Lots of IT people cut in Columbus
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Since Therace and her Target team came to AEP , the culture has nosedived. AEP went from a place people were happy to work at to one that causes employees dread. They won’t even release the results of the latest Gartner survey so now they are “ seeking new ways to evaluate culture”.
The layoffs are the Target team’s way of covering their butt since the outsourcing to TCS has cost so much more money with worsening results as opposed to the promised increase in savings and improved results. A regulated industry is different than retail, imagine that. No matter, I’m sure Therace and her team will soon move on like ticks who have drained their victim
And as long as the dividends etc are good, no one high up cares. It’s criminal how loyal, long term employees were treated yesterday. It’s sad what has happened to a good company.
Therace destroyed IT support at AEP. Everyone now hates calling the helpdesk or IT support. I don't know anyone who has called the helpdesk and had a pleasant experience. She moved the call center to India and the language accent barrier makes the phone call unbearable. Many people just hang up and call again hoping to get someone that can speak clear English. They are not AEP employees so they don't understand our structure or the physical locations.
All top performers, essential, and loyal employees who were let go. Colleagues who dedicated between ten to thirty years of their career to AEP only to be kicked in the face as a thank you. Mass meetings held with a monotone and a “EFFECTIVE EOD” to close it out. From what we’re hearing, it’s more like 400 that were terminated. I have lost faith in AEP and leadership.
No one higher than VP was impacted by this latest cut. Very puzzling of who was kept and who was cut as the cuts and loss of quality, knowledge people is quite deep.
They are also laying off some non union lineman and some line crew supervisors as well
Any Companies financial performance is directly related to Leadership. When a company makes these sort of drastic measures to cut costs it is clearly time to bring in new leadership. This is a result of bad planning, poor strategy, and/or poor execution.
I started there in 2015. It was a target company for me. The culture was better than where I was. It slowly got worse. The protected bad actors and problem employees. I actually had to go to Ethics due to management not addressing toxic and aggressive employee actions.i left b shortly after that
I've heard that those people are still there. Not impacted. It's no longer a place for performers. Just pretenders
I was one of the employee’s let go as well and I also got zero notice. I had been at AEP going on 10 years and was in project management for my last two. I also was in my department longer than the other four yet I was axed. AEP does not care about their employees at all, they are all talk with zero action.
Therace Risch has to be one of the most ruthless and cut throat people at her level. She should have never been hired. She cares about no one but herself. Any company who would hire someone who doesn't live the values that the company claims to cherish should be removed effective immediately. She would be first on that list.
If you want to let the world know what AEP has become you should post company reviews on many job and company research sites like Glassdoor.
Staff reductions have been underway since last year. The fuels guys were cut too. They are selling the retail and onsite businesses to reduce headcount further.
I noticed this morning that the Innovation team was gone. That’s terrible. They are basically the only group thinking about future strategy at the org. Really shortsighted because I’m not sure who picks up the slack.
AEP was the biggest mistake I've ever made in my career. Never in a job have I felt less important, used, or thrown away. How they still manage to retain employees at all is nothing short of a miracle. If you are a current AEP employee reading this: get out while you can, of your own accord. There are so many more employers that will value you and have a healthy work culture, where you can grow. AEP is no longer the place you can do that.
I’m curious as to who else will be impacted. Is this going to be the trend for the year? I’m assuming more than IT has been and or will be impacted.
Wanted to share a conversation to demonstrate how our leader justified bringing in their old retail team that had no utility experience. He said to me "do you watch sports. So just like in sports when a head coach leaves a current program and goes to another one, they bring in their old staff (that they can trust). Similarly, she brought all of us to AEP." And yes, the Managers, Directors or VPs were untouched by the layoff.
Amazing cost cutting plan. Outsource to TATA which increased the TCO and reduced service levels starting the mess she (Therace) created. She ten eliminated the CIO and the all his direct reports and brought in a group of yes people from her previous companies with no utility experience. Running the IT and tech group into the ground and I would never work for her .
Honestly the trend is to replace people. With what they want. The more bizarre and woke the greater chance you will remain. They will get their DEI numbers and just outsource everything . DEI will change to include things that you had nightmares about as a kid.
Really sad to hear this news. A lot of great people impacted. However, I knew this was coming. Therace brought in a large number of senior leaders that she knew from Retail drastically increasing the cost of IT with the promise of outsourcing and cutting costs in the long term and improving services at the same time. My speculation is that those cost savings never materialized, nor the service improvements. Now AEP is struggling and Therace and her leadership team team are being held accountable to reduce the costs. The sad thing about it is that it will further degrade the services provided by IT. I bet none of the senior leadership team was impacted. That is where the reductions should have happened. May be the Board of Directors will recognize this and make the needed changes. It will take years to fix at this point in time.
I was part of the layoff yesterday. My group had around 20 people. The VP on the call casually read out a script for two minutes and announced "all of your positions have been eliminated effectively". This is a case of leaders failing to plan effectively.
I was including the 60 IT people lay off on Jan 16 2024 Very devastating and shocking. Notice was conducted in a meeting by a IT VP with 30 of the IT people being laid off. AEP has not hired much at all in our area the last several years and for many teams in my area it is puzzling to see who is going to do much of this work now. I knew several of those that were laid off and these people were good employees and performers. I am puzzled by how they decided who would be let go. Talked to my manager and he was supposedly not aware of who was being let go. So how did they decide who got let go? Anyone have any idea? I myself have been with the company for a very long time. I did notice that those let go were mostly senior level in their job families. Praying for all those including myself for better future ahead.
The number of layoffs is higher than what they are reporting and it’s not just in IT.
I was part of the cut as well. My call had about 8 or 9 in the group.
It got me today too.
I was hit by AEP way back in 2002. It turned out to be a great thing, but it sure didn't feel like it at the time. Then, as now, empty suits carry no heart.
No notice period was given. Termination for those employees was Effective EOD. Two weeks would have seemed more appropriate.
How did severance look for those affected?
I got hit. 15 of us on the same meeting let go simultaneously. So rude.
Yep. I worked with many. Never a fun time. Columbus Market is good though
Shocking news to see folks axed. I knew a few of them. Lots of good people.