Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

@5vfo - I 100% agreed with you until I started coming back to the office. Our building has several large drop in / reservable areas, which are fairly modern and new. I work with none of these people. However, they are all friendly (yes can be a little loud), and we find ourselves discussing work and other subjects offen. In all actuality, meeting people from other orgs may also provide a way to network into other positions if I get hit next round. Yes, I also got more work done from home, but if the company is putting more importance on being in the office and getting a bit less work done, then that’s what I’ll adapt to.

"But the company wants us to make an effort to get more out of coming to the office than just showing up, so give it a try."

Work teams are spread across the country and overseas. How is sitting in an office with other people not even in your org that would rather not hear you so they can get their work done, going to be beneficial? Are we to blame WFH because over the last ten years T stock has grown just under 30% while the S they don't see a growth opportunity which is the result of leadership, not because of WFH.

Loyalty is a 2 way street.

Why would anyone quit when eventually you'll be layed off & can walk with $. Do as little as possible & keep collecting that check, seems to be the plan for most I know. Drop in stock, thank the boys in Dallas.

If they are getting less from you in the office, you should do the right thing and quit. The company doesn't owe you a work from home job. They owe a return on investment to shareholders, and you're not pulling your weight. 20% drop in stock price last year is from people like you getting too comfortable.

@3wkk - first off, I have no kids to set an example to.

"But the company wants us to make an effort to get more out of coming to the office than just showing up, so give it a try."

They're NOT getting more out of me, or anyone else I know by "showing up". They're getting less. And less each day too.

I get the irritation with micromanagement, I really do - I have been swept up in the ‘badge swipe - gate’ as well. However, as adults, I think we also need to look at the bigger picture sometimes. If your teenager is getting his/her schoolwork completed, should they be able to stay home? Leave early? Take an extra long lunch? Nap during the day? What if the bus schedule is annoying because of traffic? Do you tell them they can wait to go in until after traffic is better? Obviously not - because, in general, school is important on many levels beyond just ‘personal comfort’, and you’d expect the school to call for a conference if those behaviors were seen.

Again, I get it. I’ve wfh for several years and now make the trek to the office, ‘wasting’ time and fuel. But the company wants us to make an effort to get more out of coming to the office than just showing up, so give it a try. And be careful what work ethic (or hypocrisy) you are modeling for your kids. Not trying to rile anyone up, just something for thought.

i believe the swipe and vpn usage are counted different - I have been told they only count the IN swipe.

I can tell you there are no one off's once you are on the hit list. Even approved WFH folks got hit in my group.

Here in Michigan lots of FOW's married whires doing favors to directors, it pays to have av----na, LOL

In an absurd manner, considering the badge swiping and VPNing, this makes it easy to document accomplishments. Simply state you complied with that. Since nothing else counts, no need to mention projects or training. Is that what they want? To continue, send an email to your entire chain of command each morning notifying them you've arrive in the office. And a second one that you're leaving and will issue another when you login from home. And again when you logoff. And if you support IT systems, whenever you are called out. And when you finish the call out.

Your manager has to straighten this out. There are intelligent, valuable employees that will be lost if this is the true method of determining performance - and lost via surplus or simply quitting. The intellectual capability of T will go away and they will continue to decline.

what a fricken environment - the "leaders" are nuts.

"I’ve been pondering the COBC dilemma - realizing you’ve been instructed to report to an office a certain number of days each week. BUT if you are working , are producing, met your action items and deliverables - isn’t it interesting we’re all feeling threatened because....why. We WORKED in an alternate location? The company should issue everyone desktop pc’s then. Dedicated office space too. What a horrible message ."

Yeah - pretty darn confusing isn't it. I am convinced they have no clue. They need to man up and just say everyone comes in the office and if people leave so be it. This policy is pretty stupid. I consider the policy a cobc violation. You aren't sending a message that is clear. They are just using it as a tool to do whatever they think they are doing psychologically. Pretty fricken nuts. I think the people who work from and think their supervisors have their backs and they have some kind of work from home permanent agreement from some vp are fooling themselves.

"The board needs to take a hard look at these empty space heads at the top because they're the ones ruining the company."

Bravo! I second that. The real problem at AT&T is executive management. Too many layers and too little competence. Oh, and did I mention arrogance? Most of them think they are so much smarter than the people that work for them. These guys couldn't run a hot dog stand and they presume to be capable of setting a direction for a complicated business like AT&T. What a joke these guys are. But now the majority of employees know what arrogant, entitled, frauds they are. They have lost any semblance of moral authority. Most seem them as the enemy to be defeated by working the system they themselves designed.

How sad that we are all working under fear & intimidation of badge swipes & VPN reports. These bonehead Dallas boys don't have a clue as to the day to day operations of this company. For any of them to think that our performance can be measured by VPN time & badge swipes is absolutely ridiculous. There is nothing that I accomplish by sitting in an office, in fact I accomplish LESS. The stress of driving/traffic to get back & forth, finding a spot to work at, dealing with the noise level, dirty surroundings-by the afternoon I am exhausted and useless. I have zero motivation to go above & beyond my duties, which is sad because I was once a very dedicated employee. Not anymore. I've lost faith in management and even my own co-workers at this point. Upper management has lost their way & there is no reason why they should be trusted at this point. The ship is slowly sinking.

My supervisor couldn’t give me a straight answer. No direction on how door card badge swipes and VPN would be reconciled. No recommendations if I should relocate to a collab zone. They’re making this up as they go along, and damn the fallout.

From what I recall, the VPN reports are - or were - only run from 6AM to 6PM M-F. So if you VPN in before or after those hours it won't show up. The reason for this was because the VPN report was (at least initially) run and produced by corporate real estate, for the reason of, them trying to determine if they could reduce real estate holdings, did they still need this bldg or not? Sounds logical, especially if more people can TC, its a win-win-win, right?

I've heard of people recently that leave early to avoid the afternoon traffic, I don't know what that would mean, especially now, if your VPN report shows 2 or 3 hrs a day, of if this allowed under the new rules.

I would recommend you ask your manager to get clarification from above on this.

• Make a copy of the undocumented FOW actual policy that requires you 2-3 days per week.

• Document days you swipe in and swipe out (taking a picture with your phone records location, date,time as you make that swipe)

• Document days you swipe out.

• Document days you login to VPN on days you swipe in/out.

I don't believe this nullifies anything. VPN records show login time and logout time.

However seeing the need to do the above is just counter-intuitive of being an effective worker, it's b---s---. These "leaders" think they know how to do the work that we do and make these wild decisions. 5 years ago they were pushing WFH to save costs, now all of a sudden it doesn't.

The board needs to take a hard look at these empty space heads at the top because they're the ones ruining the company.

"The company should issue everyone desktop pc’s then. Dedicated office space too. What a horrible message ."

You know I have thought about this too. They are mandating that everyone come in but they do not have a place for them (maybe it is more agile that way--fail fast and often ;-) ). I have heard people who report downtown (208 S. Akard) saying that there isn't even a table for them to put their laptop on. They end up sitting in an armchair balancing their laptop on their laps all day. This is a fundamental issue of employee rights (yeah, I know I must be a commie even using the word "rights" in the context of employees). What ever happened to that ergonomics training we used to have to take? This is a fertile area for a tort attorney to make some extra bucks on workplace injuries from bad ergonomics. I hope the lawsuits start coming fast and furious. Money is the only language these executive clowns understand.

That is pretty counter intuitive. Can you simply ask your supervisor? It's common to go to the office, work, go home and VPN in to get some more work done. I was told specifically that it is fine to badge in then use VPN later at home. Heck, one of the clients I support requires use of VPN to connect to their part of the network - so I've badged in and VPN'ed while in a Collaboration Zone office just so I can support a specific customer (although I try to avoid that when in the office). Just ask your supervisor what constitutes badging in and how using VPN after working counts. I'm sure your supervisor takes work home as well, and uses VPN after coming in to the office.

"A co-worker said he heard that if I do that it nullifies the fact that I was in the office that day at all. I.e., if I login from home after working from the office, it trumps the fact that I was in the office at all and shows that I worked from home the whole day."

That's an interesting question. It kind of depends on how they clean the data (badge swipe events, VPN data, laptop idle, etc.) and combine various data streams as well as the model they use to interpret the data. For example if they see only one badge swipe in the morning that could be suspicious. Some buildings have multiple badge swipe opportunities inside. But in reality one never knows what bone-headed model and data cleaning might be done. I have seen some pretty slapdash fast and loose data analysis at AT&T even in normal times. Ultimately, based on some silly executive whim (geoconsidation?) they will build a faulty model and generate faulty results and lay people off accordingly. These guys are in panic mode. Slapdash is the order of the day. For them, self preservation is the goal and in typical fashion they will execute badly. We are in corporate meltdown.

I’ve been pondering the COBC dilemma - realizing you’ve been instructed to report to an office a certain number of days each week. BUT if you are working , are producing, met your action items and deliverables - isn’t it interesting we’re all feeling threatened because....why. We WORKED in an alternate location? The company should issue everyone desktop pc’s then. Dedicated office space too. What a horrible message .

Can’t confirm that but remember the company will use everything and anything as a reason to surplus you or worse, terminate you for violating COBC.