Why must they force my hand?

"Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury)
06/02/2019 at 17:03 • Filed to: None

More terminations coming up. I really hate to do it, but when forced, sometimes for the best of the greater operation.

Example one: one driver is running late so I move one of her trips to another driver that is in the area and had plenty of slack time. All of a sudden she needs to take a break. They’ve been told to time their breaks to coincide with slack time. I have to decline the brake until after the newly assigned trip is complete. Now it takes her 25 minutes to go 1.7 miles, and I’ve got the customer calling, looking for her ride...

Example two: driver goes to a church to pick up an elderly customer and her son who is serving as her attendant. She refuses to pull into the church parking lot, telling the sin that she had a walker and therefore she can walk to the van. Drivers can refuse to do things that they deem unsafe, but there were no issues like that here. She tells the son to get it and shut up. You just don’t act like this is you want to keep your job. We send another driver out to relieve her and take over her route and tell her to return to base when the replacement arrives. In a fit of anger she rolls down her window and shuts off the van, denying the stranded passengers air conditioning on an 85 degree day. Unreal. Where do we find these people?

We ’re cutting back the number of trips and doing other things to relieve the stress and make this better place to work. How are rewarded for trying to make the driver’s jobs better? In subordination, game playing, and yelling at customers. If we gave them a raise they’d probably run someone over out of spite. I just don't understand...

DISCUSSION (27)

fhrblig > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/02/2019 at 17:25

Sounds exactly like dispatching couriers. I do not miss that at all.

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/02/2019 at 17:28

give em a finger and they’ll take the hand

but tbh... i think about 80% of people currently employed in any position wouldnt be there if competent hard working folk could be found

(wait actually... i exclude management from that list.... they seem to be picked for their incompetence)

(i may well be part of that 80%)

Brickman > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/02/2019 at 17:34

They deserve it.

To be fired that is.

Chariotoflove > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/02/2019 at 18:31

I hear ya. Firing someone sucks. But if you can’t get someone to do the job properly, what’s left?

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Chariotoflove
06/02/2019 at 18:41

Despite our desperate need for drivers we may need to further refine our hiring practices to weed out those that may not have the required patience and temperament for this job even if that means a little higher workload for the existing drivers, at least on a temporary basis.

N Dealing with the mentally and physically handicapped takes a special kind of person to handle the unexpected challenges that crop up every day. I f can’t be helpful, kind, empathetic and be able to improvise and work out solutions to new and unique situations we really can’t use you.

smobgirl > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/02/2019 at 18:44

Then add on the morale issues when the hard workers see people getting away with that crap and keeping their jobs. JFC, I’m having flashbacks to waiting tables. People would no call no show for hangovers, being arrested, you name it, and nothing ever happened. I got sent home once for insubordination because I wore a patterned headband. Quit the next day because fuck that noise. Working sucks.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > smobgirl
06/02/2019 at 18:48

I’ve been looking forward to retirement since the first day I started my first job. Except for the lack of money, I’ve really enjoyed the times I’ve been unemployed ...

mallthus > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/02/2019 at 18:50

I do appreciate it when I’m thinking about firing someone and they do something that makes it easy. I hate having to second guess myself.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > mallthus
06/02/2019 at 18:56

E xactly. It’s not something I really want to do, especially with the possibility of lawyers getting involved, but rarely do we lose in that situation. When someone does something egregious and unprofessional sometimes you have to make an example out of them to keep the others in line.

Kinja'd!!!

I used to think of this as a joke but I’ve found that it really works, sad to say . We’ve had some talented people with serious attitude problems, and the overall morale in the office improved dramatically with their departure. I would rather have a room full of ‘B’ level people with positive attitudes than a bunch of ‘A’ types that do the job well but make everyone’s life a living hell.

ranwhenparked > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/02/2019 at 18:58

Firing is literally the worst part of managing employees.

As long as you’re confident that you’ve well and truly exhausted all other options, you get over it pretty quick, but the conversation still makes you feel like the worst human being on the planet.

I had to do it to someone over the phone once, which was really shitty. Don’t recommend that.

WildlyMild > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/02/2019 at 19:47

All someone has to do is be nice to people and drive them around? How much easier could a job be? I would love that job as a days off side gig.

smobgirl > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/02/2019 at 20:53

Yep. I don’t mind my current job at all, but I reeeeeeaaaa ally don’t mind the off weeks when work is slow either. Then again, I’m a perfectionist and my boss appreciates it (monetarily as well).

Grindintosecond > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/02/2019 at 21:20

My airline is 100% customer orientated. If someones late and slackin then thats a customer issue and worth considering job action however i measure that much lower than that outright ‘ fuck the customer its all about me’ mindset the no-ac guy displayed.

Put this decision to the late break needing lady and see how she justifies staying, or let her know if it wasnt for him it would have been her.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > smobgirl
06/02/2019 at 22:58

Kinja'd!!!

I once had an idiot for a boss threaten me with insubordination for telling him the temperature in the office was just fine and that he should just wait a few minutes . It was a hot day and he had just come back inside and wanted to turn the thermostat down (from 72). The idiot would often crank it down to 59, the lowest the thermostat would go, freezing the rest of us, and this would cause the a/c to ice up and stop working. We would then open the doors for some air and then have to listen to him bitch about the noise; the back of the building was a heavy maintenance shop for our busses, and we were at a major international airport - no noise with either of these two things, right?

Kinja'd!!!

I would call the a/c technician out and he’d tell me the same thing - let it defrost overnight. I then developed a plan to solve all of the problems at once. I had him reprogram the thermostat so that the lowest it could be set was 69 degrees. Idiot boss would come in, crank down the a/c as it would go (he never looked at the numbers) and move on. With this arrangement we’d be slightly cooler than normal for an hour or two , the boss would have his moment of control (until he complained about it being too cold... ), and the a/c unit would never freeze up again. Simple but effective subterfuge that made everyone relatively happy, as happy as you could be working for a petty, insecure tyrant with control and serious anger issues.

shop-teacher > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/02/2019 at 22:58

Its amazing how hard people can fail at being decent human beings.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > shop-teacher
06/02/2019 at 23:03

If they put a fraction of the effort they put into being festering assholes into doing their job correctly I wouldn’t have to terminate them...

shop-teacher > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/02/2019 at 23:04

Yep. And I can tell you they've been this way since they were in school.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > shop-teacher
06/02/2019 at 23:05

It all starts at home, doesn't it?

smobgirl > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/02/2019 at 23:12

That’s brilliant :)

shop-teacher > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/02/2019 at 23:34

Yes, it certainly does.

Clown Shoe Pilot > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/03/2019 at 01:48

The quote on the poster is a paraphrased Jack Welch quote. When Dr. K. did “The Art of Demotivation” book ( here ) he did a little bit of a book tour and there are people that took him seriously.

The “ Chairman Edition ” of the book is gorgeous. It even came w/ a little voice box so that when you opened the “Book Coffer” (a very nice humidor) a personalized message from Dr. K. played. Also, the key was shipped under separate cover in a ring box prior to the main package, along w/ a personal letter explaining that the key must be protected at all times, in case a lowly employee were to gain access to the book and the ideas within.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/03/2019 at 21:38

Part of me wonders how I'd fare as a driver. I wonder how long it would take to pay off a Tesla Model X by driving people around.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > BaconSandwich is tasty.
06/03/2019 at 21:55

Regular bus drivers don’t want to have anything to do with the paratransit operation, and many of our drivers want to move to the regular buses or light rail. Dealing with constant schedule changes throughout your workday, ill , frail, angry passengers, the mentally challen ged, various body fluids (and sometimes solids) - it’s a serious challenge. All the while you are expected to maintain your cool, be empathetic and not take anything personally. It’s not a job for everyone (I know I couldn’t do it thanks to my horrible gag reflex that can easily be triggered by unpleasant smells ), and those that can handle it are worth their weight in gold.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > smobgirl
06/06/2019 at 13:16

I know about that sort of thing. I’m a teacher, and I worked for a walking tragedy of a principal who was led around by another teacher I now call Grime Wormtongue. One afternoon, kids gone, teachers still around, I made an announcement and the principal came running out of their office to castigate me for making an announcement without asking them first. I just stood there and looked at them like, “Are you f**king kidding me right now?”

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/06/2019 at 13:20

Thermostat Wars, I haz had them. My classroom is a modular unit with an A/C and I see the district’s technician every Sunday and I have the code and I can have my classroom as cool or as warm as I like.

Kid whines, “It’s hot in here.” Teacher replies, “If Mr. S. isn’t hot, then it isn’t hot. You are free to be as hot as you like, but it isn’t hot until Mr. S. is hot.” Also, at other times, “It’s my fault, but it’s not my problem.” It’s good to be king.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ranwhenparked
06/06/2019 at 13:22

Firing is literally the worst part of managing employees.

I believe that. But I think the hardest part is training and guiding them effectively.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
06/06/2019 at 13:24