26 years employee, 13 years as a construction splicer , installing litespans and slc cabinets, splicing in fiber and installing muxes to run the cell towers and run the trunk lines that all this data goes over. 13 years as a cable maintenance tech, wiping lead sleeves in manholes, repairing back yard lead cables , all nighters working in the freezing cold. The Job was hard but yet gratifying, I enjoyed coming to work.
Today's Verizon, not one new tech since 2000, no one to train to learn these skills that take years to learn, telling the elderly lady that has paid her phone bill for the last 50 years that you're sorry for her poor service because Verizon doesn't care about landlines anymore and they want you to leave even though the company reaped all that cash in and used it to build thier empire. Tour after tour to NYC, customers take a day of off work because we made an appointment but we never show up because the workload is to high. Engineers can't replace old cables and aren't allowed to run cable to new sub divisions or businesses, not economically feasible. Can't order batteries for equipment that needs to have power during a commercial power outage, can't replace defective circuit packs. We have learned how to improvise and give our customers service despite this.
New boss said to me last month "wow, you really care about the job you do, you'll learn"and tells you not to pick up a job after 2pm because if I don't finish it he'll get a FDR widget (first dispatch resolution)and he'll lose his bonus, he wants you to sit around for 2 1/2 hrs doing nothing. That's the new Verizon credo!
I have always took pride in my work and believed if I gave customers good service that they would stay with us and I'd always have my good job but Verizon is committed to killing landlines and its working. Fios is a great product but its a "landline" and the company will sacrifice it to kill the union and its workers. Most of us union slugs are going the extra mile everyday to go around all the roadblocks the company has put up against us, we give people and businesses our cell numbers so they can call us directly because verizon won't dispatch. Our number one complaint is the overseas call centers and the frustration of trying to communicate to someone what there trouble is.
I talked to one of my old bosses yesterday and they said the company is just closing out trouble without fixing them or returning them to cable because they have no idea what to do, yet Tracy Edwards is sending out emails that there productivity is to low. This is all falling into Lowell's master plan to get rid of customers, managers and technicians so he can swim in his vault of gold coins. As a veteran of the military it embarrasses me that Lowell is a veteran too and how he can turn his back on the people and the country that he helped defend. He'll lay on his death bed and wonder if his life meant anything and he'll feel empty inside.
Manager's welcome a Rif and tech's can't wait until they can retire. Lowell, take that 9 billion in the pension fund and send us all checks and we're out of here.