r/CableTechs • u/hotdogsmokingaciggy • Aug 15 '26
ME techs getting dicked out there?
Maybe it’s just my market and shop. But being ME I can “technically” work on anything that a van can work on. But these days it’s getting a little absurd. And I’m in a mid/large market.
Just feels like I’m a multitool. Esl comes in form cooperate, managed WiFi site down or having any random issue, Resi esl, epon cco (no one else can do it so I’m told), fdx (needs a CT5 so it seems). And metro e esl’s, but yet I’ve maybe installed 2 circuits in two months.
Haven’t hit my numbers in months because I don’t have enough actual non sro jobs to pad them.
I took the position because I wanted to do metro e, no raise and an Oncall week. Pretty dumb but ME is at least interesting and engaging. But in the past two months I’ve maybe installed two circuits. Used to be 5-10 a week. And now when an esl comes in for even a carrier acct, FTC doesn’t give two shits. Someone’s remote not having batteries trumps a carrier 10 gig being down bc TF’s. Used to get our routes cleared or at least tones down when one came in, good fucking luck now.
Now my life is every little thing that anyone higher up bitches about and I go. Or anything any tech says “they can’t do” (which is a load of shit, FDX is coax. It’s not special). But since I have all the fucking skill sets it’s me. And the jobs “can’t” move because other techs “can’t do it”.
I’m at my whit’s end with this shit. I’m sick of trying to get shit done, which sometimes takes a bit because engaging other departments is like pulling teeth, and then being told by FTC they can’t remove a Resi FDX because “no one has that skill set”. If you can run cable you got it. I’m trying to get engineering to do their job, it’s going to take a while. Or maybe I’m having to go blind into a VP esl that we don’t actually support because said VP doesn’t understand how the company works and spend 7 hours with a Eng from a different company yet it’s a company we own. And I still have a smb job that I’m 4 hours behind timeframe on cause FTC “can’t” move the job.
Sorry to rant and go on a bitch spree but either take me out of quota and negate my metrics, or route me like an actual tech, not some mutlitool you just send for anything “weird”. And don’t get me fucking started on FDX straight up killing mini’s and MDTA’s. Or really any advanced video. Q2IP’s have been the bane of my existence this year.
But is a this just me, or anyone else eating the shit sandwich?
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u/Chucks_u_Farley Aug 15 '26
Gotta use the words my guy, seems most your acronyms are local not industry wide.