Posted on 01/21/2006 11:16:30 AM PST by george76
MBTA officials say rampant absenteeism is hurting bus and subway service, discouraging riders, and eating away at the agency's finances by forcing it to pay overtime.
...about 35 percent of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's roughly 6,000 employees were absent for 11 or more days in 2004, and 16 percent were absent 26 or more days.
Khalida Smalls, coordinator for the watchdog group called the T Riders Union, said yesterday that excessive absenteeism directly affects passengers.
''People stand at their bus stop at 4:45 waiting for a bus that doesn't show up," ...
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
HAHAHA! Surely the officials of the MBTA don't actually expect these parasites to WORK for their living ...! C'mon guys! They're UNIONIZED! You should be thankful they show up at all.
Good thing there's a Union or those deadbeats would be looking fo rnew jobs and the services would be running more on time.
"rampant absenteeism..."
The mind boggles!
"...and eating away at the agency's finances by forcing it to pay overtime."
I tell the employees that any sick time over three days a year is considered excessive. After three days, I will dock their pay unless they have a doctor's note.
Now I don't tell them this part but anybody having over three sick days a year is disqualified for merit pay increase and/or promotions. I simply will not give a raise or promotion to an employee absent more than three days a year unless they have a damn good reason backed up by a doctor's note.
The result is that my department averages about 1.6 sick days a year. Best in the entire company.
Good to see that you care.
That Union monopoly obviously does not care.
"Best in the entire company"
You have the most productive branch of the entire company?
I have been an engineering student (undergraduate and now graduate) for the last four years. I have yet to miss a single class, test, presentation, etc. because I was sick. I have given presentations and taken tests with a migraine headache. I have been sick and throwing up all night, but gotten up, studied all day, and then taken a test anyway. The other students I know all do the same (at least the ones who want to have a high GPA and get a job after school). Same goes for many business students I know.
Meanwhile, most of the people I know who work at jobs which don't require a college degree, or who are unionized, miss days all of the time. And yet the media always portrays engineers and businessmen as weaklings, compared to the "tough" blue-collar workers. As far as I can tell, this is a load of crap.
No offense intended to any individuals here with blue-collar type jobs who show up every day and do a good job, I am just speaking from my personal experience.
That should happen.
The Big Dig went from an estimate of $2 Billion to over $14 Billion and counting.
It is still leaking water and money.
All the DUmmies have their hands out.
What are the chances that the DUmmies would let MBTA be privatized ?
Allotted 10 sick days? That beats my companies allotment of zero. If I call in sick I either do not get paid, or take a vacation day.
Whoa!! It is worse than you guys realize. If you read the whole article, you see this line...
"The T counts employees as absent if they call in sick after using up their annual allotment of 10 sick days, if they are more than two hours late, give less than one hour's notice when calling in sick, or if they have other unexcused absences."
So, the people with 11 or more "absences" have actually missed 21 or more days (10 sick days, plus 11 additional absences). WTF?
Keep up the good work.
It will pay off in the long run.
You will make your own good luck by working hard and by working smart.
Then, when you accomplish your goals...you can have the respect of having done it yourself.
Only count as "absent" after the first ten absent days are counted...
"T officials acknowledge that absenteeism often went undetected because of the agency's antiquated system of tracking attendance, in which supervisors filled out handwritten note cards, known as ''blue cards" because of their color."
"T employee unions often cited illegible handwriting on the cards to challenge..."
Unionized affirmitive action employees tend to have a lot of absences.
Who woulda thunk it?
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