We were shown a similar film to this on our first day of hiring, or "Induction-Orientation" day, for Illinois Bell back in 1979. The job of "Cable Splicing Technician" (my job) was described as "light, clean electrical work", but some days I don't think I could be any dirtier if I rolled around in a pigpen. We had to learn how to remove 200+ pound manhole covers that were stuck shut, how to remove 80+ year old rectangular cover's without dropping them into the manhole,clean up the debris/mud/whatever collected at the bottom of a manhole, or work in manholes where people actually dumped waste crankcase oil into. It was something I survived without serious injury and made it to retirement, but it took a lot of attention to safety as well as a lot of hard work to get to retirement.
@John S I think the only "tough guy" part of my job was, surviving working outside in harsh Chicago winter weather. my first few years I was assigned to occasionally do what was called "Regroup" work, or, moving working customer drop lines to a new aerial cable terminal, and had to do it using a body belt and pole steps ( used a short "butt ladder"to get to the first pole steps about 10 foot above ground level) It was about impossible to have any tent or heater to keep you warm, and you learned how to work with mittens on your hands even when using tools. I did get my own bucket truck by about my third year. We would get a break from some of the harshest weather, kept in to watch safety videos now and then, BUT we also got assigned to the larger service outages due to cable failures because cable splicers could restore/replace a larger cable faster than the "repair department" side of things could. Then, about no matter what weather you had, you just had to deal with it until the outage was restored.
My mom and aunt worked for New England Telephone when it was Bell System in the repair department. My mom was offered management in her department, and she took it. My aunt opted to stay in her position. They had lots of friends they met there. It was just an easygoing environment. They loved working for Bell, some of the best times of their lives they said.
DIllon Paradelas, you ain't lying about that. The days of the Bell system is when you wanted to work for the company. Was definitely the place to be. Back when it actually felt like an exciting career. Those days are long gone. Any retiree will tell you.
I agree. I worked closely with Phone company employees from the early 90's. Almost 100% of the first level and 2nd level supervisors had moved up from the ranks. So they understood the job they were asking other people to do. That all changed with real time data collection. The job of a 1st level supervisor changed from a work leader to a paper pusher who just dictated the edicts from above. Of course the 1st level supervisors rebelled against this new system. Soon they were all forced out. To be replaced by people who had NO idea what running a garage was all about. This also happened at my place of employment. I was a first level supervisor. I ended up quitting. I took a POTS/DSL tech position at Qwest in 2006. AT least then I only had to worry about my self. I worked from 2006 to 2011. It was all about hitting numbers. Nothing else. Most of the good employees were long gone. Still a few around just waiting out their time to retirement. The rest were slappy's guys who had to stay because no one else would hire their lazy asses. They looked great on paper and that made the sup look good. They would create their own outages. Pulling wire loose in a cross box for a 2 minute fix. Then crap on the late guy with all the hard work. ( That was me) 2011 I went to work for a Electrical COOP. Much better place to work.
Agreed ! I started out as WeCo Installer. It was a great place to work. After some years a relative convinced me to work for their Electrical Contractor company. It was similar work and frankly I made substantially more money. But my primary love was telecom and watched it decline as a quality workplace for a carrer.
I worked closely with Phone company employees from the early 90's. Almost 100% of the first level and 2nd level supervisors had moved up from the ranks. So they understood the job they were asking other people to do. That all changed with real time data collection. The job of a 1st level supervisor changed from a work leader to a paper pusher who just dictated the edicts from above. Of course the 1st level supervisors rebelled against this new system. Soon they were all forced out. To be replaced by people who had NO idea what running a garage was all about. This also happened at my place of employment. I was a first level supervisor. I ended up quitting. I took a POTS/DSL tech position at Qwest in 2006. AT least then I only had to worry about my self. I worked from 2006 to 2011. It was all about hitting numbers. Nothing else. Most of the good employees were long gone. Still a few around just waiting out their time to retirement. The rest were slappy's guys who had to stay because no one else would hire their lazy asses. They looked great on paper and that made the sup look good. They would create their own outages. Pulling wire loose in a cross box for a 2 minute fix. Then crap on the late guy with all the hard work. ( That was me) 2011 I went to work for a Electrical COOP. Much better place to work.
I want to work for AT&T and do the utility work. Underground and telephone poles im very interested in this stuff! It awesome and the equipment! thanks for the video!
There is no such thing as a "career" in one company in telecommunications. Any "training" mentioned here, has long been discarded by AT&T, relying on the technicians that they haven't contracted work out to (as of now, more of that coming) to train each other, and any proper formal-clasroom training is now nonexistant for anyone new entering the job. Unions seem to be working with the company to undermine employment at a living wage pay grade by establishing lower tier scales with less protection and benefits ( almost at an "at will" level) The bottom line is, corporate greed and perceived shareholder value are more important than proper employee training and competence, along with the proper maintenance of, or prompt work to replace the severely aged technology of the archaic "twisted pair" communications network.
What you said is the same with my company here in Canada, Sasktel the exact same things have been happening to us and they contact everything out now especially after our strike 2 years ago. And now they are trying to make us into so called Super tech/ hybrid tech line worker and installer you do everything and must do more with less .
line crew\construction was the best job in the whole company, i hired into Ameritech in Michigan in the mid 90s. first on a directional boring crew burying cable. then went to aerial line crew. then SBC out of texas bought the 5 states of Ameritech and ruined a great company that was loved by the customers and employees. SBC\Ameritech, then just SBC, then they bought the name AT&T because people began to dislike and hate SBC. they started contracting out more and more contructuon work and thats when the quality took a dive and so did the customer service. ived never worked anywhere were the managment and worker dynamic was so adversarial, they actually send managers to training in texas on how to be an A-hole basically. the worse hack technicians and screw ups are made managers as a promotion, its the worst business model ive ever seen. i left the company in 2017 due to health reasons and stress. Ameritech=best company i ever worked for, Texas SBC\AT&T--the absolute worst employer ever
Heaven forbids our own cable, because that's obviously never happened. Maintaining the system, what is that? so much has been lost to the point of garbage bags and duct tape. Thanks Verizon.
The best part was when they abandoned repairing their copper plant. The FIOS rollout was already Underway when my 6 pair UG cable had failed. " sorry no more pairs"- you'll have to get FIOS..
Good luck getting that job too. I'm an old dog and applied in '77 but was pretty much told to "pack sand" young man! Your daddy don't work here so you won't either! Screw' em!
We were shown a similar film to this on our first day of hiring, or "Induction-Orientation" day, for Illinois Bell back in 1979. The job of "Cable Splicing Technician" (my job) was described as "light, clean electrical work", but some days I don't think I could be any dirtier if I rolled around in a pigpen. We had to learn how to remove 200+ pound manhole covers that were stuck shut, how to remove 80+ year old rectangular cover's without dropping them into the manhole,clean up the debris/mud/whatever collected at the bottom of a manhole, or work in manholes where people actually dumped waste crankcase oil into. It was something I survived without serious injury and made it to retirement, but it took a lot of attention to safety as well as a lot of hard work to get to retirement.
@John S I think the only "tough guy" part of my job was, surviving working outside in harsh Chicago winter weather. my first few years I was assigned to occasionally do what was called "Regroup" work, or, moving working customer drop lines to a new aerial cable terminal, and had to do it using a body belt and pole steps ( used a short "butt ladder"to get to the first pole steps about 10 foot above ground level) It was about impossible to have any tent or heater to keep you warm, and you learned how to work with mittens on your hands even when using tools. I did get my own bucket truck by about my third year. We would get a break from some of the harshest weather, kept in to watch safety videos now and then, BUT we also got assigned to the larger service outages due to cable failures because cable splicers could restore/replace a larger cable faster than the "repair department" side of things could. Then, about no matter what weather you had, you just had to deal with it until the outage was restored.
My mom and aunt worked for New England Telephone when it was Bell System in the repair department. My mom was offered management in her department, and she took it. My aunt opted to stay in her position. They had lots of friends they met there. It was just an easygoing environment. They loved working for Bell, some of the best times of their lives they said.
This is back then when the company was Bell and was good to work for. Not so much these days.
DIllon Paradelas, you ain't lying about that. The days of the Bell system is when you wanted to work for the company. Was definitely the place to be. Back when it actually felt like an exciting career. Those days are long gone. Any retiree will tell you.
I agree. I worked closely with Phone company employees from the early 90's. Almost 100% of the first level and 2nd level supervisors had moved up from the ranks. So they understood the job they were asking other people to do.
That all changed with real time data collection.
The job of a 1st level supervisor changed from a work leader to a paper pusher who just dictated the edicts from above.
Of course the 1st level supervisors rebelled against this new system.
Soon they were all forced out.
To be replaced by people who had NO idea what running a garage was all about.
This also happened at my place of employment. I was a first level supervisor.
I ended up quitting.
I took a POTS/DSL tech position at Qwest in 2006.
AT least then I only had to worry about my self.
I worked from 2006 to 2011.
It was all about hitting numbers. Nothing else.
Most of the good employees were long gone. Still a few around just waiting out their time to retirement.
The rest were slappy's guys who had to stay because no one else would hire their lazy asses.
They looked great on paper and that made the sup look good.
They would create their own outages. Pulling wire loose in a cross box for a 2 minute fix.
Then crap on the late guy with all the hard work. ( That was me)
2011 I went to work for a Electrical COOP. Much better place to work.
"And the Company cares about its employees..." Yeah, no. Not anymore. Seven more years I'll have my 30. If I'm still alive.
Agreed !
I started out as WeCo Installer. It was a great place to work. After some years a relative convinced me to work for their Electrical Contractor company.
It was similar work and frankly I made substantially more money.
But my primary love was telecom and watched it decline as a quality workplace for a carrer.
I worked closely with Phone company employees from the early 90's. Almost 100% of the first level and 2nd level supervisors had moved up from the ranks. So they understood the job they were asking other people to do.
That all changed with real time data collection.
The job of a 1st level supervisor changed from a work leader to a paper pusher who just dictated the edicts from above.
Of course the 1st level supervisors rebelled against this new system.
Soon they were all forced out.
To be replaced by people who had NO idea what running a garage was all about.
This also happened at my place of employment. I was a first level supervisor.
I ended up quitting.
I took a POTS/DSL tech position at Qwest in 2006.
AT least then I only had to worry about my self.
I worked from 2006 to 2011.
It was all about hitting numbers. Nothing else.
Most of the good employees were long gone. Still a few around just waiting out their time to retirement.
The rest were slappy's guys who had to stay because no one else would hire their lazy asses.
They looked great on paper and that made the sup look good.
They would create their own outages. Pulling wire loose in a cross box for a 2 minute fix.
Then crap on the late guy with all the hard work. ( That was me)
2011 I went to work for a Electrical COOP. Much better place to work.
Hired on in 1974 retired in 2015. Saw dramatic changes in phones and phone work. Great job
ATT/Pac Bell lineman for 22 years. Best job in the company.
Worked there for fourty years,great company and people.
I learn to be a cable splicer in The US Air Force back in 1979.
I want to work for AT&T and do the utility work. Underground and telephone poles im very interested in this stuff! It awesome and the equipment! thanks for the video!
I’d like to send a big THANK YOU to all you folks who worked in the Bell System. You built our nation’s telecommunications networks!
Thanx I did 41 years with them
My dad retired from PacBell with 33 years in 1984.
Boy they are so clean i spent a lot of time outside i got used it and California weather is pretty nice.
There is no such thing as a "career" in one company in telecommunications. Any "training" mentioned here, has long been discarded by AT&T, relying on the technicians that they haven't contracted work out to (as of now, more of that coming) to train each other, and any proper formal-clasroom training is now nonexistant for anyone new entering the job. Unions seem to be working with the company to undermine employment at a living wage pay grade by establishing lower tier scales with less protection and benefits ( almost at an "at will" level) The bottom line is, corporate greed and perceived shareholder value are more important than proper employee training and competence, along with the proper maintenance of, or prompt work to replace the severely aged technology of the archaic "twisted pair" communications network.
What you said is the same with my company here in Canada, Sasktel the exact same things have been happening to us and they contact everything out now especially after our strike 2 years ago. And now they are trying to make us into so called Super tech/ hybrid tech line worker and installer you do everything and must do more with less .
The good old days
line crew\construction was the best job in the whole company, i hired into Ameritech in Michigan in the mid 90s. first on a directional boring crew burying cable. then went to aerial line crew. then SBC out of texas bought the 5 states of Ameritech and ruined a great company that was loved by the customers and employees. SBC\Ameritech, then just SBC, then they bought the name AT&T because people began to dislike and hate SBC. they started contracting out more and more contructuon work and thats when the quality took a dive and so did the customer service. ived never worked anywhere were the managment and worker dynamic was so adversarial, they actually send managers to training in texas on how to be an A-hole basically. the worse hack technicians and screw ups are made managers as a promotion, its the worst business model ive ever seen. i left the company in 2017 due to health reasons and stress. Ameritech=best company i ever worked for, Texas SBC\AT&T--the absolute worst employer ever
My son works for a contractor for att he says he loves the work
“Heavens forbid our own cable”. I prefer to hit “our own cable” than a water/gas main :)
Yea, please hit an electric line, but not our own cable. lmao
I got a kick out of that too!!
Heaven forbids our own cable, because that's obviously never happened.
Maintaining the system, what is that? so much has been lost to the point of garbage bags and duct tape. Thanks Verizon.
The best part was when they abandoned repairing their copper plant. The FIOS rollout was already
Underway when my 6 pair UG cable had failed. " sorry no more pairs"- you'll have to get FIOS..
Southwestern Bell
SBC, run by Texas idiots
my dad works at att
God bless him
the company sucks since the idiots in Texas took over
Good luck getting that job too. I'm an old dog and applied in '77 but was pretty much told to "pack sand" young man! Your daddy don't work here so you won't either! Screw' em!