With all the layoffs coming to FT, STs, and wire techs in the southeast , there will be tons of bumping and shuffling. End result will be a lot of unqualified techs in new groups. It's been happening in my abfs crew for a couple of years now. In my crew, all but myself and two other systems technicians have been bumped out and replaced with digital technicians.i don't blame the techs themselves. They are just trying to work. However , These digital technicians don't have the skill set to work on CPE equipment such as IP PBX or data networking. No surprise that the work isn't getting done and we're losing customers and business. Att of course doesn't care. Not to toot my own horn but our crew was "elite" and had the skills to win over enterprise customers. Now not so much. Systems techs are going the way of the dodo bird, at least in my crew. The digital technicians get their title changed to systems technician when they bump but the company is not training them. This is about to happen on a much larger scale with the massive layoffs coming. Lots of crews will have techs with the titles but not the skills as the musical chair game continues. Att is doomed on so many levels.
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This is what happened to me. I was surplused out of my job and took another one. I was trained by someone who was clueless for three weeks on hardware that ranged from the 1970’s till now. After maybe a year on the job, I got a new supervisor who micromanaged everything to the extreme. He loved having morning meetings and pointing out everything that I did wrong because I was never trained on to my co-workers daily. It was a just a wonderful experience!!! I was able to transfer out three years later.
Systems techs don't do residential anything.
Digital techs are installing carrier and uni ethernet circuits before installing the customers router. Systems techs will be installing bonded bvoip and residential gpon.
I'm sure DT-BSIM will be bringing folks into their group...they need them
Every job title out here from a lineman hanging strand to a DT working on a fiber circuit to a Sys Tech installing a managed router has some of the finest hardest working competent customer oriented folks you've ever seen and they also have some of the laziest half a'ed egotistical dumb A's as well. it's the U's job to protect folks when surplussed(seniority is the across the board fairest), it's T's job to train when needed, & it's the employees job to give a honest days work for a honest days pay.
Stupid vs. Stoopid
Yawn, storm in a teacup. Regardless, it’s a mighty stupid rabbit that doesn’t have a second rabbit hole to jump in.
Moderators moderate mo–n. They go in and censor dirty words like stupidity and mo–n. mo–n.
Speaking of stupidity .... you spelled stoopidity wrong. Doh !
Looks like the OP really got your panties in a twist. He's living rent free in your mind now haha.
Typical union stoopidity. You guys are all the same. OP said IP PBX referring to equipment that doesn't exist and as you said, it's only a generic term. And you can't really be dum enough to think that specific work functions would be routed to a particular title at the same wage scale because "you" think you are more qualified? Really? 911 work being with the DT title in the Southeast is contractual per the working agreement and I don't see that changing anytime soon, but I guess you're one of those genius union folks who doesn't even read the contract you are supposed to be abiding by. True, in some areas in the SE (especially OOR locations where AT&T is not the LEC), Systems Techs have been trained to and are deploying/maintaining 911 at PSAP locations. Also, 911 ticketing was migrated to ESS to control/capture all labor hours associated with demand and routine work across all regions for better accounting oversight and control. The ESS system is traditionally used for ABFS work across all regions and it would be easy for a dum union tech to assume that since the ticketing mechanism was changed that physical work was migrated which it hasn't.
Another thing, you do realize that nearly all of AT&T's Broadband, Carrier Ethernet and TDM services are transported via SONET and OTN (OTN-Optical Transport Network) don't you?? Save for PON/XGS PON in the local loop (and soon to be TWDM PON) of course. Maybe you would also like to share what special skills and work functions in "data networking" Systems Tech's possess that is vastly superior to DT's. As is typical for a seniority driven culture like in the union, I've met and worked with some extremely talented and skilled Digital Tech's and Systems Tech's alike, but I've also met and worked along side both who couldn't spell their own names, much less perform the basic required function of their jobs, but they got paid exactly the same and had the same work protections as the superstars. I guess none of this really matters of course as every other region has it down to 1 title performing all of these functions in every other region outside the Southeast. It's coming for you as well at some point, so just deal with it. Hopefully you'll end up getting surplussed at some point into a Core outside or Wire tech title and mudsling with them about how superior you are.
"" The same could be said if you had to transition from a Systems tech to Digital tech role as well. Do you really think you could just walk in and work on complex 911 systems, DLC, NGDLC, SONET, OTN, DS1, DS3, Carrier Ethernet and IP Broadband with no experience or training?? ""
Except that's not what's happening. Jobs /work are only increasing for systems technicians. It's the digital tech titles that continue to get downsized, precisely because all those systems you mentioned are dinosaurs going bye bye with exception of Ethernet and broadband. Also, systems techs have been given 911 and carrier Ethernet and IP broadband Work for years now, because apparently the company knows they do a better job and have a better understanding than the DTs. Face it, systems techs are the future of the company. DTs are dinosaurs. Unfortunately the id–tic union protects seniority so the company will be left with clueless old DTs who can't change the op address of their laptop lol.
"When you say “IP PBX” it kind of shows some of your own ignorance as the field teams in the Southeast only directly support legacy Nortel BCM, Meridian, CS1000 and Avaya IP Office and Aura contact solutions and the only one of those that would fit that description would be the CS1000. "
I agree with the OP and you're the one showing ignorance as IP PBX is a generic term that applies to any customer's on- premise call server which can handle IP telephony , regardless if it's just IP trunks or stations or both. So you're completely wrong. All of your listed systems can be considered IP PBXs with the exception maybe of norstar as it's a "key system" but even that has PBX functionality at its latest releases. As far as CS1000 , that's just an upgraded meridian. You add IP functionality to a meridian , along with the upgraded software , and it becomes a CS1000. You must be a manager, pretending you know what you're talking about lol.
As far as I'm concerned the union is outdated and should be 86'd. They are just a group with a political agenda and a way for lazy techs to keep their jobs.
Sorry, forgot Norstar. Done.
You can 100% blame the union for that situation. If the company had its way, they would hire the most qualified individuals to fill these positions, but silly union rules and seniority driven decisions that are designed to keep people on the payroll at any cost will always trump that. And I wouldn’t toot your own horn so much either. When you say “IP PBX” it kind of shows some of your own ignorance as the field teams in the Southeast only directly support legacy Nortel BCM, Meridian, CS1000 and Avaya IP Office and Aura contact solutions and the only one of those that would fit that description would be the CS1000. No internal training for the Nortel systems is provided anymore since EOL/Support is already set for 2024, so if you don’t have previous experience, it’s kind of hard to get it without hard knocks. Same goes for Avaya. Many different training paths for IPO, ACIS, ACSS, Contact Center, etc. Again, it would be difficult at best to support these platforms with no training. The same could be said if you had to transition from a Systems tech to Digital tech role as well. Do you really think you could just walk in and work on complex 911 systems, DLC, NGDLC, SONET, OTN, DS1, DS3, Carrier Ethernet and IP Broadband with no experience or training??
This is why the union s—s. They only protect seniority and could not care less whether someone has the necessary skills to do a job. That's one reason at&t is failing.
It's the union's fault for basing everything on seniority but it's also the fault with att for not training anyone.