AT&T CEO says hard to find skilled U.S. workers

[Lennon]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080327/tc_nm/att_workforce_dc

The head of the top U.S. phone company AT&T Inc (T.N) said on Wednesday it was having trouble finding enough skilled workers to fill all the 5,000 customer service jobs it promised to return to the United States from India.

"We're having trouble finding the numbers that we need with the skills that are required to do these jobs," AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson told a business group in San Antonio, where the company's headquarters is located.

So far, only around 1,400 jobs have been returned to the United States of 5,000, a target it set in 2006, the company said, adding that it maintains the target.

Stephenson said he is especially distressed that in some U.S. communities and among certain groups, the high school dropout rate is as high as 50 percent.

[angstlessk]

1. skilled in customer service....it is personality..and TRAINING...

customer service is all personality and then TRAINING regarding the companies products...WHAT SKILL??? you either got it or you don't. NO ONE CAN BE EDUCATED ON THE SERVICES AT&T PROVIDES EXCEPT BY AT&T!

[katsy]

2. More from the link:

"We're able to do new product engineering in Bangalore as easily as we're able to do it in Austin, Texas," he said, referring to the Indian city where many international companies have "outsourced" technical and customer support workers.

"I know you don't like hearing that, but that's the way it is," he said."



So why are they bringing the jobs back? He is saying that there aren't 5,000 Americans with the necessary skill sets to work at a call center? Or there aren't 5,000 that will do those jobs for free?

[ColbertWatcher]

3. I'm starting to think...

...CEOs are sociopaths.

All of them.

In fact, companies seem to seek out only the most inhuman sociopaths for CEO.

[Skittles]

11. um, Colbert?

sociopaths become CEOs or serial killers - that is a Skittles FACT

[Warpy]

4. That's management code for people who will work for nothing

I'm sure they could find all the knowledgeable and skilled workers they need if they raise the pay to what it takes to keep them alive.

[Hestia]

5. Where did the 50% drop out rate paragraph come from?

It was on today's ATT intranet site. ATT Charitable side is giving $46M to beef up education and try to do something about the drop out rate. DH says there are 5,000 people in the US to do the customer service jobs. No matter where you go, you have to be trained anyway, so this sounds like code to bring those H??? visa jobs into the US.

[scarface2004]

6. hire and train you asshole!!

quit sayin shit like that. i bet if i had their money i could find thousands of people looking for a decent job with benefits, that i could easily train, within 90 days you stupid ceo sonnofabitch!

[Doctor_J]

7. Since our schools have been under siege for 30 years,

forced to teach Creation Science (whatever that is), providing school lunches in which ketchup is the vegetable, dismantling HeadStart, firing good teachers who don't promote war vigorously enough, terrorizing people like Juan Cole, and on and on, this is no surprise.

[lib2DaBone]

8. Help wanted - $1 an hour

Fuck You Mr. Stephenson (and all your NAFTA Friends). What you mean is that you cannt find anyone to work for $1 an hour while you destroy America, raise your rates and maintain your government sanctioned monopoly. I wouldnt use ATT to wipe my ass.

[lame54]

9. harder to find a CEO worth his pay

[Joe Chi Minh]

10. We have the same problem in the UK. You wouldn't find it in a

Scandinavian country. Probably not in Continental Europe, unless a small country enjoying a major boom.