... on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.
My first 17 years with MaBell was as a Communications Technician -- N-Carrier, T-Carrier, SxS Switching -- inside jobs. These last 20 years I've been a Systems Technician, the part outside of the Central Office (even the outside part that's inside, our internal communications.)
Every year, near 'nuff, the rains come and we have an "emergency" and forced overtime to fix troubles *caused* by a lack of preventative maintainance. We KNOW that cables have holes and are not under pressure to keep the water out. When it is dry it is not a problem so we don't fix 'em. When it rains we don't have time to fix 'em.
Got a voicemail this morning, forced overtime starting tomorrow, we can kiss off our work and go help the idiots who haven't fixed their cables and are now in a panic 'cause customers are out of service. 'Cept it was dry today so 80% of the troubles will be clear on arrival. Meanwhile I have a rather important meeting at 10 am tomorrow involving a multi-million dollar project that is in jeopardy. Maybe the boss can cover it for me.....
Posted by Paladin at January 7, 2008 09:19 PM