Thread regarding American Electric Power Co. Inc. layoffs

@2j0a
I also heard his hot mic moment...there wasn't any new info that I havent heard already...these business updates would be more beneficial to have prior to employee webcasts - just regurgitating the same info over and over

Aren't those meetings salary grade 10 and up only?
As far as I'm concerned if you are that high up on the ladder and Bill wants to let off a little steam, he should have at it. I'd feel differently if it was just a general employee meeting but in the context of the manager shark tank that sounds pretty mild.

Bill had one of his 10-minute leadership meetings today. Another person was injured on the job. When no questions were asked (bc frankly, there was nothing to ask about), Bill got pi---d and had a hot mic moment at the end. He said something like "I guess you aren't interested in having a conversation. We're going to end the meeting. Thanks. Enough of that...sh-t."

Did anyone see the interview with AEP Ohio about the rates going up due to the data centers being built?ABC6 pointed out the huge jump in profit over last year and the guy just said, that's not us, it's the parent company.
The parent company doesn't make money, it's a Service Corporation. He then pivoted to look what we're doing with drones. AEP Ohio contribution to that profit was huge. AEP better start making the Data Centers pay for what they use and not expect the residential customers to bear the burden of paying for someone else's usage.
If they they think they have issues with poor employees attitudes, wait until they pizz off the people that pay the bills.
Our bill went up to $350, I for one will be attending the next public hearing on any rate increases from AEP. The minute they say it's about bring in data centers and jobs, I'm going to counter with what jobs, most are remote positions and have little to no effects on local employment. Let Google, Microsoft, Amazon pay the same rate as I do. If they decide to go somewhere else, I'm good with that, let them destroy someone else's neighborhood. BTW, the AI they are pushing is meant to replace US in the end. So why am I paying for my replacement.

@2hw1 We the employees of AEP desperately need decision makers, not delegators. When the employee being delegated to, does not have control of the purse strings he can't appropriate the necessary funds to execute decisions. When the employee does not have the training to understand the effects and consequences of their decision making, they are being scapegoated. The lowest paid employees are being forced to make decisions because the layers of leadership are paralyzed by the fear of making a bad decision and being scolded. I have come to realize no matter what decision you make, someone is going to armchair quarterback it after the fact, but at least a decision was made and executed as long as it did not require the appropriation of funds to execute. Reward the decision makers, not the delegators and the delegators will become decision makers or the decision makers will be rewarded.

More and more unreasonable org changes and people getting title changes and put in roles they don’t understand

I won’t be surprised if another wave of people leave. It’s becoming increasingly tough to get the job done while being the last guy in the org chart. Currently looking for a new job….no luck so far

I hate those fake counrty boy leaders at AEP. I worked hard to get where I am at. Bllsht. You sc--wed people over you rich pompous azz whole

@2h8x It is not sustainable. When you squeeze families too hard their primal survival instincts kick in and they go on the offensive. All the let them get another job sm--k talk will not prevent the violent backlash that is inevitable. For some reason arrogant people try to convince themselves no on is going to stand up to them. But once the first punch is thrown everyone is going to pile on and get some payback.

Americans fight the hardest when they are down and out and when the federal government and politicians are not losing the war deliberately, the angry and provoked American people are a force to be reckoned with. When the economy reaches the point every working American agrees it is unfairly rigged to the benefit of the exploiter class, the if you take on one of us, you take on all of us mentality will unite us all against divisive political manipulation.

I do not want it to come to this because more innocent victims will get hurt than guilty provocateurs in most cases. Your arrogance is overplaying your ability to intimidate and corrupt and the consequences are going to be epically brutal. Just as Royal Governors believed the 13 American Colonies could never raise a viable military force to oppose the mighty British Empire. General Cornwallis found himself contained and defeated at Yorktown, Virginia and the mighty British Empires' Redcoats and Royal Navy tucked tail and sailed away.

@2h9m The certainty of the unjust that their audacity shall carry the day has not proven to be true throughout history. They roar like a lion and perish with a whimper.

@2h5f one day we will have grey hair and be full of wisdom.We will look back in 15 years and say, I remember the bad days when the company was so focused on doing right for Wall St, they forgot all about the customers and employees. Hopefully we will be here when a 5% return YOY will be viewed as a stable return and not be looked down on. What a pipe dream, never happen. The company will continue to squeeze every last penny out of the customers and the PUCs will let us get away with it.

How do you reconcile pushing every operating co we have to get customers who can't pay their bills onto LIHEAP, knowing full well it won't be funded next year? What do they do then?

@2gvd Careful, your keen observation skills reveal you as a strategic thinker. We are not popular among the get rich quick crowd. But we will still be here long after they are just a bad memory and maybe a pang of guilty conscience. Remain observant and absorb all the wisdom the legacy employees impart upon you and you will do fine. You may feel like your drowning but you are actually learning how to swim.

@2gvw Taking the AEP Headquarters on the road in a RV. The AEP Headquarters could be coming to your service center. Better employee and customer engagement. Better appreciation for the topographical and vegetation diversity throughout the AEP service territory.

Is Billy really going to move headquarters out of Columbus?

I'm looking around the office and one thing I noticed, there's still a lot of gray hair people compared to younger folks. Don't get me wrong, I like working with "older" employees, they have insights into things, younger employees just don't see. Everyone is complaining about RTO but no one seems concerned about what will happen over the next 5 years when these good people leave. I'm terrified, I'm nowhere near to retiring and this is not a business you can learn overnight. Maybe some will work till they turn 70 but I think most are going to leave sooner than that.

30-40 years ago people bought AEP for their retirement. They wanted AEP stock in their 401k or for the quarterly dividends that provided a safe and consistent payout. Nothing you were going to get rich off of but better than money in a savings account.
Then the big hedge funds started to take over and from then on, they wanted more and more profits. They looked at 3-4% as a joke, they want 6-10% returns now and if they don't get it, request more and more tate increases. It doesn't matter what happens to the customers or employees. Ichan, Blackrock and the rest of them have no soul and could careless what happens to people, just don't mess with the profits.

We as employees of AEP and its OPCOs are better than this emerging criminal conspiracy coalescing into a mass wealth transfer conduit to impoverish electric utility ratepayers and enrich corporate officers, board members and major shareholders. The failure of federal and state regulating agencies and elected officials to fulfill their oaths of office reveals their culpability in this emerging interstate criminal conspiracy masquerading as a regulated electric utility monopoly.

Just admit it, leadership stink, up and down the org chart. You have a new CIO that comes across as an ar-e and will most likely bring people in from Cox to replace people that Therace brought in to replace the original AEP developed leadership team. It's great, karma is a b and I'm glad to see it starting. You have people being promoted to Director and Managing Directors that do not deserve it and most like being given the promotion do that it will help them land a better position at another company.
I cannot wait the Texas and Minnesota collective to get the boot. Better hope Therace had a new job so she can pull you guys over and them bring TCS in again for what did you guys call it, Co-Sourcing. TCS is here to help you work on more important things. Yeah, like your resumes. To the Therace hold overs, better start polishing up that resume, you may need it soon. Losing your job couldn't happen to a better group of people

What I learned at AEP is dysfunctional oeople like disfunctional people. This is why AEPs culture faiked and Carl Ichan had to step in and save the company. Look at your leadership. Did they earn it or where they placed in it? Did they failthere way to the top why destroying others? Anyone know of a plant manager thst has thst record? Mindset the compsny only exists for me rewards. Old AEP did not identify theses lesders snd the new leadership probably is aligned with this results. It is short leadershio mindset that does not measure long term success. If you dont find this true you would not be resding this post on this website.

@2gbq It is nothing more or less than a failure of character that makes them unfit to lead. Yet they were chosen for promotion for that very reason.

Some of these managers, and supervisors that didplay selfish behavior may have been the only child. Therefore, they have to be the center of attention.

Stern parents and Drill Instructors instill self-discipline and impulse control that are essential for an orderly and just society and economy. Apparently, a college degree in debauchery is woefully inadequate and enables pomposity, loose morals and self-serving injustice.

I was WORKING decades before Bill blew in and continue to do so. The kind of work that makes you old and angry long before you hit your 60s. I have witnessed selfishness and greed in supervisors and managers that my parents would have whipped out of me long before I achieved adulthood. That is the impulse control and self-discipline I am talking about. Spare the rod and spoil the child. Too many spoiled children, who grew old but never grew up because they had no example to live by and no discipline to correct their abhorrent behavior.

@2g6x yeah defend the millionaire CEO! I’m sure he really gives a sh-t about you

Why are you so mad at Bill? Because he made you actually work?

@2g4k This company would not be here today had employees not held themselves and each other to a higher standard because that is the way their families raised them. The children and to some degree the grandchildren of the Greatest Generation appreciated how quickly a nation can take a dark turn, if citizens are not willing to stand up to and fight back against the evil of men, who have no self-discipline or impulse control.

Our linemen have worked in over 90-degree temperatures and high humidity for weeks on end only to be called back out to work outrage restoration most of the night and return to work the next day and repeat this brutal cycle for days on end. That is the kind of discipline I am speaking of. Our leadership cannot even control their selfish impulse to reward themselves before anyone else.

Our decline as a great company was not caused by employees. It was caused by leaders, who have no self-discipline or impulse control. Now, young employees are looking to the leadership to be the example and they are following the example set by bad leadership not the Greatest Generation legacy employees, many of who were offered voluntarily or forced to take involuntarily severances to achieve this historical second quarter.

Ye shall reap what ye sow. The young employees have not been inspired by great leaders and their legacy shall be a dim shadow of the accomplishments they inherited from older employees because they are not inspired or motivated to achieve greatness.

I worked for a number of very big companies, larger in revenue and employee count. In each case, market forces changed the companies, most times for the worse. Each time the company brought in someone thinking they were going to turn it around. In some areas, things got better, others, not so much. AEP is in the middle of that now. Some things will get better but I don't see the good outweighing the bad.
All of them are still here, AEP is not going anywhere but you have to look at it in a different light now, it's not that great of a company, there are better and there are worse. You have to decide if changing will lead to a better company. I'm almost there again, will decide this time next year on if I'm going to stay or leave. It's really up to Bill, if he doesn't get better, I'll show myself out

Eventually, the stiffer, older CEO pool will die off. The younger generation will create new work policies, and workers will be better off.
Unfortunately, a lot of us near the end of our careers don't have that kind of time.
Its a split between the older group bridging retirement timing and the younger ones upskilling until the business landscape improves and they can jump ship into a better job market.

@2g1k

By "natural evolution," I meant specifically that great companies/good companies eventually go to pot for any number of reasons.

@2g11 I do not think this can be characterized as natural evolution. It is more akin to de-evolution caused by hedge fund contamination and regression to self-serving immense wealth authoritarianism. We are no longer collaborating. We are being dictated to by a new invasive corporate oligarchy.

Unfortunately, what AEP has become is often the typical evolution of a corporation. I've been with a few other places that had all kinds of greatness happening for many years...until it changed. And from what I've heard from colleagues who are still there, they have not returned to anything close to their original culture. Unless there is a revolution, this may be the way AEP stays. I'd be curious what is happening on the hiring front when candidates find out it's a 5-day/week RTO. I'm sure a lot of people out there need a paycheck. Others may not be in the same situation and back out of interviews, turn down offers, or spread the word not to apply to AEP.

@2fzq you’re basically right. I’d say a lot of places are that way unfortunately. I think AEP was a unicorn for awhile; that is a great company to work for. Now it has become more like a lot of the corporate world which is not in the interest of employees.

Yep, keep your head down and do the bare minimum. Otherwise, you will be exploited. Great place to work.

A lot of things su-k. But I promise it’s not that bad of a place to work. Like with the country, ignore the politics the best you can. Just be aware of what’s going on so you can do what you need to do for yourself and family.

@2fs6 The Icahn grift.

@2fws Johnny come lately should not be reaping the rewards employees spent decades achieving. That is like running a 10k marathon and some guy jumps off the curb 50m from the finish line and wins the race. No body tolerates cheating in sports and it should not be tolerated in our nation's workplaces. If you came last, you get the least because that is all you have earned and deserve. If you have to steal success, you were never worthy of it.

Its to bad the company had to get rid of the employees that helped get the company this far. I know my last 2 years were horribke at AEP.

The commissions have been pushing back on rate increases. That’s what cost Julie her job. Bill was hired precisely because he has experience with getting those rate increases.

The stock has been doing well because energy companies have a pivotal role in the AI bo-m, and the growth the company is experiencing is once in two generations.

This of course has nothing to do with how poorly folks have been treated, especially the older folks.

The Ichan lift. This is when tbe stock price goes up after he takes over. The question is the company on a suistanable future. When Nick took over I believe the stock was in the 30s. Over his time it reached over 100. His leadership was much different approach. He made employees believe they had a part in the company and their contributions made a difference. It was a friendly company to work for. His leadership was long tetm growth. I believe this leadershio is short term. Stock price over employees and communities. Will it work.

The house of cards will come down when state PUCs start denying rate increases or cutting them in half out pressure on elected officials that vote for the people on the PUC and make them liable for the increases I know I'm an employee but I'm also a consumer as well. This is a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde case.