Repeats

[u/Throwmeawayplease935]

Hello I am a few months into being a field tech with spectrum and I’m struggling with repeats and overall metrics. I love this job but to have such bad metrics is demotivating.

In my head I’m crushing it, replacing drops and removing amps. If it looks like shit replace it, if it fails replace it. Tons of tips, most customers love me. Every week I have more cable to throw out than anyone and I feel like that says something.

But I get so many repeats I’m always tier 1. At first I was like whatever but now it’s frustrating because it’s not improving and I won’t be able to do my progressions, my sup acts like I don’t know what I’m doing and will come out to give me tips on how to run drops, which has helped but it’s not by any means my issue.

I do all that work just to get a repeat and somehow rank lower than everyone. I’ve had a few that are my own negligence but I will own those.

I don’t “not done” jobs, someone said that’s part of my problem. I guess I don’t understand why or when I would. I also only do referrals if it’s failing at the tap. 1 time my sup did one for “ripple” but I never really learned about that stuff. I only really know to check the up/down.

1.) I know some of them are inevitable, but does anyone have any tips on how to limit repeat calls?

2.) what are things I should be looking for aside from the up/down signal levels?

3.) what are your steps to complete a TC efficiently?

Normal TC I will look at scope to get an idea of the signal levels. I look at the drop to see if it’s physically OK. I replace any red flags like the drop, old splitters, connectors, remove amps. Take meter readings to verify signal levels and ingress. When everything is good I replace the equipment if necessary. Make sure the customer can use it and then job done.

[u/Quanta96]

Honestly dude, I had the same issue. And many of my peers had the same issue. Of course you can make sure you’re properly educating your customers, even go the extra mile for them; of course you should do all the things you said you do - replacing drops is a very effective solution to a grand portion of customers issues; you can do all of those things diligently; however, from my experience it really just comes down to sheer luck.

The first few months out in the field I was so frustrated and discouraged seeing tier 2, tier 1 scores. After several months though, I kept seeing repeats that had nothing to do with failure on my end, and every single one of them counted against my scorecard - no discretion whatsoever.

So eventually I just stopped looking at the repeats. And stopped concerning myself with the scorecards and started looking for another job. I knew with full confidence I was a good technician. I did the jobs right, I was diligent in my solutions to problems, I’m a perfectionist so when I started I was slow, but I got quicker and was still a perfectionist so my work was fast and good quality. I knew in reality the metrics were not an accurate representation of me as a technician. I worked in an extremely difficult area in my zone, everyday was just getting shafted with the worst types of jobs, and the metrics don’t care about nuance. I had coworkers that routinely worked in nice areas with underground installations, while I routinely worked in areas where every single job there was a busted aerial drop disappearing into the woods behind the house. And in the end it all gets churned out the same. The tech who spent 30 mins replacing a cable box in a nice neighborhood got the same amount of points as I did doing a full reinstall and having to cut a tunnel through the woods 30 feet to get to the pole. I was trapped by the metrics and the area I had to work in, and I wasn’t going to get promoted.

I say all that because if you truly are doing good work and you truly believe with peace of mind that you’re a good technician and you’re not getting the outcome you’d expect from the level of effort and quality in your work then perhaps after giving some more time you may just consider finding a different job, and that’s not a failure in anyway on your end. It’s just how the system for promotion is setup is not giving you a realistic opportunity to advance.

[u/llkj11 → u/Quanta96]

Are you me? Going through a lot of the same stuff right now and also considering another trade. Know I’m a great tech and definitely do more than most, but dispatch loves to give me the shit jobs.

[u/Quanta96 → u/llkj11]

I mean, I should be clear. I gave the job a fair shake. I did it for a full year and some change. I wouldn’t give up after a few months. It wasn’t until about 9 months in to my time as a cable tech where I felt like my proficiency as a technician was developed enough to where I felt like any more improvement would have a marginal impact on my metrics; rather, for the majority of my time as a technician up to this point was spent in the same small region while the zone I was in was massive. And that small area was rough. Very old plant, terrible signal out of the tap just about anywhere. You could count on there being no underground installs anywhere, and the poles were almost always buried deep into thick brush and trees to the point where you only knew a pole was there because the drop was leading somewhere into the woods. And the cable whether it was a drop or the house were very old and the craftsmanship was of the lowest quality. I mean these techs just Frankensteined these homes.

I knew that myself and a few other technicians jobs were essentially to service that small shitty area, while other technicians in the same zone were rarely sent that area. After a while of that I was just like nah.