AT&T CEO John Stankey made waves this month when he informed staff in a memo that the corporate is shifting to a “market-based tradition” that requires staff work nearer collectively.Since then, Enterprise Insider has discovered that AT&T is consolidating 22 inner help-desk facilities into six areas — and affected managers get two weeks to determine whether or not to maneuver or lose their jobs and get severance. Unionized staff will likely be allowed to stay at their present workplace in a special customer-service assist position.The consolidation of so-called centralized assist desk staff, who largely help different AT&T staff, follows a playbook the corporate has used repeatedly since 2023 because it upgrades its tech and cuts legacy prices. The adjustments additionally come at a time when company America, particularly the tech sector, is embracing a hardcore tradition that emphasizes efficiency metrics, time within the workplace, and a renewed sense of hustle.Two managers shared particulars of the plan to shrink the help-desk websites to 6 areas with Enterprise Insider. In an announcement, an organization spokesperson declined to touch upon the variety of facilities that will stay, however confirmed that the corporate is decreasing work areas throughout the enterprise unit.The spokesperson mentioned the transfer is unrelated to Stankey’s take-it-or-leave-it memo, which was his frank response to an inner survey that discovered staff reporting decrease engagement at work.Nonetheless, one AT&T supervisor informed Enterprise Insider that they understood the division’s management was rushing up the timetable for the help-desk consolidation due to the Stankey memo, as a substitute of taking a few years to hold it out.A alternative for employeesThe plan, the identical supervisor mentioned, entails shifting managers to websites in Atlanta; Mesa, Arizona; Miami; Orlando; Richardson, Texas; and Tulsa, Oklahoma. The spokesperson did not reply to a query about what number of staff could be affected.One of many managers, who’s going through an out-of-state transfer tons of of miles away, shared an e mail with Enterprise Insider by which the corporate mentioned they might be required to cowl their very own shifting bills. They really feel like they do not have a alternative about relocating their household.
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“With out my revenue, we’re not going to make it,” the individual mentioned.A half-dozen staff throughout the corporate informed Enterprise Insider that division leaders had been informed this month to plot “motion plans” to handle issues raised within the current worker survey about the place and the way AT&T operates.AT&T’s spokesperson mentioned the relocations will assist the corporate optimize its workflows. “It displays ongoing strategic shifts throughout our name middle operations to colocate comparable work features and enhance effectivity, consistency, and teamwork,” the spokesperson mentioned.A number of company divisions have gone by way of comparable phases of shedding satellite tv for pc workplaces in favor of bigger, centralized hubs.The corporate made headlines in 2023 when it mentioned some 60,000 managers could be assigned to 9 metro areas, down from 300 areas throughout the US. Stankey informed Bloomberg on the time that round 9,000 folks would face relocation selections.The discount in workplace footprint was adopted by a compulsory five-day in-office schedule that was phased on this 12 months.These relocation orders, coupled with the RTO mandate, have resulted in some groups shrinking by half, based on inner information reviewed by Enterprise Insider.Streamlining the businessInternal figures from final 12 months, seen by Enterprise Insider, present the affect of relocation orders on a division below CTO Jeremy Legg referred to as AT&T Expertise Companies, or ATS, which employed round 10,000 staff within the US in 2023.ATS’ consolidation meant shifting from some 95 “non-strategic” areas — the place a 3rd of ATS staff had been primarily based — to workplaces within the Seattle, New York, Atlanta, and Dallas areas. Of the 318 ATS managerial staff who obtained notification to maneuver throughout the first wave in 2023, about half declined and left the corporate.Companywide, AT&T employed greater than 160,000 staff firstly of 2023, based on its annual report. It began this 12 months with about 141,000. Chief rivals Verizon and T-Cellular had about 99,000 and 70,000 staff, respectively, firstly of 2025.Legg mentioned final week at a KeyBanc tech convention that as AT&T incorporates extra software program and strikes away from its legacy {hardware} and assist methods, it might lower prices.”If in case you have 100 central offices, you could possibly solely have the gear in 30 or 40 of them,” he mentioned. Which means bodily infrastructure and labor prices go down, Legg mentioned.The spokesperson mentioned the most recent relocations are usually not associated to AI. They arrive at a time, nonetheless, the place AT&T — like many companies — more and more depends on the expertise to streamline its enterprise.Stankey mentioned in a January earnings name that the corporate expects to save lots of $3 billion in operating prices by additional integrating AI.CTO Legg mentioned on the KeyBanc convention that his division has begun loading bother tickets into AT&T’s generative and agentic AI frameworks for assessment.”It now recommends what the fixes are and may write the code to do the repair,” he mentioned. “Ought to we simply go forward and automate that? We’re nonetheless human within the loop there, however these are main, main adjustments.”They’re adjustments traders seem to assist. AT&T shares are up round 27% in 2025.Have a tip? Contact Tim Paradis by way of e mail at tparadis@businessinsider.com or Sign at tparadis.70. Or contact Dominick Reuter by way of e mail at dreuter@businessinsider.com or Sign at 646.768.4750. Use a private e mail handle, a nonwork WiFi community, and a nonwork machine; this is our information to sharing data securely.
