AT&T CEO John Stankey recently shared his observations on employee survey results in a lengthy memo, and it has gone viral on social media. While many said that the company is signalling a workplace shift with “bold” memo, others said it’s a “test case for leaders”. Now, for the very first time, the man himself has said something publicly for the first time, admitting that he expected the memo might leak, but hadn’t anticipated the level of attention it ultimately received.
‘Don’t look to your left or right’
Stankey told CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin that he is not sure why the “don’t look to your left or right” memo received so much attention. He even expressed shock about the CNBC host having a copy of the “very lengthy memo”.
“The fact that people spent as much time on it for as many days as they did was probably a little bit of a surprise to me,” he told CNBC.
The CEO added, “I don’t know why that is — I’m not an industrial psychologist.”
Stankey said that he received mixed reactions from employees, adding that not “everybody is happy”, but most employees understand the direction the company is headed.
The CEO noted that employee reactions have been mixed, acknowledging that “not everybody is happy,” but stressing that most employees understand the direction in which the company is heading. “Maybe it struck a chord in certain ways,” Stankey reflected, before adding, “But most importantly for me, the message was well understood within the business, and it sparked the right kind of dialogue.”
What does the memo say?
The memo came months after the company asked employees to return to the office, mandating five days a week. While the memo is very exhaustive, we are providing a few pointers from it below. The pointers are taken from the memo published by Business Insider. But, before that, we must tell you that 73 per cent of the employees responded to the internal survey.
1- 79 per cent of 99,000 employees said that they felt “committed and engaged” with their work at AT&T. “While this is reassuring, especially considering the amount of change we’ve navigated as a company recently, it wasn’t a surprise to me that we fell short of our engagement goal. Nor was it a surprise that scores declined since our 2023 survey,” the CEO said.
2- “I understand that some of you may have started your tour with this company expecting an ‘employment deal’ rooted in loyalty, tenure, and conformance with the associated compensation, work structure, and benefits. We have consciously shifted away from some of these elements and towards a more market-based culture — focused on rewarding capability, contribution, and commitment.”
He also said that every employee should move in the “same direction” to create “rewarding and interesting challenges for employees” in a “market-based culture”.
3- “If you are of the small minority that shared comments similar to, ‘I have heard this nonsense before and I’ll ignore things until this goes away…’ or ‘things were just fine the way they were…’ there might be a disconnect between you and your current professional choice.”
4- “I agree with the sentiment that everyone should understand potential career opportunities and career paths we have here at AT&T. With that, you should have a solid sense of the contribution required in your current role, and what can be done to earn more responsibility to push professional pursuits to a higher level.”
5- “You deserve tools, processes, and capabilities that help you serve our customers effectively, without being hindered by internal process friction or system constraints.”
6- “You are right to expect to work in a professional, well-maintained, and functional facility…. We will more actively share where we are making investments, what has been accomplished, and what is on the horizon.”
7- “We’ll keep coming at this cultural evolution from every angle — but I have to ask you to commit. Commit to adjusting your own behaviours and actions without looking to your right or left (or above) to see what everybody else is doing.”
8- “I understand that many may find the demands of your daily lives challenging and difficult. Elder care, job stress, child rearing challenges, economic uncertainty, community unrest, technology anxiety — the list can get long. While no company can address how the combination of these dynamics might impact your specific circumstances, we can work to support employees in a way that improves their ability to manage what life throws at them.”
9- “We run a dynamic, customer-facing business, tackling large-scale, challenging initiatives. If the requirements dictated by this dynamic do not align with your personal desires, you have every right to find a career opportunity that is suitable to your aspirations and needs.”
10- “I ask that each of you explore your own opportunities to make a difference. While there will certainly be actions and initiatives that require sponsorship from senior leaders, our collective success also depends on each of us taking ownership where we can. Rather than waiting for others to act, I encourage everyone to share their ideas and take initiative. As I said at the beginning, we are midstream on a multi-year journey to build the company we want, not simply optimise the one we have.”