AT&T waves goodbye to 4,600 staffers

AT&T is sacking 4,650 staffers, about 1.5 per cent of its 310,000-strong workforce. Wearing the pink slips, mostly, are managers in the home landline business who don't talk to customers. The born again telecoms monopoly thinks it has too many Morlocks on the payroll, following the reunification of three baby Bells: SBC, AT&T …

[Anonymous Coward]

Quite the golden handshake...

AT&T is sacking 4,650 staffers [...]

"streamlining", as AT&T dubs the managerial purge in today's SEC

filing, will take a $374m chunk out of Q1 earnings

Hmmm - let me get out the HP 15C:

374000000

-------------- = 80430

4650

I have to say that is a heckuva lot more than two weeks pay, accrued vacation, and an extra charge to clean out an office for the next occupant... what else could be buried in this write-off?

[Sean Nevin]

HG Wells

What's with the Time Machine references? Just for fun?

Also, I think the plural form for the Eloi is just 'Eloi'... At least it was in the copy I have... Oh well.

By the way, Happy Birthday El Reg!

[Anonymous Coward]

This is one of the reasons I won't do business with AT&T

You can't get decent service because they lay off everyone who know's what they are doing. I spent five hours on the phone one day trying to get an issue re-solved before I got an old fart who could correct it.

I also if they are doing what a lot of companies are doing and laying off people who don't speak Spanish. Every advertisement I get from them makes it real clear that they consider Lantino's more important than people like me.

[Rick Stockton]

AT&T was not a RBOC, just an acquisition.

AT&T was never an RBOC; the RBOCs were created by the breakup. What remained as "AT&T" was basically long-distance, Bell Labs, and some equipment manufacturing. The company which calls itself "AT&T" is still SBC/Pac Bell. When they bought AT&T, they changed their name to that of the small acquisition, because SBC's reputation is.... (ahem) well established, and not good.

This is SBC-type behavior, definitely.

[pctechxp]

Less of the old fart AC!

Nope I'm not in the States and I don't work for AT&T (or any telecoms provider for that matter) but I'd like to stand up for the tech support professionals who are in their 20s and are dedicated to keeping on top of their industry and working practices to ensure that the customer gets their problems sorted quickly.

You don't have to be an old grey 'head to get stuff done you know.

Its this moronic ones that give us all a bad name.

Maybe AT&T considers latinos more important because they are easer to rip off ;)

The geeky glasses because I am one and proud of it!

[Ishkandar]

@This is one of the reasons I won't do business with AT&T

Of course they are !! Them drug cartels have much bigger bucks to spend that you do !! Money talks, bullshit walks !!

@Quite the golden handshake... - well, there is the cost of hiring outside consultants to fire those managers so that the senior management can "truthfully" say it wasn't them that fired those sods; so the "blame" can be passed on to others and, thereby, pacifying/suppressing the union(s) !! Axemen cost money !! It's a shit job but someone has to do it and I'm sure they cried all the way to the bank !!

[Ishkandar]

@pctechxp

It's called "deadwooding" !! Getting rid of the old farts who can't do their work but clung on to their jobs for dear life and got promoted to managers by sheer attrition !!

[JC]

@pctechxp

pctechxp, you exemplify what's wrong, that you actually think at a ripe old age of twenty-something that you are on top of the industry with the same experience as those who are older. You might be a great tech for your age but those who are terrible at it will also tend to feel differently.

To put it another way, consider the knowledge you have now, compared with what it will be 10 or 20 years from now. No matter how bright you are, you, like those who came before will become better and better year over year so long as you continue to put effort into doing so.

[Anonymous Coward]

another old fart

This is just one more screwing over folks...they won't offer a decent buyout...they're telling management not to plan anything after April next year so they're available to scab while the company works on screwing over the union folks and some sob at the top will get a big bonus from this. If you never hear about the previous ceo/chairman

getting his 158$ million tax free gift when he retired...you know...all that money has to come from somewhere, and where else better than the jobs of the little people who actually KNOW what the company is supposed to be doing