Thread regarding American Electric Power Co. Inc. layoffs

There's a natural mystic
Blowing through the air
Can't keep them down
If you listen carefully now you will hear
Such a natural mystic
Blowing through the air

There's a natural mystic
Blowing through the air
If you listen carefully now you will hear
This could be the first trumpet
Might as well be the last
Many more will have to suffer

Unearned privilege is a poor substitute for proficiency, professionalism, experience, cultivated customer relations, decades of dedicated service and sacrifice. Stop letting ego strokers and servile sycophants jump ahead of deserving employees, who have paid there dues and earned a promotion or bonus. This is precisely the reason why our culture is mediocre and broken. Too many privileged freeloaders looking out for each other and pulling down the organization, we are striving to raise up.

Employees need to elect their own corporate board to represent the interests of employees and retirees, who have invested decades in making AEP and its OPCOs' major shareholders immensely wealthy. We treat our investments of time, effort, sacrifice and talent the same as major shareholders treat their investment of wealth. The future favors the bold.

Privilege has no place in a nation founded upon the Principle of Equality. Privilege is the very thing Colonial Americans rebelled against. Embody virtue, defend liberty, demand equality, define justice, vanquish tyranny thus live the American dream.

No one said anything about unearned privallege. The comment is about fairness and equity.

It is only peoples lives. Who cares right.

Maybe you should learn how to spell correctly first before talking about how other people have unearned privilege.

I think anyone who is here complaining about AEP has a right to. Many employees have relocated their families, to work for AEP. My kids grew up away from grandparents. My wife did not work, because the job was so demanding of me, she could not. In the end I watched leadership fail many employees as they walked away winning big. Promoting friends and family that did not have shared sacrafices for the company. These are tge dame leaders that Bill will leave in charge. How do you expect to change things around. If this leadership team dr-g AEP down, it will do it again. Why would they try to change anything that is working for them. Promoting all yes man into the powerful privaleged club needs to stop if AEP wants to be fixed.

Shared services and workplace services are getting their demotions now with a sprinkling of layoffs. Decentralizing what they do so the oppcos can pay for the staff that regularly has to tell them no to ridiculous requests. Should be a lot more puzzling spending trends in the coming years as over a decade of standardization and operating the facilities on a shoestring gives way to keeping up with the Jones mentality. A lot of run to failure of critical equipment so you can use your budget for swanky furniture upgrades in empty buildings. I can't wait to see the plethora of vanity projects that get pushed through in the coming years.

My precious, my precious, my precious consumes me.

Post ID: @54nnu+1qB6FXi3

I’m not sure what this person was trying to say, but he/she seems to be a low IQ poster and it shows. They make bad assumptions and then ramble on for several paragraphs to say ‘companies have issues’ wow, really? Now who would have figured that out? For some reason, he/she typed all that like a 13th century peasant.

First, stop with the JR Tolkien writing, it's weird and you lose everyone after the first sentence. Second, yes I want Bill to succeed, I really do. I have worked in multiple industries and for numerous companies so I've been on both sides of the fence. Spent time in management but mostly technical side of the house. I can say without hesitant, Bill needs to fire Therace sooner that later. She is a cancer in IT and I've seen it before. Yes one person can sc--w up an entire organization and she has done an excellent job of it here. She is without a doubt, the d-mbest EVP that I've ever had to pleasure to work for. And that's saying a lot considering the number I have worked for and with over the years. So before you go blasting the guys in the trench, they know they have 0 control over what they do. They have little to no say. If they do say something, they are retaliated against and are not in control of their own destiny. Easier said then done to move from one job to the next on your own, family comes first so you keep your moth shut and suffer like the rest of us. For me, F Therace, just another liberal with a worthless Master's that she thinks she knows everything.

When we must endure 13th Century tyranny in the 21st Century, what do you expect. Not everyone forgets their past, ignores their present and fails to see the future that their past and present add up to. Old souls are witnesses of human history, who have seen this scenario play out time and time again. The end result is always the same. The immensely wealthy refuse to repent and the human suffering continues in a never-ending cycle of misery. Serfs do not forget or forgive the nobles, who unjustly diminished them to elevate their own stature.

Some of you have never worked anywhere but AEP and it shows. Or you haven’t actually looked for a new job in a really long time. Your problem seems less about what AEP is doing and more about general corporate issues.
Is everything perfect here? No. Good luck finding a place to work that doesn’t have issues of some sort. More good luck finding somewhere that compensates as well as AEP, and if you find it why are you staying if it’s so easy?
The issue seems to be that a lot of people got away with questionable behaviors and decisions for a really long time. Yeah we see you and you will downvote this confirming the statement. Just because you have been doing or not doing something for 20 years doesn’t make it right.
The company has to remain solvent in order for you to get a paycheck and keep working. It’s simple. You may have to change a bit, who doesn’t have to over the span of a career?
Perspective is everything, and some of you are missing a giant dose of reality. I think Bill is pushing and doing the right things to fix some of the long standing issues. At least he is willing to try.
Complaining is fun, but you all know there are things you just can’t change. Getting on board with what you can change might bring you some fresh perspective.

Also, is it really necessary to type out these posts like you are a 13th century peasant?

The pharaoh has no robes and he can build his own pyramids.

Corporate officers and major shareholders do not accept woefully inadequate and insulting compensation and returns on their investments, why should employees and retirees? Where is the shared sacrifice and suffering for the good of the customers? Corporate officers and major shareholders are not satisfied with empty and valueless praise, why should we be? They are not slave owners and we are not slaves. Two unjust and unequal economic systems cannot coexist and there be harmony in a culture of equals.

Who does the American Dream belong to? Corporate officers and their major shareholders? Politicians and their political campaign contributors? Hedge fund managers and oligarchs? Active duty service members and military veterans? First responders and medical professionals? Working, middle-class and retired Americans? American Taxpayers? Our children and grandchildren? The American Dream belongs to all of us and NO ONE has the right or privilege to restrict access to the American Dream to any American citizen. Are you an American patriot or just another un-American tyrant stealing our American Dream for your un-earned, undeserved and obscene self-aggrandizement.

Wow. Lots of stinky poops at work today.
Very stinky employees at this company.
Stinky, stinky, stinky.

Why are people not open to the possibility that we are bloated in certain areas? How great could beam and kerns be with performance in the toilet. You can’t have it both ways

The lights grow dimmer with each passing day as employees realize this is the same old song and dance routine, we have heard time and time again. Corporate management crushes the platitudes and su-ks at execution. Young and naïve employees are full of hope of a brighter future but you have to be in the spotlight to enjoy it and last time I checked all the spotlight is on corporate managers. They only cast shade on their hard- working employees, derisions about O & M budget costs and all injuries are the employee's fault. Whose fault is it that employees compensation has failed to keep up with inflation? Whose fault is it Quantum wreaks havoc on insurance claims costing employees more money? Whose fault is it employees with college degrees like technicians have been denied progression raises? Whose fault is it this company has no soul, Satan or his debtors?

The clock is ticking, before you know it Jan 1 will be here and nothing will have changed. Yes, there may be fewer managers on paper, more people will be reporting to the same manager. Load will increase at the expected rate and we'll post a number in Q4 to meet or beat the expected number. Come ICP time, they'll make some excuse that we didn't do as well as we should have and will lower it just enough to make people feel like it's not enough to leave. I for one am no longer looking forward to the ICP, I just don't. The bone they throw out has no meat on it after the Executive branch gets done with it. Bill talks a good game but he's in it for the money just like the rest of them. Bill is not the second coming, don't expect miracles from the guy. He puts his pants on just like the rest of us. I get a good salary, somewhat decent benefits and I put in a full 40 each week to earn it. If any of those change drastically, I will leave.

Done soon with this company ! Thank god !! I wish yall the best, as this will be my last post, I’ll move on- wishing, praying and hoping for a better life and career 😊

I love reading the job description for the community engagement consultant. They are asking for non profit experience. AEP has an activist investor on the board, who is only looking to raise the shareholder value. Nobody who is truly intetested in doing non profit work would want to associate themselves with this greed.

America will neverbe grwat again while corporarions act like AEP. They have to be one of the worse utilities this country has to offer for employment. They never do what they say. It is all a lie.

I think we can all agree the problem is self-absorbed, self-serving, selfish management that licks major shareholders boots. We are playing by the rules management made up so they always win and we always lose. We need to stop playing by managements' rules. We dig thousands of power pole holes every year. All we need to do is dig the holes a couple of feet deeper and drop our problems into the holes. The weight of the poles will solve our problems then we receive the rewards we have earned and deserved because the customers and employees win and the major shareholders get our leavings and instead of us getting theirs.

ATTENTION!
THE DAILY FLOGGINGS SHALL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES.

MANAGEMENT

OR UNTIL MANAGEMENT TEARS THEIR ROTATOR CUP.

EMPLOYEES

TCS now maintains theracerisch.com. Temper expectations accordingly.

Can someone go reboot the server with theracerisch.com running on it Monday is right around the corner and it needs to be back online

What employees need to understand is indoctrination in the reality of crony cliques begins in primary school, continues in middle school and high school. The children of those phonies elevated far above their earned and deserved station in life by the crony clique are taught to begin the indoctrination early, so their classmates are assimilated and subjugated by graduation. It continues in college to insure the next crony clique generation achieve their unearned, undeserved and obscene self-aggrandizement. Reject the herd mentality and be the mavericks our Colonial ancestors chose to be when they rowed across an ice choked river, half frozen and nearly starved at night on Christmas to attack and defeat Hessian mercenaries he-l bent on subjugating them at Trenton, NJ. We are not descended from fearful men and we must not allow ourselves to be subjugated by lesser men, who are.

Bill please chop Therace with the next load of wood.

Who would choose a decades long arduous journey that ends in physical, mental, emotional and spiritual exhaustion and poverty?
Who would choose to endure humiliation and degradation to provide for their families?
Who would engage in sadistic dehumanization and pitting employees against each other for their personal enjoyment and enrichment?
Who leaves this company with the greatest compensation for the least suffering and sacrifice?
Who are you and why are you here?

@4Vobr+1qB6FXi3,

Who talks like that? Sorry, let me rephrase.

Henceforth, we find ourselves pondering the deepest depths of our mere mortal minds to uncover profound answers to the age old question, “Why doth ye speak in such a manner?”

Only vile and wretched creatures revel in the torment, anguish and misery they deliberately impose upon their fellow man for their unearned, undeserved and obscene self-aggrandizement. They determinedly forge the links in their chain of sins that shall bind them and imprison them for all eternity. Their words and deeds hasten their arrivals to their all but confirmed appointments with eternal damnation. Forewarned, no more, shall the be.

The last comment shows the problems that AEP faces. Rather then listed to find out why employees are becoming disengaged, theywould rather put people down ang try to humiliate them. Tge thought is we can just replace you. However, when tgry hire a new employee and they become disengaged the cycle will continue. Maybe the problem is not employees but a lack of true leadership, that can motivate. Inspire and lead a team.

If you’re just showing up, giving little to no effort, and lack enthusiasm, you really don’t have much credibility to advise a CEO of a major company. At minimum you would work hard and give maximum effort out of self respect and integrity. Not to mention to ensure your co-workers are safe and supported. But instead, TR lives rent free in your head.

Bill has to fix the 'ism' that occur at all AEP. Especially Nepotism and favortism. They destroy any value system. Many work environments have turned into a trade time for money. Why, because it is ok and many leaders dont have a clue because they were not qualified to be a leader.

Employees lack of enthusiasm and hope is truly appalling. Every day is a funeral at work. Employees are succumbing to stress related and exacerbated illnesses that leave our organization weaker and more vulnerable to mistakes and accidents. I am beginning to question, if enriching shareholders is worth all this undeserved misery and suffering? Maybe working for AEP comes at too high a cost for employees, who will retire as empty husks of their former selves.

Open letter to Bill Fehrman

We are all waiting for a sign. A sign that AEP is going in the right direction. A sign that AEP will be better. A sign that you understand what's really happening at AEP.

The associates in the technology areas are fed up. Many just show up, few make an effort anymore, and everyone is; ~ Looking for a sign.

Are these associates lazy people? No, they are intelligent ambitious professional career IT people with a passion for what they do and the work they perform. They are people who have watched all of their legacy leaders replaced with examples of unqualified nepotism. Their former coworkers got fed up and left or fired. Not to mention that all of the existing technology associates have a ring side seat to watch the daily the sh-t show called TCS to sink morale a bit more every day.

Associates have been beaten down for years and have seen first hand what real retaliation looks like. IT leadership has now even tried a proactive retaliation strategy by insisting they intercept any comments from staff before they end up at "Ask Bill". The associates are forced to witness the decline of the technology areas without any means of stopping it. They have learned that AEP doesn't give a damn about them, so it's perfectly acceptable to not give a damn about AEP.

They wait for a sign. A sign that you see it. A sign that you understand.

Let's start with the biggest pain point in technology. Therace. AEP wasn't perfect before her, but it's a lot worse with her.

You've stated you had to take the news on the condition of cyber security and vulnerabilities to the board. Who do you think has been here for 4 years while those problems fester? TR. With so many problems you would think your CITO of 4 years would be on top of it. How did it get like this you may ask? TR's incompetence let it happen.

TR doubled down on the bet that TCS would just magically fix it all. TCS fumbles the ball every day by stepping on their own shoe laces because they can't figure out how to tie them.

TCS has no loyalty to AEP. They don't have the drive or commitment to see AEP as a great company like an associate does. They don't have the technical skills, ability for abstract thought or to think outside the box.

TCS's goal is to make PowerPoint charts green, pacify leadership by meeting SLA's on problems that they mostly cause and get paid for problems produced by their own lack of skills. TCS extracts treasure from AEP, meanwhile the leaders that funnel news, statistics and reports to you have no incentive to tell you the truth on how bad it really is. The policy is to whitewash everything you see and to make you believe everything within technology and TCS is perfect.

Let's look at Capitol. Before TR using and charging time and materials to capitol was the norm. Before TR everyone knew to spend capitol dollars first.

It's obvious that you see this, because you've said the word capital more times in 3 months than what's been heard at AEP in the past 3 years. After the arrival of TR everyone was told that it's all just money, green on the back and black on the front. It did not matter if it was capital or O&M.

Think of all of the spend that has occured over the last few years that could have been charged to capital and wasn't. It's not shocking to see why the current and prior spend looks like it does because you have leaders that can't add or subtract and don't have an understanding of basic accounting. They will try to convince you they do, but the past years of accounting will say different.

Being new to AEP yourself you need to understand the current state of technology and how we got here. The associates know the board brought in TR. But did the board know that by doing so that massive numbers of new leadership would be brought in without any understanding of utilies, technology, or how basic accounting works? While at the same time purging decades of knowledge that once made AEP great.

TR wiped out all of the legacy AEP technology leaders not to mention the hundreds of years of combined experience that they brought to the table. TR populated all of those roles with unqualified examples of nepotism that knew nothing about electric other than how to turn on a lamp.

Did TR use ANY meaningful form of executive recruiting to get the best of the best? No. AEP got TR's friends and neighbors along with all the other retail failures from companies that TR was at and plundered before coming to AEP to do the same.

You should look at all of the present leadership hired after TR and their employment history. How many had experience in utilities? Most of them came from places where they worked with TR previously, and where she failed with them before. TR's current leadership structure extracts more value from AEP than any value they bring.

Everyone in technology laughs at her. She's a daily joke now. theracerisch.com was created so everyone can laugh at her even more. She doesn't have the respect of the associates which makes it impossible for her to continue to lead at AEP.

You want to turn things around?

The associates are waiting for a sign.

A sign from you.

Did you guys pay attention to EEI? Bill is expected to hire a CFO in the next month or so, and he’s looking for someone to replace him. Even Bill sees himself as a stopgap to get the regulatory strategy and org structure under control

The future of AEP is in the hands of a man with no sweat equity, no shared sacrifice and no suffering for the good of our customers. Woefully inadequate personal investment for his level of compensation. Value extractor, not value cultivator nor creator. The wood he is chopping needs to be in distribution right of ways and at the corporate board table. That is where the greatest savings can be achieved with the smallest impact on daily operations that benefit our customers.