AT&T Reviews in Sacramento, CA Area

Pros

The benefits were exceptionally good (medical, dental, vision, mental health, reimbursment accts, and legal); very ethnically diverse workforce, variety of job functions available to more ambitious, responsible workers.

Cons

No transfer within the company for workers from the "old AT&T"; very little opportunity for promotion, constant threat of lay-offs undermined morale, and the union (@ least our local) often picked the wrong battles and frequently conspired with managment @ the expense of the workers

Advice to Senior Management

Find a way around the union to reward/promote employee performance over seniority; invest time and thought into promoting center morale

Pros

The money was the only good thing about working for AT&T.

Cons

AT&T is the prime example of Corporate America. They are ruthless and cruel. So many of my co-workers went home night after night in tears. They raised the rates on customers after saying they wouldn't when they bought the baby bell companies. They closed most California offices down after saying that we would not lose our jobs when they bought us (Pacific Bell). They got around the monopoly laws via loop holes. They outsource to India, which hurts our economy and frustrates the customers. They are evil, and have destroyed so many lives, I hate them with a passion.

Advice to Senior Management

Even If what I said could change something for the better, this is a company too big and powerful to care about feedback or advice.

Pros

Good web-based and instructor led training

Cons

Low pay, little opportunity for advancement

Advice to Senior Management

Go back to the SBC company culture. It is amazing that SBC was the more successful company, and bought AT&T, but now AT&T is running the show. This is good news for Verizon and other competitors.

Pros

Some of the best aspects to working for ATT is the investment of time into its employees. ATT offers training and partnerships with other companies that provide training, which grow the skill sets of it's employees. When people are not only given the tools to succeed but expected to succeed, good things happen.

Cons

The pressure to do more with less is the brass ring on this carousel ride. It is right there, constantly facing you every time you go around the corner.

Advice to Senior Management

CONTINUE TO INVEST IN YOUR EMPLOYEES. THE PAY BACK YOU RECEIVE ON THAT INVESTMENT IS A CONSTANTLY FORWARD MOVING AND THINKING EMPLOYEE BASE.

Pros

The money was good but with the consolidation of sales offices and the new contract the money is going down

Cons

The leadership team is made up of failed sales reps and frankly, not so bright folks.

Advice to Senior Management

clean house and start over.

Pros

good pay, good benifits. Union protection

Cons

downward trending business segment. Working within the confines of the union

Advice to Senior Management

Look closer at personnel to promote promising talent from within

Pros

They recognized my birthday, and insisted I move to Sacramento, California.Three months later the facility was closed. Lost a lot of money used in deposits for apartment, phone and utilities.
I was told the last day, as workpeople were removing shelving, telephones and cubicles, to leave my key under the supervisor keyboard. No goodbye.

Cons

Outbursts from managers for tasks and information about procedures they had 25 years to master. I then received the guidebooks for AT&t guidelines only after requesting them.

Advice to Senior Management

New employees and consultants need at least two weeks of orientation for procedures and corporate guidelines.

Pros

The employees are great, The pay is decent, and the work is really good..tools and equipment are accessible and most of the training for the basic job is available.

Cons

UNBELIEVEABLE!! how management can spend all of that time and money on a technician and then treat them with the disrespect and untrusting attitude that they do. They talk and treat you as if you were a third grader and get mad when you act like one. How can any relationship or team work together to achieve a common goal when there is no mutual respect. How can any team be sucessful when management makes that fatal mistake of trying to rule by fear and intimidation??

Advice to Senior Management

Your employees are just one of many key assets in a sucessful business. Dont make the mistake of trying to run a busniss soley on grafts and charts. Turn the business back to the local area managers and allow them to make the decisions that is best suited for their areas. Afterall, you do pay them a good salary and hold them accountable for their areas.

Pros

Salaries/benefits. If you define your boundaries, life/work balance is respected and encouraged.

AT&T is THE leader and has so much untapped potential... mostly because of the need to update it's corporate culture and adopt a new, progressive management style.

Cons

So big, makes change slow and cumbersome; but change is constant and frustration can be too; organizational communication is often lacking and change is made with no input from 2nd/1st level managers. It's a dictatorial management style that still drives the company. Unfortunate.

We can be GREAT - but need to look at unneccessary and excessive layers of management. Keep people based on talent, contributions, effectiveness - not politics. Build an engaged, innovated, progressive culture that allows the enterpreneurial spirit to live and where people are rewarded based on their work. That takes trust - up and down and across the board. We've got a lot of work to do in that respect. (Too many mergers - too many insecure, threatened managers in the midst of endless reorgs and downsizing. Hard times.)

Advice to Senior Management

Randall Stephens is successful in communicating the vision but please require communication from organizational leaders to their management teams. With organizations and teams so spread out - and amazing technology that totally supports effective teaming and communication - silent, invisible leaders are not acceptable. Not in such intense times of change. Take the helm for god's sakes. We need REAL leadership - progressive, innovative, trusting/trusted LEADERS. Bring in new blood if needed.

AT&T's culture needs to change. Technology has grown in leaps and bounds; now management style (from the top down) needs to change. There are exceptions and pockets (depending on your organization/manager), but generally, leadership tends to be very closed, non-communicative, distanced and just plain "hands off" - often managing through intimidation and alienation. It is uninspiring and demotivating. We all have to self-motivate, but the trade off of management by intimidation and when organizational "leadership" fails to lead or fails to rally and inspire employees is a disengaged, demotivated workforce. Please... step up and update your thinking. It's time for a "new paradigm" for AT&T. There is no lack of documentation and evidence on effective leadership and it's positive impact.

Also, open up the tuition aid programs to encourage continued education among your employees. It promotes critical thinking and keeps folks growing. You'll get your best from employees in that mindset.

Pros

AT&T is a global company. It has been around for a long time.

Cons

Constant rounds of layoffs, every couple months (if even that) we are being told that they are going to reduce headcount.

Advice to Senior Management

Share what is going on and why. Explain the bigger picture and people will follow with less resistance.