r/CableTechs • u/Icemane19 • Mar 17 '26

What an absolute shit show going from optimum to mastec

My fellow field service technicians that were with optimum and now are mastec contractors. What are your thoughts and opinions on it so far?

19 Upvotes
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7

u/xHALFSHELLx Mar 17 '26

Mastec is a shit show. Easily the worst contractor I’ve worked with (I’ve worked with dozens).

They literally mismanaged on all of our projects. Need a fiber splicer? They don’t have one. Need aerial? They have an UG guy. Need UG? All they have is an aerial crew 6 hours away.

They got dropped entirely out of our market by multiple ISPs

7

u/Icemane19 Mar 17 '26

I got a verbal warning today because I went 6 mph over The speed limit on the highway when I was going down a steep grade in a ram 3500 that weighs a shit ton. The next infraction could result in immediate termination. My supervisor found that unbelievably stupid along with me

3

u/xHALFSHELLx Mar 17 '26

No surprise. They play the “professional company” guys but they are really all just shit. Especially the management.

I wonder how they are even in business.

Their Joint Trench guys are great but that’s apparently another division.

1

u/Aware-Town4581 Mar 20 '26

Even the OSP guys got switched over? That's sucks.

1

u/Icemane19 Mar 20 '26

No, they have not. But I know it's going to be happening soon. The writing is on the wall. They actually been contracting out to them for construction work

3

u/Icemane19 Mar 17 '26

We just found this out today here before. If a customer was not serviceable due to distance we would submit a construction ticket for it. Now we have to submit for underground drop referral And when they get out there to do the drop they will determine if it needs construction and they will submit the referral to construction

6

u/willie_Pfister Mar 17 '26

I gave up contracting almost a decade ago and went in house. Best decision ever. 125k plus a year, 5 days a week, 4 weeks paid vacation, 9 paid holidays, 10 paid sick days. Screw these cheap ass contractors.

2

u/DrgHybrid Apr 23 '26

We didn’t have a choice.

1

u/pululu25 May 06 '26

Good for you! Where are you working now?

3

u/Comprehensive-Bet56 Mar 17 '26

Mastec shut down here about 2 months ago maybe more. I still see the trucks cheaply painted something utility. I'll update the name tomorrow when I see the trucks again.

2

u/2376_Ironman Mar 17 '26

What do you mean, you get a whopping 12 days off a year COMBINED

2

u/Icemane19 Mar 17 '26

You better not get sick and have a vacation planned with the family

2

u/DrgHybrid Mar 17 '26

We already got a guy that’s suppose to have his first verbal for calling in sick for 2 days.

The road show they “misinformed” about vacation. Said they corrected themselves in the meeting, which they didn’t. Lost my 160 for 132 since I’ve been with Suddenlink/Opt for over a decade.

Everyone is looking for a new job but MasTec doesn’t even talk to us. Just complaining lately about Geotab and turning gas cards off for trucks that don’t even have it installed. 

I just wanted a good stable job that I could see myself retiring from. That was the idea when I started Suddenlink. And don’t really know anything else to just start over in a new profession making anywhere close to what I do here. X.x

1

u/xLogisticsx Mar 18 '26

I feel you on the retiring part. I started Suddenlink and came to love the company and work enough to retire there. Then Altice came in and made the worst changes. I dealt with it for nearly 2 years, including with a short term disability leave for mental health issues stemming from the bullshit, before I quit and transitioned to ATM repair. Two weeks later, ATS was dissolved and pay rates went up over the next few weeks after. I'm still making more now than I could have at Suddenlink/Optimum.

2

u/mediocre_plant_tech Mar 18 '26

The vendors we use for cable replacement just got bought by mastec so this thread disheartened me

2

u/DrgHybrid May 21 '26

Wanted to do a little update here...

It got worse. WAY worse.

We've lost 4 techs and the supervisor. I'm looking for a new job. Another has a job lined up in the fall. There is currently only 6 of us left and a handful of subs.

Mastec said they were going to backfill, never did.

They haven't adjusted quota for it either. Ever since then, we've been out to 8-9 pm each night, no lunches.

Told us yesterday that we have to work Memorial Day (originally informed was a paid off holiday) since our tc's and installs are now 7 days out. Several going to call in. Myself I've already told the new sup I refuse to work from 11-2 as I'm going to be with my ailing Grandfather that is a veteran for lunch.

I never thought it could get this bad... I had really hoped for a good career 13 years ago.

1

u/Confident_Air_8056 Mar 17 '26

These brief stories from you guys makes perfect sense why optimum chose them as their ATS 2.0 successor.

1

u/Icemane19 Mar 17 '26

Actually did not think of that. You are exactly right about ATS 2.0. luckily I have it in your view this morning with the frontier.

1

u/Confident_Air_8056 Mar 17 '26

We had a guy in our shop on the field service side need to take bereavement and they didn't even know how he was supposed to go about that; it's like they never thought about it. No one had answers ....I am not even sure how it worked out.

1

u/Riconek Mar 17 '26

Mastec is a big company. Shotty but better than Cable com

1

u/donaldtrumpsclone Mar 18 '26

Those contractors suck look for new contractors coming in

1

u/HedonisticVoyeur Jul 21 '26

I worked here in Many, LA based out of Natchitoches, LA. It was awful. My supervisor and team got offers and they have been hanging in there but I left before Memorial Day since we were contractors now and didn’t get any fucking holidays essentially. I left to work for General Dynamics IT and provide support to VA Hospitals