A blinding statement of the obvious for those who have been in the outside plant (OSP) world for any length of time: weather has a dramatic effect on the Frontline team’s ability to perform. We all realize that an OSP that is designed and built correctly will withstand normal year-to-year weather conditions provided proper maintenance activities take place on a case-by-case basis as well as rehab replacements in a timely fashion.

But, let’s look at the consequences of various weather conditions. Some impacts are absolutely recognizable, and some impacts are definitely more subtle to leadership teams.

Major weather phenomena such as tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, and ice storms are the worst, causing the most widespread impact to the OSP. Poles are down, cables and drops are damaged, extreme water intrusion into cables that have historically been dry, and wide-spread power failures impacting all remote electronic equipment sites within the affected area. The local, regional, and national journalistic communities provide visible coverage for the company’s leadership teams throughout the country about the weather incident that has occurred. The informed and experienced leadership know their OSP teams will need to respond to the disaster.

The impact on the Frontline: The storm may have impacted them personally with damage to their own home, the storm affects their ability to even get to work. Plus, the environment they have to work in becomes more hazardous with slippery conditions, potential power hazards, and standing water.

To the Frontline, a lot of hard work, Yes. BUT, they get the needed support and resources to dig out from under the “One-Time” disaster. Overtime is granted; technicians are loaned in from other areas and/or disciplines; poles, cable, cabinets, and electronics are expeditiously obtained from the supply organization; the finance team keeps track of the money spent on restoration; service metrics during this period could possibly be excluded due to the notability of the event; and ultimately the “One-Time” event is worked to completion. The phenomenon has a beginning and an ending.

Normal weather with sun, rain, snow, and fog are managed with the day-to-day resources of the OSP teams. But what defines “Normal” anymore? The region’s climate determines the “average” weather that can be expected within certain geographies. OSP repair resources are allocated on those climate averages, and are not sized to handle the weather anomalies that seem to have occurred more frequently in the past few years. The steady stream of rain storms in areas that seldom see any moisture. The dumping of over a foot of snow in a single storm when the entire average winter will not produce that much. Fog so thick you cannot see your hand in front of your face and lingers for days on end (often referred to as upside down rain). These “normal weather” storms can produce as many customer issues as the major weather phenomena described below.

The main difference, the impact to the Frontline: The storms still affect the individual employee’s ability to respond to work; the hazards still have potential for harm; and, yes, there is still a lot of hard work.

But the big difference: there is no wide journalistic coverage to alert the leadership teams placing into action all the support services that accompany major weather phenomena. The weather is not treated as a one-time event. The Frontline and their local leadership generally have to slug it out on their own with the resources at their disposal, the resources that were sized for the climate and not for real weather occurrences. They do the best they can with overtime, productivity, and customer service -- and eventually dig themselves out of the weather hole. The sun comes out for a few days and all returns to “normal”.

At the end of the month the service and financial reports are published and someone asks, “What happened?” The answer: “CLIMATE happened.”

Hats off to the repair organizations!

Byron retired as a senior manager of AT&T with more than 29 years of service and now is an Independent Consultant in Telecom Operations. During the last 12 years of his career, he held the position of Vice President - Construction and Engineering for AT&T West. Reach Byron at byron-mc@att.net.

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