Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Incommunicado
I apologize for my absence from the blogosphere. The storm which ended the
heat wave last week, knocked out my phone line. And since I have DSL, my
internet access went with it. I didn't discover this until Friday morning and
was thus informed that I would have to wait until Tuesday for repairs. As
I live at the end of the line, I was the only one in my neighborhood who was
affected.
The repairs were quick. I don't think that it took the technician more than 20
minutes to find the problem and fix it. And that includes the time spent going
up and down in the bucket to the pole. Fortunately for me, the problem was at
the pole and not in my house (see below).
Nice guy. Normally, he works on networks, but because the storm was so bad,
AT&T was forced to bring guys in from other departments. I asked him what
they'd do in a hurricane. Bring 'em in from out of state if necessary.
Apparently, a few teams of techs were loaned out to BellSouth to fix New
Orleans after Katrina.
And there's trouble afoot if you work for the resurging phone company. A new
techie job position was created that pays $10/hr. He expects that when the
current contract expires, a lot of guys will be forced into this new position or
else lose their jobs (similar to what happened 2 years ago).
So let me get this straight, AT&T/SBC wants to pay technically savvy people
$10/hr? That's bad enough for customer service reps but for a position that
requires a fair amount of knowledge? Since the phone company charges $85 for
the first half hour (if you don't have the inline maintenance contract),
where's all that extra money going to go? To the guys with letters for job
titles, perhaps? Pardon me for sounding like a socialist, but capitalism is hard
to defend when it treats the workers like mules while the fat cats get fatter.
I thanked the guy for his work. Being appreciated for one's job never gets old.
Anyway, I'm back online and will now attempt to sort through the email from the
past 5 days.
\_/
DED
1 Comment:
 Mike said...That sucks.
And I can relate. - 8/08/2006 12:21 PM
<< Home |
|
About Me
Name: DED
Location: United States
I'm a stay-at-home Dad who survived dotcom burnout and a
chemical engineering career that fizzled. While the kids are in school,
I'm free to write stories.
I'm a rational environmentalist, science and technology enthusiast, who leans
libertarian, reads and watches sci-fi, drinks and brews beer, and listens to
metal.
View
my complete profile
|
