AT&T Reviews in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX Area

Pros

Good benefits - a pension plan
- a 401 k benefit with company match uptp 6 %
- disounts on cable service which is using Fiber to node
- free wire line service with all features ( unlimited long distance, call block etc )
- deep discounted wireless plan
- pension plan
- medical benefits, vision pla, excellent dental coverage
- good number of vacation , sick and personal days off
- pays for part of higher education
- world wide location

Cons

- very large company with red tapes all along , everything is tied to unnecessary process

Advice to Senior Management

- simplify things

Pros

Phone and TV discount. Ability to schedule vacation for managment employees.

Cons

Leadership? Not here. Raise? Bonus? Promotion? Not unless you are "part of the club," or want to spend every waking moment with your VP. Ignorance rather than intelligence is rewarded, and annual reviews are a joke. When employees ask or beg to be challenged, more work is simply loaded on their already full schedule.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop focusing on reducing expenses and start focusing on keeping customers happy. This can be accomplished by a happy workforce and that workforce receiving the tools needed to get the job done.

Pros

Development opportunities. AT&T offers several college recruiting programs like general internships, leadership development, summer management, financial leadership & sales apprenticeships. AT&T employees receive a competitive and comprehensive benefits package that is designed to provide protection, security & value. AT&T offers tuition aid to help eligible employees with their professional development. These funds can be used to help cover the cost of qualified educational expenses approved by the company.

Cons

The problem at AT&T is that when getting their numbers and quotas, they forget they are dealing with humans and not robots. They claim they have a tough time getting skilled workers,

Advice to Senior Management

human capital is much more important than financial capital, because if you don't treat your people right you will not continue to profit.

Pros

Decent pay when compared to other companies, but I advanced quickly with the "take the title, and the pay will come around with salary treatment", and when looking at salary ranges for the titles I've passed, I am below what I should be. It's relatively low stress, had been fairly stable as a job (lately however, yikes), most direct management folks are flexible to allow for time needed to take care of things (Dr visits, etc) and with telecommuting.

Cons

Can be frustrating dealing with the process and red tape on stuff. Also get management speaking out of both sides of their mouth on multiple issues (ie follow the process vs Stephenson said do this now).

Advice to Senior Management

Spend the money to update some of the antiquated systems that bog down progress and require so much money spent to customize solutions for each region. Create a central customer repository instead of regional deviation.

Pros

Internet Provider, Cell Phone Provider and it is not going away. (i.e. Job Security)
New Growth is occurring - VoIP, Television, ETrade, B2B.

Cons

A Giant Company, a service company with old company culture in a new business model ,i.e. POTS vs. the internet.
It has all the drawbacks of being MA Bell and cannot get good reputation since the "internet should be Free". It tries being more careful not to offend than it does trying to accomplish something new.

Balancing the fading legacy of land lines (POTS) and the government sanction (regulated) communication revenue stream against the needed growth of the internet DSL creates too many mixed messages.

The customer is always right... but the fall out from Billing systems, etc. is just minimized to "good enough" never taken to zero! The employees have a tough time navigating the systems. the customers are even more in a tough spot.

The legacy of lifetime employment, Union Labor and the "perks" given (e.g. Health care, etc.) in conjunction with a fading revenue stream (POTS), leads to a very "documented" and pre-defined work experience. It is very hard for management to reward performers when a) Seniority is institutionalized...even within Upper management. b) under performers are perceived get the essentially the same performance reward.

Advice to Senior Management

Get on with eliminating the Buggy Whip production and get on with making Flying automobiles.

Pros

Cuurent insuance benefits is the only reason to work for AT&T but that can all change with the upcoming contract

Cons

In order to get promoted you have to kiss up to mangagement and that still won't get you anywhere. Have no sympathy when it comes to family situations. Production..production..production..is managements concern. Jobs are being taken away left and right, then they except you to train and assist the new group to do your own job. If you don't, you are taking the chances of being written up by management. You will be used until your services are not longer needed. Morale is at an all time low. Depending on who your manger is depends on if you life will be hell. Very few good managers left. They assume they are there to babysit not supervise.

Advice to Senior Management

Reasearch your decisions before taking taking the work away and moving prior to making the decisions pay for adequate training.

Pros

As one of the largest companies in the world the opportunities for career and professional development are beyond compare. Job safety (keeping your job) is never tenuous and you can on having one when you come in tomorrow.

For the most part the people you work with are kind, courteous and helpful, yes there are always exceptions.

Cons

The erosion of our benefits and pay raises due to less revenue in the company. While the Executives who made the decisions that led to the loss of revenue are posting bigger and bigger bonuses for them selves and their cronies.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop raping the company for your own personal benefit, karma, its coming sooner then you think.

Pros

Career opportunities within the company were very good. They require you stay in a position from 18 months to 2 years, but after that you can pursue other opportunities within the company. For a technical career this had some real advantages because you were able to keep your seniority yet build on your resume and experience.

Cons

The fear of layoffs was always there, but in this economy where are you going to find a job without that fera?

One downside I saw was the seemingly non-cooperative spirit between some departments. The "service" departments were given directives but the support from upper manangement to enforce the directives wasn't as strong as it could have been. It would feel as if you were the "bad cop" doing the bidding for upper management and when the department you were supporting didn't like the directive and would push back and "throw their weight around", upper management would "give in" resulting in those trying to enforce the directive have less creditability with their client.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop the competiveness between departments. It is one company for goodness sake.

Pros

Competitive medical benefits. Large company with many resources. Some departments flexible about general hours worked as long as you're there between 9am and 3pm. You could work 9am to 6pm or 7am to 4pm.

Cons

Even before the economy went sour, it was very hard to move to another position even for a lateral. Company looks out for company and doesn't care about its employees. Not supportive of work-life family balance with extremely long hours and weekend work. It was impossible to switch to part-time or shared work. Some who were on part-time were forced to return full-time.

Advice to Senior Management

Allow employees to speak up without any fear, which adds to the politically charged environment.

Pros

The most compelling reason is working for a company that is so very much in the mainstream of commercial and personal communication. But from a personal standpoint, the best reason is due to their employee-centric policies allowing employee managers to make decisions and carry out plans for ideas.

Cons

Conversely, the problem is that even though those ideas are requested, listened to, and often praised, they are rarely acted upon.

Advice to Senior Management

Leverage the support that middle and lower management are willing to provide regarding the operations of the company. Instead of just 'listening to the employees' (which they are really good at), do something about what you hear.