TONY JACKSON. MY TELEPHONE CAREER.

A colleague of mine once said - You will never be rich whilst you are working for someone else.

I'm pretty sure he was correct but I never regretted my chosen career.

When I joined Post Office Telephones in August 1956 the new young intake were called YIT's (Youths in Training ).

During these first 2 years we moved round different departments to acquire an overall understanding of the Government run company. We attended two training courses at Otley, near Leeds, the first lasted 6 weeks and the second 8 weeks.

This was taken on the 6 week course in 1957. I'm bottom row, left, aged 18, complete with safety belt. The chap in the middle row under the sign was one of the Course Teachers called Jack Morris. ( Little did I know that decades later Jacqueline and I would meet him again at our sequence dancing evenings at Croft House.

For 4 months I worked as a Linesman, supervised by a forty year old chap called Joe Robinson, and had to climb Telegraph poles. 50 years ago some of these poles were much higher than the ones you see today. I remember the first 60 foot pole I had to climb - negotiating the iron steps was bad enough but when you reached the top it was even more daunting. Astride the top two steps you had to secure yourself to the pole with a safety belt and finally lean back so that both hands were free to work.

Joe was a real character. At first I couldn't understand why sometimes, nearing the end of the day, he would send me home early. Then I discovered the reason. Although he was happily married he had fancy-women all over the area we covered.

During the Second World War he was a tank commander and he would relate tales as we sat having our packed lunch in the countryside. He said that one day whilst travelling through France he saw a German appear at the door of a cottage. The soldier was holding and pointing a bazooka at his tank. Joe got off a 6 inch shell from the tank's main gun, fired directly at the German. He said that when the smoked cleared not only was the German gone - so was the cottage!

The first 6 months of my training was spent on a Trunk Construction staff at the Head Post Office in Fitzalan Square. The word "Trunk" relates to long-distance. At that time if you wanted to make a telephone call other than to someone in your local area you would need to dial the operator for the connection. My job entailed fitting, maintaining and modifying equipment associated with the switchboards:

350 telephonists, all female, staffed the six long banks of switchboards ( the longest stretched for about 80 yards). It was one continuous babble of "Number please?", " I'm trying to connect you", " Your time is up, will you pay for further time?"

Further spells of my training were spent on Maintenance staffs at Firth Park and Ranmoor telephone Exchanges.

All trainees attended Day Release classes. At the end of each of the two years we sat City & Guilds examinations, the subjects and my results were:

1957 MATHS 1. PASS (Grades were not given in this subject)

ELEMENTARY TELEPHONY. 1st

PRINCIPLES 1. 1st

1958  MATHS 2. PASS

TELEPHONE EXCHANGE SYSTEMS 1. 1st

PRINCIPLES 2. 1st

The above qualifications were more than enough to allow me promotion and progress to T2A (Technician 2A)

At this point we were placed with a more long term departmental staff. If your academic qualifications were good you were given inside duties, less qualified were usually placed with external staffs. I had already realised that I would not be happy on an exchange Maintenance staff. Much of their work involved cleaning the complicated exchange electro/mechanical switches. Too much like housework, vacuuming, dusting, etc

I needed to work with my hands and was relieved when I was placed with my first staff, Trunk Construction.

The equipment and the work involved was very complex but our training was first class and the older more experienced engineers were always happy to assist.

This was the equipment that steered each telephone call through the exchange towards its destination.

Jacqueline and I had made many good friends, particularly with those lads who had started at the same time as me and we often met up for Christmas parties. One of these lads was called Derek Sprintall seen here partly obscured with the tip of the guitar pointing to his arm:

One morning, at work, he came to me looking very concerned, and told me that he had found one of his testicles to be swollen. My immediate reply was - better see your doctor quickly. Next day he said the doctor had given him tablets and to go back if there was no improvement. There wasn't, and he was diagnosed as having testicular cancer. Within six weeks the cancer and spread to other organs and he died leaving his wife, Stella and a baby girl.

Other colleagues in the photo are:

From top: Alan King, Myself, Bill Gambles, Alan Bradley, Graham Ramsden, Pete Sorby

Bert Gorman, ?, Paul ?

  On the 25th January 2017 Coin Fisher organised a reunion and a conducted tour around those parts of the building where we worked and were familiar with.

The building had been taken over by Hallam University. Major renovation and alteration had been carried out but some features had been retained. For example the green and white tiled walls of some of the walls.

When we entered the above First Floor retiring room it contained several desks with university staff seated at computers. The toilet had been removed. I  asked one of the staff if he could access the Internet. He did so and was able to view the above photo and see how the room looked 60 years ago.

Free drinks and snacks were provided by the university.

At the end of the tour a group photo was taken:

If anyone has an additional photo they would like inserted here please contact me.

In the late 1960's the telephone equipment in Fitzalan Square was scrapped and a new exchange built here:

ELDON HOUSE, Charter Row

In 1962 I was promoted again to T.O (Technical Officer). I went on to monthly pay, given an increase in Annual Leave and was part of an excellent pension scheme.

This was my headquarters but during the next 20 years I worked in exchanges covering a vast area including Barnsley, Rotherham, Chesterfield, Doncaster, Lincoln and right out to the East coast. My work as a T.O was incredibly enjoyable because it involved construction type work. You could be given a job with as little as 4 man-hours duration with equipment to install that would fit in your pocket. On the other hand a huge lorry would arrive and unload equipment with in excess of a year's man-hours for one person. Needless to say on jobs as big as these several engineers would be allocated to the job.

I had the reputation of working my fellow engineers hard if I was in charge of a job. I remember one particular job at Barnsley that had been allocated 2,400 man-hours to complete. I was the senior T.O. and some of the lads moaned that I was working them much harder than was necessary. They were probably right because when we had finished the work I sent back 1,100 unused man-hours. In my defence I didn't ask them to work any harder than I was doing.

If you wanted to improve your rank it was essential to continue with academic studies. I did so and obtained another eight City & Guilds qualifications in Maths, Telephony, Radio & Line Transmission, and Computers. In addition I attended numerous more Training Courses mainly at Stone in Staffordshire.

Such was the love of my construction type work I had little ambition for further promotion because the next step up was into Management and office type work. All this changed in 1974 when I received a telephone call from a senior manager. When the call came I happened to be working at Barnsley again. The manager asked me how I felt about progressing into management. I wasn't very enthusiastic but he persuaded me to try.

Some time later I attended a Promotion Board interview.

In 1974 Computers was a new subject and I thought why waste a year going to night school - why not read up the subject from text books and then take the exam. This I did and it nearly back-fired on me.

Now there are many recommended techniques for passing examinations and the main one is that you should read through all the questions first. I never did this. If after reading the first question I thought I could answer it well I would do it. My reasoning was why waste time reading when you could be earning marks. On the day of the exam I travelled to a Doncaster college to sit the examination. I was in a large hall with about a hundred other students from other companies all taking exams relevant to the subject they had studied.

 I picked up the exam paper placed on my desk and read the first question. I could do it but wasn't confident of getting full marks for it, so I went on to the second question. This question was in four parts and I could do only two of them. On to the third - blimey! I thought, I can do only about a third of this question. Then next question I couldn't even understand.

By the time I had read all the questions I was sweating profusely, you stupid fool! Jackson, I thought. You expected you could do this exam without a year at night school - now you are in a mess.

I had read the subject syllabus and it was just as though they were asking questions outside the syllabus. I glanced at the title of the exam paper. I was supposed to be taking COMPUTERS A. I can't remember the exact title of the paper they had given me but it was some obscure engineering subject. I took the paper to the invigilator, he apologised and gave me the correct one.

 It was a 3 hour exam, 15 minutes had gone and I hadn't written a word. They didn't allow me any extra time but I still managed to pass the exam and get the highest grade possible - a distinction.

If I could have answered that first question fully I would have spent another 30 minutes on it before discovering I had the wrong paper. Then what would have been the outcome?

Moral of the story - Read your exam paper title before looking at the questions.

My promotion board interview.

Readers of these pages may recall that I said in the Section called "MARRIAGE" that I had experienced three academic failures in my life. The first two being the 11 plus and O Level English. Both of these failures were rectified.

Well I better mention the third. When I attended the management promotion interview I did little preparation because I was still reluctant to give up the type of work I enjoyed. I didn't perform well at the interview and I wasn't surprised when I was told I had failed.

The following year 1975 I was again invited to a promotion interview. I was still not enthusiastic about going into management but I have never liked having failure attached to my name. So this time I did the proper preparation and when I came out of this interview held in Leeds I knew I had impressed them.

A short time later I received this letter:

The transition into Management was not easy for me. My first management duty was The Safety Officer for the entire District involving 3,500 employees. I didn't make it known to anyone at British Telecom but I couldn't adjust to the new duties - I missed my construction work. It was beginning to get me down so I visited my doctor and explained my predicament. His solution was quick - " Take these vallium pills". I did so for about a week and they certainly helped.

I was apprehensive about getting addicted to them so I stopped and concentrated on making the adjustment with just my will power.

After about a year I was fully integrated with management work which included a new dress code, extra Annual Leave, and a substantial pay rise. It also brought disadvantages:

There was no paid overtime.

There was the stress of Targets and Objectives to achieve.

My workload increased causing the necessity to take work home to do at night or at the weekend.

Periodically Managers were moved round different staffs to gain experience on the many different duties within British Telecom. Typically each manager was responsible for between 20-30 staff. At one time I had a staff of 38 engineers and a workload that was almost impossible to manage.

I remember being on a training course where at the beginning of the course everyone had to stand up and describe their work responsibilities. Later that evening a manager on the course came up to me and said that my workload and responsibilities represented three different managerial post in London where he worked.

During the early 1980's British Telecom embarked on a project to try and retain its most valued business customer and prevent their loss to competitors. At enormous expense 20 new Service Centres ( Centre of Excellence) were built around the country and I was put in charge of the one in Sheffield. My three main customers were Midland Bank, British Steel and Manpower Services.

My staff and I were responsible for the maintenance of private circuits, speech and data. If a data circuit was lost the customer could suffer high financial loss so they would put pressure on me to get a speedy repair. The target for repair was 4 hours which was difficult to achieve at busy times.

My position as ServiceCentre Manager brought a lot of perks.

1. I was in charge of Image Clothing.

2. We had the most up-to-date equipment available ( we were the first company to use touch-screen technology).

3. Every three months all the ServiceCentre Managers would meet up at a nominated venue. I would get first class rail travel all over the country and partake of first class lunches.

RETIREMENT

By 1995 BT ( we were now known as BT not British Telecom) was down-sizing in staff numbers). I was 53 years old and there were some good voluntary redundancy packages available. I had the opportunity of keeping my position but the post would have been in Bradford necessitating moving house.

In October 1995 I accepted early retirement, something I have never regretted. The BT of today is a very different business. Short term contracts exist for many of the staff and the working conditions are much harsher.

As I type here, more than 15 years later, BT are still in a good position to continue paying my pension and we are enjoying a comfortable retirement.

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THANK YOU BT FOR BEING AN EXCELLENT EMPLOYER