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Trimess
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
WHAT IS TRIMET ANYWAY?
Glad to see that TriMet is not a transit agency, it's not a healthcare
agency...it's a consulting business, an I.T./software company, a
construction company, a development company...but NOT a Transit Agency. (Erik Halstead)
However I agree with Erik, I forgot to add that. You do have to have a few customer service people around, and a few payroll clerks, and a couple schedulers, but come on, Trimet is way over staffed bureaucratically.
I don't have a sense as to whether or not TriMet is over staffed; but certainly they keep hiring expensive people, something I tend to think you wouldn't do if you were financially strapped.
If you have a problem with my job, or my job position, you have a right to actually contest it during a general rate case.
But, no, you'd rather be a blow hard and make personal attacks rather than stepping up. If you're so tough, why don't you go to the Public Utilities Commission? The same one that repeatedly approves my position, my department, my pay - because even the PUC knows that you can't run a utility unless you have a public customer service department. It's not reasonable to give out the cell phone numbers of the servicemen so that when your power goes out, his cell phone gets 1,000 phone calls at once. And I'm sure you're such a honest guy - especially given your attitude towards me - that you will faithfully pay your bill, you will never, ever have a problem with your bill, you will never need assistance. When the streetlight goes out, you'll just deal with it...and then a tree falls on the line, you'll just accept it as reality, because there's only one serviceman and he can't drive and talk on the phone at the same time.
At least my company, you could theoretically replace large parts of my job with a website. And many people do many functions on our website. But those functions don't exist for TriMet - so I can buy a fare on the website, whoopdiedo. I still have to get to the bus stop, ride the bus, make the transfers - the Internet doesn't help me. Nor does TriMet's bloated I.T. department, or TriMet's bloated Capital Projects Department. Those - and the Marketing Department - if those 300 plus employees were fired, TriMet's basic function would still exist to function.
Fire me and my co-workers...better hope the power doesn't go out. And better hope you don't move - because there's no one to handle the billing change. And let's hope your meter isn't read incorrectly...because there's nobody to fix the error. But if TriMet's I.T. Department was fired tomorrow...the buses will still run, the MAX trains will still run, fares will still be collected, employees will still be paid...
Erik, I don't think you need to be fired, I'm just illustrating how absurd your argument is.
Your point is simply that everyone who doesn't drive a bus should be gone (such as the IT people). OK, well if that's what you think, then YOU should be gone from your job, since you aren't involved in delivering electricity to customers.
...but that doesn't make much sense, does it?
I'd say that TriMet is no more an "IT/Software company" than your employer is a "customer service company".
... and no, if you got rid of the IT people, TriMet would not function. There would be no payroll, radios, signup, scheduling, dispatch. People would not be able to navigate the system - there would be no trip planner, no printed bus schedules, no signs at the bus stops. There would be no ticket machines, no ability to distribute tickets, no onboard fare collection equipment... Face it Erik, there's a computer behind almost everything TriMet does -- even the busses themselves.
(yawn) I could keep going, but I really have more important things to do.
BTW Erik, I've spent hundreds of hours developing & maintaining a mobile app that real customers use to navigate the system. I give this app away for free.
I also ride and encourage other people to ride the system, because I believe it is a good way to get around.
What positive (to use your word) contribution have you made?
Do you see your posting of endless bitchy comments on this and other blogs as being particularly "positive", or even helpful? What has come out of it?
Do you think your negative comments encourage or discourage people from riding the system?
^^^ BTW, I'm not asking for credit or special recognition of my work; which is why I don't really say much about it. I'm simply responding to Erik's claim -
You have NEVER made any positive contribution to this blog, to TriMet discussion, to improving TriMet
11 comments:
By that rationale, Erik's own job should be eliminated, since he does not directly provide electrical service.
Hahaaaaaaaaaa!
That was genuinely funny Max
However I agree with Erik, I forgot to add that.
You do have to have a few customer service people around, and a few payroll clerks, and a couple schedulers, but come on, Trimet is way over staffed bureaucratically.
Well then you have to have IT people around to keep the computers running as well.
This is a typical overblown Erik claim; which is why many people don't really take anything he says seriously anymore.
I don't have a sense as to whether or not TriMet is over staffed; but certainly they keep hiring expensive people, something I tend to think you wouldn't do if you were financially strapped.
Oh, and one last thing Max:
If you have a problem with my job, or my job position, you have a right to actually contest it during a general rate case.
But, no, you'd rather be a blow hard and make personal attacks rather than stepping up. If you're so tough, why don't you go to the Public Utilities Commission? The same one that repeatedly approves my position, my department, my pay - because even the PUC knows that you can't run a utility unless you have a public customer service department. It's not reasonable to give out the cell phone numbers of the servicemen so that when your power goes out, his cell phone gets 1,000 phone calls at once. And I'm sure you're such a honest guy - especially given your attitude towards me - that you will faithfully pay your bill, you will never, ever have a problem with your bill, you will never need assistance. When the streetlight goes out, you'll just deal with it...and then a tree falls on the line, you'll just accept it as reality, because there's only one serviceman and he can't drive and talk on the phone at the same time.
At least my company, you could theoretically replace large parts of my job with a website. And many people do many functions on our website. But those functions don't exist for TriMet - so I can buy a fare on the website, whoopdiedo. I still have to get to the bus stop, ride the bus, make the transfers - the Internet doesn't help me. Nor does TriMet's bloated I.T. department, or TriMet's bloated Capital Projects Department. Those - and the Marketing Department - if those 300 plus employees were fired, TriMet's basic function would still exist to function.
Fire me and my co-workers...better hope the power doesn't go out. And better hope you don't move - because there's no one to handle the billing change. And let's hope your meter isn't read incorrectly...because there's nobody to fix the error. But if TriMet's I.T. Department was fired tomorrow...the buses will still run, the MAX trains will still run, fares will still be collected, employees will still be paid...
Erik, I don't think you need to be fired, I'm just illustrating how absurd your argument is.
Your point is simply that everyone who doesn't drive a bus should be gone (such as the IT people). OK, well if that's what you think, then YOU should be gone from your job, since you aren't involved in delivering electricity to customers.
...but that doesn't make much sense, does it?
I'd say that TriMet is no more an "IT/Software company" than your employer is a "customer service company".
... and no, if you got rid of the IT people, TriMet would not function. There would be no payroll, radios, signup, scheduling, dispatch. People would not be able to navigate the system - there would be no trip planner, no printed bus schedules, no signs at the bus stops. There would be no ticket machines, no ability to distribute tickets, no onboard fare collection equipment... Face it Erik, there's a computer behind almost everything TriMet does -- even the busses themselves.
(yawn) I could keep going, but I really have more important things to do.
BTW Erik, I've spent hundreds of hours developing & maintaining a mobile app that real customers use to navigate the system. I give this app away for free.
I also ride and encourage other people to ride the system, because I believe it is a good way to get around.
What positive (to use your word) contribution have you made?
Do you see your posting of endless bitchy comments on this and other blogs as being particularly "positive", or even helpful? What has come out of it?
Do you think your negative comments encourage or discourage people from riding the system?
^^^
BTW, I'm not asking for credit or special recognition of my work; which is why I don't really say much about it. I'm simply responding to Erik's claim -
You have NEVER made any positive contribution to this blog, to TriMet discussion, to improving TriMet
All that time wasted on the fact that the company, "is" nolonger a transit agency, by definition.
HB
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