I joined AT&T a little over a year ago and already I can barely handle the stress that comes with the job. I'm not talking about workload - that's not an issue - it's everything else. Politics, layoffs, constant uncertainties...
It hasn't always this bad, has it? Because if it has, I can't understand how people take decades of this and remain normal. Mad respect, people.
I was surplus after 25 years (Ohio Bell, Ameritech, SBC, AT&T). Prior to that I had been surplus/work force adjusted 2 other times as our department closed or relocated. The stress of it is never ending.
"Every other Friday when that paycheck shows up it's a blessing and a miracle! How in the world they can keep the doors open at this place amazes me."
It is confounding isn't it? I keep wondering that every day.
The company was actually worth working for when they still had the SBC brand.
These days ? Not so much.
I think each year it gets worse than the last.
Remember the office space film?
So if you have at least 7 years in with T you are in a tough spot/ I have a short commute
and more PTO days than I can use and a pension - albeit small- but I feel like engineering and it are gutted every quarter
to the point where I can’t feel like I can stand behind these systems as they fail so often
Anyway I can go on but it doesn’t really help any one
Every other Friday when that paycheck shows up it's a blessing and a miracle! How in the world they can keep the doors open at this place amazes me.
They use you up, then boot you out.
It's not always like this. Sometimes it's worse.
Coming from Legacy T after divestiture and watching that mismanaged and eventually bought by SBC, throughout my entire long career, there has been frequent outsourcing, layoffs and uncertainty. I feel very grateful that I was able to be flexible and lucky enough to adapt and remain productively contributing until retirement age.
" Just wait until AT&T looks at all the money Time Warner pays for parties, socializing and other things that are normal in that industry."
LOL nice I haven't even thought about that although I don't care but should be fun to watch.
nice att see what we you do to new normal people. but this has been happening forever at att they use surplus instead of managing so they don't get sued. I would stay a couple of years and then leave you have no pension and they will outsource you eventually. att does not care about it's workers.
I just passed the 20 year mark in the Southeast. Layoff announcement every quarter since 1999. That's 80 times we had to sweat it out. Many of my fellow techs are long gone, I probably won't make it past this year. I am preparing.
It’s been almost twenty years now, and I can say I’ve only considered my job safe for a handful of them. Change seems to be the only constant these days with layoffs either looming or just past. The amount of change we are experiencing in my current department is difficult to bear. It seems every aspect of my job has been altered creating much stress and chaos. It is impossible to be productive in an environment like this.
I am growing more and more concerned that the upper level persons, so far removed from what we actually do here, have set in motion some adjustments that will severely harm this companies ability to function. I believe that quality of work will continue to degrade in every component of this corporation other than the marketing department perhaps. With its sheer size it will carry on for many more years, but I think the glory days (for those not in Dallas) are long over.
Over all this though, I remain. I work and they pay me. My eyes are open for something new now, but with the unfortunate mindset that the grass is always greener on the other side. So I’ll hang on here for now rather than jump out of the frying pan and into the fire.
No, we once had a vision and definite purpose between around 2006 to mid 2014. We had a strategy for U-verse and were running on all cylinders. Today we are all over the place and no real direction besides vague roadmaps with ever changing and pushed back timelines. Well to be honest though, let me add one definite strategy for last 2.5 years is cutting cost from the business, almost every group is working on that with multiple redundancy across orgs and silos. And of course multiple groups taking credit for same cost reduction. Just wait until AT&T looks at all the money Time Warner pays for parties, socializing and other things that are normal in that industry. At&t will ask why are those cameras so expensive? I can see it now, new shows shot with iPhone X or DsLRs and actors paid scale. Plenty of good actors out there want exposure and they would take the jobs for a shot at being on a series. Craft services bills being scrutinized, etc. Hopefully that won’t happen but I think you all know the patterns of which I speak.
It has gotten much worse in the last 3 years. Around 2014 they came up with workforce 2020 and workplace 2020. In 2016 we saw layoffs and focus on margins. DTV was not adding what it should then TW got delayed and margins tanked.