Thread regarding AT&T Inc. layoffs

Going back to AT&T would be like cutting your throat with a dull knife. I have a college degree and when I went to work for AT&T in the CS department it was with the intention and desire to move up in ranks. The disappointing news was that it is not about your education level or your knowledge, it’s about who likes you and who favors you in management. I am over qualified for the CS position.

I have to say one positive point and that is the pay was excellent and the benefits were amazing. All this but at what cost? I’m glad I took the severance pay. It will allow me to look for work with a company where I can get respect and receive equal if not higher pay. I have that confidence.

I have a Master's in CS and they laid me off. I now make 100% more than I made at AT&T with more respect and better benefits. The world is so much better outside of AT&T.

I called the customer service number to talk and get my home phone bill straightened out after losing all my discounts and got the Phillipines. Guess they moved some jobs from India to the Phillipines. I hope whoever our next president is stops this nonsense of our American Companies keeping other countries employed with our jobs.

Lying dogs!!!

If you don' have a CS degree, the chances of keeping your job are low.. About 10%

Randall Stephenson is just blowing smoke to cover the real reason. They are hiring workers in huge quantities from overseas at a bargain price compared to the US employee. If you read his statement in the WSJ where he stated if the current US employees don't cut it they will be gone before 2020. Currently management is expected to be qualified in computer Science and other skills directed at services and systems not used by 90% of the employees in their daily work. Missing the training will be the excuse to layoff the person and say it was their own fault.

I would agree with the previous poster. Do not dispair things will look up. It is often difficult to leave a place where a decade or more has been invested and it is understandable. But, believe me it is not healthy to work in an environment sorrounded by clueless thugs who think of themselves as slave owners. You and your skills are more valued outside of AT&T. If you are in the ATO org, it is time to move on. This org is in serious trouble and those who do not see it will be caught off guard. So move on.

its a fulfilling prophecy. Don't allow yourself to think you're not worthy or some other company won't deserve you. I am 1000% sure that some of the best employees at places like Apple, Facebook, Google, wouldn't make it in ATT's BAU universe. I know people surplussed this round who came up with new and fresh ideas (which got the eyeballs of some higher ups) and it rubbed their director the wrong way.

ATT's facilities a culture of boring, data entry, yes/men and women. And then at the Leadership series throw around all these cool new buzz words: innovation/disruption etc.

ATT's ideas are good on paper. But I've seen middle management (AMs/Directors) intentionally step on the necks of people who were doing really good, new and interesting work.

That sort of talent belongs elsewhere anyway. See the exit as an entry. There are too many posts here to count of people who've gone on to make 20-30% MORE, happy, no sabatoge and no looking over your back every quarter.

Layoffs totally destroy your self esteem and really make you question whether you will be successful at another company and causes you to not trust future employers. It's awful and those not affected by surplus view you as a subpar employee. Really stinks.

With AT&T shipping jobs to Bratslavia, and teaching the customers to use the app and myatt.com, they will save over 1.5 Million a year if not more. And U.S. workers will Lose big time!

I agree there are very few circumstances in which you should go back or even want to. The person I know of who came back after surplus is being shuffled around again and not given much work in the interim. Shuffled around and not much work is a recipe for a layoff. I wouldn't want to go through that twice. Layoffs do affect your self esteem. They do affect the way non layed off peers see you. And they can also be political and used against people who have spoken up about serious issues. It's also brainwashing making one think there is nothing outside of att but I'm here to tell you there is more money, people who respect your talents, exciting projects etc... If u use this time to pick better.

The top U.S. phone company is having a hard time finding enough skilled American workers.

Say what? Reuters reports AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson says the company is coming up short in finding enough Americans capable of filling the 5,000 customer service jobs it promised to bring back to the U.S. from India.

So far, about 1,400 of those positions have been returned to the U.S. The company set a goal of 5,000 jobs and says it still plans to stick to that target. But they're not having much luck.

Stephenson is particularly worried about the state of education, pointing to some parts of the U.S. where the high school dropout rate is as high as 50%. He says: “If I had a business that half the product we turned out was defective or you couldn't put into the marketplace, I would shut that business down."

The U.S. economy lost 63,000 jobs last month, which was the largest cut in 5 years. And, if the American public isn't educated enough to handle customer service jobs at AT&T and probably thousands and thousands of others with all different kinds of employers, these companies will have little choice but to continue shipping jobs overseas.

Here’s my question to you: What does it suggest about the state of this country when AT&T says it’s having a hard time finding enough skilled American workers?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

Mike writes:

As usual, they have left out the other half of the sentence, "We can't find skilled U.S. workers AT THE MEAGER PRICE WE ARE WILLING TO PAY". If these companies would pony up a decent wage, they will find all the U.S. workers they need! Instead they let our country starve to fatten their bottom line.

Amie writes:

I think it means AT&T is not looking hard enough. I am in my twenties and an unemployed American citizen with an education and 5 years of solid management experience and I've been looking for a job for months with no luck. I know several others like me who need to pay our bills. We'd work for AT&T.

Bruce writes:

Jack, I'm a 57-year-old male, whose parents made me sit down and do my homework when I got home from school before I went out to play. They were disappointed in any grade less than a B. They held me back in 3rd grade because I wasn't keeping up. Today I have an MBA and am doing OK. Let's wake up and realize that it's the parents.

Michael writes:

Mr. Cafferty, My son is a college graduate and has a good work record. He is 24 years old and lives in Evansville, Indiana. He applied for a customer service job at the AT&T service center in Evansville. Needless to say, he is well qualified and has yet to get a call from AT&T to go to work. It has been several months since he applied and was interviewed. So AT&T does not have the right to say that they cannot find enough workers in the US.

Tom writes:

They should call me. I have been without a full-time job for the last two years, and I graduated from college in 2005 with a 3.5 GPA average! It’s not that the talent isn't here, they aren't reaching us. Will you give me a job, Jack?

Are you one of them?

Why would you go back, to AT&T, a temporary solution "for sure", finding opportunities elsewhere only makes sense

Yes. i know of someone who was a little outside of the 90 day window - whereby they don't have to pay the severance back. Got a job and came back to ATT.