Not directly, but certainly indirectly. As a regulated utility AT&T was a
haven for manager-engineers. There was an emphasis on making things the
"right way." After the break up the reformed companies were flooded with
MBAs who disdained technology, knowing that the best way to make money
was to slash the workforce, slash research, and manipulate the stock
price.
So they went from one extreme to the other.
Not really, I would have noticed. I think.
I'm actually in it because I like playing around with a really big
ass network and some bitchin' cool technology.
This place is hacker heaven with climate control, I love my job.
The culture really hasn't changed that much from the Bell days.
We may have a fair number of MBAs scuttling around but most
of the management did it the hard way and came up from the
ranks, at least in core telecom.
Our CEO started out as a cable splicer's assistant. Twenty-five
years ago I was a directory assistance operator. Those aren't
bad jobs, either. That was the Bell System way.
I'm not saying it was a perfect system or that it is a perfect
system, it's hierarchial to a military extent. But when you have a
responsibility to maintain and manage a national communications
infrastructure that's the way it has to be.
I don't know how anyone else runs their business. I don't honestly
care. I know bad decisions and bad regulation have happened in
the past and will likely happen in the future.
I have to play the cards I have today and do it by the book that
has been written by all the managers, engineers, and other
personnel that have come before me. Sometimes I get to add
or edit a page in the book.
Sometimes I get to reward emerging talent. I really like to be
able to promote deserving people.
At the end of the day I absolutely have to be responsible for the
continuing, reliable operation of the network. We're still a
regulated public utility.
Which is hard for a former free-range hacker to grasp, but if I
can get used to it I guess it isn't hard to imagine that others can.
I speak only for myself.
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