opinion. Just look at the leadership page.

But by golly, it’s those undeserving women and minorities who caused two severances last year, forced AEP to give Carl Icahn those board seats, implemented 5 days in office, a hiring freeze, and raised the bonus standard to a level so high that we’ll be lucky to see a fraction of it. It was the less than 10% of leaders who are “DEI” who caused all this chaos!

ELT if you’re reading this, these comments are exactly why me and many other women have zero desire to come back to the office 5 days a week. We have to reenter an environment where mongooses think we’re here because of “DEI”. Lord I pray I can get out of this place.

Veterans or possibly white male veterans were not included in the DEI at AEP from my perspectives. Turn a blind eye. It may help you, but it does nit hide the truth. The company got to political. This allinated half of the company. Why did AEPs comments get turned off?

You can say what you want about DEI. I support anybody who will try. However, i did see in my department a female that was not in the department get the position as a supervisor. The current supervisor who was retiring and mentoring an individual who was in that depsrtment for 10 years said, i am pulling for you but you are not a women. When he retired his job was not posted and a female with no experience got the job. That is not right. I think this was hapoening all over the company. Neither to say the department loss three workers after that. If you dint think this hurts a company you are not being serious. Just because you did not see it does not mean it did not occur either. In order for DEI to work there needs to be some merit based decision as well. AEP did not role out Equity correctly. It was toxic.

A-friggin men to the last post!! Probably right of center politically and I certainly didn’t agree with everything AEP said or did. Some things I did agree with.

What I do know is none of that stuff had any impact on our business. Zero. If interest rates were low and a couple failed transactions and rate cases went a different way, the company would have been in better shape. Nothing makes millionaires and billionaires happier than us regular people blaming each other when things go off track. It’s the old divide and conquer.

People are snidely back to blaming DEI and politics for the problems at AEP. Sigh. I’m a white guy on a team that is 95% white male and in my more than 10 years at the company, my business unit has never had a supervisor, manager or executive that is not a white male. Now, we have great leadership. I stand by them. But our unit faces substantial performance issues and challenges. And has for years. Those problems largely exist due to economic and industry challenges.

Tons of companies that have embraced social causes have and continue to perform well. And of all the companies I’ve worked at, AEP is by far the least diverse at the leadership level. By far. So I’m confident that AEP chiming in on a couple social issues did not lead to the absurd safety failures or regulatory failures AEP has had. They also didn’t lead to the mild weather years AEP dealt with or the high interest rates.

This is the same old tired song and dance. When all else fails, go back to blaming the “others” instead of our leaders who look like the vast majority of us who work at AEP and continue to drive the company into the ground. And if you’re claiming quotas hurt the company, tell us which departments have too many minorities, women or veterans leading them. Be transparent. Don't use vague talking points. Tell us the truth.

Our problems exist because of a challenging economy, regulatory issues and leaders who are more interested in milking every penny of earnings possible while crushing us employees in the process. Those are our problems. Not any so-called political boogeyman.

Lisa would have been a better CEO than the DEI pick of Julie. Julie checked more boxes and that was it. Her red chair was stupid in her attempt to relate with the employees. Lisa on the other hand was pushed out and Our loss was another company's gain.

Lisa was the next expected CEO. What would she have done differently? AEP would still have the tough regulatory environment to deal with.

I wrote this really long response to the gentleman below but in the end this place is really just f...d and there is nothing any of us can do about it. We're not Bill, we have zero power to affect change. So maybe deleting AEP is the best course.

Imagine someone else getting picked for CEO after Akins. What could’ve been…

Cleaning out my desk at home. Just recycled all of the awards, the 5, 10, 20, 25 and 30. Recycled the challenge coins, about a half dozen, yrs worth of Vet pins, all off to the recycling bin. Recycled the productivity awards I've received over the years, gone. Pitching all of my letters of appreciation and copies of my PMRs. When I'm done, I don't want any reminders of AEP in the house. Changed supplier for electric last month, not much of a savings but at least AEP is not getting part of it. Will be leaving this clown show soon. The one guy is right, 2020 was the turning point and Nick is to blame, he should have said, we're a public utility, not a political entity, we're staying out of it. You do what you want on your own time but while at work, focus on work and the customers.
He didn't and that started the downward trend and it wasn't all Covid, it was leadership, or lack of that got us to this point. I'm closing the last chapter in this book and then I'm recycling it. When someone asks me what I did for a living, I'll make something up, I will sure as he-l not tell them I worked for AEP. One last task, I have to delete my LinkedIn in account.

All we need is "Make AEP Great Again" hats and we should be good to go.

Bill says he is justified in cracking the whip on employees because most of our opcos rank low in customer satisfaction. But I think the primary reason customers dislike AEP is because of our rates, which have been increasing rapidly and are some of the highest in the country. Anyone I talk to who has AEP service says their power bill is outrageous, some of them say their power bill is more than their mortgage.
As employees we have nothing to do with the rates, in fact whenever customers interact with employees they have nothing but good things to say about them. All of their frustration seems to be stemming from decisions LEADERSHIP has made. Not employees.
So maybe the pain should be directed at LEADERSHIP, not us. If you want to make cuts maybe you can start with your own bloated salaries and the die-hard determination to give huge payouts to the sacred "shareholders."

I dont think Bill is to blame for him being elected CEO of a company. After 2020 AEPs culture became toxic. Leadership took the company and went idologically political. It does not matter what side you are own, the politics like that should not have entered the work force. They forgot the purpose of the company. I also believe the company became a company that promoted/hired for quotas instead of merit. This started the downslide if engagement and talent started leaving. If you dint think this is true, when was the comment section on AEP removed.
Bills has no ties to the making of AEP. His vision for the company is strictly shareholder value. There is no long term plans for AEPs success. Therefore, no value for employees. It is hard to walk away from a carrerr after almost 20 years. I did it and now I can look back and see how messed up AEP was. Bill is there because of the leadership failures before him. I would susspect most of those failures were because of the board of directors.

“AEP is struggling to hire”. You all need to be posting your experiences there at AEP on Glassdoor. I see funny posts out on LinkedIn about AEP needing engineers and other talent to come work for them ( so they have fresh new hires to add to the cesspool) so they have more employees to be treated like and called parasites. A post by Bob Carrol sounds so convincing that if I didn’t know what is going on there at AEP I would think it sounds like a great place and then apply for one of those jobs then waste valuable years of employment there and then one day be invited to a teams meeting with fellow hard working employees to then get the “ you are no longer an employee here at AEP. Get out of here you no good parasites.” Yea. I think I’ll pass AEP.

Geee thanks Bill and AEP executives... I was saving alot working from home now I'm scattering to find a decent place close to the offices recommended for me. There goes half my income due to moving expenses. As well as high apartment prices. Home rent is sky high now. Definitely keeping my options open for whoever offers me a better deal

AEP is struggling to hire. Nobody wants to work in a narrisisitic conservative clown circus where the ringmaster's ego will not fit under the big top and everybody works for peanuts.

Do I get to keep these cadillac monitors they gave me to work from home?
Dual screen!

To the poster indicating AEP has not sold properties...AEP has gotten out of major leases in the Columbus area since Covid. Also, unless something has changed, one entire building in New Albany has been leased to Intel and is also listed for sale. I think across our territory we have shed physical properties where we could. This is why some groups are still remote. I am not even convinced anyone did the analysis needed to ensure everyone they are demanding RTO can even fit in the space we have left in Columbus area. Feels like Bill makes decisions based on his 1960s "Mad Men" hey day where he says something and then it just happens. I'll be curious how they are setting up all the office spaces now since everyone working from home pretty much set up their own home offices. When we left to WFH we piled all the equipment (monitors, phones etc.) into conference rooms and most of it was disposed of in some way. Good luck everyone returning.

Bill here -
Today is Employee Appreciation Day. I just want to let you all know that, even though you haven't been performing up to par lately and you have forced me to make some tough decisions for your own good, AEP still appreciates you.

It may be the companies are getting a lot of pressure from city governments to get people back into the office to get that precious income tax. Columbus collects over 40% of it's tax collections on non-residents. They want their pound of flesh and I'll bet the company is getting a break somewhere. Follow the money. Democrats in City Hall are not very ethical, remember the red light kick backs to the city from the Az company that ran it

"To be ruled over, one must submit to authority. To be ruled over by virtue-less authority is to be subjugated to the whims of a tyrannical potentate."

Jesus it is a job. You are not chained to a machine punching tin hats 18 hours a day. Take your snowflake ar-e and find another job that makes you happier. I sware some of you ate paint chips as a kid.