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Johnny may also be using an outdated laptop,  which cannot work correctly or is very slow.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.