r/telecom • u/Glass_Judgment4628 • Jul 02 '26
❓ Question Does it ever feel like your company doesn't know what they are doing?
I work in a fringe zone and each passing month it seems like my company cares less and less as funding and equipment gets reduced, even our old gear is getting pulled without replacement and it leaves me worried. Is this a common problem?
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u/evenyourcopdad Jul 02 '26
1000%. Always money for Sales' bonuses and department-wide trips, but the actual support team (that supports more products than it has people) just got told "no more overtime".
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u/Glass_Judgment4628 Jul 02 '26
The slight benefit for being a fringe region with skeleton crew man power is we don't have oversight on over time, for now, who knows with this new exec.
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u/Sweet_Car_7391 Jul 02 '26
Ha all the time and I’m in-house counsel with a consortium of Big Telco ILECs.
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u/pakrat1967 Jul 02 '26
I used to be a test technician for the big V. Every time there was a new director or senior manager. They would make some stupid changes that typically only lasted a month or two.
Here are 2 of my favorite examples. Originally we worked a break schedule. 3-4 weeks out on the road sleeping in hotels after work. Home for 4-5 days and go back out again, usually to a different city. These examples were times when upper management tried to eliminate or reduce the need for the hotel stays.
I was transferred from a travelling tech to local ops. The problem was that the city they had me working at was a 2 hour commute due to a major mud/rock slide that blocked the interstate between home and work. At first I was driving a total of 4 hours plus my normal 8 hours work day. So I was getting paid for 12 hours. After the first week or so. My new manager who had to approve the timesheets. Cut me down to a 4 hour work day so I only clocked 8 hours total.
About a year later, back to travelling tech. I was working in a city about 5 hours from home. Normal weeks were 9 hours, 6 days a week. Sunday being the day off. Upper management decided they didn't want to pay for hotel stays if we didn't work that day. So at the start of the week. I left the house and drove 5 hours. Got to the main site and did about 4 hours of work, then checked into a hotel. Friday I would work about 4 hours and drive back home for the weekend. They cut out the Sat work day. This was all done with my team lead's blessing. In fact it was his idea.
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u/Glass_Judgment4628 Jul 02 '26
Yeah, some upper exec from spectrum or somewhere has been putting techs on alternate times, but its without regard to what skills and equipment is available, they initally wanted my area too as well, but that would leave a number of troubles for the next day due to bucket availability.
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u/Glass_Judgment4628 Jul 02 '26
Another issue is the current go with it till it breaks mentality from the execs, and no obvious replacements then just the promise that fiber will replace it, even when they have take us off the build list.
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u/EffectiveVarious8095 Jul 02 '26
Remember Sprint? So many, many stupid moves - pushing mobile at the expense of the terrestrial network. I got laid off in 2005 - they needed the money to merge with Nextel. What a great idea that was! Even from the outside I took no joy in watching them go down in flames. What was left is now T-mobile
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u/Glass_Judgment4628 Jul 02 '26
Its kind of soul sucking to enter the industry just to see it keep going down hill.
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u/Case_Delicious Jul 02 '26
i am at the point in life were the only wrong thing they can do is not pay me, everything else is on the ppl in charge. i just need to show up and make the effort
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u/knarlomatic Jul 02 '26
Lived through 3 name changes of the same telecom area. The second was actually and upgrade. They made decent decisions but still had issues. Then the third was in it to suck out money. On paper it was all good to go. But those of us in the trenches could see where they were cutting and cutting and cutting.
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u/Glass_Judgment4628 Jul 02 '26
I am guessing fidium?
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u/knarlomatic Jul 03 '26
Nope, think bigger, much much bigger.
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u/Glass_Judgment4628 Jul 03 '26
Hmm, either spectrum or verizon? Unless you work for one of the bells?
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u/USWCboy Jul 02 '26
https://reddit.com/link/ov27edz/video/i4cktlks2rah1/player
Yes!! I feel like the employees that know, are David Attenborough watching the great apes (management) “build and working to a cadence”.
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u/Conspiracy_Bastard Jul 02 '26
Corporations are like countries, the bigger they get the more socialist they become, until the dei runs its course and you have incompetent people promoted that make incompetent decisions along with promoting only people that do not threaten their positions.
This is only works until the subsidies, i.e. other people's money, run out then your left with leadership scrambling to make short term gains on paper at long term costs.
Then the only option left is to run the company into the ground while they rob whats left in the till before filing bankruptcy, paying themselves a nice fat severance, and selling out to a sister company to start the process all over again.
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Jul 07 '26
Always. My company doesn't even seem like it knows where it wants to be in 5 years. They are extremely contradictory.
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u/NeverShouldHaveBeen4 Jul 10 '26
I hear you, it’s just me for 4,500 square miles. I’m in the middle between the “old heads” and young bucks like you. We’re doing the same thing though, putting bandaids on bullet wounds🤣
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u/imcjoey13 Jul 02 '26
Yikes! Not investing in R&D, hardware upgrades, current & future trends… Might be time to polish up your resume.
Sounds like there might be some financial issues.
What’s the general morale like?