I am not happy at all with AT&T. My cost of benefits went from $62 to $455 a month...was told it would stay at the lower cost for a year, so they lied. I have not been able to find a new job. I have applied for over 75 jobs and nothing yet. My suggestion to anybody that is still working, start looking now. I am freaking out, because my money is running out. I will or might be homeless by November 2015. I am not happy about we were misled by this company. I am over 50 and I believe there was is a big discrimination for older employees. I am very dependable and capable of doing a great job for any company willing to give me a chance. I might have to end up working several jobs to make enough money to pay my bills. This is not what I wanted. I planned to stay at AT&T and retire from there. Sad they way we are being treated. NO security anymore.
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AT&T is totally using this 2020 thing as a way to lay-off older employees and those with lots of kids because both are a tremendous impact to their health care costs. AT&T also has a major problem in that revenue is very steady from government contracts, but they're not growing even with massive acquisitions all over the place. Don't plan on retiring from AT&T because it will never happen. Build your skills and find a better job.
AT&T plans to virtualize and control over 75% of its customer-facing network with software by 2020, Layoffs will continue while the effort is helping AT&T reduce its capital expenditures while increasing capacity in the network, said John Donovan, senior executive vice president of AT&T Technology and Operations.
In 2014, AT&T moved from broad declarations about software-defined networking to very specific operational planning, said Mr. Donovan. “It’s a really important step to make a public declaration of a goal that says we’ve moved from testing and prototyping and feel confident enough to build explicit plans for every platform in the network to move 75% of our network to software-defined,
AT&T gained experience with software-defined networking in its data centers, where it began using more sophisticated software to control switches. The architecture uses inexpensive hardware controlled by software – instead of proprietary hardware and software — to shuttle data across its network and to improve automation. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said at an investor conference in March that he expected a “downward bias” on capital requirements as a result of the shift to this new architecture.
ATT was laying off technicians in 1990. For decades, employees made the trade off of accepting risk for the reward of a healthy salary and benefits. Every employee must assess if the risk today is worth current and anticipated wages and out of pocket increases in our benefits. You may think that an ATT retirement is still the lucrative reward at the end of the challenge of remaining employed at ATT- but a conversation with retirees will surprise you. Our payout is tied to the corporate bond rate and the hit has been tremendous. Out of pocket medical skyrocketed is recent years. There are many groups for retirees of ATT in YAHOO and many other places. When you realize the realities of working and retiring at ATT you can make an informed an healthy decision to treat your future better than ATT ever will. Work those several jobs until you find the right one. Get back the respect that you would never receive at ATT.
Five major federal laws protect laid-off employees, but looks like you did sign the waver, for those who did not, is just matter of time for an age discrimination suit will result in the next 4 years, recent developments in age discrimination, including the effect on older workers of widespread layoffs, threats to employee benefits and controversial recent court decisions, that may be the reason layoffs are done so quietly, September 2013, Pursuant to the settlement, AT&T has agreed to pay $250,000 as monetary relief. The company has also agreed to redistribute its anti-discrimination policy, provide anti-discrimination training, and report to the EEOC on age discrimination complaints and terminations of individuals over the age of 40.
The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. AT&T Inc., AT&T Corp., AT&T Services, Inc. and Pacific Bell Telephone Company, d/b/a/ AT&T California, Case No. 09-CIV-7323) in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Aug. 20, 2009, after first trying to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process. AT&T denied the allegations in the lawsuit, but agreed to change its policies related to the reemployment of retirees.
Sorry to hear about your plight. This is so true "My suggestion to anybody that is still working, start looking now"