Weathering the storm: Terminations and transfers: Uncertainty became the dominant theme on Jan. 1, 1984 for employees of both AT&T and the Bell operating companies

The change in the working environment of the various entities that made up the Bell System since divestiture is discussed. It is pointed out that hundreds of thousands of people who had opted to work for a corporation famous for its stability, insularity, and dedication to service found they had become employees of a rapidly changing organization with an unclear future and a newfound concern with the bottom line on financial reports. The author finds that engineers, for the most part, have fared better than AT&T employees in general. Despite shakeouts among communications companies and an overall drop in US telecommunications employment of almost 30000 in 1984, opportunities have grown for many types of AT&T communications engineers, such as system engineers. The question whether emphasis upon the bottom line will adversely affect the quality of research is discussed.