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26-03-2020, 07:23 PM
1

life as a telepnone engineer

I had to go fit a special phone on the wall in the hospital morgue. Because the mortician often could not use his hand to make or answer calls this phone was used by pushing an arm on it with an elbow.

The mortician looked the part as well which didn't help.

So off I go to this hospital morgue only to be told to wait as there were a couple of stiffs on the slabs and he had to put them away and wash down the slabs to get rid of the blood.

That turned me over for a start. So in i go and there in the middle of the room were these slabs like very flat baths with a hole in one end to take the blood away.

The smell nearly knocked me out a well with the chemicals they used.
The problem was not just putting the phone on the wall but getting the wiring to it which took the time. the phone junction box was wards away.

By this time they wanted to get back to work so i finished off quickly and glad to get out of there. Don't want to go in another even if I was dead


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Ever wondered about phones in lifts? yes fitted them as well.
The cable is aready in and leads up to the winding room at the top.
So there I was with the lift going up and down and people entering and leaving, no they would not shut it down for me.
I must have gone up and down at least 20 times before I managed to fit it in the small recess on the inside of the lift

I had already done all the connections in the winding room first

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went on a job to sort out an old lady who could not hear the phone ring.
well in the house someone had fitted in the hall two yes two bells the type you get on a building site, when they rang it was deafening and this old dear was more than upset as she could not hear them,

This was just as those trim phones came out, remember the slim line ones? well only that morning I had collected my allocated stock from the stores .

Now now way could i add another large bell the house would have collapsed, so i connected up one of these trim phones and tested it.

I don't think I have ever seen someone change so quickly from desperation to sheer delight, she could hear it easily.
She was tone deal not voluum deaf. Made me feel good as well for the rest of he day

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Work in one of the mental hospital with a mate, we had to go as a double unit for safety.
To get a phone service to the ward office required the cable to go under the floor. Under the floor there was enough room to stand up so no problem there.

On this particular occassion a teenage girl patient took a fancy to my mate Mick and folllowed him everywhere, except under the floor of course. Now Mick was one of the nicest guys you could wish to meet and single but very shy where the opposite sex were concerned,

So Mick decided to do the tunnels uder the floor but to find out where he was he had to lift the heavy floor tiles and stick his head up to see where to go.

Every time he put his head up this girl tried to kiss him, you have never seen anyone duck down as fast as he did and shut the tiles over him. I pissed myself laughing.

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So many tales I could tell being a telephone engineer, such as my van with me in it being surrounded suddemly by loads of police.
Or the lady who would not let me carry out work in her house
or the colour match story
or the Morris Minor van race
or a colleague being arrested mistakenly
it goes on and on
working in gays houses

Ten there is the famous painting story

or the so call ripped bedspread tale
or the inside outside wiring complaint
or customer wanting a phone a bottom of garden
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26-03-2020, 08:13 PM
2

Re: life as a telepnone engineer

Wow! RS, you dd lead an eventful life.
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26-03-2020, 08:24 PM
3

Re: life as a telepnone engineer

RS, I didn't know that's what you did. It got you about a bit.........
My job did too but industrial, not commercial/residential.
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26-03-2020, 09:06 PM
4

Re: life as a telepnone engineer

I was a installer mainly on switchboards but covered a lot more as well, covered from bookham to Wandsworth, a huge area. Even got 3 ghost incidents for good measure,or car through showroom window story
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26-03-2020, 09:14 PM
5

Re: life as a telepnone engineer

I'm sure I have done this here before. Our area was mainly the design, manufacture, supply and commissioning of variable speed drives. Got me all over UK and many other countries besides.
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27-03-2020, 12:42 AM
6

Re: life as a telepnone engineer

I too did my time as a Youth in Training with GPO Telephones. Attended my Youths A and B courses at Bletchley Park (had no idea of its history in those days because it was still classified).

Ended up on transmission working on Coax and microwave radio equipment when I attended specialist courses at Stone, Leafield and Oxford.

To be honest I didn't want to go on transmission I had my eye on a job looking after exchanges and subs on Romney Marsh but I was persuaded that there was more future in transmission. I worked at the PO Tower for a few years.

In Australia my UK Training allowed me to get a Tradesman's Certificate and I installed crossbar PABXs and worked as a linesman in the bush.

I must admit I thought being called a telephone "engineer" was a bit of cheek because no one had a degree to be called an Engineer, I much preferred be called a technician.




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realspeed
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27-03-2020, 03:06 AM
7

Re: life as a telepnone engineer

Bruce

Like you I started with what was called then the GPO as a T2B (trainee) then became a T2A or in other words passed the training period and could be called a telephone engineer and allowed to work on my own with a van.

Like you I also did no end of courses at Stone. as it became BT and all engineers had to be qualified under British Standards Institute (BSI) so only allowed to work on switchboard having certificates showing you had done and passed the course for each switchboard. I have somewhere still yards of paperwork for all the boards even one for exchange call waiting indication board in exchanges. Pointless as that was phased out shortly afterwards with newer eletronic indicators. I joined back in 1972 and took early vol.retirement in 1993. it was ok while still a public service but went downhill fast when it went private.

Then the pressure was really laid on hard

To give a simple example
To provide a telephone extn originally the time allowed was 3.5 hours AFTER you got on site

When I left the same job they only allowed 1.5 hours INCLUDING getting to site.
Often from Bookham to Wandsworth took up most of that time. hen finding the contact and in a strange office building seeking out the BT point. well you get the drift.

To instal a switchboard wire up and do the extns phone the allocated time went out the window

From 2 jobs a day one am other pm they pushed it up to 4 jobs a day. Needless to say those target were never met and the customer complaints went sky high with appointments missed.

I had in the end fight to leave under the second EVR round, stopped with the first vol leave program. When I say fight yes I actually went for my level one managed to cripple him at least ,just saw a red mist.

What happed I already had a bad day with a person accusing me of disconnecting his business lines the day before, but he got the wrong guy I was working else where, but he didn't believe me. Entirely different company to the one i was working on

The terms of leaving was you had to work the 8 weeks after notification your leaving date. Well just 3 days before I was due to leave, having sold my house to buy a business and everything in storage the manger called me into the office. so I had to leave the job and find out what he wanted.

He said my leave application had been turned down at the last minute. Well that did it I went for him big time, all my future plans -moving arrangements-- removal people booked- solicitors work completed - let alone the people I was buying from flashed across my mind.

Well with that he said they didn't want me any more with that attitude and I got out. Talking to my ST (senior tech) I am still friendly with told me the story later on.

Seems in the whole of the South West London area only myself and one other guy were qualified enough to work on several swithboards, so they had no one bar one if i went. He told me they had to sub contract engineers they let go in the first round of EVR.


Glad i got out due to extreme stress, being physically sick on the way home in the evening and terrible megraines all night. To try and meet the targets I started at 8am and finished well after I should have to get the jobs done often a couple of hours unpaid around 6/7pm, worked without a break as well not even a dinner time. No wonder I was cracking up and being told that flipped me.

Got the boarding kennels and cattery in the West Midlands and took about 8 months before I got over the sickness and megraine attacks. The pressure was only what I (we) put on ourselves to make a success of it. What a relief to get away from BT.

Best decision of my life ,working with animals against human "pigs" was a delight
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27-03-2020, 09:59 AM
8

Re: life as a telepnone engineer

BT today is even worse, a mate of mine works for them and he's counting down the days to his retirement, everything done on computer and you're tracked constantly, he's a safety inspector, tests tools and inspects ladders and stuff, he's only hanging in for his pension.
 

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