Hello this is the United States calling. Are we reaching... *click*
Amazon Engineer texted me late (for me*) last night. She wanted to know whether I knew who was on call for the Streets division. I did not. There is supposed to be a monthly schedule, but one hasn't been published for a long time.
The police had tried the after-hours on-call number several times with no answer. Amazon Engineer had called both of Streets Superintendent's numbers -- his work phone and his personal number -- with no response. This is the fourth or fifth time SS has failed to respond (for the entire weekend on several occasions). On those occasions, PD randomly calls AE or me because we'll answer the phone and do *something*. SS has been talked to about this several times, including last Monday.
AE emailed the Human Resource Director for the correct verbiage to use in a written reprimand while we were exchanging texts.
Best Beloved, who is damned good at applying her background to assess workplace situations and human behavior, warned me again that I'm eventually going to end up supervising the Streets Division as well as Traffic. Technically, I'm part of Streets, but I report directly to the director (AE). I'm a few pay grades higher than SS, and, in this very structured town, that means that I cannot work for SS, but he can work for me. It's possible -- likely even -- that we'll consolidate within a few years.
To be clear, I really don't want to supervise SS. The crew he inherited are nice guys, but had been left entirely to their own devices by the previous superintendent and are used to having their way about everything. They resist any form of direction, believing that they know best what they need to do and how to prioritize their tasks. This mostly meant that unpleasant jobs never got done, and that trees along the right of way could be trimmed by knocking branches off them with a front loader. These guys are needy and whiny enough that the life coach/counselor hired by the town had weekly office hours at the Streets offices, and spend about half her time there. This, for seven people. I suspect that it was mostly three of them, but I don't spend enough time there to make a real assessment.
Having SS under me would make it difficult to get my own job done. Traffic Technician keeps me busy enough, not because he's a bad employee, but because he's a good employee. He asks for my help doing things that require two people at least four times a week. They're things that need doing because they've been neglected for years, and he has nobody else to help him, but that doesn't change that I lose a full day's work per week because I'm helping him.
The police had tried the after-hours on-call number several times with no answer. Amazon Engineer had called both of Streets Superintendent's numbers -- his work phone and his personal number -- with no response. This is the fourth or fifth time SS has failed to respond (for the entire weekend on several occasions). On those occasions, PD randomly calls AE or me because we'll answer the phone and do *something*. SS has been talked to about this several times, including last Monday.
AE emailed the Human Resource Director for the correct verbiage to use in a written reprimand while we were exchanging texts.
Best Beloved, who is damned good at applying her background to assess workplace situations and human behavior, warned me again that I'm eventually going to end up supervising the Streets Division as well as Traffic. Technically, I'm part of Streets, but I report directly to the director (AE). I'm a few pay grades higher than SS, and, in this very structured town, that means that I cannot work for SS, but he can work for me. It's possible -- likely even -- that we'll consolidate within a few years.
To be clear, I really don't want to supervise SS. The crew he inherited are nice guys, but had been left entirely to their own devices by the previous superintendent and are used to having their way about everything. They resist any form of direction, believing that they know best what they need to do and how to prioritize their tasks. This mostly meant that unpleasant jobs never got done, and that trees along the right of way could be trimmed by knocking branches off them with a front loader. These guys are needy and whiny enough that the life coach/counselor hired by the town had weekly office hours at the Streets offices, and spend about half her time there. This, for seven people. I suspect that it was mostly three of them, but I don't spend enough time there to make a real assessment.
Having SS under me would make it difficult to get my own job done. Traffic Technician keeps me busy enough, not because he's a bad employee, but because he's a good employee. He asks for my help doing things that require two people at least four times a week. They're things that need doing because they've been neglected for years, and he has nobody else to help him, but that doesn't change that I lose a full day's work per week because I'm helping him.