AT&T CEO Says Hard To Find Skilled US Workers

Our CEO makes millions! His statement is both crass, racist and dishonest! He cant find "skilled workers"?He forgets the thousands that he has laid off to "consolidate" (i.e. make more money for himself!) There are many who are highly skilled and have also alrdy been 'cultured' to deal with ATT and its ungodly stupidity. This is a slap in the face to Americans , and to the people his company has DUMPED so they could see more profit! After such an asinine and inaccurate statement, the very next day, he stated " we're going to invest in education" (not saying where- how much!) trying to cover tracks! What a crock! Did you know that at ATT you are allowed TWO sick days per year AND get a DOCTORS SLIP?? NO JOKE!!! and you are TIMED on how long you use the bathroom! ALSO--every employee MUST sign papers each year saying we would maintain the highest ethics and integrity both on AND off the job. OUr mgt is neither college-educated or that bright. We have to investigate our on our OWN how to run the company and find answers as to WHO does WHAT. They are babysitters who are useless and are highly paid to do nothing! He is a LIAR. another greedy CEO! Making WAY more than they are worth. And what was his qualification? CRONYISM------that was his qualification. I hope his statement gets him a ticket out of ATT. Youre an embarrassment to ATT!!

I hate the rich. Lying bastards. It sure isn't hard to find greedy corporate CEO's!

PART 2
AT&T today said that in order to port my landline number to my mobile phone - on my existing plan - that I "had to give" them my social security number, birth date, and driver"s license. AT&T said if I didn"t supply that information, then I could "no longer continue this transaction and AT&T would not provide service."
Mind you " they were demanding information that they ALREADY HAD (because I was a customer many times through the years). They wanted me to provide it AGAIN " "just to be sure."
Needless to say, I said it would be fine if we ended our relationship. And then Dana Ruben, AT&T Supervisor, said, "Well, okay then. I can help you terminate your service right now if you wish."
How"s that for customer service treatment from a monopoly? And why the need for a social, a birth date, and driver"s license? Please " where can a battered and broken AT&T customer seek refuge in the wireless world from poor customer service, invasive data collection, and morally bankrupt consciousness? (Note: I"m just talking "refuge" now¦I can"t even think about a potential relationship with another phone provider right now.)
P.S.
AT&T "individual" contributions to the "08 presidential campaign (according to opensecrets.org):
HRC = $56,300
BO = $59,646
JMc = $87,600 (Mack also had AT&T listed in the "top corporate contributor category at $111,600)
And no big surprise: Dennis K = $0

PART 1
Huffington Post¦please help. And forgive me for posting my AT&T "wireless" comment / question here, as comments for the relevant post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-huffington/why-does-att-need-my-soc_b_64526.html ) are no longer being accepted.
On the above mentioned post dated 9-15-07, you stated " along with details about your painful AT&T experience " that you already had a phone company that you were happy with: "I presently use another phone company for my Moto Q, and am quite happy with their service."
Please tell me the name of the phone company you were referring to. Was it Credo Mobile? (Yes, giving up International service will hurt, but it will be worth it.)
Today, I decided to permanently end my abusive relationship with AT&T (yes, after years of getting kicked around, being snipped at, being lied to, doing their work for them, filing for divorce and grudgingly reconciling). I am finally done.
On top of my already gargantuan list of grievances about AT&T " as a crappy corporate "citizen," as government spy and partner, as a lousy monopoly, and many more, which were also touched upon in these comments " today I added the straw that broke the camel"s back...after several years of being a great, low maintenance client - with superb credit - who always paid on-time.

The real challenge rests in education so that such decisions become history............

http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/03/education-dynamic-of-sovereignty.html

Oh please, Mr. Stephenson... can I have one of those jobs? I know you'll probably only pay about $10 an hour, which is what I was making two DECADES ago. Of course it'd help if, just like wages, AT&T's prices didn't increase every year. You and all your corporate cronies better find nice pads in India, cuz soon the American worker is gonna be looking for blood.

The obvious question that is not even asked is "When is it necessary to have a college education to work at a call center?" If you can read and communicate a full sentence, and have basic computer knowledge, that should be sufficient enough for employment. For cripes sakes it's not f'n rocket science. My sister was in management and a trainer at a call center that handled credit cards etc. The jobs were mostly held by women whose husbands also worked, single mothers and college students needing the extra income and flexible hours. The jobs were seldom full time and to qualify for insurance you needed to work at least 35 hours per week so most of the workers were kept under the required hours. The call center had a high turnover rate because of the rate of pay and lack of full time employment, not because the people were too stupid to do the jobs. The problem was that the good employees with experience would ask for more time and better pay and was constantly denied it. Now the call center is in India.

What an arrogant S.O.B..
I am sick and tired of hearing form Microsoft, and Oracle, and now this jerk informing us about how Americans are not up to the skill level to fill the jobs that they shipped out, or otherwise filled here in the U.S. with their foreign H-1b Visa workarounds. This new tune rings deaf as the jobs they want to bring back here pay a nonliving wage.
Hey Bill Gates - Why don't you open some of those MS training centers that are practically free in India for people to obtain MSCE's here in the U.S.?
Hey greedy CEO's - quit your bitching, and put your money where your collective lying mouths are. Better yet, reinvest our money which you earned on the sweat of our working backs, and long hours at the office back into this country. And while you're at it, quit discriminating against the legacy designers, and infrastructure architects who are over 50 years of age and bring us all back into the technical world we once worked in: After all we designed it, built it, and maintained it for a long time as you saw fit....We know how it works, and how to fix it, and how to make it better.
Geesh!

"We're having trouble finding the numbers that we need with the skills that are required to do these jobs,"


The primary skill is the ability to work for 70 cents per hour and no benefits. Thus Haiti and India are prime locations for job growth. As a footnote, you may not know this but jobs created by American Companies in Foreign Countries are counted in the new jobs created statistics posted every month. Just another doctored number for the peasants like the report that there was NO INFLATION in February.

He obviously hasn't experienced outsourced customer service lately, if he thinks they offer superior service. If education is his concern, what has he done lately to improve US education?

What he really means is that he cannot find skilled workers willing to work for Minimum wage.

Let me translate for CEO Stephenson: 'Americans who are willing to take our low-paying jobs lack education and educated Americans are unwilling to take such jobs.'

Educated Indians, unlike their American counterparts, are willing to work for beans, by American standards, and AT&T bean counters like it this way. Still the trade-off seems specious to me. I can't understand these employees and they can't understand me. And then we have the cultural divide. They simply lack the necessary communication skills. A call to an AT&T customer 'service' rep is an exercise in frustration. So, while these workers are cheap, they are ineffective. I'm unsure how this benefits AT&T long term.

I'm sure we could find a CEO-for-less in a developing country too.

This is a load of bull. U.S. companies don't want to pay experienced workers what they're worth, and they don't want to hire anyone over 40. This guy is making a plea for the government to train young, inexperienced, cheaper workers at taxpayers' expense. If the government spent the money to crack down on age discrimination, American companies would have all the experienced high tech workers they need. Enough with the greedy CEO's.

People believe what's convenient and shy away from basic facts for fear of being labeled with the tin foil hat smear.

Well it's time you read something that isn't a conspiracy "theory," isn't found on some backwater alien invasion web site, but is an actual, hold it in your hands real document written in 1975 that outlines exactly every step that must be taken to destroy our freedom and this country.

Hard to believe? Well if you want more of the same old shite that leaves you feeling comfortable sitting there in front of your computer screen saving the world one post at a time, then don't read this document.

"The Crisis in Democracy" paper, written for the Trilateral Commission, 1975, New York University Press Michel Crozier, Samuel P. Huntington and Joji Watanuki.

In this paper the authors propose that there is too much freedom in contemporary democracies, and that it is necessary to curtail personal freedoms in order to preserve the governability of democracies.

Stop and think for a second: TOO MUCH FREEDOM! Their answer to us was that freedom was the threat. And the basis of that Freedom, in their estimation, is Education, and this paper outlines the program for the dumbing down of American school kids, the destruction of union and lowering of wages, and the admission that home ownership is a threat to their power. Look around you. All these things are coming to pass, Today! It's no accident. Do the reading. Then get mobilized.

Plenty of skilled workers here!!! Skilled workers who will work 60 hour weeks for $5.15/hour??? No way!

Awww. Here's a plan. Let's require AT&T to finance public education in this country so they can find qualified customer service workers. I imagine about 1/5th of their advertising budget is about equal to the total amount spent on education, so it wouldn't hurt to much. AT&T: Your World Delivered: Straight to Hell

I'm sure AT&T is in quite a quandry down there in San Antonio. AT&T's high school diploma requirements are foiling their ability to pull from that large illegal immigrant labor pool. It must be rough to be sitting amidst a cheap labor wonderland right outside your front door, and not be able to cash in on it because those darned illegals never got their diplomas.

On the other hand, the state of Delaware is ranked 39th in the U.S. high school dropout rate and has a thriving banking call center economy. Maybe AT&T needs to learn how to network and find out how other companies manage to hire Americans.

Having a pot of money is no guarantee that a person or a company will be successful. I think the American businessmen of today are of lesser quality than a high school dropout...you don't need a high school diploma to work productively. These business people are high school and college graduates (I'm assuming), and they can't come up with creative ways to make their businesses work--they apparently are too dependent on having things handed to them on a silver platter.

That's a complete lie, and AT&T knows it. So many call centers were shut down as a result of outsourcing...what, did those people magically "lose" their skills? I doubt that highly. Funny, T-Mobile (the only wireless carrier left that doesn't outsource ANY of their call centers) doesn't have any problems finding enough skilled workers to put call centers all over the country.

This must explain my call last week to discuss my bill. The gal who helped me was very nice, but her Indians accent was so thick I could barely understand her! I was very tempted to ask if there was anyone there who spoke better English, and then realized my feelings about this call actually had nothing to do with her. I did, however, point out that it had everything to do with her employer.