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

Pros

Large company, many opportunities. Management gets great concessions on home phone, ld, high speed internet, u-verse and wireless.

Cons

hourly employees are bargained for and although cwa and att typically have a good relationship, a retail environment is no place for union representation. a call center, factory or plant, maybe, but not in a shop that has only 5 to 15 bargained for employees, if you have plans on finishing college, forget it. schedules are based on seniority and all schedules are created to look equally unappealing. Health care costs to the employee have just taken a turn for the worst. part time employees can expect to work to pay for benefits.

Advice to Senior Management

Do not let the wireline folks run wireless. we have worked with them and they have no idea how to run a retail model. the wireline business has steadily declined while wireless is still a growth industry. If you want att to be the company it should be, you should be looking at the wireless leaders to make it happen.

Pros

You get to bring home a paycheck.

Cons

Horrid IT Leadership; executives that think they are technical and give technical direction instead of vision.
No other reason for working at AT&T beyond a paycheck. Their 'Green' initiatives consist of turning up the thermostat and roasting their employees instead of something like...I don't know...painting the tops of their buildings white.
Moral is low here, nobody wants to take ownership of anything and the leaders refuse to sponsor anything unless they came up with the idea.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop trying to be the technical leaders and let your technical people do that. And move into the 21st for christ sake.

Pros

Pays well if you like high pressured sales and making cold calls during down time, good benefits though

Cons

OMG, I could write a book. I'll give Reader's Digest condensed version. Every other customer has some kind of issue where they jump down your throat. You have to be super nice to them (in order to get all 5's from a customer survey) but they can be bitches. The company pushes relentlessly to make cold calls, sell other products with every customer, exceed goals, beg for all 5's...relentlessly. Push, push, push, relentlessly.

Advice to Senior Management

Ease up a little, we are human. I would like to invite Senior Management to work in the trenches for awhile. But, it's all about money & stock. Employees are an expenable comodity. Sorry Ralph, I didn't give you all 5's. I gave you a 4 which means you reallly got a 0. You fail.

Pros

Management is supportive of staff. They encourage us to balance our personal lives and our work lives. They seem to acknowledge that we are people first and employees second. Our staff members know we have to be present and focused when we are at work, but we also know that our managers back us up when they say something or tell us they are going to work on a problem. The pay rate is better than my previous job in management when including commissions or bonuses. The benefits package is excellent especially for the union jobs. For my family I pay next to nothing for a top notch benefits package.

Cons

The company has been merging with other companies. This means the merging of computer systems, telephone call centers, employees and other types of resources. It also means that some employees came from different companies and have a different natural way of doing certain procedures. I don't always know for sure which number to call to solve a problem I might be having for a customer. So many different organizations joining into one big company sometimes creates headaches. Compensation structures have been written and rewritten over and over recently. This has also led to a sense of uncertainty within the organization since a few months from now the commission structure might be completely different.

Advice to Senior Management

Merge the computer systems so that it is easier for us to provide efficient service to customers. Often I can't gain access myself to certain systems and have to call out for support which adds significant time to the interaction.

Pros

Benefits. I started in quite a few years ago so we had good health, dental, vision plans, 401k, Pension and 28 days off per year plus 2 wireless plans at no cost.

Cons

Benefits are going downhill after Cingular began integrating with AT&T. Health is worse now, 401k a little worse now and days off policy and increments are changing. The base compensation is the worst part though. Cingular/AT&T base salaries are very unfair compared to other companies. Also, if you start out low, it will take 20 years to reach a decent base salary as they yearly increments are only 3% (sometimes much more based on Manager approval).

Advice to Senior Management

Loosen up on the salaries. I truly think AT&T is a great place to work and the rest of the benefits make it great, however, the base salaries are just not competitive with other companies. At least make it easier to have salary adjustments rather than the 3% merit increases.

Pros

Decent benefits although they are getting worse each year. I live pretty close to my office.

Cons

Horrible management and alot of the good ole boys mentality. You really have to brown nose deep if you want a promotion. Good work means nothing here. Management makes lots of promises but usually doesn't deliver. There are no rewards for hard work or going the extra mile. Lots of red tape and bureaucracy. They are outsourcing everything that is not nailed down. Anyone who is young and capable usually leaves the company unless they brown nose for a promotion. Most of management have their degree from the University of Phoenix or some other joke of an online college.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop stuffing your faces with bonuses while cutting employee benefits.