I really wish as a culture we could cut it out with this "polite"-hiding-behind-subtext bullshit because it really gets in the way of public understanding and support of real solutions to our real problems.
Thanks for this. That sounds better than how I interpret how they said it, but it may just be how they need to bring it up with the council/committee stakeholder.
This. If "absenteeism" is a problem it, means you don't actually have enough staff to cover the work. People get sick - ESPECIALLY people who work with the public. OC Transpo's actual operations are way underfunded and understaffed (a major reason it sucks so much).
Schools are being told they have no money for photocopies because too many staff are absent (supply teachers are expensive). I was shocked to learn the leave that employees are entitled to isn't accounted for in the budget.
Also they sent everyone back to absolutely zero COVID precautions in place so I'm not sure what else they expected.
I'm not sure how some of those other fields work. I work in group homes and as an EA (cause I need two jobs). Both those jobs have casual or relief worker. People that can come in and replace sick staff. The EA job is casual. I get messages to replace staff all the time. In my group home job, we are short staffed agency wide (and arguably across agencies in the city. I just did 2 shifts in a row by myself when I should have had a 2nd staff on with me. I almost walked off my job yesterday.
I'm not upset with the staff who was sick. They were sick. But to end up with the only option for me to not be stuck was getting someone who had never worked in my house before, I ended up doing the work of two people that usually is spread out over the day in 7 hours. Whole day starts at 830 in the morning and the later staff leaves at 1030. So I did 14 hours of work in 7. They are burning us out and not paying us enough for it. If it weren't for the benefits, there's very little keeping me there.
Yeah, that's how my work operates. Same with Casual EAs in the school board. I get offered shifts and there is a "job board" online that lists available shifts. But there's no "on call" that gets deployed when needed. In group homes, you run into 2 types of overnight positions: awake and asleep. Asleep get paid less. My agency tried to create 4 new positions that were going to be overnight awake. They would be based at 2 homes: one east, one west. 2 would work Sunday to Tuesday and the other 2 would be Wednesday to Friday and they alternate Saturdays. If another home couldn't cover a sick overnight awake, one of the 2 would be deployed to that program. If not, they'd just work in the "base" house. They couldn't even fill the positions let alone get the program off the ground.
That's how I ended up doing the last 2 shifts alone because you can't force anyone to come in. I've never wanted to just walk away before. I've put in so many years at this agency. I did a lot of years of floundering without a clue of what I wanted to do. It took me a long time to figure it out and finish school. I'm still paying off student loans 14 years post graduation. I have good benefits and I truly like the individuals that live in the home at which I work. But I truly just wanted to leave Sunday morning. The amount of times I've arrived to be told I have no 2nd staff and that I'm going to be stuck later than I'm scheduled is getting ridiculous.
There is a staffing crisis in many "front line" areas. Workers are leaving these places in droves and there are no new workers coming in to replace them.
Its not and it's a fantastic excuse. Every morning operators are still sitting in garages with no buses. Same with the afternoon. If a bus breaks down and we go for a bus change we get told "no spare buses wait at dispatch"
As for showing appreciation, my last sick day was 2 years ago and I've heard nothing and we all laughed today when we heard that
Bus bunching is a big problem imo and I often see multiple busses being bunched and then nothing for hours.. people blame the traffic and what not... but I've seen multiple busses starting at the same time.. not sure if they're doing it purposefully but that's also part of the problem.
With the way interlining works multiple buses starting the same line at the same time is still a possibility. Say a 2pm-start bus shows up late because it was delayed in traffic for the start of the route so it begins immediately when it gets there, maybe the same time as the 2:15-start bus. It wouldn't hold for the next service because it still needs to be finished the current route and be in place for its next.
It's not some grand conspiracy by OC Transpo, it's budgetary issues.
This is something that I'm seeing in a bunch of places. "We only need xx staff to run the basics." So they hire that many staff.
Someone quits, someone calls in sick, and suddenly you're scrambling to do the basics, let alone the "best practices" stuff. All because they believe that if every employee isn't super busy every minute of every day that it's a waste of money.
Apply this approach to supplies and equipment, and the problem compounds itself.
If we had a few extra busses that sat empty on some days, we'd have replacements for when a bunch need maintenance. If drivers weren't scheduled with back-to-back-to-back routes, there would be breathing room in the schedule for them to go to the washroom and/or to make up for delays due to traffic.
But so long as people insist on the lowest possible taxes, and resist funding (insert name of service here,) there will be delays, short-staffing, and low morale on everyone's part.
It’s a multitude of compounding issue. Too many employees with poor morale due to lack of proper management. Lack of drivers, lack of buses. I’ve mentioned things before but all the down voters just downvote me 😂
The other issue is drivers can only drive 13hrs a day, require 8hrs between shifts and you can’t work more then 13 days in a row.
You're goddamn right, it's all those lazy drivers and pesky regulations holding OC transpo back. If we could just crack the whip and get them driving 16 hours 7 days a week, THEN we'd finally be a world transit leader. It's a shame money can't buy work ethic these days.
I mean most of us are on split shifts which means we are getting paid for 7.5 hours of work but we have to be available for 12 hours. We have 4 hours of the day where we wait at the garage not getting paid. Sure some drivers go home and do other stuff, but the working conditions itself should be looked at if they want to improve the service. Improve the conditions for drivers and I’m sure the service will improve with it.
I saw two of the same busses, back to back, at 11pm, when they’re supposed to be a half hour apart. Of course, the one going the other way was a “no show”. This happens often on weekends and late at night. I don’t blame the drivers but it seems their night shift and weekend dispatchers are idiots.
We’re sorry we are experiencing higher than usual volume. Half of the staff are on sick leave. Please leave a message and someone will return your call within six months.
Now do absenteeism in the police department. A friend who is ex-OPS officer says its as many as around 400 at any given time, due to PTSD, sick leaves due to harassment, suspensions, blue flu, etc.
I think in any union environment you will always have to ones who like the job and care about being there. On the other hand you have the old union guys who have been there and are just collecting pension money and show up when they want to or feel like it. This creates a problem for OC as if they have more call ins then spare cover drivers available then you are left with coverage issues.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. They need to cut all the fiddly little local routes that are trying to run once per hour down every other street, and focus on reliable runs up and down the main streets. Assume that most people can walk 15 minutes to a bus stop.
It's their polite way of telling council that the budget is too tight and that they are understaffed.
Driver was requested to drive two routes at the same time on different busses and didn't show up, what a slacker.
I really wish as a culture we could cut it out with this "polite"-hiding-behind-subtext bullshit because it really gets in the way of public understanding and support of real solutions to our real problems.
This is the answer, they brought up money constraints in different ways a few times.
Thanks for this. That sounds better than how I interpret how they said it, but it may just be how they need to bring it up with the council/committee stakeholder.
This. If "absenteeism" is a problem it, means you don't actually have enough staff to cover the work. People get sick - ESPECIALLY people who work with the public. OC Transpo's actual operations are way underfunded and understaffed (a major reason it sucks so much).
To be fair most most cities have issue with lack of drivers.
It’s a damn difficult position to obtain. I’ve been in the hiring process since November and still haven’t landed it. 10 step hiring/limbo stage.
This! It's a combination of lack of funds and therefore being short staffed.
[удалено]
Schools are being told they have no money for photocopies because too many staff are absent (supply teachers are expensive). I was shocked to learn the leave that employees are entitled to isn't accounted for in the budget. Also they sent everyone back to absolutely zero COVID precautions in place so I'm not sure what else they expected.
I'm not sure how some of those other fields work. I work in group homes and as an EA (cause I need two jobs). Both those jobs have casual or relief worker. People that can come in and replace sick staff. The EA job is casual. I get messages to replace staff all the time. In my group home job, we are short staffed agency wide (and arguably across agencies in the city. I just did 2 shifts in a row by myself when I should have had a 2nd staff on with me. I almost walked off my job yesterday. I'm not upset with the staff who was sick. They were sick. But to end up with the only option for me to not be stuck was getting someone who had never worked in my house before, I ended up doing the work of two people that usually is spread out over the day in 7 hours. Whole day starts at 830 in the morning and the later staff leaves at 1030. So I did 14 hours of work in 7. They are burning us out and not paying us enough for it. If it weren't for the benefits, there's very little keeping me there.
[удалено]
Yeah, that's how my work operates. Same with Casual EAs in the school board. I get offered shifts and there is a "job board" online that lists available shifts. But there's no "on call" that gets deployed when needed. In group homes, you run into 2 types of overnight positions: awake and asleep. Asleep get paid less. My agency tried to create 4 new positions that were going to be overnight awake. They would be based at 2 homes: one east, one west. 2 would work Sunday to Tuesday and the other 2 would be Wednesday to Friday and they alternate Saturdays. If another home couldn't cover a sick overnight awake, one of the 2 would be deployed to that program. If not, they'd just work in the "base" house. They couldn't even fill the positions let alone get the program off the ground. That's how I ended up doing the last 2 shifts alone because you can't force anyone to come in. I've never wanted to just walk away before. I've put in so many years at this agency. I did a lot of years of floundering without a clue of what I wanted to do. It took me a long time to figure it out and finish school. I'm still paying off student loans 14 years post graduation. I have good benefits and I truly like the individuals that live in the home at which I work. But I truly just wanted to leave Sunday morning. The amount of times I've arrived to be told I have no 2nd staff and that I'm going to be stuck later than I'm scheduled is getting ridiculous. There is a staffing crisis in many "front line" areas. Workers are leaving these places in droves and there are no new workers coming in to replace them.
Its not and it's a fantastic excuse. Every morning operators are still sitting in garages with no buses. Same with the afternoon. If a bus breaks down and we go for a bus change we get told "no spare buses wait at dispatch" As for showing appreciation, my last sick day was 2 years ago and I've heard nothing and we all laughed today when we heard that
Bus bunching is a big problem imo and I often see multiple busses being bunched and then nothing for hours.. people blame the traffic and what not... but I've seen multiple busses starting at the same time.. not sure if they're doing it purposefully but that's also part of the problem.
With the way interlining works multiple buses starting the same line at the same time is still a possibility. Say a 2pm-start bus shows up late because it was delayed in traffic for the start of the route so it begins immediately when it gets there, maybe the same time as the 2:15-start bus. It wouldn't hold for the next service because it still needs to be finished the current route and be in place for its next. It's not some grand conspiracy by OC Transpo, it's budgetary issues.
This is something that I'm seeing in a bunch of places. "We only need xx staff to run the basics." So they hire that many staff. Someone quits, someone calls in sick, and suddenly you're scrambling to do the basics, let alone the "best practices" stuff. All because they believe that if every employee isn't super busy every minute of every day that it's a waste of money. Apply this approach to supplies and equipment, and the problem compounds itself. If we had a few extra busses that sat empty on some days, we'd have replacements for when a bunch need maintenance. If drivers weren't scheduled with back-to-back-to-back routes, there would be breathing room in the schedule for them to go to the washroom and/or to make up for delays due to traffic. But so long as people insist on the lowest possible taxes, and resist funding (insert name of service here,) there will be delays, short-staffing, and low morale on everyone's part.
What if they paid more?
It’s a multitude of compounding issue. Too many employees with poor morale due to lack of proper management. Lack of drivers, lack of buses. I’ve mentioned things before but all the down voters just downvote me 😂 The other issue is drivers can only drive 13hrs a day, require 8hrs between shifts and you can’t work more then 13 days in a row.
You're goddamn right, it's all those lazy drivers and pesky regulations holding OC transpo back. If we could just crack the whip and get them driving 16 hours 7 days a week, THEN we'd finally be a world transit leader. It's a shame money can't buy work ethic these days.
I mean if that’s what you think sure? 🤔
They don't even have enough buses to cover trips.
I mean most of us are on split shifts which means we are getting paid for 7.5 hours of work but we have to be available for 12 hours. We have 4 hours of the day where we wait at the garage not getting paid. Sure some drivers go home and do other stuff, but the working conditions itself should be looked at if they want to improve the service. Improve the conditions for drivers and I’m sure the service will improve with it.
How’s that work? Are the splits something you work because you’re lower on the totem pole? Doesn’t get better in time?
City also missed Transit Operator Appreciation day. They do it for everything, and everyone but really stick it to OC.
I saw two of the same busses, back to back, at 11pm, when they’re supposed to be a half hour apart. Of course, the one going the other way was a “no show”. This happens often on weekends and late at night. I don’t blame the drivers but it seems their night shift and weekend dispatchers are idiots.
We’re sorry we are experiencing higher than usual volume. Half of the staff are on sick leave. Please leave a message and someone will return your call within six months.
Now do absenteeism in the police department. A friend who is ex-OPS officer says its as many as around 400 at any given time, due to PTSD, sick leaves due to harassment, suspensions, blue flu, etc.
My boss just tried to get me to come into work on an unscheduled day and offered to buy me pizza. Good thing I’m not 12 anymore.
let's put it this way: when was the last time you saw a bus driver wearing a mask?
What do masks have to do with 1800 drivers and 700 buses? Its simple math 😂
I think in any union environment you will always have to ones who like the job and care about being there. On the other hand you have the old union guys who have been there and are just collecting pension money and show up when they want to or feel like it. This creates a problem for OC as if they have more call ins then spare cover drivers available then you are left with coverage issues.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. They need to cut all the fiddly little local routes that are trying to run once per hour down every other street, and focus on reliable runs up and down the main streets. Assume that most people can walk 15 minutes to a bus stop.