Re: NYC 1975 CO Fire -- Supposed it Happened Today?

In a message dated 7/24/06 8:13:25 PM Central Daylight Time, editor@telecom- digest.org writes, in a comment on a post by DLR :

[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: How about something a lot more simple? > _Do not ever_ leave a central office unattended, anytime, anywhere. Even > in an office which is 'usually' deserted on weekends, etc you schedule > at least one worker to be there nights and weekends. Give that person > something to do -- for example data entry work -- and have them go > around once an hour more or less checking all the nooks and crannies > where problems could develop. In the case of Hinsdale, Ameritech could > have had one or two people on their payroll for several years mainly > as watchdogs and still come out ahead of what the 1988 fire cost them. > PAT]

I think you may underestimate the tremendous costs involved, since many offices -- including, I imagine, Independence, are unattended most nights and probably most often on weekends. Smaller offices may be unattended at all times.

So the costs for putting somebody in every office all night and all weekend would double or triple the manpower or womanpower costs for most offices. And people costs are usually the largest, even in a high-fixed-cost business like a telephone company.

Wes Leatherock snipped-for-privacy@aol.com snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com

[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But please see my earlier messages: You do not _add to your payroll for this function_ but instead you re-arrange the working hours of the employees you already have, and charge off or prorate much of the payroll expense to the existing job function. Telco has employees 24/7 in places like Traffic Department; cannot they even afford to have one lousy person manning a repair desk (for example) all night? You are correct; Independence is unmanned at night and weekends. There was a time when the majority of the first floor was occupied by service representatives and cashiers. Then they did away with the service reps (putting a wall-mounted 'tie-line' phone and a desk in the corner) for people to sit at and talk to a long-distance rep, but keeping the cashiers so people could still pay their bill. Then one day, the cashiers disappeared also. My mother says she can recall going in there and talking to a live rep, explaining what she wanted; the rep called upstairs to the guy in the frames and told him what was wanted; mother said when she got home the work had already been completed.

Foolish telco! Would _you_ leave a property worth millions of dollars (ESS switch for example) totally unguarded over a long weekend and hope to God it was still sitting there working on Tuesday or whenever? After all, it is monitored from an office in Tulsa or Wichita a hundred miles away in either direction. They'll let us know if an alarm goes off. Foolish telco, and penny-wise but pound foolish cheap bastards as well. They deserve whatever grief they get. PAT]