As a lover of Human Resources, and a true believer in the importance
of the protection of the law, especially when it comes to possible
victims (such as employees) who may be taken advantage of by those with
greater authority, the past year has been very difficult. While I have
always been a vocal opponent of Rob Ford, even I was stunned when he
fired TC chief general manager Gary Webster, at great cost to the City,
for providing an expert opinion in a subject he is well versed in. Of
course, this is not newsworthy anymore. He was replaced by someone
presumably more amiable to the idea of siding with the boss no matter
what. Of course, even he hasn't publicly supported Ford outside of a
comment suggesting that Toronto will still a long term subway plan,
especially for the busy downtown core (a statement I don't think would
meet with great disagreement).
This, I find, is the best illustration for the two elements which
make Ford a terrible employer. (a) He violates the law by terminating
good employees without cause, (b) he doesn't seem to recruit correctly,
as he has consistently found his hires to fall short of his
expectations. That is the quintessential bad boss - can't retain good
people, and can't hire effectively (in this case, "effectively" would
mean finding the Yes Men he's looking for).
Certainly, there has been growing animosity between the
Commission and its users, fortunately since the reign of Ford began, we
have seen a slow shift of that animosity towards his administration, and
Councillors from the suburbs (who would doubtfully ever replace their
gas guzzlers with a metropass) who are attempting to dictate how those
within the city will travel. His lack of ethics, complete disregard for
the rule of law, and manipulation of government contracts to profit his
family have done the impossible - they have boosted public opinion of
unions and public sector employees.
Perhaps some good can come of this yet?
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Friday, March 2, 2012
Karen Stintz's Stint on Undercover Boss Canada
I know I've been harping on this topic a bit heavily, but it's my blog so if you don't like it go away.
Earlier today I finally caught the Undercover Boss episode featuring our TTC warrior Karen Stinz in her battle to find a balance between Rob Ford's lunatic 10% budget cuts and a public that loathes them by getting to know how things are run on the front line.
Fantastic idea. Especially in what I like to call a post-99% world, where there is an increasing anger from people in the bottom of organizations at the lack of real knowledge their higher ups possess in what it actually takes to make the company run (as opposed to the theoretical/strategic/etc), the idea to go under cover and gain perspective, knowledge from the trenches, and a well rounded view of your organization is excellent.
Of course, praise is rarely worth a blog post, so here's my but. Granted, Karen detailed that the reason she selected work in maintenance as the primary areas of undercover work is that that is where she was hoping to find some ideas of saving costs without harming the services they offer. She worked assisting the cleaning staff, reupholstering, servicing buses and one day in a subway train. She said the number one complaints she gets are that the trains and buses and dirty. I find that difficult to believe.
My issue with the way this was conducted is that it was quite clearly done in such a way as to avoid the actual hot button issues, and then conclude that the reason the public is angry is because the media tells them to. I have never seen a maintenance worker featured in an article on poor TTC staff. In fact, the only time I ever heard mention of them was when the drivers at the TTC were able to secure raises for themselves at the expense of wage increases for maintenance staff after the last threat of strike.
I am deeply offended that Karen's conclusion was not that there were serious customer service... Let's call them areas of opportunity, because she met 5 of the very best employees on the TTC (they knew it was going to be televised, meaning they'd have chosen the best employees, who would have been on their best behaviour), but just that - clearly - the media has been brainwashing the imbeciles and degenerates that apparently use her system. It's not that many drivers and administrative staff are rude and incompetent (see previous blog posts for evidence of this), it's just the public's fault, because we apparently love killing ourselves on the tracks.
Yes, some people are disgusting and will urinate on the stations. Some people are rude and they even showed a customer who spit on a driver as she was exiting the bus. Of course, one thing I learned from the pepper spray incident in the US late last year, is that editing is very important to the message, and as a result of personal experience, I would be very curious as to what the driver did that made this woman so angry (NOT that I justify her actions).
My question is this, are Torontonians stupider than other transit users, such as in NY, Tokyo, or Moscow? Are we dirtier? Ruder? More violent? Are we more likely to slash seats? In my travels, I learned that the answer is most likely no. The question which follows is then, why do we have to accept a subpar transit system when compared with these other international cities? In the 70's, we had an amazing, well functioning, and clean subway. New York had a dirty and dangerous laughingstock. How is it that they have been able to reverse this, while we deteriorated? Why is it that in Tokyo it is unacceptable for a train to be 1 minute late, and here, I am yelled at for asking an operator if there is a delay when the signs say 15 minutes to the next train. Am I also being manipulated by the media to think that just because virtually every experience I have had in the last 2 years with ANY member of the TTC family has been at best neutral and at worst costly and frustrating? How about the fact that this whole customer service media nightmare of theirs started not with the media, but with a single photo posted on a blog of an operator sleeping on the job?
I guess we're just wrong, stupid, and malleable by the malevolent "media". No trouble here, folks, just a few million confused citizens. So much for this being a learning opportunity, just a well organized photo op.
Earlier today I finally caught the Undercover Boss episode featuring our TTC warrior Karen Stinz in her battle to find a balance between Rob Ford's lunatic 10% budget cuts and a public that loathes them by getting to know how things are run on the front line.
Fantastic idea. Especially in what I like to call a post-99% world, where there is an increasing anger from people in the bottom of organizations at the lack of real knowledge their higher ups possess in what it actually takes to make the company run (as opposed to the theoretical/strategic/etc), the idea to go under cover and gain perspective, knowledge from the trenches, and a well rounded view of your organization is excellent.
Of course, praise is rarely worth a blog post, so here's my but. Granted, Karen detailed that the reason she selected work in maintenance as the primary areas of undercover work is that that is where she was hoping to find some ideas of saving costs without harming the services they offer. She worked assisting the cleaning staff, reupholstering, servicing buses and one day in a subway train. She said the number one complaints she gets are that the trains and buses and dirty. I find that difficult to believe.
My issue with the way this was conducted is that it was quite clearly done in such a way as to avoid the actual hot button issues, and then conclude that the reason the public is angry is because the media tells them to. I have never seen a maintenance worker featured in an article on poor TTC staff. In fact, the only time I ever heard mention of them was when the drivers at the TTC were able to secure raises for themselves at the expense of wage increases for maintenance staff after the last threat of strike.
I am deeply offended that Karen's conclusion was not that there were serious customer service... Let's call them areas of opportunity, because she met 5 of the very best employees on the TTC (they knew it was going to be televised, meaning they'd have chosen the best employees, who would have been on their best behaviour), but just that - clearly - the media has been brainwashing the imbeciles and degenerates that apparently use her system. It's not that many drivers and administrative staff are rude and incompetent (see previous blog posts for evidence of this), it's just the public's fault, because we apparently love killing ourselves on the tracks.
Yes, some people are disgusting and will urinate on the stations. Some people are rude and they even showed a customer who spit on a driver as she was exiting the bus. Of course, one thing I learned from the pepper spray incident in the US late last year, is that editing is very important to the message, and as a result of personal experience, I would be very curious as to what the driver did that made this woman so angry (NOT that I justify her actions).
My question is this, are Torontonians stupider than other transit users, such as in NY, Tokyo, or Moscow? Are we dirtier? Ruder? More violent? Are we more likely to slash seats? In my travels, I learned that the answer is most likely no. The question which follows is then, why do we have to accept a subpar transit system when compared with these other international cities? In the 70's, we had an amazing, well functioning, and clean subway. New York had a dirty and dangerous laughingstock. How is it that they have been able to reverse this, while we deteriorated? Why is it that in Tokyo it is unacceptable for a train to be 1 minute late, and here, I am yelled at for asking an operator if there is a delay when the signs say 15 minutes to the next train. Am I also being manipulated by the media to think that just because virtually every experience I have had in the last 2 years with ANY member of the TTC family has been at best neutral and at worst costly and frustrating? How about the fact that this whole customer service media nightmare of theirs started not with the media, but with a single photo posted on a blog of an operator sleeping on the job?
I guess we're just wrong, stupid, and malleable by the malevolent "media". No trouble here, folks, just a few million confused citizens. So much for this being a learning opportunity, just a well organized photo op.
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