[TheForge] OT - Telcom stuff

[Andy Vida]

Bob Ehrenberger wrote:

> I designed voice switching systems for 11 years, 75-86.  The industry really
> changed during that time.  It went form the customers just being happy to
> make a call (without the bell system) to where if you didn't offer 50 to 75
> features they wouldn't even consider your system.  On private networks the
> bill wasn't the important part the call rate was. They liked reports to plan
> expansion and fire lazy operators, but that was secondary to call through
> put.

	And old PCM d00d, I see.  The days prior to terabit IP switches
	were a lot more pleasant than what we see now, IMO.  Everything
	has gone SO hard-edged in that world; it's all quite inhumane.
> 
> Rant---
> In 86 I changed career paths and got into designing data switching systems.
> The VP that hired me had the policy that you were hired for a 40 hour week
> and unless there was an emergency thats what he wanted you to work.  If you
> had to work a lot of overtime to bring a project in the manager had screwed
> up.

	This is what I have spent the past fifteen plus years telling
	people.  If you have to work more than 40 hours on a regular
	basis, the project is being mis-managed.  Naturally, the execs
	don't want to hear this because they already know it, and know
	that it is being done very much on purpose in order to squeeze
	every last drop of life from the employee.  If they quit, who
	cares?  There are 143 others just like him or her that will
	happily take their place, and at a lower wage, to boot.  That
	is the hard edge I refer to.  It's just plain mean and nasty
	and it treats people like interchangeable pegs in a board,
	and that is one reason why this nation is falling fast.
> 
> By the time I left to blacksmith full time in 2000 there had been several
> management changes and we were told that all the big raises and promotions
> would go to the engineers that put in the most overtime. (It was obvious,
> but I still can't beleave they actually told us that.)  At the end we had a
> Senior VP that would run a report against our hours and you got a
> motivational "talking to" if you weren't putting in more than 40 on a
> regular basis.

	That's enough to make the impulse to choke the breath out of
	someone very nearly overwhelming.

> That combined with the fact that our project development
> cycle was 15 months and the life expectancy of a program was around 3 years.
> I got a little depressed that I had been writing code for 25 years and there
> were only 2 or 3 programs still in use (I'm sure they've all been retired by
> now).

	Software is just like all other IT/telecom related things: a
	mere commodity.  Most coders are nothing more than semi-skilled
	clerks anymore.  The automation of things such as memory
	management and the advent of environments such as VB and Java
	make it possible for a smart tenth grader to be able to knock
	out very complex application code as good as, and often better
	than that produced by "professionals".  It is really no longer
	much of an art in most cases, and science in virtually no case
	any longer.

> When I mentioned this to my boss at my exit interview his response
> was that I should look at the income I made all those years and that should
> be satisfaction enough.  It wasn't for me, I wanted to do something real.

	Did you slap him?  PLEASE tell us you slapped him... real hard.
	Lie, if you must.  This attitude is so precisely what is wrong
	with our business world: you need us more than we need you , 
	pisant scum... HA HA HA...  we will bleed you dry because you
	have no other viable choice because you have no real skills,
	ye pathetic twiddler of bits.  Bwaaaaaa  haaa haa ha ha ha ha...
	And the presumption to tell another person what they should be
	satisfied with...  what ignorance!
> 
> I had one coworker that had 4 projects in a row get cancled right when they
> were ready for implimentation.  He was near suicidle (sp?), 6 years of his
> life where he came to work every day and had nothing to show for it 

	That's the name of the software game.  I built a CRM system
	for ESI Securities in 1997.  In fact I believe it was the
	first such system of its kind in the world.  Rich Eichen and
	I actually coined the term "Customer Relationship Management"
	because the client didn't want to call it "account management".
	A few million dollars later, Bank of NY bought them and the
	CRM system got shitcanned without a day's use in the real world.
	It was pretty sad.

> He could have just a easily stayed home or played vidio games the
> whole time.  I hear he got a big promotion since I left, so they must have
> finally taken a project to completion. I also hear that the last project
> that I was on (and stayed an extra three months to complete) was never
> implimented.

	This is SO common in that industry that it's laughable.
> 
> End Rant --- Sorry I got a little carried away.
> 
> Now I work a lot harder for a lot less money, and wouldn't go back if you
> put a gun to my head.  I miss the money and the paid vacation, but not all
> the BS.

	I envy this.  I will follow suit one day, but I screwed things up
	so badly in financial terms, that I cannot afford to do it at this
	time.  I think a little knee surgery would also go a long way toward
	making it more enjoyable.  Very slightly damaged meniscus can be a
	real trouble, I have found.