Thread regarding American Electric Power Co. Inc. layoffs

The contractor excuse sounds like a divide and conquer attempt to me.
The contractors are supposed to get excited about 5 days in office because it comes with a red badge. Pitting them against the regular employees.

When a fire starts in your home do you ignore it and let your home burn down or do you extinguish it as quickly as possible. Bill is a wildfire in our work home that we built, not him and his Hedge Fund cronies. We have a decision to make. Watch it burn or extinguish the fire with resolute determination. We are owners and he is a freeloader.

Attempt at damage control. "We want to bring these positions back in-house rather than outside contractors."

New video on AEP Now.
Beavis and Bu-----d say they want to "listen and learn" from employees and get our feedback on this groundbreaking 5 day in-office decision.

Since almost Day 1, Bill has been saying AEP is an underperforming asset. Because, that’s how he views the company. As an asset. Specifically for the hedge funds/investors etc. who want to squeeze every ounce of juice out of this orange.

AEP is not an underperforming asset by any measurement. AEP like all utilities is dependent on regulatory cost recovery, weather and interest rates to generate revenue. All of those things are largely out of our control and Bill knows that. If you have a good leader, they’ve told you this. But by positioning AEP and by proxy us employees as underperforming, it gives him the leverage needed to make wholesale changes. There are hundreds of utility companies that would love to have AEP’s performance. The data is a Google search away. The only difference is, those utilities have not yet been objectified and overrun by an immoral billionaire.

What AEP is though, is an asset that can be stripped down to a carcass, which will naturally result in a more profitable business. And that’s what Bill is doing. He’s doing that by selling off parts and now making the company as unattractive as possible to existing employees, to cull the herd. He has established that if you want to grow professionally by moving into management or have any semblance of a life from Monday through Friday, AEP is not the place for you. It’s methodical, but this will make the investors happy as the next step in the stripping down of the organization.

If you work in operations you especially need to be searching. Now.

Where will they go? Well the people that are at retirement age might just retire instead of putting in another year or two. Loss of knowledge and expertise is and has affected the company over the past 3-4 years with layoffs and buy outs. Others with less than few years who just got engaged and was ready to take on the work might just say it's not worth it and leave. That leaves the middle, yes they may not have have a place to go to but do you really want to take that chance?
Bill your an id--t but people like you don't care, they are he-l bent on doing what they think and dam anyone who won't go along with it.
2025 will be interesting to see how many 63 and up decide to leave and just retire. That knowledge cannot be replaced over night.

Bill “where are they going to go?”

one possibility is no where, employees might stay. Now the company has a horrible culture and disgruntled workforce, productivity will plummet. congratulations Bill, you played yourself. I'm sure employees will swarm to glassdoor to leave negative reviews, thus hurting recruitment. A happy worker will always be more valuable than a pi---s off one. It's sad to see the damage one person can do in such a short time, all in the name of extracting value.

When bill was told RTO would have a negative impact on culture and employees would leave, his response was, “where are they going to go?”

This is the best we could do?

Forming an independent employee board of governance with the authority to call for a company wide employee walkout would be a good start. Filing a class action lawsuit against Bill, the board & Carl Icahn could make AEP a lot less attractive a target for Hedge Fund tyrants and appealing for support from our customer base could be an effective strategy. United we are stronger than we are divided.

Is there anything we can do to get Bill fired? Ichan's thug needs to go and enjoy his ill-gotten gains elsewhere.
How is it that there are 16,000 employees at AEP yet we as a collective exert zero power or influence in the company? We have no say yet we are the clear majority and we're the ones doing the work. How can that even be possible?

The 26th Anniversary of the premiere of the movie "Office Space" is February 19th starring Ron Livingston and Jennifer Aniston. The main antagonists name is Bill and there are similarities to AEP office employees current situation. If you need a little relevant comic relief consider watching Bill be his annoying self. Remember to put the cover sheets on outgoing TPS Reports and dodge Bill, if you do not want to be pressured to work weekends.

They are moving our desks too, I wonder if they are going to put us 2 to a cube so we really feel the pressure. The employee should feel maximum stress and discomfort at all times for the best productivity.

Hello Peter, what's happening AAHH, yeah we have sort of a problem here, you apparently didn't to put one of the new cover sheets on the TPS Reports.

And I said, I don't care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I'm, I'm quitting, I'm going to quit. And, and I told Don too, because they've moved my desk four times already this year, and I used to be over by the window, and I could see the squirrels, and they were married, but then, they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll set the building on fire...

Bill, give Milton Waddams his Red Swingline Stapler back and fill it with staples.

The unique thing about AEP is the amount of employees that have significant tenure at the org. I started and worked on the same team as someone at the executive level who I still have a relationship with after all these years. Funny watching people you grew up with in the company climb the ladder, but we came from a tight knit group that has stayed in touch after all these years.

Said exec shared with me that Bill is viewed as a dishonest and very difficult person to work for. Old school isn’t a strong enough description. Apparently, he’s the kind of guy who will embarrass them for not having a comma in the right place in a deck. He’s also seen as the kind of leader who intentionally tries to drive others out of the org. The executives leak like a sieve because they can’t stand working for him. They’re trying to embarrass him.

We have all got to remember…for everything that has happened at AEP over the last couple of years, there are still many leaders who started boots on the ground like most of us. It’s one of the most difficult times this company has seen and primarily driven by a leader who rules with an iron fist. If not for the opco leaders, this company would have been fully back in office in 2024.

Freedom is not valued until it lost? Really? Just go find another job snowflake. While I don't agree with what the c suite is doing, you are not a slave. Just find another job.

Hedge funds, particularly activist hedge funds, can often harm the workers of companies they control by pushing for cost-cutting measures that can lead to job losses, reduced benefits, and decreased research and development spending, as their primary focus is often on maximizing short-term profits for shareholders, sometimes at the expense of long-term employee stability and company health.

anyone got a link to the Reddit "leak" post that has been mentioned here a couple times? I can't seem to find the post.

Wonder what it’s like knowing someone in your inner circle is leaking confidential information? Must be maddening - poor Bill

AEP employees are an army that marches to war against the destruction wrought by mother nature to rebuild the transmission and distribution systems she has repeatedly attempted to destroy. Our strength is our ability to unite in the face of overwhelming adversity and destruction and vanquish our enemy. Failure to succeed is not an option. If our CEO chooses to be our enemy, then he has sealed his fate and he shall know the full measure of our wrath. We shall not surrender our American Dream, our virtuous Legacy and our families' futures to Hedge Fund tyrants. We do not serve, sacrifice and struggle to better the lives of major shareholders and their CEO henchman, we do so to better the lives of our customers and our families. Shall we go quietly into the darkness of defeat imposed upon us by a traitorous virtue-less tyrant or shall we march to war to triumphantly restore the light of virtue to our noble endeavors and selfless enterprise.

I remember when Bill was first hired they had one of those pseudo-folksy interviews where they try to make executive leadership seem personable. One of the questions that came in was something like "What do you think about being at AEP?" His answer was pretty short and was something like "This will be a nice capstone to my career." At the time I thought it was oddly self-centered but now it makes sense. His plan is to come in, do a pump and dump demolition job for his master Ichan, and then ride off into the sunset with one last big payday. This guy doesn't give a flip about AEP, the people we serve, and certainly not about you the employee.

to the person below asking why Bill left his previous job after 6 months... he was placed at AEP by Carl Ichan. They have worked together plenty in the pass. Bill is Carl's hachet man. They raided the board. Planted Bill, now they will cut the company to the bare bones and make flashy headlines (Small Moduler Reactors announcement). Attract investors to pump up the stock in the short term. This short sighted and artificial stock inflation will make Carl billions and Bill millions. They will be gone in 2 years. Do some research and you'll see this is the same script they play at every company they raid. While you're researching, find the SEC filling that details Bill's compensation package. Bill forfeited his previous employers sign on bonus and ICP. AEP paid that back for him. The two amounted to roughly 4 million. But the hard working employees that have made the company great, are clearly the problem. Also I'm hearing he's doing away with the ICP after this coming payout...

https://inbusinessphx.com/positions/centuri-announces-leadership-transition

Anyone know why the last gig last 6 months?

Tyranny flourishes in the absence of resolute virtue. The C-suite has repeatedly demonstrated it's lack of virtue i.e. January 17, 2025: The SEC announced that American Electric Power—which has managed to fly under the radar until now—has agreed to pay $19 million because of their $1.2 million dark money payments in the corruption scheme as well as lies to investors. Two shell companies solely funded by AEP were the vehicles for dark money payments. Our resolute virtue is a beard for a bunch of corporate criminals, who all belong in prison for their crimes committed against employees, customers and tax payers. Lock them up!

Rather than all calling off - we should all show up on the same day. They wouldn’t know what to do.

Here’s the plan. IT is exempt because it is slowly being outsourced. TCS is coming back strong. A few projects have already been restaffed with TCS “partners.” By stating IT is exempt now, there will be no need to justify IT being off shore, aka, remote.

Bill is a man well into his 60s, who is a formerly retired multimillionaire. Instead of spending time with his wife, who lives in another state, Bill would rather spend his time in a city he’s never lived in, and make the lives of us regular 9-5ers more difficult than it has been in quite some time. Apologies, but I happen to find that extraordinarily weird. The guy could be doing anything with his life and the coins he’s earned, and this is the lot he’s chosen. Running a utility business and groveling with investors.

It’s quite obvious the Board brought Bill onboard to strip the company down to the bare minimum needed to function and to extract every single penny possible from its value. He wasn’t brought on as some longterm innovative leader. As someone else said, he’s a Hatchet Man. Seems to me this is all the result of the Carl Icahn fallout. Have to believe he was recommended by the profit-oriented new board members.

I never understood people in a comfy retirement who aren't content being retired, having hobbies, enjoying family and pets and pleasurable activities, and here we are. I understand that I have a hard time seeing eye-to-eye with them. I am not impressed with anything so far. On the contrary, I am less than impressed. I'll have to think about what to do after the ICP distribution. I'm close enough to retirement that I'm not in the market for another job, although I do not feel ready to retire for another 3 years. I could ride it out, though I'd rather get out if possible.

It would be great if June 1st rolled around and all employees just refused to go in and kept working remotely. Unfortunately you can't get that kind of solidarity from people who are up to their eyeballs in debt.

What did you expect? Empathy from a man who doesn’t like animals? That 1st call made it clear what we were in for.

We should pick a day to call off in protest. The higher-ups are aware of this site. They will know why. Just have a reason for plausible deniability if you are asked why you took the day off. Should this day be before June 1st or after?

Just heard Therace announced to IT management that everyone has to be on camera all the time. What a joke. Get in any meeting with multiple people sharing and our network drags. Now try screen sharing. Get ready for the fun times of screens freezing and screens/docs bring shared to take excruciatingly long to render.

Seems like this decision was in place for a while, but I wonder when they were actually planning to announce this? Looks like the Reddit leak sped up this announcement… and why May 1 what’s so magical about that date? Have they even thought about people will have to scramble to find childcare for the summer? I’m really lucky that I don’t have children and have to worry about this, but it’s a real issue for a lot to find quality childcare - especially short term for the summer.

Why would a millionaire CEO want to make things easier for the working class?

How can anyone blame Bill for this?
Remember - Bill didn't want to do this. We FORCED him to do this to us because we were such bad employees.

I’m glad someone mentioned Future of Work. That program predates several of our current leaders and was a widely accepted initiative across the organization. Many people dedicated time and resources to bringing this program to life and the fact is, COVID only expedited the work AEP had already been investing in.

Fast forward a few years, now we have leaders who are pushing a narrative that remote and hybrid work is a relic of the pandemic when those of us who have been around long enough, know the exact opposite to be true. Teams, departments and business units discussed and planned for Future of Work. BEFORE COVID. Everyone bought into Future of Work recognizing that our company was not successful because of 1RP or any other building. It was built through the connectivity and hard work of our teams, which has been significantly enhanced by the collaborative tools designed to make our work feasible from anywhere. We even used to discuss this program with those interviewing to join the company, as evidence of how innovative and forward-thinking AEP was.

Now, we are being told that remote work is detrimental to the company and I’m already starting to hear some sycophants in the org who were FULLY supportive of Future of Work, bend over backwards to give Bill the benefit of the doubt as it relates to his 5 days in office effort. It’s truly nauseating to watch this play out. It’s like Future of Work never existed. Bill and Phil deserve as much blame for what has happened to AEP as anyone else.

‘The Future of Work’ had been a thing for at least a decade prior to Covid, in which various disciplines were planning the very near future where most ‘knowledge workers’ or office workers would work from home all or some of the time. We would use web and cloud based collaborative tools. We would go into the office as needed or part time on a set schedule to collaborate in person. We would share ‘touch down’ and ‘hotel’ workspaces when in office. As a result: workers would be mobilized to be more resilient (remote/hybrid workers can more easily work when there is a level 2 snow emergency or they have a cold); organizations would consume less office space/energy for operating offices/roadways and fuel/emissions for commuting (there had been multiple orders for increasing telework in the federal government for years for these efficiency reasons especially). AEP had teams working on Future of Work prior to Covid. What changed? What changed during the pandemic and following years that made people say hybrid and remote should be rare or nonexistent? It was the future, now it’s the past we can’t go back to. That is one thing that is very odd to me. Most people impacted by this are at-will employees, AEP can change the terms of our employment when they want to and we can leave when we want to. I’m prepared to su-k it up and adapt and ‘just do my job’ until I find a better opportunity. But it does really put the nail in the coffin of my opinion (already on life support) of the company, its leadership, its culture. Because it is a reversal making past commitments a lie. I don’t know if all managers were as transparent with their teams, but I remember quite clearly in 2021 my manager (and my daily work is very closely tied to this, so maybe that’s why we were given this info) told us that individual departments were being permitted to decide how each position type would be classified moving forward; on-site, hybrid, remote. Moving forward. As in, this will be how we operate from now on. And I believe it was expressed that this would be permanent for the foreseeable future. The future of work was here. We signed telework agreements codifying these classifications. And now we are going backward.

Bill is not just playing the hand he has been dealt, he is actively making it worse.
Between his arbitrary "flattening the organization" plan that has engineering in complete disarray, with groups being shuffled around to the point that no one even knows what their responsibilities are anymore, to now this completely inscrutable RTO thing that no one can even figure out the purpose of, he's on track to be the worst CEO in some time. He talks a big game but what has he actually done other than introduce a ton of chaos and uncertainty into the organization?
I guess his big "win" is securing rate increases, so that the man on the street hates AEP even more and can only think of his $900 electric bill when he's talking to you.

Asking employees to RTO is not inherently unreasonable. While hybrid has been a benefit for many of us, it's been 5 years since the pandemic began and I, for one, never expected this to continue forever. Where I have an issue is in the suggestion that coming back 5 days will improve work culture and present more career development opportunities. This argument would carry a lot more weight had organizations not just been required to flatten and eliminate management roles and reporting structures. If there are opportunities to be had, it would be nice to know where. As it stands, I'm not seeing any.

As for IT, RTO would be a wakeup for a number of folks. What use to be spread across 3-4 floors could be consolidated down to 1 or 2. I know teams that went from 10 to 2 with a remote manager. Other teams went from 18 to 5 and a local manager. It's a common story in IT, between the outsourcing on the Ops side, the hiring freeze, the layoffs last year at this time, there's no one left. Working in IT use to means something, now it's just another line job in a factory. Nick, the Board and Therace are all at fault. Bill is just playing the hand he's been dealt. Don't expect it to get better any time soon.