cwherewetku

In response to THIS post.

Home run. Truer words cannot be spoken.

There is no REAL culture of support from the top. A memo comes out and then they wait for the dust to settle, the media to move on and all is peaceful in the valley again. If it makes the paper or media, we gotta act on it NOW! The O seems to run this organization more than anyone thinks.


What about being PRO-active, not RE-active? Accidents not withstanding- WHY does A SMALL HANDFUL of mistakes by A FEW OPERATORS get more attention than it needs but the sucesses are not given the same attention? WHY does a man who worked for TriMet several years ago gets published as "a former TriMet driver"? I used to work at Wendys..if I have an accident while eating a hamburger that makes the news, do you say "a former Wendy's employee had a head-on collision"? NO.

TRIMET---WITH RESPECT, PLEASE LISTEN. MORE IS BROKEN THAN BUSES & TRAINS.

Ms. Fetsch needs to be replaced. She is so much about damage control and provides ZERO support to the front line employees (or...is it she is just following orders?)

Mr. Mc Farlane preaches he supports his employees but by the time it trickles down to the foot soldiers who are the real face of TriMet, it falls on deaf ears. Too much insulation in the middle.

TriMet, you don't need another/any more manager(s) or director(s)...you need someone who will REALLY stand up for your front line; ensure/enforce the feeling of community & belonging among the staff and ALSO let your front line supervisors know that IT IS OK TO HELP, and THEY will get support and NOT heat from their bosses!

There is a feeling in the air there that nobody really cares. The further up the chain something goes, the less support there is for it until the "insulation" kicks in; whereas the boss gets sheilded from 90% of this stuff by middle management. They have forgotten what it's like to be the low man.
SO---

Why is it you can trust the low man to operatate half a million dollar buses or multi-million dollar trains with scores of people in them and many more obstacles around them but can't get them the support they need when they need it and stick by it?

Want to IMPROVE customer service & drastically improve the low man's attitude towards those customers & management? You'll likely INCREASE ridership by doing this:

Enforce Rider rules (NOT JUST for operator piece of mind, for PASSENGER piece of mind as well), support operators when there is conflict with those rules, allow middle management some lattitude in their assistance, cut out some (or most) of the red tape to get operator concerns addressed, answer a call with road assistance not resistance..

"If they screw up, fine, but instead of playing the public blame game - just fix the problem and move forward.

Memos don't fix problems. Creating cultures of customer service do. TriMet already has failed at the "culture of safety" initative, so I simply have no faith in TriMet's ability to resolve this problem either."

Nough said.