20+ People fired at ATT today, more tomorrow.

[OKCMallen]

This whole thread smacks of troll. Low-level poster making assertions not backed up by anything. Can anyone even confirm these firings happened, much less for the evil reasons slevin stated?

You want real layoffs- Paycom laid off approx. 50 people last week.

[PennyQuilts]

I was wondering if more workers were laid off. The initial post said they were going to lay off more the next day but I haven't seen anything.

[soonerguru]

Right to Work has brought us no jobs. The only good argument for it was that our neighbor states had it.

We won't be big time until we have a more educated workforce, better quality of life (which we're working on!), and better infrastructure.

Actually, OKC is pretty well positioned toward achieving this. The rest of the state is struggling.

[SoonerGirl26]

This whole thread smacks of troll. Low-level poster making assertions not backed up by anything. Can anyone even confirm these firings happened, much less for the evil reasons slevin stated?

You want real layoffs- Paycom laid off approx. 50 people last week.

I was an HR manager at AT&T (then Southwestern Bell) in the 90's. I can tell you that if it were non-management people that were fired, all the background work would have been done to make sure that these employees did indeed do what they were fired for. The original poster of this thread indicated it was due to a violation of the Code of Business Conduct....and if this is true, it would have been a very serious offense for 20+ people to get fired. Non-management employees are covered by a Union contract and you can bet the union will be all over it if these people were fired unjustly. Unless things have changed since I was there, the HR managers should be making sure disciplinary cases are handled fairly. I'll try to see if I can find out if this story is true or not from my former AT&T contacts.

[SoonerGirl26]

Another note....I also think it is interesting that the original poster has not shared how he knows or heard about this. I'm not putting much validity to it until I find out from a more reliable source.

[jbrown84]

So I guess this was just rumor...?

[metro]

Another note....I also think it is interesting that the original poster has not shared how he knows or heard about this. I'm not putting much validity to it until I find out from a more reliable source.

here, here, especially since it was from a new poster.

[Intrepid]

I spoke with my contact with CWA yesterday evening, and they said that at that time, no word had come down of any such firings.

[PennyQuilts]

You'd think that many firings (with more coming, according to the poster) for an offense that serious, would be have been big-time news to the people in the know. Especially if it is just a sneaky way to get after senior employees.

Whattayawannabet some good old boy got canned for being drunk on the job and carrying on with the cleaning lady - in full view of the security camera - but rather than tell the old lady the truth, made up a whopper that turned into this.

It could happen.

[OU Adonis]

and carrying on with the cleaning lady - in full view of the security camera

go on......

[luckyslevin84]

You'd think that many firings (with more coming, according to the poster) for an offense that serious, would be have been big-time news to the people in the know. Especially if it is just a sneaky way to get after senior employees.

Whattayawannabet some good old boy got canned for being drunk on the job and carrying on with the cleaning lady - in full view of the security camera - but rather than tell the old lady the truth, made up a whopper that turned into this.

It could happen.

Think what you wish folks. If I could delete this thread I would, I would hate for you folks to speculate on me being a troll. There where about 10 people let go after it was all said and done. Not as many as I first posted.

The issue for discussion should be how large companies just fire large numbers of people without warning. No one was told this "activity" was a violation. No company handbook, no written rules, nothing in the contract book about this. So with that being said. It just alllows companies to in a sense make up as they go things they believe are wrong.

It is very true about unions not having any power in todays world as somone posted earlier, they essentially just follow the companies rules. Honestly they don't give a lot of pushback.


End thread. (I would just hate to be called a troll)

[PennyQuilts]

No offense, but having practiced employment law, I find it completely unimaginable that the employees weren't given a handbook or directed to where one is online. Generally, in orientation, employees have to initial or otherwise indicate they have been given the rules, including reading what is in the handbook. Maybe their HR people aren't on the ball but this is "New Employee 101" I honestly can't imagine a large company like ATT not having a standardized orientation program that has been crafted and recrafted by attorneys who are making sure they they don't have precisely the problem that you are describing- i.e., the employee just didn't know. That is the easiest problem in the world to avoid just by having them initial that they read the rules. Did they read the rules? If not, why not? If they were supposed to read the rules, claimed they did, how silly to then claim they didn't know. How embarassing. But that didn't happen?

In your first post, you said they were doing something that everyone else did and they were picked on because they were more senior employees (cherry picking). Today, you are making the argument that they didn't even know they were doing anything wrong. I just have a hard time seeing it. Especially when they were allgedly fired for something relatively serious. The fact that others (when it was all said and done) weren't fired, makes me wonder those employees got a lesser discipline - sort of a progressive discipline situation the way most large companies and the government do.

Well, we will probably never know.

[Intrepid]

I just had another conversation with the Exec VP of the CWA here in OKC, and to the best of their knowledge, no union represented employee of AT&T has been fired, and if they have, they have not contacted the local for grievance purposes.

They added that AT&T has officially taken over the Dobson Communications call center, and that it's entirely possible that some in mgmt could have been let go.

And finally, they added, IF these people were fired, and they were union represented, AND they were fired something that is not in any company employee handbook, then those people need to contact their union representatives ASAP.

It just seems like there is a lot of missing information here.

[SoonerGirl26]

I agree with East Coast Okie and Intrepid....you can bet that whatever AT&T did in this case, they looked at all angles before they fired these employees (if it indeed happened). All employees were required to review the Code of Business Conduct every year and sign a form that they understood and would comply with the "rules". This would include policies of Violence in the Workplace, Sexual Harrassment, Conflict of Interest, etc. (And I'm sure they still have the 3-step disciplinary process for other work-related issues which gives employees plenty of chances to correct the problem before they are fired.)

When I was an HR manager we conducted a "day in court" (with Union reps present) with the employee to make sure that they understood what was going on and to give the employee an opportunity to tell us why he/she thinks they should not be fired. And you could bet if the dismissal was for a Code of Business Conduct violation that our Legal department had reviewed the case before anything was done.

During my whole career at SWBT, SBC, AT&T I can honestly say I don't think that any employee in my department was terminated unjustly. It took at lot of time and approvals up the line before employees were actually fired.

luckyslevin---give us some real facts: what exact work location did this happen? What were the employees told when they were fired? Were they management or non-management employees? Did you hear this directly from one of the employees who was fired?

[Jesseda]

well at the company i use to work for, you where lucky to get a hand book, and they did treat people unfair, and change the rules daily, so you never know if what this poster is saying might be true, some companies are just bad and unethical.

[SoonerGirl26]

well at the company i use to work for, you where lucky to get a hand book, and they did treat people unfair, and change the rules daily, so you never know if what this poster is saying might be true, some companies are just bad and unethical.

I'm sure you're right about some other companies, but the original poster was talking about AT&T and I was a Senior Human Resource manager there before I retired. I have given my opinions on my experiences while I was there. I don't think the company has changed too much in the way it handles personnel issues, especially with the CWA looking over management's shoulders and also the Legal department reviewing separation proposals that involve conduct issues.

I admit I could be wrong, that's why I've asked the poster to give us some real facts about this before I will believe it really happened.