These friggen dispatchers were my least favorite management personnel while I worked at Trimet.
Now that I have been listening to them since my departure from Trimess I have developed some respect for what they do.
But one thing I hated then, and I still hate it when I hear it.
Why are you late? They actually ask operators that question.
Well here is the answer I always wanted to give them when I worked there.
WHY ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID AND I SUGGEST YOU CONTACT KEN ZATTERIAN AS TO WHY THIS SCHEDULE IS FUCKED UP, NOW GET OFF MY FUCKING BACK!
dispatchers and controllers are NOT management. and when that particular question is asked it is not to criticize or challenge, but to document and attempt to correct service delivery.
ReplyDeleteABSOLUTELY RIGHT ON, AL!
ReplyDeleteThese are, without exception, the WORST words ANYONE can utter to a bus driver, ever! Let alone a fellow Union brother/sister who has likely sat in this seat themselves and damn well ought to know the most probable answers to this fucked up question.
Even our regular passengers KNOW BETTER than to ask such an asinine question of the bus driver. I have been known (on rare, and estremely stressful occasions) to answer this question with, "Because I'd rather PISS MYSELF RIGHT HERE IN THIS SEAT than take a break at the end of the line!" Or, "I'D RATHER MAKE YOU LATE TO WORK THAN EAT MY LUNCH at the end of the line."
There's an infinate number of reasons a bus might run late, and dispatchers ought to know that before they call me up to make an already stressful situation even worse. "HERE, LET ME PULL OVER AND SECURE THE BUS COMPLETELY, AND THEN WE CAN SAFELY TAKE ALL THE TIME NECESSARY TO COMPLETELY ANSWER YOUR QUESTION IN GREAT DETAIL (WHICH LIGHTS HELD ME UP, WHICH PASSENGERS WERE SLOW TO BOARD, WHO PLAYED FARE EVASION GAMES, AND WHERE I EXPERIENCE PROBLEMS WITH THE ROUTINE SCHEDULE) ALL WHILE WE MAKE THESE PASSENGERS EVEN LATER, SHALL I?"
All information which is recorded in great detail on the BDS card for review at YOUR convenience. But, here you are on the radio making my work even more miserable!
This STUPID question comes from a prejudice that assumes there's some malicious reason a bus driver wants to inconvenience all his passengers, and him or herself by running late. That is NOT a fare judgment to make of a fellow worker! Who the hell do you think you are?
I can't speak for others, but running late and using up my recovery time, means I either give up my few minutes out of the seat to safely refresh, OR I purposfully turn around late and run the next trip late, subjecting myself to more of the same stressful criticism and pressure to perform at top speed. And remember, STRESS kills!!!
I could continue on this rant, but the subject makes me stressed out just thinking about it!
If I were Grand Poobah if ATU757, my message to the dispatcher brothers and sisters would be, "Don't ever ask that question over the air again, I don't care which manager told you to, your role is to support these front-line workers and not to add unnecessary pressure and stress to their already stressful working conditions. Instead, you tell the managment to gether that information off the BDS system, and if necessary, consult with the operator AFTER their shift."
The Rampant Lion
Most of us know that the schedules are to blame for this sign-up, just look at the busses that are stacked up at various times during the day. It is unusually bad this time out, I think the S. department, forgot to add picking up passangers to their Google map, schedules.
ReplyDeleteHB
Why are you late?
ReplyDeleteA. The same reasons you got out of driving and into dispatch...
...Only difference you quit and I mastered the process!
ReplyDelete