Thread regarding American Electric Power Co. Inc. layoffs

AEP was once the career to have, not anymore. The leadership of this company is a joke. They throw out "a voluntary severance package" because they need to rebuild money and hire more directors and a new VP of Communications? Make this make sense. This sends a very clear message to the employees that you can and will be replaced and they talk out of both sides of their mouths. The culture is absolutely toxic and negative right now and they want you to be safe. The thought I hear from most is that they really don't care about your safety it's more about their numbers they don't want negatively affected. TR is completely incompetent and had proven as much. One look at how IT is handled well prove that. Just wait it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. It's a very sad time for those once passionate about their career at AEP

Sometimes people say the quiet part out loud. In a call yesterday with IT, a VP said “ out-source” and then quickly corrected it to the prettier word, “co-source.”

This is the way the leadership that was hired in the past three years thinks “Agile is not going away, we’ve just relegated the link to it to a small and invisible part of the PMO site.” “Also, make sure you do all the things are required but not required because Therace has access and will be watching. This is just the minimum which is actually the maximum..”

Everyone knows the place is a mess. The problem is upper management doesn't think there's an issue. They feel the people below them have not bought into the new strategy and that's why it's failing. First line managers know it's not working but are being told to fix it or else. Guys in the trenches know it's not working, have no power to fix it. Working best they can to keep the lights on and not get fired. All the while, TR is like Nero, watching as Rome (AEP) burns down. Guess we're just not strategic enough to see it. It will be fun to watch the hand wringing when she leaves. Anyone want to take a bet on the reason why when she does leave? I'm going to say, for a new leadership role in another company closer to home so she can spend more time with x

@ 1Unhy+1qB6FXi3 - I left on my own late last year. It was obvious this was going to happen as it happened already in IT. Everyone had given up and my manager was two years behind on just logging in to work. Just apply and leave. It’s that simple. Otherwise, there’s nothing more to talk about.

TR - sounds like the managers who have caused this mess, instead of laying off the front line employees , many like you could be removed as an attempt to fix.

@TR I agree that complaining just to complain is not constructive and will not make things better. In the end, it's a personal decision to go or stay, staying doesn't means you gave up your right to complain. You have the right to vent. You can do it here without fear of losing your job. Do it at work and you actually lose your job.

We're already seeing the turn over at TCS, seems they will keep a tech on for a year or two and then move them to another account. The turn over at TCS affects everything from the time you hit the service desk to the time it gets resolved, if it ever does. I've had coworkers just give up and close the ticket because of a lack of experience from the tech. Since they lack experience, they try everything from some script. When all else fails they either want to replace the PC or turn it over to another group. Usually within a day or so, you will be back with the original team and a new tech going over the same script. I can't wait for Copilot or some other AI to be introduced so I can solve my own issues and not deal with a TCS tech that has no clue where to start.

It can’t be too bad if y’all haven’t left yet. A bunch of companies in Columbus have been hiring. People are complaining just to complain. A lot of companies do layoffs and have bad culture. Read any of them on this very same site.

I do not understand how IT management would feel "vindicated" reading the posts to this site. More like "exposed". The only way they would feel "vindicated" is if management's objective was to annoy existing employees dealing with the loss of their colleagues as well as the laid off employees who are using this site to express displeasure at the situation. I am sure that was not management's goal. Several years ago IT was hiring literally hundreds of employees, The hiring was so extensive that they had managers hiring for a role (project manager, analyst, etc) vs using a manager to interview and hire for an actual existing position in their team. At the time I thought "what are all these people being hired for? Things will not go well (layoffs) if AEP goes thru bad times". The over hiring by Therace's team in prior years, IT mgt's desire to outsource IT Support, plus the bad economy resulted in the IT lay offs. Unfortunately, IT upper mangement does not respect the Support role and mistakenly believes that all IT Support can be successfully outsourced. It can be very difficult to debug/resolve issues and get solutions for the business without experience. Down the road, higher turnover within the outsourcing companies will add to the knowledge exodus.

10 years from now will it really matter. Most of the current mgmt team will be gone. TCS will be gone. There will be a new Board, a new CEO and 1/3 of the company will be new employees. If you can hold out for the next 10 years, it'll be like working for a new company.

People have a right to think and say what they want. But it’s odd that employees would come to this page to defend the company and to vote down on people who have negative things to me. Kind of suspicious if you ask me. I’m pretty neutral on the place even though I haven’t liked a lot of the changes and don’t think the changes are helping anything. Layoffs do happen places… just weird that random employees would come to this site to defend them… I didn’t even take the severance due to how little it was. Just weird, all I’m saying.

"part of a change for the good" - are you serious. They lied to the majority of the IT staff when the brought TCS on, they said it was co-sourcing, that was a joke. It was outsourcing from day one. It was never about making the place run better, it was about getting rid of staff and replace people with contractors half away around the world that have no clue what a utility is. Sanjay was let go, he didn't leave to take care of his parents, that was all a cover story to cover up his sc--w up. As not stepping up and dealing with change, you must not have been around for the merger, 2004, 2008-2010, or 2014-2016. Either you're mgmt or hr person or some DEI hire that has no clue, guess you could be a TCS contractor.

"Given their all to this company for years?" Did you think all previous layoffs were only for incompetent employees?

I think the management problem is way bigger than IT, it appears it’s across nearly every opco and department.

If I were management and read these posts I would feel vindicated. Way too much complaining and negativity and not enough resilience, self direction or motivation. No one seems to want to be part of a change for the good if and when it happens. Staff reductions are an unfortunate part of a business, especially when the economy is not so great for capital intensive businesses. At least there is a choice for some and a severance. Stand tall and figure out a way to make things work for the interest of you and your family and stop doom scrolling.

I think most people posting here should go to glassdr or in deed and post there letting people know the real state of IT at AEP. If you know the work environment is so toxic, I think people need to be warned. This is fine but people looking for a job would not see these postings.

I wonder if the one person giving a negative review is Therace?

What has been the last big innovation AEP has created that made utilities more effective? Just curious. Feels like executive management growth strategy is cutting employees; I’m not sure of the executives who is bringing new ideas to the table.

This company is a disaster. We are in the power business, the name of the game is safety and reliability, you get those two things by having experienced and knowledgeable employees, but our staffing philosophy is the exact opposite, a revolving door of second-class citizen contractors who are out the door to brighter horizons the second they get a real job offer somewhere, and who could blame them? All so corporate can save a dime and make next quarter look good for the parasites at the shareholder meeting. I really worry about the future of AEP, what are they going to do in the coming years when the guys holding this thing together are all gone or retired? This isn't McDonald's man, we're in the utility business, you need dedicated, valued employees who are in it for the long term.

No surprise there. Therace is so desperate to save money from anywhere she can. They need to cut expenses from every corner of IT. They'll strong arm the vendors as much as possible. They did it last year and the year before.
IBM should just say, we'll see ya in a few years when you get a new CIO

AEP might be booting IBM. Contract under review. Shhhhhhh.

Pushed the button, now have to wait a month to see it goes through, then another month to leave. What a joke they can't even get this done right. In the past, it was like 2-3 weeks and you were gone

Not on my worst day, pal.

Based on others comments, Therace has turned IT into the next Chernobyl and we all know how that worked out. Personally, I cannot think of one redeeming quality of Therace or any of the managers she brought in. She and her cronies created this mess, I hope they choke on it. Therace, if you read this, you are a horrible person, plain and simple.

I think we can all agree, it’s a management issue- either therace or most other managers that have ran this company into the ground.

American Electric Power Co. Inc. is getting worse by the day. Therace Risch and her gang of corporate bullies – Joe Brenner, Steven Martin, and the whole Minneapolis Mafia crew – are under fire for treating the company like their personal playground. And let's not forget about the disgraced former VP, Sanjay Theranakambi, and his band of rejects from TCS, kicking out loyal employees like they're yesterday's trash.The big shots at AEP, led by Therace Risch, are getting blasted for turning the place into a swamp of favoritism and corruption that even Satan would cringe at. And seriously, how blind is the Board not to see that the IT department is basically Therace's puppet show, mostly operating out of Minneapolis like it's their own little kingdom?

Now, let's talk about the bloodbath they call layoffs – it's like they're playing a twisted game of chance with people's livelihoods. They're axing the lifers, the ones who've given their all to this company for years. And what do they offer in return? A laughable severance package, like they're throwing scraps to starving dogs. Meanwhile, morale is circling the drain, and the higher-ups couldn't care less. The corporate BS while the ship's sinking. Employees are jumping ship faster than rats fleeing a sinking boat. After being stabbed in the back one too many times, they're saying "adios" to AEP. And who can blame them? This place used to be a rock of stability, but now it's a sinking ship with a captain who's lost the plot. And get this – rumor has it there's a shadowy Minneapolis mafia pulling strings behind the scenes, deciding who stays and who goes. It's like a cheesy mob movie they're wielding spreadsheets, cabalism, nepotism, favoritism and cronyism like a sledgehammer.

But here's the kicker – if a bunch of folks walk out the door, maybe the higher-ups will wake up and smell the coffee. Maybe they'll realize they've shot themselves in the foot and beg those experienced vets to come back. Because let's face it, you can't run a company on fresh-faced newbies alone. In summary? AEP since Therace arrived has become a sh-tshow , and slapping on a band-aid won't cut it. They need a complete overhaul, top to bottom. Because right now, it's like trying to clean up a cesspool with a toothbrush – pointless and disgusting.

I know I would have taken it if I was eligible. Morale is at an all time low. Mgmt doesn't really care, they really don't. Everything they say and do is just lip service. If we coat the entire pig, it'll look better. Still a pig under all of that lipstick. When I do leave, I will never look back. I will never recommend the company to anyone unless there is a major overhaul of upper mgmt and the Board. Maybe there were problems but you ki-led the patient to cure the disease. Looking forward to the day I get to walk away from this place.

How many have taken the lay off/ buy out ?

I dont know about you all but after a few years here I’ve decided to take the severance and go do something else. This company has hurt me enough by taking away every reason I took the job. If you’re considering leaving I hope you remember to mark yes by the 6th at 6pm so you can go do something better… I wanted to have a long career here and every job will have its things. But I’m not staying where they completely changed how I work after being told nothing was going to change and leaving a good job because I wanted those benefits. Not too mention how my department has been talked down to and made to feel as if we don’t matter. Best of luck to those of you who stay, but I am done and support everyone who wants to leave in doing so.

If the new CEO requires all EVPs to live and work in Columbus, you know she won't move. If she had any interest in moving out of Minnesota she would have done it already. Alberto proved you could work in Columbus but live in Chicago.
Even that took a toll on him but the end of the week. Would be nice to have Alberto back.

https://www.investing.com/news/company-news/old-republic-director-therace-risch-buys-181k-in-stock-93CH-3415142

Now, everyone cross your fingers and pray to whatever god you believe in that they take her d-mb a55...

Say you're right, 1000 people take the offer and leave. The majority will be older employees with a lot of knowledge gone and cannot be replaced. So in a year or two, you'll see a number of these folks come back as contractors. I've seen it time and time again, if you need a job done, you have to have someone who knows what to do. So let's call Bob and see if he'll come back for a year, which then turns into years.

As the buzz word management at AEP used to use to manipulate workers to work harder and free overtime by inciting so and so is (bluhhh) “low energy”, they should just layoff ALL non- management employees and dive in and send profits through the roof with high energy mania! Could even get some of the managers into some cheerleader outfits and have them do a A! E! P! in same fashion as they do O! H! I! O! to get the energy flowing!

@1Iuyz+1qB6FXi3
They said they're aiming to recoup $100 million.
If you assume an average salary of $100k that works out to about 1000 jobs.

For anyone from AEP mgmt monitoring this, what you're reading is only the tip of the iceberg. Things are rotten to the core right now. Management needs to start earning that MBA and try to figure out how to stop the bleeding. The talent is leaving and will never come back. You can blow it off as people not understanding what the big picture is. AEP hired some really smart people in the past, not so much any more.

@1Iryb+1qB6FXi3 yes AEP is treating it's employees like cr-p and from the IT side, yes it is Therace's failure, all of it. She is the worse CIO the company has had so far. The woman does not know how to run an IT department. She's blown through budgets like there wasn't one. She blames all of the old mgmt staff so she can bring in one of her cronies or worse yet, give the manager position to a former TCS manager. Talk about the fox guarding the hen house. I doubt she knows how to spell ethics.

@1Iogp+1qB6FXi3
It was 7000, it's x number from 7000. Right now that number based on rumors is somewhere between 1500 to 2000. not 7000. That's why people went off on you, AEP is not laying off 7000. The part that hurts it the other 9600 folks are not allowed to even decide if they want to.

Do people really think that AEP is just terrible and they will find a magic unicorn employer that will make them feel warm and fuzzy inside when they leave? Folks welcome to corporate America in 2024.
Many of you don’t like the current culture because the business today doesn’t allow middle managers to make questionable and often ethically challenged decisions anymore - that makes those who were comfy and felt like they had some sort of special power feel useless.

Yeah we saw you, and many people are still cleaning up messes left by people who aren’t TR.

Interesting that some of the posts that are just harmless statements are getting down. I guess aep has their social media teams monitoring the boards. Have at it aep - you still su-k