A Terrorist and a Truck

Kids, watch out walking between that communication pedestal and the pole!  Someone put a cone out here…

(put disclaimer here) Hi, I’m an employee of AT&T and the following blog is my opinion.

I received a company email recently about the fact that damage to communication facilities is considered a terrorist act and is punishable as a federal offense.  That’s funny in a way, not that damage to communication facilities should be punishable, just who are you going to punish.  I know, I know, the terrorist.  The funny part is, one man’s terrorist is another man’s accountant.

I’m reminded of the song Professional Pirate, sung by Tim Curry,  in the movie, Muppet Treasure island.  “When I was just a lad looking for my true vocation, my father said, now son, this choice deserves deliberation, though you could be a doctor or perhaps a financier, my boy why not consider a more challenging career…  Further into the song, “Now take Sir Francis Drake, the Spanish all despise him.  But to the British, he’s a hero and they idolize him.  It’s how you look at buccaneers that makes them bad or good, and I see us as members of a noble brotherhood, hey ho ho…

So, in other words, one man’s pirate (or thief or terrorist) is another mans’ financier (or manager).  That is just funny to me because I see so much that makes no sense in our business.  I know that I’m not able to see the big picture, or I’m not looking at the big picture… whatever cliché you wish to use. I know we need to get rid of our employees to make more money for the stockholders.  We need to sell off parts of the business that don’t make enough money, and we need to maximize our profits on the backs of the few employees we have left.  For those few, MSOC should be used with maximum effect to increase productivity so everything gets done everyday, on time, without any errors and with little or no overtime pay.  Any employee caught dawdling will be shot on sight…or better yet, put an entry in his file!

Maybe, everybody just needs to see things through my eyes a little… or through my lens.  You already know how I feel about MSOC and the “hurry up offense” that is fatal to good quality work.  It’s also costly and a tremendous waste of resources to send technicians all over the county on “demand” work only.  There is always “routine” work all around us, but we can’t do any routine work, that is an unpardonable sin!  Well, what has this awesome plan gotten for us?

  We have created “virtual poles”.  The fiber optic line in the picture, leaves the strand above and goes straight down into the ground.  The pole supporting and protecting it is invisible.  I’m not sure if this has been patented yet, but it seems to work okay.  There could be an issue when the county bushhog comes by.  Remember it takes a little more time to do things correctly.  It takes a LOT MORE TIME to correct them later!
The next picture is an improvement on the virtual pole.  It at least has some protection on the ground, just none above.
If quickly done “dip” cables are the problem, maybe we should just take everything down lower…


If we laid everything on the ground, it would save a tremendous amount of time and money!  We wouldn’t need bucket trucks nor even the new virtual poles.  It’s amazing how much work is around and we still don’t need all those people on the surplus list.


Customers stop and think they’re doing a good deed by letting us know about this stuff.  “Yes, ma’am.  we know about it.  It was reported to construction and should be taken care of soon.” You can never give a timeline or an estimate.  Why?  Because most of the time it’s been on the ground six months already and I really don’t know when or if it will be fixed!
A guy in a cement truck stopped to let a tech know about these low cables over a county road recently.
He was afraid his truck would pull them down.  Yep, the calls were made and guess what?  Looks just like that today!
Here’s a better picture.   It’s right in front of a central office.  Two large cables and a couple of fibers cross the road here.  Shouldn’t be too hard to find and fix, just a transfer to a new pole.

There are other issues as well, not just with transfers and virtual poles.  Some cables need to be respliced completely, and not just a pair at a time.  The pair at a time would be the MSOC way.  There are guys who are so driven by making their numbers, they would drive to a spot, fix one pair…twenty-five times.  Why not just splice all 25 at one time?


The modules at the right were testing crossed with battery.  The top one was in a pedestal without gravel.  The best course of action is resplicing.  These are often associated with “come clear” troubles.  The problem goes away, when the sun dries out the moisture.  So yeah, there are troubles that disappear and then come back the next time it rains!  MSOC penalizes me for that!

My last picture is a nightmare for any technician trying to run new jumpers in a box that is already full.  The trouble here is two-fold.  It is a poor design for jumper routing and MSOC makes everyone hurry so they don’t take time to take out the old jumpers.  A technician from Miami told me they had boxes with wires laid on the ground from both sides.  We’re not quite that bad yet, but it’s just a matter of time(or lack of it)!
Some of you have asked about my grievance for my personnel entry.  It hasn’t taken place yet.  I did talk to a CWA representative who said I just needed to be thankful for my hourly wage.

I also had an inquiry about how does one get out of the union.  I believe you have to send a letter to CWA and the company, on the anniversary of the existing contract.  Some recomment “delivery confirmation” or “signature confirmation” letters to be sure of their arrival.  I believe there is only a two week window of opportunity.  I’d ask my union representative, but he’d just say it isn’t in the contract.  That seems to be their answer to most issues now!

Anyway, the next time you see someone damaging communication property, please report them to the proper authorities!  Hopefully, the proper authorities aren’t AT&T stockholders!