Thursday, March 08, 2012

Disrespect Again

Reposted*

While Tom Shelton was pulling down strong approval numbers for an "atmosphere of mutual trust and respect" from the faculty and staff in Daviess County, Fayette County scores languished 10 points below the state average on the TELL Survey released last May.

Surely Shelton would like to see the Fayette County numbers move in a more positive direction, yet another instance of disrespect toward drivers surfaced this week when transportation department management took on the issue of sloppy parking on the lot.

Now I suppose everybody gets a little irritated when a driver carelessly parks over the line at the mall, at school, at church....or anywhere. Sloppy parking wastes space for everyone. And if you've ever had the side of your car dinged by an inconsiderate driver, it can make your blood boil.

But suppose you were in charge of a facility - like the transportation facilities at Liberty Road - and some of your folks were being careless. Since everybody needs a parking pass to park on the lot, as a supervisor, you know who owns any offending cars. Surely, you'd want to say something to correct the situation. How would you handle it?

Here's how the Transportation department handles issues. These photos were posted on the bulletin board by the time clock in an apparent effort to embarrass and humiliate the offenders.


I'm sure Shelton would like the same level of affirmation from Fayette County employees that he enjoyed in Daviess County. But the general tone of disrespect toward transportation department employees continues to be a concern. Somebody's not getting the message. As we have seen before, folks know when they are being respected and helped to improve, and they know when they are being punished and humiliated, and they resent the latter.

*Last night I accidentally deleted the original post and reconstructed it (as best I could) above.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, respect these "parkers" at the same level they respect their co-workers by not leaving enough space to park!

Richard Day said...

Peer to peer, I get the sentiment. But from management to employees, I don't. How folks are treated matters even when they are wrong. It's the difference between building capacity in the workers versus just busting people's chops.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous, I am posting Anonymous as well, but I will be honest why I am. I am a transportation employee and have seen the retaliation that is imposed against anyone outspoken. Yes, I agree it could be considered a respect issue to fellow employees, but is it managements place to humiliate, bully and mock employees? The picture was posted on the "management bulletin board". What the picture doesn't show is that the employees names were hand written at the bottom of the pictures. So, just in case the employee wasn't ashamed, embarrassed or humiliated by seeing their car and license plate they got to see their names as well. Let's also keep in mind this is one of the few jobs that a few minute really do make a difference. If an employee is late for most jobs, they just start work when they arrive as do teachers, principals, and transportation managers. IF a school bus driver OR monitor arrives late for ANY reason that may or may not be in their control (traffic etc) they will be sent home and it will be a day without pay. Also, if a transportation employee is a able to perform the job but arrives late and is still able to do the run or has to leave early when the run is over, they face management telling them that their "benefits" will be cut if they don't stay on the clock for the mandatory 6 hours a day. Where else in the district is this done? There are so many problems with the transportation department that it is borderline comical. If only a tv producer would get wind of this place, it would be a huge hit for reality tv!!!!

Anonymous said...

If only I had a camera!!!

Friday, there was another picture posted on the "Management Bulletin Board" at Miles Point Transportation Garage........

It was of a white Fayette County School transportation car with a jacket hanging inside with the name on the breast pocket of KISER. The picture is of the vehicle parked with the tire well over the stripping of the yellow lines.

Are only employees subject to park inside the line?!!

Anonymous said...

do you think kiser knows that this time its different kiser is being looked at like never before . People
are not taking it anymore ,they are getting lawers and calling centeral
office like never before. kiser is on the way out .like flushing the john.

Richard Day said...

Only time will tell....but I'm hopeful. I have no reason to doubt the superintendent's commitment to a well-run department. It's may take a little time, but hopefully drivers will be able to see bits of progress and things develop.

Check back later today. We will break a little more transportation news.