Thread regarding American Electric Power Co. Inc. layoffs

This thread has become full on tin hat mode.

I know that the DEI was forced upon and is a liberal cause. However I worked at AEP for a decade an half. I was a strong republican. Over the years of working there, I wad sc--wed over the most by strong republican belivers managers. Having experinced that, I dont think I can value Republicans as much. I am a veteran, but have been sc--wed over by other veteran who were in manager positions. I just wonder why Paul Chodak left and Toby Thomas. Was it because they are tru leaders and did not believe in the direction the company was going. If thst is true, I still have belief in American companies and lesdership. Thr last few years in AEP have disgusting fot policy and decisions. Tokenism is a real term in DEI. Voming from tbr miltary, diversity was everything. If you want diversity go to a militaty baracks. There is no real reason why Tokenism existed in AEP DEI strategy, except it wad a fake move toward diversity.

ICP: Carrot tied to the end of a long stick, employees chase and never obtain. End this rigged illusion of an incentive program and allow employees to earn the rewards they deserve. Stealing shared prosperity to further enrich corporate management and major shareholders is virtue-less crony capitalism. Without management employees would earn what they deserve, without employees management does not exist.

Throught out AEP you will find self centered leadership. Leaders who have rised quickly through the ranks without out a care who thry trampled over. You can tell if you work for obe by the high turnover rate of employees that have workrd for them. What I mean is the individuals that helped this person rise are no longer with the company or at a dead end position. Meanwhile this leader is posting fast expensive cars on facebook or bragging about their second home.
They dont care. Very privaleged individuals. They hide their privallsge by telling others they are privalleged

I dare corporate management to offer frontline employees another severance. They will be managing a ghost workforce. Frontline employees have earned and deserve real leadership, not these parasitic, self-serving, major shareholder crony collaborators.

Let's see if the cost cutting takes out the DEI department like it has at other companies. For me, the ROI is zero for that department. They have to be there looking for a solution to an issue that doesn't exist. The cuts hurt some departments a lot. Some of that could have been offset by getting rid of the department that shows zero benefit to the customer or shareholders, let alone to the employees.

The DEI stuff was a fad that burned through corporate America like a cancer but I think most of it is on the way out. Some places got hit a lot worse. For a Fortune 500 company it was relatively mild here thankfully. I agree that inviting Tim Wise to come give his "white people are evil" speech was disgraceful.

When you hire someone to come in and to basically tell all the white employees your a racist, I knew at that point the company lost its collective mind.

I wonder if AEP will put in their next 100 years booklet. Early 2020s AEP forgot their most valuable resource, humans. They also forgot their purpose, produce and transport energy. Stop forcing political garbage and get back to company values. Hire and promote people on theit abilities to serve a mission to produce powerto our communties. If you wanted to be a poltician join that industry, but leave ours out of it. Most all of us wanted was a job in the utility industry. Now we are puppets in an environment that is not inclusive to why I joined the company and the service we provide.

As a veteran and over 10 years with AEP, your skills from being in the service are not transferable in the current environment at AEP. Skills and experience went away. The company will have a hard time recovering and become a leader in the energy industry. It lost it way trying to be equitable. AEP's layout of DEI was toxic to many employees. I know if I could choose to buy my energy from a different company i would. Culture matters, not only to employees but also customers. Employees are your customers as well.

How many more to be severed or discharged this fall ? Word is more cuts coming, eliminating entire groups to reduce the O+M costs

All of this goes back to when the company turned its focus on ESG instead of the triangle, Employees, Shareholders and last but not least, the customers. As the Board changed to a more "diverse" collection of folks, the focus shifted to ESG and DEI. You want to vote it this down, go ahead, facts don't care about your feelings. As a long-term employee [30+ yrs.] and Veteran I've watched it all from a good vantage point based on my job. I'm the guy that sits in meetings without saying a word, but I soak it all in and I keep track of who's who. To the other Vets, you are not alone, and you are correct, the company is only playing lip service to the Vets to get a point on some meaningless survey from JD Powers. The are more interested in the "woke" groups to keep from getting on their "bad" side. At some point, AEP will get the Bud Light treatment, and they have it coming.

The problem in the company right now is only a few people are allowed to express how they dont feel included or valued as much as others. A veteran says they dont feel as valued as others they are voted down. A true inclusive company culture might look at that comment and say maybe we could do better, but he-l what does this veteran know.

The company values have changed. It used to be a place where being a veteran mattered. Now it is sll about s-xual preference and gender. Being a veteran is worthless in this company and country.

It's pretty obvious TCS business model. We will provide 10 techs for $10k each plus our commission/cut with no benefits. That leaves the company the ability to get rid of 5 FTEs with benefits and save the cost of 3 of them while using the other 2 to pay for the contract. There is never a reference to quality in any of the contracts because they can't match the FTEs. You get what you pay for. I tell users to complain up the chain on their end and let the cr-p hit the fan on our side. I tell them I won't take it personally and the worse they can make it sound, the better To management, yes I have been throwing as many wrenches into the process as possible from day one. I knew you people were going to treat us like cr-p so why should I do you any favors in making things run smoothly. TCS techs are cr-p, they don't listen, they don't learn anything on their own. They have to be spoon fed everything and have no clue how to use a search engine. So until either I leave or they do, they are not my friends, they are no my co-workers, they are scabs (learned that from my Dad who's a union member) plain and simple. The sooner they and upper mgmt leave the better. I will welcome the day when I can stop pretending to be nice to you and TCS.

Overall If you look at the personal, selfishness, and greed they possess its pretty amazing they are able to sell such a destructive plan to companies. These are soulless people. They are passing through with no interest in making the company better, collecting what they can and moving on. I just wish they would hurry up. It also wouldn't surprise me if TCS being as large as they are, having a "special task force" to strategicly pull Companies into its trap and su-k the life out of it. just really su-ks picking up the pieces of what's been destroyed. At some point you have to ask is the juice worth the squeeze.

Just takes one person, just one. Who wants to draw straws? Someone said something about the company removing the comments from AEPnow, I wonder if anyone has asked TR to explain why IT is in such a mess under her leadership? Bet it only happens once.

Hey TR, you gonna be on any employee webcast or are laying low hoping you don’t get exposed in front of Bill.
Here are some questions for the webcast moderator since no one can or will ask through the company process out of fear of retaliation.
Can you balance your own checkbook?
Whose budget are you gonna steal this year when you mis-manage AEP funds for 2024?
Have you delivered any value to any BU since joining or are you just getting use to canceling initiatives? No, Tech talks aren’t value add.
Do you know how a reg utility works yet?

It amazes me that all of the upper mgmt staff that reports to TR are able to con an entire organization from the very beginning without Nick and the Board's knowledge. They had to have agreed to her "vision" for IT and gave her full control to sc--w it up so bad nobody would care as long as it was cheaper. Forget about quality, it was all done to save a buck. Nevermind who or what was damaged in the process. I swear these people have no soul to do this to multiple companies, no matter how lives they destroy. Just a group of heartless ah oles.

I also remain overly cautious because they used these same abstractions and lies the last 3 years. I believe that it's an illusion of success, in the hopes of a better culture survey result.

I would say you're most likely right about no more severances but that we're good at this point, I'll have to disagree. Other than the new CEO, still waiting for the CITO head to roll along with a number of her cronies. After that happens, I'll then say we're on the road to recovery. If it doesn't happen, call the morgue, this IT shop is DOA.

I think most of the drama/excitement is over… I could be wrong. But I think we must be doing fine and will have no more issues. Severances were probably a waste of resources too.

I loved all the comments ,great place for information and always a good laugh.

Ahh yes, disabling comments, the universal sign that everything is going well and that our benevolent overlords care about our opinion and have to silence us for our own safety.

I do keep hearing there may be another severance for hourly folks. We can only hope it’s true

I judge people by their actions more than what they say. Ending employees survey, stopping the comments on AEP ow articles, moving the bar on the annual CIP every year, outsourcing employees, involuntary layoffs before offering voluntary buyouts, last but not least, be holding to the Almighty EPS above every thing else.

If a company cannot treat their employees with dignity an respect, how can you expect them to treat customers with dignity and respect. AEP will continue to raise rates whil chasing off talented employees. It does not bother leaders at the company because they will just raise rates. Who will hold them accountable. No one. We need power. I know this to be true because i lived it fir many years. I tried very hard to save the company money just to be ignored.

In short, what you're saying is leadership s u c k s at AEP.

Virtue-less governance, rabid greed and self-aggrandizing hubris are a toxic leadership co-----l in our company metastasized by sycophantic cronyism. Precisely the reason employees are experiencing the latest rounds of corporate bigfooting.

Honestly thinking about the company in as much of an unbiased view as I can. I think most people at the very bottom want to make a difference and will try their best. Anyone Director and above, not so much, at least in IT. The culling of the old mgmt team is a prime example. After the initial shock, managers went into CYA mode to keep from losing their job and I don't blame them. TR wanted to be surrounded by Yes people and the existing mgmt team was not in that mode and it cost them dearly. In comes all of the Yes people who's one objective was to say Yes to TR. I never believed a word they said about anything when they tried to put a positive spin on the outsourcing. The first gaslighting was when they came in and called it co-sourcing. Sitting there and having to "train" TCS was a slap in the face for many. No one likes to be back stabbed but it happened. Sitting here with another x years to go, I'm pretty sure I'm going to out last and out play these people and watch TCS leave in about 2 years when their contract is up. At that point I'll get a chance to train onshore folks that want to make things better. The BUs just have to hold on for 2 more years. As the one guy said below, the locust will leave for a new company after they've su-ked all of the life out of this one. We're not terminal yet.

AEP has become one of those gas lighting companies that lie to their employees and communities. If they truly cared about the communities in which they operated in they would not layoff their employees and filk the role with contractors. Meanwhile they are raising rates to inorder to pay executive bonuses. If they truly cared for their community they would hire more full time emoyees and stop being so greedy with money. Spread the wealth and stop lying to everyone. It is not about making lives better it is all about top earners greed to be greedy.

I must be looking at her page from a different view. She's still listed as an EVP with AEP. The latest entry says to Present. I still think it's too early to tell if she'll be asked to leave or will leave on her own. Rumor has it her protection on the Board left at the end of July. If that is true, possible she'll be gone before her 5 years are up. Something to look forward to right after the CIP pay out.

Now this is great. No longer listing aep as employer.

Lets hope there is something to this.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/therace-risch-9390b3a

@3niyk+1qB6FXi3 I agree with you, most likely wishful thinking. Since both 1st and 2nd quarters came in above expectations and Q3 is usually our best quarter, I seriously doubt it. Plus they need to post the cost of the layoffs in Q3. If you add up the Jan and July layoffs, you get about 10% which historically is about where they want it. As for IT, zero chance of any buyouts, TR hates not having control over the Department. She would rather gut a specific group than to let people make what might be one of their biggest decisions in their life and spread the cuts across all departments. We all know TCS is a failure and can not pick up the slack. So if there are more cuts, look for them in areas where TCS does not have anyone assigned to those groups.

Heard someone saying they think they may offer a severance again but I don’t see that happening. Has anyone heard anything one way or another? I’m assuming it was just someone with some wishful thinking.

Anyone giving a thumbs down on any comments against TR have to be drinking the cool aid. There is no way anyone with an unbiased opinion on how things are actually going or have gone over the past 4 years could think otherwise. Was there dead weight in IT in May of 2020, sure but show me any company that doesn't have it. Every company deals with it in their own way. What she did amounts to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. She came in and cut an organization that had already gone through the Lean process years before and took off it's legs and arms. She replaced it with 2 peg legs and claws for hands [TCS]. Anyone with half a brain could see what the outcome was going to be. You had new managers that knew absolutely nothing about the utilities and I heard from them, we didn't do it that way at our old companies. Like I haven't heard that before. That does not mean your old way at your old company was doing it right in the first place. They are no better than McKinsey coming in years ago and telling IT how to run things. Pay out good money to identify things we already knew that had to change. I look forward to the day TR leaves, either on her own or "escorted" out.

My first thought will be ORI which she just became a Board member. I would not put it past her to sell herself as someone to come in and "save" IT at ORI. Actually, it would be the same story for any company looking for a CITO, my guess it would have to be someone bigger or more high profile than AEP with an in-house IT shop. She'll sell it as I brought AEP into the 21st century. They were an old IT shop that was behind the times and now they are a lean shop running great. Nevermind it's one big fat lie. The executive recruiter will never call on someone in the trenches to get the real dope on her. Corporate may give her a glowing review just to get rid of her and not have. lawsuit. I would not put anything below her, the only thing lower is a snake. Can only hope someone from corporate is actually reading these comments and not write it off as a disgruntled employee, they're not. I think most of the comments are a sincere attempt to paint it as it is, minus the glowing review for TR, that one is just sheer BS

They only way we recover is to get rid to TR. There are too many people that wouldn't pi-s on her if she was on fire. The problem is, I think she has to be looking, but who the heck else would hire her now? I think were stuck with her unless our new CEO fires her.

I'll come back into the office but I EXPECT the managers to be there as well, CIO and down. None of this rules for me but not for them. It's BS and you know it. You want to keep your job that you think is so great, move to Ohio from MN., TX, CA. or wherever hole you crawled out of.

Who in their right mind would give up remote?
Why would you even ask them to do that?