Lots of IT people cut in Columbus
2636 replies (most recent on top)
Unless I missed an HR announcement changing the policy, I know people last year that had their last day as 1/31/24 and received a check at the end of March.
They were not part of the buyout, nor layoff but they
did give 4 week notice and did not retire. Now, it might have
been at the manager's discretion but they got the ICP.
High Commander Billiam Fearman has issued a new directive in his total war against AEP employees.
From now on, AEP employees will be bombarded with an aggressively escalating amount of more and more sophisticated phishing email. Those who fail the test will be....liquidated.
If you leave before March 14th and do not "retire" then you do not get your ICP for 2024. You have to retire to get that money for the 2024 ICP period.
ICP is a percentage of your salary and varies based on your salary grade. Search 2025 pay structure on AEP now and it’s listed on the linked document. Don’t expect a 100% payout, that hasn’t happened in a couple years.
@1nvs+1qB6FXi3
Example, you make $100000 and your an 8 which has a 10%
Payout so you starting at $10000. The multiplier turns out to be
- 58(this is the number everyone is waiting for)
$10000*1.58=$15,800. What you will actually see is
About 70% of that or about $11,000.
Depending on what your 401k match is set
to it could be a lot less.
If the multiplier is say .6 your payout is a lot less,
Like $6000 gross. If your position is set at 5,
You'll be starting out at $5000 not $10000.
I believe 9 and up it's 15%. I'm an 8 so I know mine
is set at 10%.
Technically they are supposed to give you 100% payout if you worked the entire year even if you leave between Jan 1st and the payout. But .... Do you trust them? The rules state that if you worked more then 6 months of the year, you earned 50% of the payout for the year. I seriously doubt those folks are going to get that money. They'll make some excuse not to give it to them.
PLUS AEP has generous sick time (for now until Bill also takes that away.) If things get bad, just take a sick day here and there until March payout.
How does the ICP calculation work? What % of base do we receive? Is there a FAQ on AEPNow?
To the person commenting about leaving before March, please don't do that. You've worked all year for your ICP bonus. Don't leave before you've cashed that check. ICP payouts should be sometime in March. If you start applying for other jobs today, and you go through the interview and hiring process asking to start in late March would be perfectly reasonable. That's my plan too. As soon as I get that ICP check this year I'm out.
Team morale is at an all time low. Our new manager lives states away and from what we’ve heard they’re not the best. What really kept me around was my previous supervisor and team. Now it’s gone to sh-t. I’m don’t want to see half the team leave and be left overloaded with work even more than we already are. It’s a very uncertain time.
I don’t think they’re expecting to lose me, but I think I’m gonna dip out. I was hoping to wait until the March pay out, but I don’t know if I can last that long. My group is being micromanaged beyond what is acceptable and I’m now documenting all of it. I probably won’t do anything with that information but it wouldn’t hurt. They’re trying to make the working conditions so uncomfortable that we leave on our own. But I don’t think I’m one of the people they’re trying to push out. The work still has to get done. I’m not retirement age, but I have enough money to leave. I just don’t give a f anymore.
If they valued employee feedback then we wouldn't be going back to the office. I bet if you polled the employees affected by this, the response would be overwhelmingly negative. They don't care what you think at all, they made their decision and that is the end of it.
I doubt they even look at this out of curiosity. They're too busy enjoying their millions.
The snowball employees are trying to push uphill just keeps growing bigger and bigger and eventually we will all just step aside and watch the destruction wrought by a self-obsessed corporate culture we no longer enable.
I wonder if the executives ever look at these discussions on various sites/threads just to get a feel on how their decisions are affecting people. I know I would just to see how things are going. Then again, I'm just a peon.
A pandemic incubator. Pack a ton of people into a small space and recirculate the air they breath. One employee comes to work sick and you loose 2/3's of a floor to sick days. They will be feeding you antibiotics in your food pellets and electrolytes in your water dispensers. Intelligent people can be so stupid when their is a greater profit to be made at other peoples' expense and detriment.
We don't even get full cubes anymore, they swapped out our old ones for the "zoo cubes" with the glass walls and much larger doorway so that you can be seen at all times. They also arranged us in giant rows like factory workers.
Whatever the last guy is drinking, I'll have one as well. I will say my tact will be a bit different, I'm not going to speak up at all. No suggestions to make things better, no input on any survey (if we have one), no speaking up at meetings. Missing as many meetings as possible due to "work" requirements. No replying to emails requesting input. Nothing other than the work associated to what I was hired to do. Bill made this decision, he gets to live with the results. Low morale will only be one indicator of its failure. I agree with the last guy, don't come to my cube to BS or complain, not interested in hearing it. However I may have a 5 minute rule, you need to have your questions limited to 5 minutes. So when you come into my cube, you will be on the clock. Bonus time may be added it you have cookies or cake.
Don't bother to shoulder tap me in the office, I'm going to tell you to put a ticket in and deal with TCS like every one else. Don't shoulder tap me, I'm not turning around, I'll have my headset on all day to ignore everyone. Don't bother asking me for anything with work order and project numbers, not doing it. Oh and if you're above a 1st line manager and feel like you deserve special treatment, F you, you can deal with TCS just like the rest of us.
In general, you want me in the office 5 days a week, I'm going to be the most pi---d off person in the world so stay clear of me, I don't give a dam about your culture now.
Since I wasn't allowed to take the buy out, me being here is your problem, not mine. The best part, I have enough money to retire right now, I can apply for early SS if I want, I have my points. Bill, F you, you don't scare me. I'm just sticking around to make people know the mistake they made and to sow discontent when and where I can before I leave. I'll be that guy that will ask the question that everyone wants to but are too scared to. Only thing I ask, stay the F out of my cube.
The biggest monsters offer the biggest dreams and then they sn---h them away. Our families and our sanity should be our first priority. When you have to lie, cheat and steal to succeed, all you are is a criminal.
They tried that with Julie, but she couldn’t win rate cases. It’s just the nature of the business. You need someone experienced at appeasing the commissions to make your bucks. I wonder if a utility could even get an exciting young CEO to come work there.
The only hope for that is a homegrown rockstar, but AEP doesn’t pay enough to keep those kind of folks around. The talented ones get the experience and leave to go get paid elsewhere.
Why doesn’t AEP hire a younger ceo and structure compensation in a way to incentive sounds long term investment decisions. Someone that is tech savvy to help unite all the disaggregated groups on one platform.
When leaders sow chaos and anarchy throughout their command they are no longer leaders, they instead are traitors. Remember Benedict Arnold? Bill is here to enrich Carl Icahn and himself. He deserves neither our respect nor our support. The sooner we fail him out of a job the better off we will all shall be.
I would guess it will be one of the external candidates based on his wording in the last meeting. Probably someone he has worked with before like the others.
Wonder if next announcement will be who is going to be President of Transmission.... last leader update was that they had one internal and several external candidates and said they planned to announce who would fill the role by the investor call in Feb.
Heard that there is another big announcement coming next week. Anyone know the topic, I am not sure how much more we can handle.
I’m holding on to hope that leadership will pull back and allow remote Fridays. There are companies in my city that are actively recruiting and are in office 4 days with a remote Friday. So if Bill really wonders “where will we go”, well, there are places that pay more and have more perks. In the video with him and Phil, he mentioned wanting to hire engineers in-house. Might be a challenge. Not many people want a 5 day in office schedule.
It seems to me we (AEP) have not reached bottom yet. Every week something happens that causes a new low to be reached. I wonder what else we're going to sell a stake in to get some cash? It appears we're hurting for operating cash. The company could come out as say, we're backing off our push to convert to renewables and save the cost and push it out a few years. Trump administration is not going to ram through tougher EPA standards any time soon. Stop spending money where it's not needed. I'll take a coal plant over a solar farm any day. More so when it's -10 out.
Hello everyone. I have been checking in on this conversation off and on since I was laid off from AEP. Feel bad for those who lost their jobs and now feeling bad for those still there. Anyways, since my unexpected departure from AEP, I have since then found employment elsewhere where I now have union representation. I know many out there just really really hate unions but I gotta tell you it is very nice now where I am compensated for overtime where, over the many years at AEP and lots of overtime, I was not. Lots of other good benefits as well, thanks to the union. So, instead of getting all worked up about RTO and all of the other bad treatment, do some research and talk to those around you and consider unionizing to protect all of yourselves.
As long as you do a direct rollover to a Traditional IRA, you can move your money out of the 401k. I did it. You just cannot take it as a distribution or it will be a txable event. All new funds have to go into the AEP 401k to get the match. You'll have less exposure with AEP by moving it early.
At the same time Bill is claiming to bring more work in house, IT is adding co-source labor at break neck speed. Which is it?
I left and cashed out my pension. I’ve made more money from investing the balance than I made from the pension itself.
you cannot transfer your aep 401k while still employed. unless your want to take it out as an early distribution and have a taxable event.
If you leave, take the lump sum from your Cash Balance plan and move your 401k to some other financial entity. Do not take a chance AEP raids the funds for cash. I just don't trust AEP with doing the right thing. As they say, take the money and run.
Also, did you know you can transfer your 401K to another financial entity even while you're still working. Might want to sever certain money ties with the company, just in case. Anyone remember Enron?
The problem with that plan is field employees couldn't care one way or the other whether you get to work remote or not. So why would they strike for you? They're the majority of the company too.
I have MS and have been grateful to finally feel like I’m on level ground with co-workers - not needing to request a special circumstance.
Now, if I request anything different than anyone else….
I think we as employees need to lobby our respective state legislatures to pass legislation forbidding hedge funds from investing in utility monopolies that provide essential services to its residents and constituents to protect them from discriminatory and fraudulent business practices that diminish the quality, affordability and reliability of essential services and exploit ratepayers, who have no alternative. It must be made retroactive and punitive to all hedge fund raiders and their shareholders. This shall also prevent the extraction of immense wealth from our states' economies as many of these hedge fund raiders and their investors reside outside the states served by said utility monopolies.
I can’t give my life back to AEP the way I did prior to COVID. It’s sad, but I just cannot and will not commit to that lifestyle again.
Working remotely has allowed me to coach my kid’s teams right after I log off, and pick them up from school. While receiving stellar performance reviews in the process. It’s allowed me to be so much more present for my elderly parents and my family than I was before COVID. I missed so much working 8 to 5 because in reality, it was 6:45 AM-6 PM. Did it every single day for over 15 years. And, it’s not just an 8 hour day. I don’t want to give time back to any company and become a dinner time and weekend dad again. That’s no longer what I envision for my life. My single younger coworkers are so much more balanced than I was and able to do things I could not, because they’ve been fortunate to live a life and have a fulfilling career. I feel for what they’re now facing , just as much as I feel for myself now.
I’m searching hard and simultaneously saving enough to have hopefully a year to 18 months worth of savings, and I hope everyone is able to find an employer that understands how important life is. I simply care about my family, my kids, my church and my life more than I do Bill Fehrman and AEP. I’m not trading my personal fulfillment and my family to make shareholders I’ll never meet happy. Just because we used to do things a certain way, doesn’t mean we should unwind the lessons we learned during the pandemic.
RTO policies hurt working mothers - but that IS the intent, right?
I don’t have school age children (anymore), and didn’t work remote until my children were in high school, BUT, I will say, when we came home for Covid - the physical and mental relief from the grind of commuting… after 30 years.
I can’t do it again and will probably leave the workforce indefinitely or entirely if I cannot find a similar setup.
The funny thing is - I work more hours from home. I don’t think anything of logging in 20 mins early, working through lunch, working a little late here and there. Before - I knew if I didn’t get out of the office by a certain time, I’d be in traffic 40 mins longer.
Bill and Carl Icahn's cronies on the corporate board are gone by March 1st or all AEP employees walk off the job. No quarter, no mercy.
Do unto Bill and his family as he does unto us and our families. Extract all their value then throw them away.