On calls 'from 2am to 7am' | Is AT&T giving enough recognition and support to employees during its outage crisis?

AT&T’s network outage on Thursday, February 22 lasted over 11 hours, impacting over 70,000 users, and costing the U.S. economy an estimated $500 million.

Whilst AT&T has attributed the issue to “the application and execution of an incorrect process,” the days, weeks, and months to come will see further root cause analysis, government agencies, and other interested parties discussing the possibility of a cyberattack, a $5 credit for affected customers, and even possible lawsuits from impacted customers or businesses.

In short, since 5 a.m. CT on Thursday, it’s been nothing short of chaos for AT&T. So, has the network provider given enough support and recognition to employees over the past few days of turmoil?

‘Days like today make me thankful I don’t work for AT&T anymore’

In a time of crisis response, it’s all hands on deck. Employees bear the brunt of the extra work that must be done, and for AT&T, it was no different.

“Whenever a challenging or unexpected event impacts this company, I can always count on everyone to rise to the occasion and the last few days have been no exception,” writes CEO John Stankey, in a statement released to employees and the wider public.

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Stankey goes on to thank employees across retail, call centers, product, marketing, communications, and technology for continuing “to work tirelessly to live up to our commitment to serve customers first.” He also commends the “effort and collaboration in this challenging moment,” and is “appreciative of all the extra effort and hard work.”

But are these few short sentences of thanks enough recognition and support for employees who will no doubt have had to struggle with increased demand and workload, the pressure of angry customers who even go on to sue the company, and the psychological burden of being the center of a nationwide incident?

Several employees took to social media to share their perspectives on the added pressure. “I work for AT&T & this office is about to be crazy this morning,” admits one employee.

“I work for AT&T. I was on conf calls from 2 am- 7 am this morning. Fun times,” writes another.

There are hundreds of similar tweets from those who used to work for the network provider, still work there, or are just sympathetic observers. “Days like today make me thankful I don’t work for AT&T anymore,” says a former employee.

Their perspective is understandable. “I’m swinging on whoever unlocks this door,” threatens a user alongside a picture of an AT&T store, in a tweet that gathered over 6 million views.

I’m swinging on whoever unlocks this door pic.twitter.com/ZCN05gP3tX

— JP (@lostfilesjp) February 22, 2024

Although the tweet is a joke, there’s a hollow truth to the message. “I’m so glad I don’t work for AT&T anymore I know people be raging all day!” another ex-employee responds, highlighting the very real anger that retail and customer service workers must suffer through when employees are upset.

Indeed, acts of violence against retail or food and beverage workers are increasingly commonplace. On Sunday, February 25, for example, an angry customer attacked a Dunkin Donuts employee by throwing hot coffee over them.

Stankey does acknowledge the extra pressure on these employees. “Our frontline employees demonstrated expertise under pressure as our network teams took immediate action to restore service for our customers,” he notes.

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A few short sentences of appreciation for the hard work is certainly better than nothing. Publicly acknowledging hard work during a crisis is a simple but powerful way to recognize employees. And of course, for each individual who worked extra or unexpected hours, there may well be other forms of recognition and compensation not made publicly available. You’d certainly hope the employee stuck on conference calls from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m. was given time back to recover.

But as Stankey states, “moments like these are a test of resilience. This is not our first network outage, and it won’t be our last.” As AT&T plans for its future including identifying “key learnings that will make us better,” keeping its employees engaged and energized will be crucial.

With Employee Appreciation Day on Friday, March 1, it’s a timely reminder that AT&T would do well to more deeply consider how it protects front-line workers, supports employees during outages, and rewards them for their hard work and extra efforts during times of crisis.