Every business could be a great industry leading business, even AT&T. What is holding AT&T back? It's easy to place blame on former and current CEOs, but they are only the low hanging fruit. They certainly lay the groundwork for an uphill battle, but continued overall failure to become an industry leader is the result of many poor decisions being made throughout the company every day of every week of every month. What ongoing practices resulting in poor outcomes have you observed THAT WERE NOT DIRECTIVES FROM THE C-SUITE, and could be modified to make AT&T a stronger competitor?
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Good Managers seeking reassignment to get away from protected classes of employees who live in constant violation of the COBC.
Significant erosion of ethics, ignoring proven best practices, putting personal gain first, creation of small silos of cronyism, managers ignoring blatant violations of the COBC, faked metrics to prevent anyone other than the favored few from receiving the equivalence of Exceeds on the annual rating, employees taking unrecorded days off, allowing employees to actively work side gigs while in the office AND then assigning them virtual worker status so they don't get caught. Yeah, the failure to enforce ethics in the workplace is holding us back.
Coddling of employees who refuse to work. There are a hundred excuses. Moving all of these non-performers to a single special needs workgroup would allow the Company to see how worthless they are. Every one of them should be required to wear a stick on label that says "Recognize that I need to be treated differently, and we'll get along just fine". Unfortunately that workgroup would likely represent 10-15% of the company.
Too many still working from home, but not actually working. I've seen two in-office coworkers get tagged for surplus in the past year, both of whom I thought were good contributors.
“Too many employees. Need to cut down to about 50k”
Why not 10k? Why not 5k? Why not do a fire sale to T Mobile and become another Mint Mobile?
Now that’s the kind of tiny company we can manage. Maybe by then we will get the hang of Agile.
Good ideas with poor execution, Operationalization and marketing. Then offshore, rebadge or layoff everyone with knowledge and use that as excuses why everything is terrible. Repeat.
Bellsouth was a great company.
WTF? You serious? What's holding AT&T back is the stone age thinking from Stink and his SBC good old boy clown show. So, for those of you Yorba Linda, it's the same cancer that added $130B in unsecured debt to T shareholders that is destroying any remaining value from legacy companies. If you're OK being an industry has been, then you'll be content with the "new" direction of Stink.
" The debt load is crushing and the competition is nipping at the heels ...."
Um, it's not 2010.
The competition hasn't been at our "heels" for sometime now.
employees doing work they are not hired to do, like evaluate the work of others. myob and get to work
Boomer paid actors out in force.
Who put us in 130 billion in debt for nothing?
Too many employees. Need to cut down to about 50k
“Thank you for the essay, I am sure corporate monitors this site and will take your well thoughts, comments and advice under very close consideration, as a matter of fact you should probably expect a call Monday morning from the board of directors looking to offer you a consulting position.”
I have no doubt that corporate monitors this site. You’re here on a Sunday morning aren’t you? My consulting fee is upwards of seven figures and I do require an NDA.
I’m in the Atlanta office. You might recognize me, I’m taller than Jeremy and I actually come into the office.
I wouldn’t be touting the notion that T has kept its doors open so therefore it’s doing just fine without criticism.
Thank you for the essay, I am sure corporate monitors this site and will take your well thoughts, comments and advice under very close consideration, as a matter of fact you should probably expect a call Monday morning from the board of directors looking to offer you a consulting position. So you and all of the other pathetic losers that know so much about life, WWE, NASCAR , economics and corporate leadership do not venture far from your cubicle, because you will be getting the call to step up and take over. What a joke if you people spent half the time doing your job rather than trying to tell us how the company should be ran, you just may be able to have a little bit of success in your lives instead of stuck in lower management jobs being miserable.
“How has this company managed to keep its doors open since 1881 without the people on this post in charge? Amazing isn’t it? All of you geniuses should get together form a new phone company and run T out of business.”
I wouldn’t be touting the notion that T has kept its doors open so therefore it’s doing just fine without criticism. The debt load is crushing and the competition is nipping at the heels like a pack of hungry wolves. For the record, I am a genius when it comes to the little t.
As we move forward as a society, as customers and as business men and entrepreneurs, we will make choices about companies, deciding winners and losers. t is on a downward trajectory morally, culturally, financially. Their reputation precedes them. Customer experience relating to support and contract entanglement are abysmal. This and more will not prove kind to t in the long run when open networks and services prevail. Once again t took a ‘me too’ approach and are probably hopelessly behind.
The older talent pool is being actively flushed while the younger talent is sprinting in the opposite direction in the arms of anyone but t. This is fine because t is offshoring jobs and leaving themselves with even less control and oversight of exactly who is working here and what credentials and skills do they truly possess. The end result will be anything but favorable.
Yes ranter, we are all geniuses. We see the erosion and hear the noises associated with a possible collapse from the inside out.
A word of advice; Learn to speak Hebrew and Arabic as all the top jobs move to Israel.
"The right leadership would know this"
The disconnect in being told to create annual Goals stating I am somehow going to do something specific to make a significant impact on the success of the company, but then assert I am not competent to determine for myself where I can best perform my work, at home, or in an office.
And it starts at the top. The most entitled guy in the company is the Stink. Mr. 30-million-a-year can help you carry anything because he's worn out from carrying that heavy pay check home.
This guy, ha , what do you do to deserve a multi million dollar pay check Einstein? Do you fill the paper towel holders or vacuum up the cheese cr--ker crumbs in the cubicles that the rest of these m0rons on here they drop eating at their desk?
"Individual entitlement and unwillingness to help carry the load. "
And it starts at the top. The most entitled guy in the company is the Stink. Mr. 30-million-a-year can help you carry anything because he's worn out from carrying that heavy pay check home.
and button your Tw----e hole.
That was tw1nkie hole , for all the genius business leaders on here.
They don’t pay their bills and discount customers for not paying theirs by the 45th day. Just bad business management
The premise of separating ongoing practices resulting in poor outcomes from actions of the C-Suite is faulted. Senior leadership has been destroying our work force for several years. They have never demonstrated through action any ongoing widespread effort to make it stronger. Ineffective leaders foster ineffective employees. Rightsizing is needed, but we also need the right leaders. Addressing only one side of that equation will not yield the results they are wanting. The right leadership would know this.
Holding onto too many "higher ups" when there's a merger/divestment/downsizing, and instead trying to take the cuts from the bottom up. Yes, there does need to be cuts there, too, but right now there are a whole lot of chiefs doing little more than holding meetings to "see where we are."
Individual entitlement and unwillingness to help carry the load. Can this divisive behavior be changed? AT&T spent too much on programs to put it into place, so it will take years to weed it out again.
Lazy AF employees.
Lack of collaborating.
too many employees with no ability to innovate.
My team is down to nine. Six are back in the office together, and three are remote workers. Those that avoided the RTO mandate have retired in place while continuing to draw a paycheck. I can only guess they feel safe now. Our manager is mostly absent from the daily operations due to meetings. I don't know what that's about as she only disseminates an action item that impacts our operations about once every three weeks. To our Director, the next time you talk to our manager, please see if she can account for actual work being done by her direct reports. To AT&T, YOU SURPLUSSED THE WRONG PEOPLE!!!
One thing, and only one thing is hold T back. The STINK!
'Nough said!
Stankey, it's Saturday, go play golf, and quit posting. YOU Fubar'd the company
Too many employees still stuck in 1985. It doesn't seem to matter to them that technology has changed. The rules are for everyone else. Employ bias and favoritism without any accountabilty or oversight. We've always done it this way.....
Seriously?
The problem with AT&T can be found at every level and is not a mystery.
Fix the Ticket 2 Ride Program and inscribe its faults in stone tablets with the heading of “Thou Shalt Not”
Leaders that have no business making or signing off on multi-million dollar, multi-year strategic initiatives involving technical vision, strategy, timelines, process, technology and oversight of execution.
No accountability or penalties for failed deliverables of outside consulting. No comprehension or understanding of why it’s failing or how to fix it other than micro-managing the advancement of individuals and deliverables.
What’s worse is even the ones that know how to fix it are either on their way out the door, already surplussed or have given up because you can’t influence or change the mind of leaders that are in way over their heads.
Now multiply these failings across T and add in blood su-kers, offshore newbies, a culture that’s been sh-t on, and a C-Suite that has taught everyone not to give a sh-t anymore.
Not so hard to see that we absolutely are on a path to FAIL FAST.
My perspective, Leadership lacked the vision/creativity/urgency/basic understanding of the Technology Refresh required to replace Legacy Voice and Data Services. (replacement of monopolistic services ) AT&T didn’t understand the importance of Internet Protocol (IP), SIP etc. Their arrogance, ignorance and perhaps just plain laziness has negatively impacted Business Revenues. Revenues that have been eroded by small, medium and large competitors. Competitors have been biting off pieces of AT&T for decades with a future carcass in clear view.
Too many non top performers at every level.
have you observed THAT WERE NOT DIRECTIVES FROM THE C-SUITE, and could be modified to make AT&T a stronger competitor?
You must be kidding dude. Check the culture survey the answers are there. BTW when the results will be published?