Today's Random News

[Error]

I had that as a kid. I never realized until now just how hideous looking it is.

[ChaoofNee]

All so the union worker boobs can lose more money during the strike than they will gain in any negotiation. But, hey, those union bosses will make out ok, and that's what really matters.

You know, I would normally be far more understanding of a union actually having to go on strike, but something doesn't add up here. LIRR workers have a hell of a thing going on. Part of this whole ordeal is that they would have to pitch in a little bit for health care, which they currently get for free.

From what I can tell, these guys make a pretty decent living, too.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/nyregion/03mta.html
They're specialized workers and that takes a specialized pay. I plenty understand that. But the LIRR is also way over budget, too. Is that just mismanagement or are their salaries REALLY too high? I can't prentend to know, but some transparency would be nice.

Or a New York mayor that's not shrugging this off to go have fun in Italy.

Regardless of the plight of the worker and mismanagement of the company, Yoshi is probably plenty right about those bosses, though.

[Joust Williams]

8000 people making more than 100K? dam

In other mass transit news, Seattle is having a tough time. I take the bus to and from work and it's crap in the PM. They are about to cut routes all over the place and even before the cuts it's impossible to have a comfortable ride. How are they supposedly losing money? Paying overpriced pensions because they thought they'd get a 13% RoR forever?

[Dolemite]

Oh, Yoshi is totally right about the union bosses. They'll come out of this just fine, don't you worry about them. In situations like this, it's always the little people who get fucked.

Anyway, here's a recording of a guy trying to cancel his Comcast service with a customer service rep who is basically refusing to do so.

Astounding call...the customer service peon must have a gun to their head the whole time, as I can't understand any other reason why they just HAVE to know why the customer is cancelling. I've worked at companies with call centers, and I've seen the pressure that gets put on these poor assholes. Dealing with the public while juggling demands of douchebag corporate suits at the same time is a terrible way to live.

But, on the flipside, I can't really feel bad for the customer enduring this bullshit, because he's being a complete doormat the entire time. If I don't get what I want out of a customer service rep on a phone call within the first minute or so, I insist on speaking to a manager; I don't waste nearly 20 minutes (this Comcast call picks up 10 minutes in) arguing with someone at the bottom of the totem pole who can't make things happen. My tolerance for that is absolute zero.

[Dolemite]

wait wait wait

Attachment 74642

boom, sorted.

Now we're talkin'.

[ChaoofNee]

8000 people making more than 100K? dam

Actually, there's something else I remembered: my friend's cousin works on the railroad. She's told me that these guys work a lot of ridiculous shifts. Lots of 12 hour days. I'll bet being understaffed is contributing to that overtime. At least they're being compensated.

She also mentioned something about somebody being fired over a broken leg which makes NO sense to me considering how vocal unions are. Hrm.

[Brisco Bold]

Yoshi is goddamn right.

This (in Toronto) irritates me to no end.

[Calliander]

That is a call center person who exceeded his "threshold" of canceled accounts. The amount of times he says, "okay," betrays his genuine fear of reprisal for losing the customer.

This is out on the open web, so: I know a person who works for Verizon and they have the same "threshold" for things like that, discounts, and other customer service related stuff. That limit is per month in this person's department, and is a combination of all the things they can do that don't involve stuff that accumulates money for the company.

It's a bullshit way to operate a business from an ethical standpoint but it makes 100% sense from a profit standpoint: They can now fire this rep (if they haven't already) for "under-performing" since even though the number of customers who call to cancel is beyond his control he obviously should have the "skill set" to be able to talk customers out of canceling. Even though they provide minimal training and most people obviously don't want to have a job where they cajole other people into or out of things, since that's an asshole thing to do.

[Fe 26]

Labor costs are probably not the issue.

It's almost always bad management. If anything, not enough qualify labor. Not wanting to add some 80,000 to 150,000 a year experts because wah wah costs.

It's almost always bosses promoted past their skill, making (or not making) decisions. I'd bet money that those transportation companies are over budget and it's all in maintenance. They probably have a lot of projects hanging out there. Lots of equipment being rented for too long. Lots of people working weird hours and getting overtime.

It's almost never the little guy. It's bad management or not enough skilled management

[Joust Williams]

don't get me start on 'management'

how in the world is everyone a manager? this implies that everyone has the skills to be one