Why Can't Johnny make His Numbers?

Hi, I’m an employee of AT&T and the following is my opinion as to why technicians are consistently rated “unsatisfactory” in the company grading system called MSOC.

I have written several blogs about MSOC and how I believe it is designed more as a management whip rather than a tool.  Let’s take an imaginary employee, named Johnny, and see why he can’t reach the required “satisfactory” promised land.  First of all, this will not be an exhaustive list.  Roadblocks come in all fashions and it seems to only be supervisors that do not understand how technicians are slowed in their daily progress.

It may be Johnny’s manager who is at fault.  Johnny may have repeatedly asked for tools or test equipment which have not been supplied.  I, for example, have to install or repair bonded pair Uverse service without a bonded pair test set.  I only have a single pair meter and have to jump through hoops to make it work on long loops.  Often, only the proper meter will sync when the loop has odd characteristics.  A technician may find that all the work done to correct a problem, wasn’t the problem at all, because of the wrong test equipment.  I also work on IPDSL at times.  It requires a different meter entirely and guess what?  I don’t have an IPDSL meter either.  I was given an old DSL meter recently by a service technician who had a spare, but it won’t work on the newer technology.  Johnny could be having the same trouble.

Johnny may also lack training in certain areas even when he has requested such training.  I, for example, have never had any DSL or IPDSL training.  You might think it strange that a technician would work on a product and yet does not have the proper equipment or training required.  You would be correct, it is strange.  Yet, trained employees and untrained employees have the same requirements.

Johnny may also be using an outdated laptop,  which cannot work correctly or is very slow.  I, for example, have constant cell connection issues in poor coverage areas.  Often, even with good coverage, the signal will drop off and I’ll have to reboot or hibernate several times to communicate again.  All that eats time that would be better spent elsewhere.  Two of our technicians have the newer tablets which seem to work excellent with little or no delays.

Johnny may also be unable to verify exactly why and even which troubles he received repeated reports on or which work assignments were delayed past the required time.  I know I’ve asked for assistance in verifying which troubles I’ve gotten “repeated reports” on, but have yet to receive a list other than the daily RATS report which reflects repeats for the entire crew.  That list is not employee specific and is not one that most of us dwell on very long.  We are bombarded with emails each day and are not given any time to read them.  Are we supposed to use the fifteen minutes we have during our morning huddle with the supervisor or the fifteen minutes we are finally allowed to stock our trucks before leaving for home?  Reading emails have to be pushed way down the priority list.

Johnny could possibly be delayed or even unable to complete a job because of customer access or order errors from the business office.  If access is required, and the customer isn’t home, why do we punish Johnny?  If the business office makes an error which causes delays or cancellation, why do we punish Johnny?  If the home or business has an old style flat drop, new guidelines say it must be replaced even if there is no trouble in it.  If Johnny fixes a cable trouble then has to spend an hour and a half replacing an aerial service wire, that extra time is lost and is punishing Johnny on his numbers.  Johnny may be a little frustrated that he is doing everything the company requires of him but is unable to make the required “satisfactory”.   It may be that Johnny, like me, has had management ride with him and critique every job that day, yet not give him any pointers to better his time.  On the day I had a rider, I asked upon completion what did they see that I could have done better or could have done faster.  The answer was that they didn’t see anything that would have bettered my results.  I failed my numbers that day as well, with obvious management approval!

Johnny may be delayed quite often by customers calling him for questions not even related to the service he provided.  Johnny now has to leave a “pledge sheet” with his cell phone number and his manager’s cell phone number with each customer he visits, unless that customer is a wholesale/resell customer.  I mentioned that to a Cisco employee recently and he couldn’t believe the company would use technicians for support calls during their work day.  Johnny could be fielding calls concerning how to set up a modem, router, or could he come by and hang a new rope on their flagpole.

Let’s say Johnny is a very good technician.  He has received four or five-star ratings out of the year but yet also received two counseling entries in his personnel file for lack of reaching his numbers for two months out of the year due to roadblocks.  Johnny is a little confused why he gets a sheet of paper for commendation which means little.  But the entry keeps him from even trying to reach a job he might be more capable in.  Personnel entry’s lock Johnny into his current job.  Managers who want to keep Johnny from transferring will refuse to remove those.  As evil as this seems, it happened to me recently!

Johnny will get little or no help from the company and often none from the union.  I came across this link from CWA local 3204 which might help Johnny and any others who are faced with this dilemma.  Johnny wants to believe that his company would never do anything on purpose to get rid of him.  That they would never grade him by a system which was grievously flawed on purpose.   Johnny and the company agreed  once that he would do everything they asked him to do and they would pay him the proper wages that job required.  They would also train him for any new tasks which would be required.   Let’s home both honor the agreement.

The Terminator

Hi, I’m an employee of AT&T and the following is my opinion.

I was told recently by a member of management that the company wanted my opinion on MSOC.  Someone from Atlanta would be calling me and I was encouraged to be honest and cooperative.  I was stunned by the announcement since my opinion and beliefs can be read at any time from my earlier blogs.  Supposedly, they didn’t mind my blog and thought it was one of the better ones out there.  Needless to say, no one called me about anything.  After thinking about it for a while and willing to give that party the benefit of the doubt(as I know they would do for me), I decided to make sure that everyone understood my thoughts about it.

As I believe it today, MSOC, the system used to rate technicians on their job performance, is merely a job termination program.  I believe it can be structured, not only to target specific groups, but to target individual employees for removal from the company.  Older workers are especially susceptible to being unable to make the benchmarks set by the system.  Older workers typically cost more in salary and benefits than younger workers.   However, cutting older workers constitutes illegal age discrimination.

There is a leadership plan called a vitality curve or “rank and yank” by others.  It seems to have originated with Jack Welch and supposedly gets rid of the bottom 10% of any workforce, the underperformers.  The plan gained GE a 5-fold increase in revenue between 1981 and 2001.  Mr Welch admitted that the judgments were “not always precise”.  An understatement I’m sure!  MSOC seems to be structured in a similar fashion.

It is certainly a fact that everyone works harder to keep their job!  The problem I see with MSOC is that the system itself has so many flaws in applying it to telecommunication outside plant as to render it unusable.  I will say that it is very useful in the hands of unscrupulous managers who have personal differences with individual employees.  A little tweaking and anyone will fail their daily and monthly numbers.  Keep me on chronic troubles all month and I’ll fail repeats.  Keep me on service orders and throw in a few chronic troubles and I’ll fail also.  Keep whipping me about dispatch efficiency and I’ll fail quality.  Make me gold plate everything to satisfy quality, and I’ll fail efficiency.  The criteria for rating are fuzzy and subjective.  It paints rural technicians and those in the city in like manner, even though of the two, the rural ones have much longer time/task.  Adjust the time I’m allotted for a job, and guess what, I will fail.  Have the IT department to put roadblocks in the software we use or just don’t fix the problems in the system we have now, and we fail… The list goes on and on.

The rank and yank system is forced on management employees as well.  In fact, if they don’t participate in playing god by identifying employees for termination, they themselves are terminated.  So you see, it would be easier on them to use other criteria in choosing which employees are terminated.  Those of a different religion, sex, political party, ethnic background, or culture can be arranged to fail first, keeping the heat off friends.  Maybe they have blogs they don’t like or live in a better neighborhood.  Good people are being hurt by this and for what reason?  Yes, of course, its money.  We need more of it to keep Wall Street happy.  Also, if one company does something and makes more money, all the companies have to follow the same plan even though implementation is difficult and subjective and rife with problems.

I know that in the group I work with, it would be impossible for me to choose who to fail each year.  I see good technicians who have been doing their job properly for a long time.  They know how to accomplish their daily tasks but have to deal with a system that regardless of success will fail the bottom performers.

MSOC is a cruel and heartless system which doesn’t work well in the outside telecommunication industry.  If I did the same thing every day, I could understand the measurement system.  I’ve asked for explanations on the grading and the answers all sound like this, “its difficult to explain”.  “It works on an algorithm, and I can’t explain it”.  “Well, the mileage it subtracts isn’t mile for mile… but it’s right”.  Every job I go on is different.  Every customer requires different amounts of time to complete the task to their satisfaction.  I complete every task the way I’ve been told to and yet, it doesn’t matter to MSOC.

It is my plea that we could return to the days we worked as a team to accomplish our tasks.  Lets get rid of the brutal, merciless system we have in place that destroys morale and puts good people out on the street.  There are technicians who work through their breaks and lunch, against federal law, just to make the numbers.  Let’s stop that and get back to honesty and true customer service.

By the way, GE doesn’t use it any longer.

Sitting on the Bench!

     Hi, I'm an employee of AT&T and the following is my opinion...

     I thought I'd give a little update on telephone restoration from the tornadoes that hit on April 27th, 2011.  Our workgroup seems to be sitting in the dugout watching other technicians and contractors play the game.  It's really sad.  Our work center is twenty minutes away from troubles in Cahaba Heights and nobody needs us!  We feel kind of like the magtag repairman...  We are back on a eight to five schedule and I even received a "no jobs available" at 9:30am after closing my first dispatch.  It took them a while to find me something to do.  Tomorrow, a couple of us are going to work on a defective section, doing some needed clean-up work, since troubles are slow.
  
     It was relayed from a construction technician today that contractors were placing and splicing new cables in Cahaba Heights.  I believe that can only be done when an emergency is declared, so I suppose the company has done so.  As a facilities technician with splicing ability/tools, I'm confused over how serious this emergency is to the company.  Our group can be on regular hours, even routine work, while twenty minutes away, contractors have to be brought in from out of state to work!  
   
     I was in the Communication Workers of America Union for 25 years.  I resigned from that organization eight years ago, after being fed up with their decisions to support abortion rights candidates!  I was angry that they felt social issues ranked more important that labor ones.  I only rejoined when AT&T took over BellSouth, wielding whips and chains with MSOC!  Obviously, labor issues are still down on the to-do-list for the union.  I'll have to rethink that membership!  The union sent me a email recently wanting to know about safety issues since AT&T has been a little weak in that area.  I emailed them my Vincent pictures and never got a response...  exactly what I expected!

      Speaking of stuff on the-to-do-list, we've had one cut cable in our area, which has been waiting to be repaired since the middle of last Summer!  It is on Deseret Dr. in Shelby, AL.  Shelby is a small community with a long history.  I'll have to write about it sometime.

      There are two homes at the end of the road and a small trailer park in the middle which is sparsely occupied.   Last summer, a service sechnician had to place temporary lines from Highway 47, about 1000' to bypass the cable damage.  It had been cut by a contractor placing a water line.

      Management was advised, and it was stated, "that is a First Mile problem"!  First Mile is a group which was formed, supposedly to repair cables where customers had trouble with their  Uverse.  I don't think maintenance was their designed purpose.  However, with that said, I will note that since the tornadoes they have been working troubles and some service orders, even in our area!

      Things just seem to be very confused these days on who is supposed to do what.  The PLS group, which is supposed to prepare outside plant for Uverse is helping maintenance.  First Mile is working maintenance.  Maintenance is working service orders and Service Technicians are doing cable troubles.  It's a mixed up world!
      I'm in the dark about the rest of the 22 state world of AT&T.  If you're a Facility Technician elsewhere, I'd like to know the setup in your area.  Drop me an email and let me know if this is the norm or are we the exception. 

      The two 2-pair temporary lines have been replaced twice due to damage from normal customer activity, mowing grass, driving over, etc.   If that was your telephone line, I suppose it could be considered "at risk"!  The moment you really need it.... dead!  Then you have to call repair AGAIN!

      You can see the telephone cable sticking up out of the ground.  It came from the opposite side of the road to a pedestal, then went back to the other side again.  The cables sticking up were both to the pedestal.  The other matching ends are under ground about 2 1/2 feet deep near the pavement edge.  We actually requested a "locate" in February, but the load got heavy, so repair was put off again.  The paint for the water line is long gone.  It would even be difficult now to get the correct claim information for billing!




     I mentioned MSOC earlier, and it reminded me of a video sent to me by a friend.  The title is A Day in the Life of a Comcast Technician.  That title is misleading, they even talk about telecommunication in the video.  Anyway, those of you who are on MSOC will relate quickly.  If you aren't familiar with MSOC, you can read my earlier blog on the subject.  Watch at least a little, just so you'll know what we have to deal with!