https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/05/att-promised-7000-new-jobs-to-get-tax-break-it-cut-23000-jobs-instead/
A broken Quid pro Quo agreement that was lobbied for by the company . Notice how the execs have benefited, while the total number of employees has dropped by more than 23,000.
There is also other links within the article that are related
Where is the accountability?
A lot of TFS techs in our area (SE) were just written up and given B forms or put on a Performance improvement plan (PIP), one was sent home for half of a day.
This is directly due to the added task of WiFi mapping, True testing and no extra work credit for all the added time which is resulting in higher HPC.
Despite good intentions, every time a new program or compliance is added it’s used for discipline.
The L1, L2 and L3 numbers & bonuses are affected
and Sh$t rolls downhill.
Some wire techs have been fired for numbers.
No matter any spin this is directly the reason.
All tech/support staff and managers are now on our SH$T LIST.
You think techs that have experience ranges of 19-45 yrs svc all of sudden became poor techs & employees?
Most of us get excellent service scores, awards and not many repeats.
It’s these Dam$ processes and compliance objectives that are millstones around our necks.
When the company went to at risk individual bonuses and ratings it became a game changer for the worse.
I know in trials it’s mostly done in best case scenario's to help sell the program.
In the field it is taking way longer to do these task in real world conditions.
Bottom line, it’s still mostly just tip & ring, working on same cables using nearly same tools and test sets, fiber is easier than cooper. Only thing changed is equipment on each end.
We appreciate improvements in the field that are meaningful but we have too much bloat wear and compliance objectives.
I’ve been outside tech for decades and it has drastically changed in the last 5 years.
If you haven’t been in the field In the last 2 years, you don’t understand all the challenges and frustrations we are now facing despite your previous experience.
It’s a totally different job now and accelerating to the negative, it once was a enjoyable craft and career.It’s now become a toxic experience due to all the micromanaging.
Lastly i appreciate the time you took to describe your frustrations and please don't take anything in this post personally. I am sure over a cup of coffee or a beer we would probably agree on most things and at least come to an understanding of seeing other things from both sides of the fence. There is definitely room for improvement in leadership, management and craft and I hope we can keep moving in that direction.
I will take what you have said and use it as constructive feedback in my work, which is the norm for my interaction with technicians. Hold your managers accountable just as they do you. Stay safe out there.
FYI,
A lot of TFS techs in our area (SE) were just written up and given B forms or put on a Performance improvement plan (PIP), one was sent home for half of a day. This is directly due to the added task of WiFi mapping, True testing and no extra work credit for all the added time which is resulting in higher HPC. Despite good intentions, every time a new program or compliance is added it’s used for discipline. The L1, L2 and L3 numbers & bonuses are affected and Sh$t rolls downhill. Some wire techs have been fired for numbers. No matter any spin this is directly the reason.
All tech/support staff and managers are now on our SH$T LIST. You think techs that have experience ranges of 19-45 yrs svc all of sudden became poor techs & employees? Most of us get excellent service scores, awards and not many repeats. It’s these Dam$ processes and compliance objectives that are millstones around our necks. When the company went to at risk individual bonuses and ratings it became a game changer for the worse.
I know in trials it’s mostly done in best case scenario's to help sell the program. In the field it is taking way longer to do these task in real world conditions. Bottom line, it’s still mostly just tip & ring, working on same cables using nearly same tools and test sets, fiber is easier than cooper. Only thing changed is equipment on each end.
We appreciate improvements in the field that are meaningful but we have too much bloat wear and compliance objectives. I’ve been outside tech for decades and it has drastically changed in the last 5 years. If you haven’t been in the field In the last 2 years, you don’t understand all the challenges and frustrations we are now facing despite your previous experience.
It’s a totally different job now and accelerating to the negative, it once was a enjoyable craft and career. It’s now become a toxic experience due to all the micromanaging.
"I guarantee most techs could work circles around the lab rats if given the time on real world troubles" - depends on which of us lab rats you challenge I guess. There are quite a few of us who were techs at one time also, but no offense taken, I understand what you are trying to say. Alot of times techs are fed info through a firehose and the reason as to why we are asking you to do something gets lost.
We have rolled out many technologies over the last 10 years, and we dropped them on you with sometimes minimal training. Many of these technologies take years of study and practical knowledge to understand why they behave the way they do, which technicians do not have the time to do unless they specialize in them, or work those types of troubles exclusively.
Many of us help techs with real world troubles on a daily basis. Most are relieved to find that alot of us actually care, and want to help them or explain something in detail. By far the most rewarding part of my job is working on a technology with a technician who wants to learn more, I make time for that whenever necessary.
I liked the master tech program, I think you will see with Atlas that you will get some of your freedoms back. That team is very technician experience oriented, but the field needs to give them time to get things right. Building these types of interfaces is an extremely intensive task requiring alot of talented people working non stop to get it implemented. Giving an experienced technician freedom is one of their goals from what I have seen.
@3vgd -
From the tone of your post you sound like one of the techs that cares about what he does every day and wants to make an impact. Appreciate that. We know that the vast majority of techs want to do good work and treat our customers well, that's why we work on the technical tools all the time and try to make them more accurate and faster with every release. Many of these tools are designed to put technical information in front of you instead of long documents, because we know that you are not given the time to really learn the process or how to troubleshoot a new product or technology. There are many gaps and disconnects we are working on as fast as we can to close or fix. The way AT&T deploys new technologies, and its shear size, creates those by default in some cases.
The field takes a while to adopt new practices, that's generally why compliance measures are put in so that the organizations can see that its being implemented. It also allows us to track whether or not those new policies are effective or create additional problems that we need to deal with. Unfortunately some use these compliance measures as a stick instead of a coaching tool, we try our best to keep that from happening. We know that alot of your other policies are constantly shifting targets that are hard to keep up with, its frustrating for us as well. You would not believe how many people L1 and L2 who you will never meet are working in the shadows to make sure you have what you need everyday. Just like the technician they are doing what they can with the resources they have available, so things are rarely perfect.
Many of us do know the challenges you face, some of which are imposed by your own organizations for only reasons they can explain. The other things like traffic, safety, troubleshooting, and dispatch times have been around for many decades, they don't change much no matter what they call the new system or plan. Yes I have worked in the rain, the heat, and in all kinds of weather - every technician for the last hundred years has had that same experience. I will say there are some really nice days too.
The corporation is in a huge state of change at the moment, I am hoping that will improve in the next year. I appreciate what you and other technicians and agents do everyday, thanks for continuing to show up and do good work. Work safely so you can get home to your family, continue to invest in your own knowledge, and focus on you and your goals. The other stuff is just noise.
Let’s see,
I could go on and on but there are plenty more steps to completing an install. If everything goes well, if not the you have to figure out the issues. Managers wonder why it’s taking so long. Lol and they wonder why we don’t have time to read every email, pulse, text etc..
Translore cable route, drop, VCA, ground tag, ebn’s, writing ban #, unpacking RG, registration, True testing, WiFi survey, app downloading, answering questions, making sure their devices surf, order issues, poor cell service for running software tools, etc, etc...
I agree, most of the techs I work with have 20 plus years and have went to technical school or college. Our software tools and processes have become so bloated that it’s become unbearable for experienced techs. We test & test then test some more on every dispatch. It’s very condescending for staff to tell us how they know better than us. I guarantee most techs could work circles around the lab rats if given the time on real world troubles. We just are too burdened with processes and policies.
We used to have just a simple dispatch page with the needed info and could close with just a couple of clicks after codes and narrative. Everyone is now treated as a new hire, it has severely limited techs. Each extra process/page adds more and more time to open and close a job. We don’t have good cell service in a lot of areas.
The result is more time on dispatches and extreme frustration when you know the job is complete but have to continues useless processes. We used to have a program for master techs, as long as their repeats were good that didn’t have to jump thru all the hoops.
We have the technical knowledge and want to provide excellent quality service. We just don’t get the repair time or proper work credit for all the extra things that are continued to be added to our job. We have so many challenges in the field that each task compounds on each dispatch. It’s become very stressful to try and remember all the added regulations.
Each support group only sees their little piece of the puzzle. They don’t see the totality of all the challenges ie .. traffic, school buses, zones, poor connections trying to do WiFi or true test, parking having to walk long distance for tools, supplies, weather, customers wanting to leave etc.. Have you tried running several test in the rain and keep your test set dry, umbrellas don’t work well at the NID. There are too many challenges we face everyday to list.
Most days we are bulked with too much work & micromanaged to the max. Everything is managed by numbers HPC , not customer service. Customer are getting upset with all the extra time for surveys & testing, registration, downloading apps etc.. They don’t expect to be home for most of the day.
Being bulked 3-5 jobs everyday doesn’t allow any time to sit and read all the emails we get, let alone processes and docs. We used to have real training, in the classroom and the team room and were not in the load. Everyone used to able too collaborate and learn from each other. Now it’s read the pulse, email, new training process but no time is really given outside of dispatches to do this.
Now we barely have time to dispatch figure out a route, get supplies, ice & water for the day. They want us off the yard in less than 20 min a return in less than 15 min to end of shift.
Bottom line, there is only so much time in a shift. We can only do so much in that time. Some point we have to forget the processes & policies and actually do real work. That is to provide service for the the people who signs our checks, the Customer.
yck and ozv- this may be hard to believe, but contrary to your opinion TRUE and Wifi survey were not built to make you suffer, they are technical tools designed to help you understand where a problem can occur. They have made an impact on customer service whether you choose to believe or not.
These programs were not introduced to make your job harder, they are simply showing you the real technical side of the business. Swapping ports, pairs and RGs is the number one move by most nowadays due to constraints on repair times, and lack of knowledge on how the technologies are deployed and actually work.
Despite some management beliefs, some customer issues are difficult to find and repair. These programs force your local management teams to stop cutting corners and praying to the HPC gods all the time, keeping you from doing real technical work on problems. There are many craft and craft supervisors out there, not all but many, who do not know how or what to test, these tools allow us to sidestep that issue and address the people doing the physical work. You have alot on your plate already, these tools try to take some of that off your back and give some structure to how you approach problems.
Despite the current climate at AT&T which I hope will improve, we believe most field technicians want to do good work. QC, TRUE and Wifi Survey help get real information right to you, as training is sparse nowadays unless its about a sales program, and most of you don't read the communications or the process docs anyway.
If your numbers are correct then what really happened is that they hired 7,000 foreign workers then, they fired 30,000 hard working folks. It's not hard to check this, just look at the local directory; you won't see too many new hires with a name like John, Mark, Jane, or Mary.
Just look at the recent employee NPS, that was swept under the rug quickly.
The recent stock price surge is just due to speculation that Elliot will work with Randall & company to accelerate layoffs, offshore & rebadge.
Meanwhile they will get raises, bonuses, stock buybacks, sell off assets and continue to misuse the tax dollars. It’s great to be King!
You serfs are but beans on a spreadsheet. Now get back to training your replacements. King Randall and the Sheriff of Nottingham are counting on you.
This article lays bare the hypocrisy of the Board and C-suite. How the fat cats live in their bubble of walled communities with security while laying off thousands with no impunity. They have a huge disconnect with their employees because they only see them as liabilities on a spreadsheet.
They send out condescending emails and having town halls how we are in this together while taking only softball questions. Anyone see the employee surveys recently? Disastrous!!
But don’t you know, True testing along with WiFi Surveys is saving some staff members their job. Why do you think they are so insistent.
TFS techs also have to do true testing on their jobs. We dispatch, clear pairs then do true testing. How does this show the “true” condition of the plant? I don’t think they trust anyone
Oh, and Perm techs, make sure to do your true testing on every job before you're allowed to close your jobs now. Then when your true test fails because it expects a flawlessly perfect line on poorly maintained 50 year old c-ap cable, go ahead and jep your job even though the customer's service is working just fine.
Layoffs are great! For execs raises, their bonuses, fund managers, the board and stock holders. Everyone else that are employees are paying the price including customers for their incompetence & unethical management.
Its rich that we can only order 1 bucket of wet wipes an order. We are working with bug sprays, insecticides, rat/ant poisons, animal feces in yards and homes, chemicals in buried plant, battery acid for SLC’s, nasty contaminated sludge and water in manholes, bird poo on pedestals & aerial terminals etc....
No job is so important or service so urgent we can’t take the time to perform our job in a safe and environmentally manner!
Oops, unless execs spend too much and get into debt, then nothing is mentioned. Of course motor vehicle incidents matter because they affect bonuses. So, put out that third cone techs because it matters. What a joke!!!
I agree, I can only order 1 pack of batteries for my tools and flashlights. It takes anywhere from 2-4 weeks for order to show up. Then I get to order another pack, meantime I’ve ran out of batteries for my equipment.
I have to use my cell phone to see while working. We’re also locked out of ordering supplies we need on upfront. We are still graded on quality of this decaying infrastructure but can’t make little to no improvements.
Accountability? Surely you jest?