Thread: Who worked for the Ma Bell

Anybody out there worked for Ma Bell (when At&T was the mama of all the baby bells)?

If so, do you remember those green pills that seemed to cure anything wrong with you-they had to stop keeping them because we didn't have a medical person on hand to give them to us( I worked for South Central Bell in Louisiana from 1976-1984-when the break up started) and we also had lead pencils they were red and the lead that was in them were very dark .

I have been looking and bought almost every pencil/lead pencils that claims the lead is dark-and can't find it anywhere

the little green pills I think were nothing but buffered asprin -but would cure anything that ailed you!

Me Me Me! & still do! Went from Ma Bell to AT&t to NY Telephone to NYNEX to Bell Atlantic & now Verizon. Don't care what name is on my paycheck, as long as I still get one!
I remember those pills! Are you retired now then?

So what happened in 1984 that made you stop working for them?

sorry got off line for awhile-I worked for ma bell from 1976-1984 then the divesture came & went to ast & t and was laid off in 1986. went back a couple times temp & worked in the anoyance call bureau till they closed it & sent o b'ham or atlanta . hubby retired from bell back in I think 2002 & just went back temp this past march-he works outside as a tech in slidell-covington area (Louisiana) where aer you at?-started to go back to at&t but don't want to sell anymore burnt out from that--
So you do remember the pills -there's times we sit around and laugh at what they cured darn we miss them

I'm in Long Island. Glad I got out of selling too! So your hubby retired & went back: I see a lot of that! I've got a 12 year old, so I won't be retiring anytime soon. Seems like we get a retirement package every few months. Last week got a second one for this year. I'll have 30 years next December. In the job title I have now thats nothing LOL. No one wants to retire!

what department do you work in ? Let's see my bell bio goes like this
01/76-1977-mail room-mail clerk(right out of high school)
1977-1979-customer service rep(saw dollar signs & being around other csr's
figured I can do that-comp still leasing eqpmnt-remember trimline
pckgs)
1979-11/84-repair service attndnt-(got out of commercial & sales-unit mangr
wld come arnd w/our paychks& ask if we thought we deserved
them-one day told darn right & more! she would incrse our sales
objctvs by 30% to make sure we met comp objctvs)
11/84-03/86 at&t doing guess what csr work! making $50.00 less per wk than
the
csr's that came from bell- and At&T wanting us reps from plant
to work the full 40 hour week & not the 37 1/2 hour week the
coml reps were working-union finally got involved -At&T also
wanted to not apprv our long dist calls if we had spouses that
still workd for Bell-said we would be dbl dippn-we won that as
wel-we were told that we would be in Metairie La. for at least 5
years -job only lastd 1 1/2 yrs & sent to Jacksnvle, Fla.

Then they called me back asking if I wanted to do paper work for the summer in the ACB unit-did paperwork for about 3 weeks & got antsy with the phone(service rep coming out of me listening to the phones ring and hearing the que lights binging and blinking-aftr that did all of job of the reps and 1 week shy of 6 mos so I wouldn't have to be gvn a vacation & offered a position----

there you have it -don't know if you wntd it but this is the 1st time in awhle that I have spelled words with ltrs missing & know the other person will undrstnd and not think i'm a dummy who cant spell or know to use spell chk!


so do you have any green pills or red lead pencls stashed arnd??lol

You should get a pension after all that. You just have to wait till...what 62 or 65?
I was a long distance dial "0" operator from 76 to 81. Then at divestiture, when they forced bus reps to at&t, I got an upgrade to the bus ofce. Lots of bad feelings there from people who saw their BFF's xfrd to At&t. Then like you those people were told job was moving out of state. Know one person who went to Denver & after a year that job disbanded too. Some lucky ones made it back to the bus ofce. Stayed in the bus ofce another 19 years. It started off as a great job, country club. But of course went down hill in to spiels & sale quotas. Hate to say what exactly I've been doing 4 the co right now. Hate to have a troll track me down. LOL!
I remember the SA's, punch tickets, split shifts, being written up for being a minute late, still have the absence steps. etc.
Been thru 4 strikes & maybe another in Aug.
UNION..UNION!!! LOL!!

Originally Posted by croclover

I also remember the green pills. I retired from Bell in La in 2002.

Good for you! Do you remember putting up a flag at your desk when you wanted to use the bathroom? And you couldn't leave to use the bathroom if someone else had their flag up first..you had to wait your turn! And red & green emergency lites!
They used to want us to sleep in the building during a snowstorm. LOL!! And hurricanes or not-you better show up at work!

What are some of your memories croclover?

Oh you were lucky. Everything is so computerized now a days. I remember calling line asgmnt for numbers. You had to have at least 5 lines to get a hundred number. Then at the end I would just get them thru the computer. Extra $ for a customer if he wanted a gold number.
Can you imagine being suspended for going to the bathroom!! LOL! people would get doctor notes & god forbid if you had your period & then you had to go every 5 minutes. & you had to get your time down as an operator or D A.
Did you have the A E book??