Dear Pen-l ers; First, thanks for the encouraging messages I have been receiving both on and off the list. Second, does pen-l have an archive? I really need to get a copy of my original message which was posted sometime between September 30th and October 5th. The reason I need the message will become apparent when you read the rest of the post ............ In true NYNEX form, things have become weirder and weirder. There were several times yesterday when I felt like Alice in Wonderland and truly thought I stepped through the looking glass. At 4:00 I presented myself in the 2nd liner's office along with my chief steward. The manager gave me an office memo containing a reprint of a message I knew I had posted to pen-l, but all the usual email info -- name of account, forwarding dates and times, list, had all been removed. The memo was dated October 6th at 8:36 a.m. and the subject was "NYNEX dirty linen." The first line of the message reads: "Do you know a Maggie Coleman?????" The second line: "Received the following from my son. Thought it might be of interest. Forwarded Message. I've removed the long line of forwards." Following this is a long-winded message I had written about corporate downsizing. During my tirade I mention that contractors are being hired to install new equipment from many different vendors in NYNEX, and at the same time, the technicians responsible for maintaining said equipment are not being trained on maintaining it. At the time, we were receiving cable jobs to run cable to equipment, but we were not learning how to work the actual end equipment even though we are responsible for it. (don't you just LOVE efficient management?) Sooooooo, the last line of the message says; "gotta go -- I'm getting over time to run in cables for some new equipment I can't even pronounce." This was, as all pen-l ers would recognize, a j-o-k-e. joke. So, here we are back in the 2nd liner's office and he gives this doctored email/memo to me, points to the last line and says -- you are being warned against using corporate equipment on over time to post messages to the internet. So, I said, o.k. _____, let's get this straight, you say I used a company computer to send email to the internet on overtime. He says yes. I says, but _______, you took the sentence out of context. He says, he don't have time to read the context, that sentence says I did this dastardly (actually, the guy would have to look dastardly up) deed on over time and he does not have time to discuss this. So, to summarize, I am given an email message without any of the normal identifying factors and told I did this on company time. So, I ask, what day, what time, what computer. The 2nd liner says, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. BUT, corporate security has the message and will prove what day, time, place. So, I now have a warning in my file against use of company equipment -- but they don't know when or what equipment I am being accused of using. I also don't know what the warning states, because they never finished giving me the warning. I confess, I blew up. On the surface, this is actually very funny. Unfortunately, I have seen people fired for similar accusations, albeit with a little more 'proof'. And this is what has me worried, that corporate security will doctor up some 'proof'. Now, the truly funny, ironic, and space nine weird thing about this is that, during the week in question, I was on vacation. October 6th, the date of the memo, is a Friday. I had been off on vacation that entire week, which is why I had the time to post long, tirade type messages in the first place. Because, the truth is, I don't normally have a whole lot of time for email between work and finishing my phd. I usually just drop in and nibble on bits of information. However, I have informed my chief steward of this, and a number of stewards will be filing a number of grievances over this issue and mentioning this at some point in the ongoing dialogue. However, it would be much to my advantage if I could get a copy of the original message. And, as a final piece of information. Said 2nd liner had a 3 p.m. meeting with the craft to read them the latest round of cuts. Carrier is actually two sections -- carrier and frame. He wanted to meet with just the frame and read them the riot act -- he planned on meeting with carrier today when a third of the office is off on a four day week (the last one since this week essentially ends the four day week). However, those bad boys and girls from the carrier crashed the party in the frame break room and asked all kinds of annoying questions. So, the second liner came into the break room, and read from a list he had prepared in advance. No more four day week, a re-institution of N days, and cuts in weekend coverage. Hmmmmmm, what does this mean, and what the hell is an "Nday." N day is a non-scheduled day. The company has the contractual right to assign saturday coverage and give the person an n day monday through friday. The carrier and frame have been covering saturdays with overtime off the low hour list for a couple of years. This distributes premium pays more fairly and keeps people from being forced to work weekends. So, they cancelled the four day week because they had too many people off on week days, and they re-instituted n days with saturday coverage, so almost as many people are going to be off on week days and be forced to work saturdays. Oh yeah. What does cutting down on weekend coverage mean? This means that those customers paying for 24 hour service stand a good chance of not having problems fixed in a reasonable amount of time -- it also violates committments the company has made to the Public Services Commission should anyone care to complain. So, the summary of this long winded tirade is that I am accused of sending messages to the internet on overtime from a company computer during a week I was on vacation. Further, I have never used a company computer for email because I really feel this is my life outside NYNEX and the two should never meet. So if they trump up some shit -- it will be a lie. Once again, thanks for all the friendly support. I hope that whoever's son passed along the initial message is still performing his function and will be sending along all the current messages as well. maggie coleman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
