Batboard

Utility contractors were changing out the aerial service poles that serve one of our remote site. They had to cut power to the site when they got to our service drop. Notifications about the work were sent out two weeks ago with a 48 hour notice earlier this week. All went well. Our battery pile could carry us for eight hours, but the genset picked up the load quickly as it was supposed to, and carried us through the planned outage. However, for some reason the genset had not shutdown after a half hour. So, the contractor called me, and I went to site to figure it out. Sure enough, I had to manually switch it back. After that, the genset worked just like it was supposed to. Who knows - ghost in the machine I suppose. This particular generator has never been totally right.

The bigger mystery was how an extension cord got plugged into our protected outlets to power a local wifi ISP. It barely reached, and was so taunt, it was bending the prongs as the cord weight tried to pull the plug out. The cord was warm, and the plug was almost uncomfortable to touch. It was also strung about head level across the aisle so I had to duck under it to reach our racks. I gave the guy a call rather than just unplug him. He claimed he never got notified by the site owner about the utility change. And when his customers reported the outage, he went up there unprepared. He did the best he could with what he had.

That doesn't explain why he didn't run to the nearest hardware store for a better extension cord, or why he didn't call me on his way to the store to explain his dilemma. I'm all for forgiving, but putting the site in jeopardy is putting your toe over the line at the very least. We dodged a bullet. Ugh.

I would have unplugged him and returned his cord in 6 inch sections.

Oh, would that be like a contractor for the local 911 provider showing up at the dispatch center and installing a modem on the telco wall without consulting anyone? Or showing up to install cellular backup antennas on the control station tower without consulting anyone? Or pulling a GPS reference antenna connector loose from the Polyphaser rack while running the cell antenna cable through the entry port (which, to be fair, was also partly the original installer's fault for doing a sh*tty crimp)? Or, perhaps best of all... when questioned about said activities, responding with "well when we do work at xyz agency we just show up and do it" and assuming everyone else was so lax?

Flogging. In the Town Square. With 3 foot sections of 7/8s hardline.

And forced to eat a printed copy of R56 Site Standards Manual, page by page.

com501 wrote:I would have unplugged him and returned his cord in 6 inch sections.

The temptation was there.

motorola_otaku wrote:Oh, would that be like a contractor for the local 911 provider showing up at the dispatch center and installing a modem on the telco wall without consulting anyone? Or showing up to install cellular backup antennas on the control station tower without consulting anyone? Or pulling a GPS reference antenna connector loose from the Polyphaser rack while running the cell antenna cable through the entry port (which, to be fair, was also partly the original installer's fault for doing a sh*tty crimp)? Or, perhaps best of all... when questioned about said activities, responding with "well when we do work at xyz agency we just show up and do it" and assuming everyone else was so lax?

I love it when these guys come through. It helps prove why we charge more for our services, and in some cases, demonstrates our charges are in line with the market, but our deliverables are better.

Part of a public servant's job is to make the best use of public resources. Contractors with poor workmanship ensure the next bid won't go to them.