I've never really spoke about my career with The Phone Company. I did it for 10-12 hours a day/6 days a week. I didn't want to talk about it at the end of the day or on here. That's why I love my friends, family, the nights out and Facebook.
Takes my mind off the boring and repetitive aspect of the job. This is true for many people and their careers.
If you wouldn't do it for free, then you don't like your job. Period.
I started on June 16th, 1995. Hired as a temporary worker when it was still known as NYNEX. I was a splicers helper in Sunset Park. $221 a week before taxes. To sit in a wet, rat filled manhole or be strapped to a strand 45 feet in the air, splicing broken telephone cable. In good weather, rain, downpours, wind, snow, -7 or 107 degrees. No air conditioning in trucks. Worked in all of the NYC projects. Where things were thrown out of windows on a weekly basis.
This is the job my Dad did, this is what my brothers did. I remember reminding myself top pay is in 5 years kid...Just 5 years. Hang in there.
In 1997, NYNEX became Bell Atlantic and I became a permanent employee. At this point, I had moved on to I&R. ( Installation and Repair). I enjoyed doing this more than the splicing years. I got to see the customers, the elderly who would open their doors crying and holding my hands because their phones weren't working and they couldn't call their sons, daughters or doctors. Cell phones were not as popular then as they are today. Especially amongst the elderly.
I never left a customers house until that dial tone came on. Sure, I got yelled at for not having a higher number in productivity. "Return it to Cable Maintenance", "Return it to Central Office" No. I didn't care. I'd run a wire down the block if I needed too. That woman was my Mom, my Grandmother, my sick Aunt and that phone was coming on. End of story. This was also noticed by great managers who took the time to read the letters or play the voicemails the customers left about the great job I did. It's not always about the money somedays.
In 2000, Bell Atlantic became Verizon. One year from top pay. You made it kid. It's gonna start paying off. You understand the job, you learned a trade, there's no problem you can't fix.
I felt rewarded. I felt pride
My disdain and anger towards this company came as soon as that new name appeared on the trucks and billboards.
I felt the shift.
Great managers were "RIF'd" (Reduction in Force).
Fancy word for fired.
Every month brought new and unattainable goals with it.
New managers every month.
We were given time quotas. No more than two hours on any job. Five jobs a day. One job would be in Sheepshead Bay, the next job was in Downtown Brooklyn. If we didn't start and end the job within that two hour window, disciplinary action was taken. Verbal, written, suspension and finally terminated from company and payroll. The outside plant started to fall apart. No more cables replaced, broken poles stopped being fixed, supplies and tools we needed stopped coming into our garages.
Then every truck was fitted with a state of the art GPS tracking system. At the time, Verizon said it was for fleet control and would not be used for discipline.
That lasted 2 years.
Suspensions started coming down. Some were deserved, the bad apples, the 80/20 employee ratio. Some definitely abused the job. They needed to go.
Then, slowly but surely, everyone was being watched. We would receive calls from Texas and California wondering why we were where we were. When we answered that we we were at the Central Office to use the bathroom, we were asked if we called our managers. To take a piss? At 35 years of age?
Then the discipline and suspensions started to hit for these "infractions."
Men and women who never climbed a pole or saw the inside of a New York City Housing apartment became our managers.
No cones around truck?
Discipline.
No vest?
Discipline
No hardhat?
Discipline?
2 hours and 1 minute over?
Discipline.
When FiOS originally arrived, the technicians were sent to training facilities for a month to learn how to install and maintain the new technology. A full month.
A few months ago, when I was finally told I'd be leaving the Installation and repair of phones and of the copper plant, I understood because it's the direction the world is going in.
I rode with another technician for 3 days. Then sent out into the FiOS world. 3 days. Down from an entire month.
I had no idea what I was doing, no numbers to call, not given the FiOS tools I needed.
I taught myself slowly. Everyday I was figuring out how to do new things and make progress.
3 weeks later I was on FiOS installation when my manager came out. This was the first time I saw him out in the field. We never talked before. I was on 43rd street in Boro Park. I was soaked, on my third sweatshirt and finishing the job. Everything was up and running. Customer praised the job I did, in under 3 hours.
My manager left the customer and came back over to me. He asked where my "Ladder Mate" was. I had no idea what that was. No one ever used one. Apparently, it's a strap you connect to the ladder and wrap around the pole. I told him I was never given one, and never taught how to use one.
I was suspended on the soaking street we stood on. Hardhat, foggy and water speckled safety glasses, steel toe boots, safety vest, gloves, electrical ground tester hooked to tool belt.
Suspended for something I was never introduced to or trained for. Not a single mark in the 20+ years of my career.
This was happening everywhere, 5 days for this, 10 for this. A stop at a restaurant or Central Office to use the bathroom was now a 30 day suspension.
Forced assigned every night, forced Saturday's and forced Sunday's. No joking. 10-12 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Money is not everything.
This forced OT is in it's second year.
I didn't mind my job when I started. I absolutely hate what this company has become. It's affecting my mental and physical health and my life in general. I want my days to be 8 hours work, 8 hours my time and 8 hours sleep. That's all.
There are no rewards to be had.
I have no pride left.
We are on our fourth week of a strike. No medical, health or prescription coverage. No income.
While I was mobile picketing, I came across the manager that suspended me. He was doing a FiOS install.
Voice/Phone only.
He stuck his hand out to shake mine, I politely declined.
I asked the customer how the manager was doing with the installation.
"It's his fourth day here, he doesn't know what he's doing, I'm getting annoyed, we need you guys back man." I shook his hand and said, sarcastically, "Good luck with this one, this is a manger with a heart of gold..."
Then I walked over to my personal car, pulled something out of the trunk, walked over to the pole with the extension ladder leaning on it, and dropped a ladder mate.
Stay Strong CWA.