AT&T tells staff to learn new skills or else

Dallas

THIRTY-four years ago, Kevin Stephenson got his younger brother Randall a job with the telephone company. Kevin, then 23, and Randall, 22, had tried selling cattle feed but that didn't pan out. Kevin was hired to do accounting at a local Southwestern Bell office. Randall, who was in college, needed a bit more help. "He had trouble getting hired," Kevin said. "I talked to someone I knew in personnel."

The brothers had different tastes. Kevin liked to be outside, and now, at 57 years old, he works in Norman, Oklahoma, fixing the decades-old copper lines that still connect to landline telephones in most homes as well as to modern Internet conduits such as high-speed fibre optics. Randall liked numbers and stayed indoors, rising through the management ranks.