Thanks to everyone who responded to my original post... I actually should have titled the post "Cable's Dirty Little Secret"
I would equate going into a backyard... in the middle of the night (whether it be nine o'clock at night or two o'clock in the morning)... unannounced. In order to access an amplifier... cables version of "A Code Red"
if any of you are familiar with the Tom Cruise movie "A Few Good Men."... or served in the Marine Corps, you understand what I'm talking about.
There's nothing in writing that states going into someone's backyard in the middle of night is part of our job description..... but it is "An Unwritten Rule." And in my 24 plus years of doing this job... I have done my share of sneaking into backyards, unannounced in order to fix an outage. And I always kind of figured that this was going to come to a "head" someday... and it appears that this day has arrived, because come next Tuesday. I plan on getting together with my boss, and "Human Resources" and getting something in writing that states what my duties/procedures are when I'm on call. Although I highly doubt that "H R" will be of much help...
let me tell you a quick story of a meeting a few years ago HR had with all the field employees (about 40 of us)... this human resource rep. Told us in the meeting that we were responsible for lost tools... one of my fellow line technician's ask the HR rep.
"What happens if we jump over a fence at two o'clock in the morning and one of our tools comes flying out of our bag ??" To which the HR rep replied.....
"What Are You Doing in Someone's Backyard at Two O'clock in the Morning???"
So as you can see... the problem is that the "Powers That Be " don't really understand how cable works... or what we have to go through to keep the cable plant running, and I do agree that when the power is out... people want that lineman from the power company in their backyard, but some might argue when you're talking about the difference between a power outage and a cable outage... you're comparing "apples to oranges." I'm going to go out on a limb and say that 99.9% of homes are "Power Company" customers. When I have to go into someone's backyard (day or night) unannounced... I don't know if this person's yard that I'm in is one of our customers or not??
When I started years ago, the only thing cable offered was "video service" (all 36 analog channels) and HBO was going to start something new... there were actually going to start broadcasting 24 hours on the weekends... and cable was considered a luxury, not a necessity like power/telephone. Now fast forward 24 years, and we offer high-speed Internet service... and of course telephony/CDV which means we have to support 911 services 24/7...... but unfortunately, the infrastructure/architecture/spacing is designed for video. And my feeling is... if they want me to service this stuff 24/7 when I'm on call... then the guys who designed the plant are going to have to start designing it with safety and accessibility in mind instead of how can we do this for the least amount of money and who gives a crap about the people who maintain it.
Re: Backyard... late at night... what to do?
Member #: 3630
Registered: 1996-2001
Posted:
5
Name:
Uncle T
Company:
Comcast
Occupation:
Network Operations Tech (Grunt)
Location:
S.W.Suburbs of Chicago
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