(Florida) Numerous. Micro-management beyond severe. Little home/family life. Mandatory 6 day work weeks and also 7 day work weeks without overtime due to schedule falling within two differing pay weeks. One weekend a month off (Florida CWA contract), and usually a Wed. and Sun. off or a Thur. and Sun. off. High volume work loads. Unattainable metrics (without cheating the system). Wildly ranging prices for benefits ( I had to use the ACA). Damaged or malfunctioning test equipment, which is held against you when your metrics do not exceed the minimal requirements. Workflow dictated by Apple apps, which fail or cease to work daily. No help from upper management, including your direct manager. Only a single option for promotion, to manager. Ineffective back office support, with tech line wait times at times exceeding an hour on hold, while at a customer's home (repair/install). Vast amount of company and local policy to adhere to, and often both conflict with each other meaning your manager is upset with you or the company is generating a lose/lose situation. Little to no "employee discount" compared to non-employee customers concerning any and all AT&T products. Vehicle breakdowns that you are held accountable for. Rigid, inflexible timeframes for jobs and workflow. No production number is ever enough to where you are often told, "That was great, so let's do better!" Failing distribution plant in many areas and when issue/problem is reported the issue/problem is not always resolved in a timely manner, if it is resolved at all. Work added daily until 5pm, on top of usual ~70 jobs for ~13 techs, and the list goes on.
I worked in the cable/telco industry a total of 5.5 years and I will be the first to say that there must be measures in place to monitor production and work quality compared to time worked and production made. However, for the year I worked for AT&T as a wire technician (they are no longer premise technicians in central Florida) I had more stress and aggravation than any two other jobs I have ever held combined. The company cares little for their technicians and the work they perform on a daily basis. Metrics continued to become harder to meet without cutting corners and cheating the system, and metrics were added on a monthly to bi-monthly basis at the end of my tenure there. Most repeats to any team is due to either damaged distribution plant, equipment failure, or customer error. Rare is the case you actually have a new piece of equipment to install or exchange on a repair. Generally it is refurbished or outdated, and outdated equipment is often coordinated into "new" technology offered to businesses and low pay tier services.
Couple this with differing team (area) managers playing politics against individual techs resulting in tension between employees, but also teams of technicians. Lies and backstabbing abound due to the metric driven atmosphere and stressful environment. Your manager will tell you and instruct you on "local policy", or policy of that team/area, which may greatly differ from the company policy. When you are found to be doing as your manager said, you are to blame and your manager will go against you invariably. Bear in mind that the only position you are able to move up to in Florida is area manager, where then you are not protected by the CWA Union contract, which does little anyway. Managers will have you moved to their area during the workday to come and harass you about safety policy and company policy, thus taking away from your working time and hurting a daily metric as well.
And speaking of daily metrics, unsupportive management, and faulty test equipment, I had a malfunctioning test meter for over four (4) months and at some point was given a differing test meter, also malfunctioning, to replace it. When my original test meter came back from repair, unrepaired, I was told to utilize both to complete my daily jobs. However, and still with two differing test meters, I was still unable to test certain and specific trouble issues. Yet, when repeats unrelated to a faulty distribution plant, bad equipment, or customer error came to light it was me who was held responsible for the company's damaged test equipment supplied to me. Here the Union nor my manager stood up for me even though I had documented proof of the issue at hand showing plainly it was out of my control. Still yet, the Union took my monthly dues and gave me a $0.27 raise every six (6) months.
Lastly, I enjoyed being a technician and the work I performed. You meet interesting people and you see sides of society you would often never see. I was presented challenges on a daily basis and truly no two days were the same. However, after working for AT&T as a wire technician installing U-verse service I have decided to not only leave that career path behind for a differing one that has many more opportunities for growth and is in just as great of demand.
