Passenger Trains > I Was Thinking - Amtrak Management Double Standards

You know, I was reading this post by my good friend "FallinFlag" and I got to thinking. We Amtrak employees have long known of the double standards in which management takes a backseat to when it comes to policies they, or their superiors set forth.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,963509

The comment in which "FallinFlag" speaks of a certain yard conductor returning to work with a years worth of back pay, plus being taught a lesson by the Braintrust in Oakland leads me to the following comments.

Without naming names, those close to the said incidents will no doubt know who I refer to. When the current top dog in Oakland was running the show, a engineer went over a derail at the hands of a conductor whom failed to notice it lined for it's position to derail equipment, the punishment?

30-days on the ground for the engineer.

Yet, we have a engineer who fails to inspect his equipment, runs 48 miles with the handbrake and engine brake applied, not noticing that anything is wrong (he had two engines) and puts flat spots on the engine, in addition damaging the brake rigging to the tune well over 50k, the punishment?

15-days on the ground for the engineer and conductor.

Oh yea, did I mention the failure to do a proper air brake test!

Yup, the same topdog in power and you see the double standard?

See, one thing management doesn't want are a group of employees that are outspoken, they don't want to be told what idiots they are for not knowing how to do their job. So you get what we have here, and this is just a small sampling of the things which go on in the world of Amtrak.

If you just do your job, and bow down to their every command, you'll get special treatment.

Now not all managers are scumbags, there are good ones, but like I've said time and time again they are outshined by the bad ones.

Pitty, my two cents worth.

its all starts @ the top. yes i mean you david gunn. your policy is too fire everyone and then hire people @ 75%. o.k. you save a few coins until the lawsuits start to pile up. heir deely & diaper boy are just minions & your little budgetary freak show. frankie the funny thing is they are starting to fire the kiss-asses in oakland too. you know its bad when the white employees start to bitch & mown!

Amtrak's head management in the oakland area manages by intimidation. Diaper boy is only the arms length transaction maker for the head guy. If things come down... The head guy can say he didn't know. If only David Gunn really knew how descent employees were being treated. Know wonder there are so many rule violations in California. Stressed and demoralized train crews

Well now you can expect to hear from the ones who hate to hear any complaining from us at all, but here goes. The double standard doesn't just apply to T&E personnel. It's in the baggage, station services and on board services as well. All the managers at Amtrak ride the same old worn out bicycle. The Standards of Excellence policy handbook says it applies to all Amtrak employees, but it's very clear that management is completely exempt from any rules. They have a 'us against them' mentality that defies description. They just can't understand why the human beings that do the work won't knuckle under to their cat 'o nine tails. I guess they figure that if you beat someone enough they'll finally submit. That's so wrong. Even the least intelligent moron manager should realize that front line employees can make them look like s*** or make them look like a golden trophy. By treating employees that deal with the public like crap, all they accomplish is resentment, low morale, contempt and hate. They refuse to accept suggestions. They will not accept there might be a better way of doing it from the people who do it every day. They are the managers and that is that. The one guy had to leave the Love Boat because they wouldn't bow down and kiss his you know what when he said bend over. He couldn't hack it in the real world of competition so he crawled back to his little hole so he could strike out with his fangs at people he knew couldn't fight back. He's a very big man. They're all very big, in their own minds. You guys did it wrong. You know the FDA wasn't there to supervise the cooking, so you should have shown up, stuffed youselves silly until you were sick, then all marked off with food poisoning.

Enlightenment please, who is Diaper Boy?

Touche' to all and I thought the mighty SP was bad but the treachery of the Gunn, Deely gang makes Mao Tse Dong look like a paper tiger. Right on fjc. You know come to think about it how many of us would like to leave to go and work on a cruise line than get fired from there than come back to the BIG A with all our prior seniority rights or whatever. I for one guess that having the right connections does help or A%^ Ki&^%** nuff said.

Fodder for anyone who might be thinking Amtrak as an organization really is too broken to be fixed...

Dave

DavidP Wrote:
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> Fodder for anyone who might be thinking Amtrak as
> an organization really is too broken to be
> fixed...
>
> Dave


Dave Amtrak isn't any differnt from any other railraod. They all work this way. The company name may change but the system is the same.

The BIG difference between Amtrak and other "railroads" is at Amtrak, managers have no incentive to produce. Other railroads have a thing called competition and in that business environment the people who run things are expected to get results. At Amtrak, any goofball with no seniority can get a job in management. And they do. Think of it. With very little, or no education, no people skills, no background check, no nothing you can get slipped into a job lording it over hundreds of workers whose job it is to safely transport thousands of people on high speed vehicles every day. You can abuse them to your hearts content and never once have to worry about the consequences. You get a quasi-government job with a very secure income. And if you ever do screw up, you'll just get a little counseling session and go back to work. If they abolish your position, you simply get moved into a nice little slot someone created for you with a raise in pay. Amtrak is a haven for managers who wouldn't last ten seconds in the private sector. We've got one in Los Angeles who is openly racist and openly anti-Semitic and has been in trouble more times than any of us can count for exploding in public with a string of racist insults, but still stays right where he is. They just hired a militaristic majordomo for a road foreman, who in just the couple of weeks in the position has made it very clear that he will cut you down in a heartbeat if you look at him wrong. He hasn't been an engineer very long but he knows everything there is to know. You ask about a double standard. There isn't one. Before something can be doubled it has to exist in the first place. And at Amtrak, there is no standard for managers. No morals (personal or professional), no ethics, no standards.

Please pardon my ignorance, but could you tell me how a "Road Foreman" fits into the organization? What does he do?


Thanks,
Pete

DavidP Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fodder for anyone who might be thinking Amtrak as
> an organization really is too broken to be
> fixed...
>
> Dave


I see some things never change. Darth Deely is thinking he's the Emperor and ruling over the employees with his "Iron Fist"and his lap dog Pat Pruesser (I hope I spelled that right) thinks he's Anakin Skywalker and this is "his new Empire". (if you don't understand what I'm talking about go see Revenge of the Sith) All these idiots are managing to do is cut their own arms and legs off with their own lightsabers, and don't even realize it.
Enough with the Star Wars metaphors, these chuckle heads are only gonna manage to do one thing, run Amtrak out of California. I've already heard Connex is attempting to get the California contract. With things as bad as they sound, hope you all are ready to become Connex employees.

lilchico Wrote:
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> Enough with the Star Wars metaphors, these chuckle
> heads are only gonna manage to do one thing, run
> Amtrak out of California. I've already heard
> Connex is attempting to get the California
> contract. With things as bad as they sound, hope
> you all are ready to become Connex employees.

Who's to say that Connex won't bring these guys in as management? Don't laugh, it could happen. Any new operator would want to bring in management that is already "experienced" with the operation. Talk about the "best" of both worlds.

Caltrain-Engr Wrote:
.
>
> Who's to say that Connex won't bring these guys in
> as management? Don't laugh, it could happen.

That's already been done at Metrolink.