AT&T slashing 1.5 percent of workforce
Facing down a "sluggish" economy and in light of some recent regional acquisitions, AT&T announced today that it'll be cutting about 1.5 percent of its workforce, primarily concentrating on management. The company calls it the "next step in streamlining its operations," and will shelling out about $375 million in Q1 to make the layoffs happen. According to some dubious maths perpetrated by the Engadget staff, 1.5 percent of AT&T's workforce is about 4,635.75 humans, not a minuscule cut by a long shot. We'd certainly hate to be in Mr. 75 percent's shoes right now.



















That picture is a bit creepy.
WEAK effort by the engadget graphics dept.
Like "Break into your house and rape you in your sleep" creepy? I think so
Oh come on, I clicked on comments to say what a good job they'd done.
Whats ATT's combover hairstyle called? The Edge? ^^
That man looks so much like Donald Trump - is that him??
Be honest
Yes, that was supposed to be the joke; it's Donald Trump, You're Fired, har har, but obviously it went above a few comb-overs as well...
how did you not recognize that hideous creation on his noggin? there is nothing in nature like that beast of burden
btw, wearing a dead animal on your skull is illegal in 29 states.
TEH MOAR U KNO.
.75 percent of a person..... Is that a midget? (I don't mean to offend any midgets, just sayin')
yup....looks like him with a haircut.....has the same dead racoon spread on scalp look.
I would hate to be the .75 person cut........
I call photoshop on this.
You don't say.
YOUR FIRED !
GET OUT !
GET OUT NOW !
SECURITY !!!!!!
I thought AT&T had better "coverage"...
sorry, couldn't help myself
What total nonsense of a PR announcing a 1.5% rightsizing!
A company the size of AT&T has normal turnover of perhaps 10-15% per annum. People leave, retire, get fired etc. etc. etc. So all they have to do is NOT hire any new employees for 2 months.
In summary this is NO slash job. It's STUPID PR!!!!! On this basis alone I would not buy their shares, so much BS.
This is management employees. AT&T doesn't have 15% turnover in management. A $375mm hit means the average of these employees will get a package around $80,000.
The jobs with the highest turnover are the line workers/those at the bottom of the organization. This cut is mostly of managers. Over the past decade it has been very common for businesses to flatten their organizational structure by cutting out those in middle management.
there are over 300,000 employees and 3000 of those are vice presidents. so i don't mind them cutting out the middle (management) man.
I knew Trump had work done.... I KNEW it....
1.5% hardly constitutes a "Slashing".
im surprised ATT didnt say, "it all roots from those kids hackin' their iPhones and usin' different carriers. See kids stealing really does hurt people."
Unless they were all middle managers with pays equivalent to that of more than 10% of the company's costs.
Tell that to the people losing their jobs.
Didn't engadget just say a month or so ago that AT&T was having trouble finding US jobs and/or workers to fill those jobs?
I mean, like....what?
btw, the picture made me lol....ty ty ty :)
Mike - that last article was on having trouble filling lower-rung customer care jobs, and this is about streamlining its management. Totally different areas.
Where's the Mac haters? No "how come the iPhone didn't save them" comments?
I'm right here Frank, whats up?
Whaddya mean, what's up?
What part of "No "how come the iPhone didn't save them" comments?" don't you understand?
And you call yourself a Mac hater. PC would be ashamed.
you guys are really bored, huh?
@Frank Furter
Cause maybe we've all decided to grow up, you should too.
In all likelihood this is had nothing to do with becoming more efficient, but rather with meeting short-term stockholder expectations. No doubt they'll cut from the bottom up, and then be forced to rehire those people when they realise no work is getting done. It'll end up costing them more, and disrupt thousands of lives. The real dead wood is at the top.
exactly. this is why i cringe when people blindly defend oligopolies as "just capitalism". huh? if it weren't for the market abuses, sweetheart deals, and lobbying, you'd see nimbler firms clean house on these dinosaurs
and here i thought that oligopoly was better than an apology. they give up employees so they can seek better employment...makes sense to me.
Exactly...it's called a "synergy target", basically someone promised to be able to cut the budget by X% to justify the price of all the buyouts. This is just a way to quickly make that target.
Not really on topic, but I loathe Donald Trump.
i guess you won't be paying $10,000 to go to one of his seminars then?
"We'd certainly hate to be in Mr. 75 percent's shoes right now."
Dilbert: "How'd it go?" Wally: "He fired my hair."
Sounds like Randal is trying to get hit his highest level of bonus's. I was just reading ATT's financial statement they just sent out and it looks like everybody at the top is getting paid very well for last years performance and are gunning for some bigger bonus's/raises.
i think this is code for "even more tech support call centers in India"
or... "teh ekonomie is bad" = excuse for execs to skim even more off the top
Here's a great new site that I think would really help....
www.ireallysuckatphotoshop.com/helpme
Refresh my memory please. Was it AT&T's CEO who just last month commented that he had 5k jobs in the USA that could not be filled because of the lack of "skilled applicants" I think his remarks were blasted all over the news. Were his comments bogus just to support moving more jobs off shore?
Actually, AT&T already has a lot of skilled people to do the jobs but they are trying to get rid of everybody & ship the jobs overseas. I used to work for AT&T & that company is sorry as h**l, the landline rates are too high, & their cell phone service ain't worth a crap. I quit working with AT&T because they would not let me take a leave of absence when my brother was shot. They are not worth a dime.
Maybe if you paid me $10,000. Then again, I'm a whore and would do almost anything for money.
Damn, that was supposed to be a reply to phanbouy