Reader's Corner Page 2

The site needs more stories or comments!!!! Everyone log in and write your complaints or comments. They took your Newsletter away, this is your only outlet now.. Maybe, see last paragraph.. It doesn't have to be just the employees, families are welcome also. I'm sure there are lots of spouses out there that have alot to say about how their loved ones are being treated. I'm one of them myself... We have to take a united stand if things are going to change for the better and not the way it has been going. I keep thinking that things can't get any worse. Boy, was I wrong!!
That new evaluation that just came out is really close to the bottom of a very rotten barrel. My first thought when I read it was, Germany 1939. You W I L L align your behavior for the good of the Fahrer. That thought went along with that stupid picture of the Japanese Captain sinking the USS PacBell. Now who was it that put that idiotic picture up?? The Beav??? I guess you all can do nothing on your jobs now as long as you support the COMPANY and all their stupid ideas. Your numbers don't count, just what comes out of your mouths.
I would like to know when the Peninsula became the dumping ground for all the Less Than Acceptable managers that no one wanted. The Company has always been known for promoting in order of incompetence, but we seem to be getting more than our share of incompetent leaders right up the line!!! (NOT you P.C.) Maybe if the workers can stick it out, you can out last them.. Hopefully the company sees that its not working the way it running now and goes back to a modified version of the old way. Most large companies have seen that the new age way of running a company doesn't work and having returned to believing that workers are human beings. My work tried this type of employee attitude and quickly realized they were cutting of their nose to spite their face. Work life can improve if they turn it around.
Unfortunately, the company may never be the same. They have lost many good workers that wouldn't take that kind of @^%!$# from anyone. There is only a few diehards left.
Since there is no longer the LTA Newsletter to let off steam and the Website just doesn't seem to give the same gradification as the LTA, it would be nice to try a chat room on some the different online services. Not that the Website doesn't serve its purpose, it does keep us updated on all that is going on and lets us know what the union is doing for the employees. A chat room would be a place to really let off steam. The company controls the workers by keeping all the employee isolated. This effectively keeps everyone down. I will open a chat room next Monday night at 8:30 on AOL called LTA News. Sorry I only have AOL. If people joins us on AOL I will try to get others to open on different online services. I hope to see you all there. Write the Website if anyone thinks this is a good idea. Write the site regardless, they need your stories....
Hiel the Fuhrer ! ! !
LTA Widow

Knuckledraggers Rebuttal

And a Few Rebuttal Standards of Our Own

To: cwa9430@ix.netcom.com
From: Name Withheld
First off, we're knuckledraggers. We haven't a clue of what an effectiveness dimension is. This fact alone explains why this letter is necessary as a follow-up to our enlightening standards distributed today.

1. Continuous improvement: means to do the best you can.
2. Alignment with organizational goals: means become "sheeples" (termed in the 1990's by world renowm philosopher Zen Jimism). It means go along with the program and don't make waves.
P.S. Let me point out that there is a direct conflict in category "continuous improvement" and category "alignment with organizational goals". In "continuous improvement" under heading DOES NOT MEET there is "generally does only what is told". In the much more positive "alignment with organizational goals", the letter states "that we should align ourselves with the needs of the organization".
Now of course, I'm only a knuckledragger but even I can see that these two statements are in fact one and the same, and yet one is in the DOES NOT MEET section, and the other is an actual goal in hte standard section.
Hmmm! Upward and Onward...
3. Customer Focus: Adapt to your customers level: ex. hey, wzup?
and to ..understanding the customer's unspecified requirements they mean be telepathic (televisions Fox Channel 2 X-files might help).
4. Problem Solving: I think I've got it.
5. Teamwork: Hmmm. This one's interesting. My personal achilles heel. Control emotions, even when under stress. I think this calls for a massive request on all of our parts to request STRESS MANAGEMENT CLASSES!!!!! or disability due to stress on the job. (which includes every department; yep even managers). Somebody up there has all our rpm's skyhigh and doesn't realize that that reduces the life expectancies of our engines.
And to address EXCEEDS in speaking in positive terms of others intelligence...I've coined a euphemism for being a dumbshit. Say..."I'm soo impressed with your ability to work so well with your diminutive IQ level."

We Have Very Simple Counterdemand Standards...

1. Can we have complete orders when they hit the field...ex: can we have assignments?
Which Brings Us to a BIG #2
(no pun intended)

2. Can we have some cable pairs for the assigners to assign us?
3. Can we have dial tone to the pole, sidewalk box, or house whichever the assignments says our ct goes to?
4. If we can't have #3, can we have the rcmac, frames, lac, scc etc.. adequately manned and knowledgeable to answer our questions and our phones within 25 to 30 rings?
5. Can you pleeeeeze stop whining about MOREMOREMORE productivity needed from your workers and realize you ain't getting it because you won't meet our demands?
6. Please take this "spoof" seriously!!

GWF

Guerrilla Workfare

Tips for the Beleaguered Technician:
Ten hour days got you down bunky? Well, get used to it, cause it ain't gonna change for a while.
In the meantime, here's a few tips that'll make your life a little more tollerable.
A military aphorism: You can work me long, But you can't work me hard.
Take your time. Do a good job. Make your customer as happy as possible. And when your done, take the well deserved break you've got coming to you. Remember, if you feel the need to rationalize: you've got two fifteen minute breaks, and a thirty minute lunch in a normal shift; you have another fifteen minute break coming to you prior to your overtime. And remember, following any rigorous activity like climbing or crawling, take as much time as you need to regain your equanimity; remember, No job is so important, No service so urgent that we cannot take the time to do our job safely. No one's ever been fired for productvity!
When you go to a B-Box to TAN in, take a break. If a supervisor happens along and asks what you are doing, tell it "I'm on a break." If it asks when your break started, reply, "what time is it now, reptile moron?"
Whenever a supervisor says anything to you, and I mean anything just shake your head in a gesture of acquiescence, make it feel as though it is very important, make it feel as though it is really earning its money, then go about your business in the normal fashion. While your head is bobbing up and down like one of those little dolls, allow the following mantra to play silently over and over in your head; kiss my a-- you robot bas----. You'll feel much better.
This is the first in a series of gurrilla workfare tips. Get a loose-leaf binder and collect them. Trade them with your friends. By the time we are done, your binder will be the size of a phone directory.
The bast---- are not playing fair. Why should you?
Author "unknown"

Contracting Back

To: cwa9430@ix.netcom.com
This story was passed on by an alert reader who felt it captured his thoughts on Pacific Bell's rehiring of retirees. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Phil: Hey Dave, nice boat, when did you get it?
Dave: Last week, a real beauty isn't she?
Phil: Sure is, I guess when you are retired you can do a lot of fishing.
Dave: Oh no! Don't have time for fishing. I'm too busy with my new job.
Phil: Job, what job? You retired a year ago.
Dave: Yes, that's right, but I have been working for the last eight months.
Phil: Working! Where are you working?
Dave: Back at my old job.
Phil: But if you retired, why go back to work?
Dave: Well, the pay is really good, and with my pension, I'm really making out quite well. That is how I got the new boat.
Phil: But didn't they eliminate your job when you retired? And isn't your company downsizing?
Dave: Yes, and yes. You see with the company downsizing they have to keep their personnel down, and since I am not a full time employee collecting benefits, I'm not really an employee at all. So on their paperwork, I don't exist, and with no benefits, they can pay me more.
Phil: But why would you work with no benefits?
Dave: I'm retired, I get benefits with my pension.
Phil: There is something I don't understand, Dave?
Dave: What's that, Phil?
Phil: Well, if your company is downsizing and you retired to cut the number of employees, then they rehire you as a non-employee, isn't that hurting a person who might need a job with benefits?
Dave: Oh no! The company doesn't want to hire someone just to lay them off in two or three years. That wouldn't be fair to them.
Phil: But for two or three years, they would have a good job with benefits while they learn a good trade.
Dave: That may be true, but the company's thinking why hire inexperience when they have thirty years of experience with me. I'm more valuable to the company.
Phil: But, if you were that valuable to the company, why did they retire you? And here is another question for you.
Dave: Sure what is it?
Phil: You retired as a manager, right?
Dave: Yes, that is right.
Phil: Well, doesn't that make it hard for a full time employee to be promoted to your old job?
Dave: Oh no! You see that job doesn't exist any more.
Phil: But you are doing the job.
Dave: Yes, that's true, but I'm not an employee, and since I'm not an employee, I can do a job that doesn't exist anymore.
Phil: You know Dave, that just doesn't make sense to me.
Dave: Oh, just call it corporate speak, those guys know how to save a buck.
Phil: Sounds like double talk to me, and you are just double dipping, Dave.
Dave: Funny you should say that. That's what I named my new boat, the "Double Dipper"!

Story by Danny Cruzz

Powder Keg

To: cwa9430@ix.netcom.com
From: Name Withheld
Dear Editor: This is a response to the December 11th. article by Louis Trager about the "State of Emergency" that has been declared by the management at Pacific Bell. By using this declaration, management has been able to suspend the recently negotiated Memorandum of Agreement, which is a "binding" addendum to the Union-Company Contract.
This agreement was negotiated by the CWA Union in an effort to give back some sort of control of when and how much overtime technicians would be "forced" to work. This agreement was needed because this is the first year in memory that technicians in the Bay Area have been "ordered" to work under threat of insubordination throughout the whole year! It is normal and expected to work many hours of overtime during the storm season when many customers are without telephone service. But this year, throughout the summer, technicians on the Peninsula have worked "forced" 10 hour days and 6 day weeks. Many technicians, that had coaching, scouting, aiding in the classroom, single-parent obligations, had to just "86" them. Managers were very reluctant to make any exceptions for personal commitments.
Management used the recent light storms that came through the Bay Area as an excuse for declaring this "emergency." The number of customer reports of trouble was heavy but could have been cleared out in a few days. What was outrageous was that the Company decided to run an "add-a-line" selling campaign during this storm period. So this emergency was created, not by customers' telephones being out of service but because the Company had technicians installing 3rd and 4th lines into homes and businesses. Is this any reason to suspend a Union-Company Contract?
At least 70 Pacific Bell employees in San Mateo and South San Francisco didn't think it was an "emergency." They filed 70 grievances against management on Monday, December 16th! This was because management "required" all employees to work 10 hour days all week and then "stuck" them for both Saturday and Sunday. The terms: "required" and "stuck" mean, that if technicians decide not to come in to work, they will be deemed "insubordinate" and be disciplined. This discipline has recently carried the threat of ten (10) days off without pay and a letter put in their permanent work record!
Most of our workers are seasoned veterans that have careers that go back to the old days of AT&T. We care about the health and well-being of OUR Company and realize that it is dependent on giving excellent service to our customers. We also realize that a work force that is tired and unappreciated is probably also Less Than Acceptable!
Signed, (Name Withheld for Fear of Reprisal)
Pacific Bell Employee/C.W.A. Union Member

I couldn't have said it any better!!!
ED

Reader's Corner Archive

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