State Of North Carolina Division Of Purchase And Contract Invitation For Bid #: 2016: Fill & Download for Free

Have you ever seen an employee get fired on the spot because of you?I wasn't actually in the building when the person was fired, but was shoved out of his way by the box he was carrying with all of his personal possessions in it, as we accidentally met in the building foyer after he was fired.The eventual firing of this person had began approximately one year prior to his actual termination.Maybe I still feel guilty and that's why this answer is so long and convoluted, either that, or I cant sleep tonight, so you've been forewarned.The project site was a Nuclear Power plant where I was the Lead Outside Plant Cabling Engineer and Supervisor for all Fiber Optic cabling installation, splicing, terminations, initial compliance testing and certification.The way upper management had set things up, our Telecom department had a pseudo set of checks and balances where final testing of the fiber optic cabling was performed by the group that installed and turned-up the electronic equipment that connected to the fiber optic cabling. My responsibility was supposed to stop at the fiber patch panels where the fiber terminated.The Telecom department consisted of multiple contractors employed by two main contracting firms, which made for a lot of “office politics" with a lot of finger pointing. Especially since the afore mentioned group that installed and turned-up the electronic equipment had unsuccessfully bid for the cabling work that my company was responsible for, and they were prepared to use any means necessary to win the cabling portion of the contract at the next bidding opportunity.From the start, the other contractor had questioned my fiber optic design as being overkill, with the future advent of wave division multiplexing, which had caused me to spend a week researching the technology and writing a report that basically stated that yes, multiplexing was a possible alternative in 10 to 15 years when the technology might be ready for actual field installation and the pricing might be financially equitable.(WDM technology was still pretty much in the theoretical stage at this point, with some lab experiments showing that it was possible, but it wasn't even developed enough to call it “bleeding edge” technology yet)The opposing contractor had a person that was my counterpart for the electronic equipment installations that I'll refer to as “Bernie” from here on out.Bernie and I both had recently been sent to a Siecor Fiber Optic school, at different times, that certified us as qualified Siecor Fiber Optic Engineers and Installers.Apparently Bernie had not paid as close attention as I had during our classes though as he continually tried to blame system failures on the fiber optic cabling that I engineered and supervised the installation of, even though Bernie had also tested the fiber optic cabling with an OTDR (Optical Time Domain Reflectometer) and with a calibrated Power Meter and Light Source and certified in writing that my fiber optic cabling met all Siecor certification criteria. This was all performed after my crew had performed the same exact testing as a redundancy. (Nuke plants are all about redundancy by the way)Let me repeat that for you, because I know this is getting convoluted.Bernie was blaming system failures on a fiber optic cabling system that he had personally tested and certified in writing with his signature that it met all of the manufacturer’s certification criteria.The 1st instance of Bernie's incompetence was when his team was trying to turn-up and test an IBM system referred to as “IMAGES" that the nuke plant was going to use for converting millions of microfiche film images to a digital format for easier storage. I may have the the equipment designations wrong here because it has been almost 30 years, but I think they were IBM 3270'S.As a “Beta" systems test we were going to bring the two closest engineering buildings on line, each of which were well short of being 300′ feet from our Data Center.My crew and myself had worked massive amounts of overtime to meet the preposterous IBM schedule set by them, because IBM had also bid on the fiber optic cabling, but their cabling design had also been rejected in favor of my own design, so they weren't exactly “my friends" on this project either. Personally I had over a hundred hours that week.My crew had finally completed our initial testing of the cabling 48 hours before the Beta test deadline, when I informed Bernie that the fiber was ready for him and his crew to perform the final testing and connect their equipment to it. That was on a Monday morning between 7:00 and 8:00 AM.By noon of that same day, Bernie confirmed that his crew had tested the fiber cables and were ready to begin turning up their electronics. I didn't hear anything else from Bernie the rest of that day.But the following morning, Tuesday, my pager goes off as I'm arriving on site and it's the customers Telecom Dept Manager, in other words my boss's boss and it has “911” added on behind it.Instead of calling the guy, I go straight to his office as soon as I make it through security and get to our building. The manager informs me that there is apparently a problem with the fiber cabling that I had reported as completely tested and certified and that Bernie and his crew had worked literally all night trying to get the IBM system on line. Yeah I'm feeling some heat at this point, we have until midnight to make our 1st milestone on a $20 million dollar project and all fingers are pointing at me if we miss it at this point, or it at least damned sure felt like it to me.As soon as I get out of the big guy's office, I page Bernie to see what the story is and he tells me that the 3270 flashes a green light showing signal receipt, but then it shuts off within seconds and they have to “reboot" the equipment each time afterwards with the same results each time.Keep something in mind here, neither myself or anyone on my crew had any training or experience on the electronics for this project, but now I'm in a position of trying to trouble shoot something that I had never laid eyes on before having seen one for the very 1st time, the day before when I finished the fiber testing and Bernie's crew were placing them in the equipment racks.Thankfully, during my nearly catastrophic learning curve with the Sumitomo Fiber Optic Fusion Splicer that I had convinced the customer they should purchase for about $60,000 I had made a friend named Leon (that's his real name by the way, wish I could remember his last name, but it's been too long) Leon was a field engineer for Sumitomo Electric's offices in Research Triangle, North Carolina.Leon quickly walked me through all the correct fiber testing processes just to make sure that I had done everything per industry standard and had me fax him the OTDR shots for those specific fiber strands being used along with our Power and Light meter readings.By now it's almost noon and the dept manager has been in and out of my section manager's office at least once an hour since the workday began.Within 30 minutes of Leon receiving my testing documentation, he calls me back and ask me what the “loss budget" was for the IBM equipment is. Me being me and still a rookie, I flat told him that I had no clue, but I would find out and call him back.My next call is to Bernie, who I ask for a spare 3270 manual so I can fax a copy of the equipment specs to Leon. Bernie suddenly seems to have a fishbone stuck in his craw and tells me he cant let me have one of the manuals for some bullshit reason, but he will find the “loss budget" criteria and send it to me, strange, but I don’t care as long as I get the information. At this point, I'll take what I can get, anyway I can get it.Bernie sends me an email that only has the lower equipment limits, stating the 3270's have a minimum of 20db of signal power received (I'm totally winging these numbers, because like I said, it's been almost 30 years ago).I call Leon back and tell him that the minimum is 20db and per the test documentation I had sent him we were showing over 40db received at the equipment. (Our total loss from end to end was less than 2 db, that included two fusion splices and two mated pairs of connectors.)Leon instantly tells me that Bernie has only given me part of the equipment specs and that we needed the maximum transmission limit not just the minimum.Once again I call Bernie and the fishbone in his craw has apparently gotten worse, because he mumbles that he will have to get back with me in a little bit.Just as I hang up the phone with Bernie, I hear a bellow from my manager's office requesting my immediate presence in his office.My manager was a retired Navy Reserve Senior Chief by the way, and apparently the navy teaches an advanced course in bellowing.My manager wants a quick update on the situation, now keep in mind, my manager had been getting some serious heat all morning over this issue and he has had my back the whole time.I give him a quick rundown of what the current status was and that I'm waiting on Bernie to give me the equipment specs, but that Bernie seems to be having a problem providing the information.My manager, tells me to turn around and look on the top shelf of his book case and what do I see there, why nothing but IBM equipment manuals for every piece of equipment being installed as a part of the project.Within 5 minutes I was back on the phone with Leon and told him that the upper limit was 40db of power received. Leon and I both realized that our transmission level was over the maximum specified, but whereas I had no real clue what the consequences or solutions were Leon did.Leon told me that our fiber installation was actually too good since the equipment was designed to expect a certain amount of loss over the fiber, splices and connectors, but we were so far under those limits, that the receiver was being saturated with too much light and was shutting down to prevent possibly damaging itself.OK, I understand the signals too hot, but how do we fix the problem?Leon asked me if we had any “index matching gel” (think of a lighter KY Jelly, but it doesnt dry out as quickly) on site.During my Siecor training, they had touched on index matching gel and that it was typically used to cut down on “back reflections" between a mated pair of connectors. (Kind of similar to having two mirrors facing each other, the gel helps attenuate the back reflection between them)I told Leon that we didn’t have any on site and the only possibility of anyone having any was one of our suppliers in the DFW area, which would be 60 to a hundred miles away, if they even stocked it, otherwise it would take at least 24 hours for me to have it overnighted.Leon's next comment baffled me when he said “nose grease". Of course I had to ask him to repeat himself and he said “take the fiber connector that plugs into the fiber cross connect panel and rub it on your nose to get some of that oil on it for a temporary fix until you can get some fiber attenuators (basically a small flat washer that puts an air gap between the connector surfaces and weakens the signal) on site.Leon then went on to tell me that we might need to coil the fiber jumpers around pencils between the patch panel to add “microbends” to the jumpers and equipment to add more attenuation if the “nose grease" wasn’t enough.Leon told me to give both those methods a try if needed and call him back to keep him updated.On the way to the Data center, to find Bernie, who still hadn’t called me back or emailed me the requested information, my manager and the Dept manager fell in step with me for a running update.All I told them was that I thought we might have a temporary fix until we could get some fiber attenuators on site, because we were saturating the optical receivers.Bernie wasn’t in the Data center, so I unplugged the fiber jumpers and began rubbing them on my nose as both managers looked at me like, “Oh hell, he done lost his ever loving mind". I gave them both a shrug and and a wink, then invited them to follow me over to the 1st engineering building to see if my crackpot solution would work.Bernie and one of his helpers were sitting in the buildings equipment room drinking coffee and perusing the latest copy of Playboy when I swung the door open and entered followed by the two managers who had been joined by Bernie's manager along the way.As Bernie watched in disbelief, I unplugged the fiber jumpers from the patch panel and rubbed them on my nose, plugged the connectors back in and asked Bernie to try the equipment again.We had to wait a few minutes for Bernie's helper to run back to the Data center to reboot that piece of equipment, once he radioed Bernie that his end was transmitting, Bernie restarted the 3270 on our end and instantly had all green indicator lights come on and stay on this time.I handed Bernie a post it note with the part numbers for the attenuators that were needed for the permanent solution without saying a word, turned and walked out of the equipment room without another word and returned to my cubicle.My manager stopped by on the way to his office and told me that there was an “impromptu” project meeting starting in the conference room in 15 minutes that required my attendance.This has gotten way longer than I intended, lets just say that the only question I was asked in the meeting was if I had or had not ever received a set of the IBM equipment manuals at the start of the project, to which I replied that I had not received any equipment manuals and I was told that my presence was no longer required in the conference room, nor was my manager's presence required.As my manager and I were getting coffee in the breakroom, we could hear the Dept manager chewing some ass in the conference room, you see the dept manager was in the same Navy Reserve unit as my manager and he was the next in line for Senior Chief.[EDITED portion follows, apparently I inadvertently hit submit last night before I had finished typing the full story of Bernie's demise. What follows are two more instances of Bernie's incompetence and chicanery if you haven't been put to sleep yet, read on.)Bernie's next faux pas involved the final testing of a separate fiber optic cabling system that was a critical system for the plant's Emergency Response Facility (ERF).The ERF was located in the Main Nuclear Operations Support Facility and training building approximately one mile from the plant's containment structure just inside the property's main entrance.The ERF was a back up facility that was connected via fiber optic and copper cabling to all of the plant operations systems that were typically monitored and controlled from the plant's Main Control Room located inside the containment structure. In case of a plant emergency, ERF teams could monitor plant conditions without interfering with the actual on duty reactor operators or shift supervisor, allowing them to concentrate on the emergency.The ERF team could provide needed consultations, logistics support, implement and coordinate emergency response plans with local, state and federal agencies.So the fiber and copper cabling systems connecting the ERF and Main Control Room were kind of a big deal, big enough that if the system was down for more than 72 hours, the plant owner could be fined $10,000 per day by the NRC.My fiber crew had placed and terminated a new fiber cable to replace the existing fiber cables and I had personally tested the cabling per standard procedure, so I was very confident that it was well within the system specifications.Bernie's test and turn-up crew were notified that the new cabling system was completed and ready for their final testing before system turn up on the new cabling.Within an hour of Bernie's crew beginning their testing, Bernie contacted me to tell me that their were major issues on the new fiber cabling, that due to some high reflective signatures on their OTDR shots, there appeared to be breaks in the fibers.I was already tied up on a different issue and after quizzing Bernie about the characteristics of the anomalies, told Bernie that per his own comments, that there was no way in hell the fibers were broken, or they would be showing at least some amount of signal loss shown instead of just a spike in the reflections shown on their OTDR shots.Bernie comes up with a wildly speculative theory that the reflections were being caused by the “fiber fusion heat shrink protectors” that I had specified to prevent our fusion splices from possibly being broken by plant vibrations. When I asked him where he had gotten that idea from, his reply was that he had “read an article somewhere that discussed possible back-reflection issues", but he couldn’t recall where he had read the article at.I was already at my limits and told Bernie that he was “full of shit” and that me and my fiber crew were already tied up on another high priority emergency in a different part of the plant, and that the problem was with their testing, not the actual cabling and terminated the phone call.Within 5 minutes of Bernie's and my phone call, my pager goes off again with the dept manager's number followed by 911 again.Bernie has had his section manager escalate the latest issue to the dept manager saying that the new fiber cable is failing and cant be used. The dept manager's exact words to me were “you've got a major issue that you need to address right the fuck now, drop whatever else you are working on and get your fiber crew and your asses up to the control room immediately".I had my fiber crew begin packing all of our equipment to relocate to the control room for the newest crisis, while I went ahead and went through security to scout ahead and try to expedite getting our equipment through the containment area's security check point, the X-ray and explosives detectors and so on.It takes my crew over an hour to clear security and haul all of our equipment up 6 flights of stairs, enter the control room and finally get the shift supervisor's attention from his recent bass boat purchase conversation and allow us to cross the “red line" to access the equipment room.While one of my team sets up the OTDR with a 1 kilometer test jumper cable box between the OTDR and the fiber panel (remember this for later please) the third tech and I calibrate our power meter and light source so Wade can go to the far end of the fiber cable to be ready for the actual loss testing.Trey and I quickly do our second OTDR shots over all 12 fibers and see none of the back reflections that Bernie claimed were showing up on his OTDR shots.As Trey and I complete the last of our OTDR shots, Wade calls in to say he is ready to perform the power meter testing and we complete the one way shots to him, then we have to meet Wade in the security checkpoint to swap the power meter and light source to shoot the fibers from the opposite direction.After all the testing has been completed, we compare the latest test results to our initial results from the previous day's testing and find no significant differences. As a matter of fact our power meter readings have improved because we had used new test jumpers that I kept in reserve for just such scenarios.I leave Trey and Wade to finish packing up the equipment and head to the Data Center with the new test results in hand.It's now after 9:00 PM and upon reaching my cubicle, who do I find sitting in my chair with his feet up on my desk, want to take a guess, yep, it’s none other than good old Bernie and his second in command Cody is there also.To say Bernie's attitude was smug, would be a huge understatement.We reviewed my printed out test results and Bernie is still insisting that there is a problem, so I finally ask to see their test results.Sure enough I see huge back reflection spikes on his printouts, but then I notice the footage markers where the back reflection anomalies are occurring and pull out my cable log that documents actual cable sheath footage between every termination and splice point for the entire cable length.The anomalies shown on Bernie's OTDR printouts are hundreds of feet off from our splices and they are repeating at the exact same distances for the length of the cable, but another thing I notice is that at each repetition, the back reflection is decreasing in a steady sequence.My mind flashes back to my Siecor classes and I realize that what Bernie is seeing on his OTDR shots is what is literally called a “ghost" in fiber optic terms.A ghost is caused by the connector being plugged into the OTDR having an almost perfect connection that creates a huge back reflection that the OTDR spuriously repeats at uniform distances with decreasing strength at each repetition.Remember what I asked you to remember earlier about my crew using the 1 kilometer test jumper box on our OTDR testing, that was used specifically to prevent ghosts by allowing the back reflection from the first connector to dissipate and allow the OTDR operator to zero in on the actual beginning termination without the false back reflections.I look up at Bernie from my cable log and ask him if he had bothered to look at his copy to compare the footage between the anomalies and the actual physical splices to make sure they were even isolating the correct cable segments for their expanded OTDR shots.Bernie's still smug reply was that he knew enough about OTDR testing that he didn't need to look at the cable log to find the splices, because of the back reflections.The other member of Bernie's crew Cody had spun the cable log around and was now checking the footage with a worried look on his face, when I asked Bernie if he remembered anything from his Siecor classes that talked about ………GHOSTS?Cody's immediate response was “OH SHIT" and I could see the color drain from his face, Cody had also attended the same Siecor classes with Bernie.Bernie's response was an immediate “BULLSHIT", so I walked over to my book case, pulled my Siecor manual from the class and quickly found the pages detailing what a ghost looked like with a very clear picture of a ghost. Then I laid Bernie's OTDR print out above the picture and it was almost identical.Cody repeated his earlier “OH SHIT" while Bernie's reply now came out as “OH FUCK YOU", then he started to argue again, that the splice protection sleeves were creating the problem.Cody is now on my side and tells Bernie, “we fucked up Bernie, Floyd's right".Bernie has finally lost his smug little smirk and his eyes are bugging out, the realization finally has set in enough that he even takes his feet off my desk.As Bernie and Cody start to walk out of my section's door, I calmly and maybe just a little smugly ask them if they want to tell the Dept Manager that they were wrong or if they would prefer me to explain the situation to him, Bernie mumbled over his shoulder that their manager would handle telling the dept manager the next morning, since we were apparently the only ones still on site.As I walked through our building's front door the next morning at 6:30 AM, I saw Bernie, Cody and their manager filing into the dept manager's office and just before their manager closed the door, he shot me a look over his shoulder similar to when a dog knows he has messed up bad.After dropping off my briefcase and lunchbox at my desk, I was in the breakroom pouring my coffee when my manager walked up to get his coffee and he told me to produce a report on the event, including wasted manhours and how much it affected us meeting the deadline for the other project that we were pulled off of. He had to speak louder than normal to be heard over the screaming coming from the dept manager's office.As I was tying up my report, the dept manager walked by my cubicle on the way to my manager's office, stuck his head in and said “BOO".I really expected Bernie to be terminated after this second false alarm of his, but I was wrong.You see there was another part to this story that I wasn’t aware of, do you recall earlier when I mentioned that my manager and the dept manager were both in the same Navy Reserve unit? Well it turns out that several other people in our department were also part of that unit including my friend Bernie. I don’t know if that was a part of the reason he wasn’t terminated then or not, but if you will bare with me a bit longer, we’re getting pretty close to the end of Bernie.After I completed my report on the previous day's circle jerk and took it to my manager's office, he went over it with me, suggested a few improvements, then instructed me to take it next door to a new member of the telecom dept that I had barely even met.This new guy was named Arnie and he was presented to our group as a “Cost and Scheduling Manager" that worked for Bechtel.We had been hearing rumors that Bechtel was being brought in to take over construction management to get the plant completed and on line, because the customer's own personnel were apparently incapable of getting the project completed.After I had made the revisions to my report, I delivered it to Arnie. Arnie remarked that he would take a look at it and would like to discuss it with me after he had time to read it.An hour later, Arnie paged me and asked me if I was where I could come back to the office and review my report with him.My response was that I really needed to stay at my current location, to help my fiber crew complete that particular task, but I should be available after lunch. Arnie then asked if we were by any chance testing with the OTDR and that if we were, he would really appreciate it if we could give him a demonstration.I told Arnie that I could have one of my guys that was picking up supplies swing by and pick him up to bring him to our location.Arnie spent the next couple of hours observing the crew testing the fibers with the OTDR and the power meter.It began dawning on me by several of Arnie's detailed questions that this was more than just a “dog and pony show”, but I didn’t have the experience or thought processes to see where this was all going yet.After a couple of hours my guys were wrapping up and Arnie requested that we return to our building so I could show him our documentation and processes for keeping it all updated.We spent almost another hour with me showing Arnie all of our test documentation and cabling logs. At the end of that, Arnie asked me who all were given copies of the information and I explained that Bernie was the only one that we gave a separate copy to in order to reduce the number of copies to update, that everyone else used my group’s master logs as they were not allowed to remove them from our area.Arnie thanked me for my time and I thought that was the end of it.A few more weeks go by and the Bechtel rumors prove to be true, the customer's dept manager is transferred to their corporate headquarters and Arnie is announced as our new dept manager.I'm still so busy trying to keep my engineering and fiber crews going that I've apparently been missing out on Bernie's latest claim that our new fiber installation is causing the plant's back up Microwave system to crash constantly.The first I hear of it is one morning when I walk in and Arnie calls me into his office, then asks me to bring my fiber cabling and testing logs with me.The first thing Arnie ask to be shown is the specific fibers that connect to the Microwave system's Rockwell DML-45.I flip to the proper OTDR and power meter readings and turn the logs to where Arnie can see them Arnie stares at the pages for a few seconds flipping back and forth between my crews initial tests results and then back to the final test results performed by Bernie and his crew. Suddenly Arnie puts his finger on the signature space and asks me if that's Bernie's signature and I confirm that it is as all of the final test results have to be signed off by Bernie, the same as all of my crew's test results are signed by me.Arnie thanks me for my time and doesn’t say another word, but I'm getting the sense that Bernie might have some “esplainin" to do, but I was still in the dark about Bernie's claims that the fiber was causing the microwave system to crash, but I did know from a previous staff meeting that Bernie was on vacation, so I'm thinking it's not that big of a deal for whatever Arnie was inquiring about.A few hours later and as I open the outer door on our building's foyer, I almost get knocked down by a large cardboard box coming through the foyer and don’t realize until the person carrying the box is past me that the person is Bernie.The situation still not dawning on me yet, I yell at Bernie's back, asking why he's on site, because he's supposed to be on vacation, all I get back is a “FUCK YOU ASSHOLE!” over his shoulder.Once I get to our engineering section, I ask one of my engineers named Jimmy “what's up with Bernie's attitude and why wasn’t he on vacation”?That's when I find out that after my earlier meeting with Arnie, he had called Bernie at home to request Bernie come in to the office for an urgent matter regarding the plant's microwave system.Bernie was expecting to come in to try and get the Microwave system back on line, but he got fired instead.Turns out that Bernie's sidekick Cody was pretty good at servicing Rockwell DML-45's and more knowledgable about testing fiber optic cabling to boot.[Big thanks to Scott Alexander for the many editing recommendations]