Professional Darwinism: Update to OP on p.74

[HorseFreak]

When I was in college the dean decided if campus was open or not during bad weather. We were in Northern New England so we could handle a lot, but ice storms are bad no matter where you live.

One winter we got a particularly nasty one and the roads were just sheets of perfect ice. The dean looked outside her window and declared that classes were on despite many objecting. A lot of students (including myself) didn't risk the commute that day and I doubt any were counted against in grades considering a professor was killed in a car accident due to the awful conditions. 

The next time we had a light dusting of snow class was cancelled. 

[Jocelyn]

I used to work on a campus where they had decided not to cancel classes early, and before they did, the storm moved in fast. They had to send campus police and maintenance workers out into the parking lots to go car to car, to make sure no one was stuck in their car. The next year, I was working in my office, and hadn't looked out in awhile, and got an email that campus was closing because of snow. I jumped up and looked out...the sidewalks weren't even white! It seems universities excel at going from one extreme to another.

[PeterM]

One of the earlier buses, which had to go to a high elevation, slid into a ditch (no students on board).

My dad drives a school bus and managed to get it into a ditch during a snowstorm. With a few kids on board, but no one was hurt. The kids apparently enjoyed the whole experience. My father fully expects to never hear the end of it from his fellow drivers, of course.

Although Mr. Sirius told me this morning that a trip he'd taken to pick up a preschooler could have gotten quite interesting, as the directions he'd been given called for him to take an off-ramp off the freeway that didn't actually exist yet (under construction).

I would hope that the movie "Speed" is required viewing for all bus drivers, and it gives excellent advice on how to handle that sort of situation. Just floor it and hold on tight, and of course hope that the construction workers manage to actually finish the road/bridge in time for the people in the special effects department to make it appear missing via CGI. Truly, Hollywood once again gives us lessons applicable in the real world.

[Seraphia]

When I was in college the dean decided if campus was open or not during bad weather. We were in Northern New England so we could handle a lot, but ice storms are bad no matter where you live.

One winter we got a particularly nasty one and the roads were just sheets of perfect ice. The dean looked outside her window and declared that classes were on despite many objecting. A lot of students (including myself) didn't risk the commute that day and I doubt any were counted against in grades considering a professor was killed in a car accident due to the awful conditions. 

The next time we had a light dusting of snow class was cancelled. 

This happened to me in High School. We had nasty, rainy-slushy weather all weekend, and Monday rolled around with freezing temps. There was ice everywhere, broken branches on the lawns, and the salt trucks and plows were trying to clear the highways first. Did the Super cancel school? Nooooo. Because, you see, he was in Hawaii, and it was nice *there,* so how bad could it be in Michigan in March? 

I came very close to having my first car accident when I slid through a stale red light with my foot pumping the brakes. We made it to school safely, but a lot of people just stayed home. Amusingly, about two weeks later, we had more snow on the weekend, and school was called delayed at 5 AM, then cancelled an hour later. At that point, the sun rose, the 1/8 inch of snow turned to fog for an hour, and then it was a gorgeous, sunshiny spring day. Bro and I decided it was a makeup call.

[Hazmat]

You can't make this stuff up:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2211990/Oops-New-Orleans-prosecutor-drops-JOINT-court--police-officers.html?openGraphAuthor=%2Fhome%2Fsearch.html%3Fs%3D%26authornamef%3DSnejana%2BFarberov

[PastryGoddess]

*snicker*

[Pippen]

Border line PD and a good example of people who should stick to their knitting and not get involved in things beyond the scope of their role.

There is a big bruhahah here in NZ at the moment about Mike Tyson being granted a visitors visa which technically he is not allowed due to the length of his conviction. A special dispensation was made by our now very embarrassed Minister of Immigration and yesterday it was revoked after a public outcry.

Apparently he was coming here to undertake appearances for a charity for the Life Education Trust which runs a scheme in schools for disadvantaged kids. The Life Education Trust however knew nothing about it. Some branch member with no authority what so ever decided to do it under his own steam without consulting anyone. He just thought it would be a good idea. A teacher in one of the schools he was going to visit saw the flyer that was made up and thought 'What the heck?! and had to inform the trust this guy was using their name and branding for this unauthorized activity.

[BB-VA]

You can't make this stuff up:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2211990/Oops-New-Orleans-prosecutor-drops-JOINT-court--police-officers.html?openGraphAuthor=%2Fhome%2Fsearch.html%3Fs%3D%26authornamef%3DSnejana%2BFarberov

Heck, compared to our Commonwealth's Attorney, that's nothing:

http://www.whsv.com/news/headlines/Former_Commonwealths_Attorney_Gets_38_Months_In_Jail_124606704.html

Commonwealth's Attorney is equivalent to District Attorney or State Attorney in other states.   It really is a sad story for the family.

[Jules1980]

I have worked a lot of graveyard shifts and I can tell you that they tend to be ignored. At one job Employee of the Month didn't have a graveyard winner for 5 years. Management neither noticed or cared. And they wondered why morale was terrible for graveyard workers. [For those wondering why the workers never complained: they stopped after repeatedly being blown off.]

I worked graveyard at a place like this and when I was nominated I lost out to a 3-11 shift worker because they were there when the bosses were and they didn't want to hear her complain.  Really?  If you are afraid they are going to complain about losing Empolyee of the Month, are you really Employee of the Month material?  Of course this was reported to me by the nurses who nominated me, so it may all be rumor.  I was slightly upset because that award came with a 50 dollar gift card to WalMart. 

[WolfWay]

Not entirely sure if this qualifies, because it's not leading to anything good, but I doubt the person responsible will get in anyway held accountable for the outcomes of their actions.

NewBoss is not endearing himself to the dept.

One team in department goes out to lunch and takes longer than expected (I think it turned into a two hour lunch, I'm not sure) and they worked inthe extra time at the end of the day to balance it out. The next day the team are sent threatening emails informing them that they need to provide a written explanation for their absence from the office and if it's not a valid reason they will be issued with a warning. I happened to get this email because even though I wasn't part of that team, I was seen to leave the office at the same time as them. I happened to have a halfday that particular day, so I didn't come back to the office but  I was still included in that warning email.

Fine, okay, our dept decides that next time anyone does a team lunch (to celebrate the completion of a major project), they're going to ask NewBoss for permission first. Team is paying for their own lunch, they just need to notify NewBoss that it's highly unlikely they will be able to get into and out of a restaurant in under an hour including drive time, so can they please work the extra hours in later. NewBoss replies with a four word sentence "I do not approve".

I get pulled in to work overtime on a Saturday morning. I do not get paid overtime for this, so I always have previously been allowed to take comp time (the matching number of hours) out of my weekday schedule to balance the hours out to what I'm paid to work. Come Monday morning, the team who worked the weekend to get the project in on time ask NewBoss if they can take the three hours out in comp time. NewBoss replies with "Giving people time off would send the wrong message". The only message we're getting right now is that going the extra mile to get things done will not get you rewarded, but it will get you punished.

We have been told (and I'm only slightly paraphrasing here) "morale is low so you all need to cheer up! Oh and work harder, because upper management all think youre incompetant at your jobs.".

Gosh, I wonder why we've lost nearly 30% of our dept staff to other companies in the last few months. So now we're having to do more work with less staff and repeatedly being told that upper management thinks our department are useless and can't deliver anything decent.

Unfortunately, management tend to protect each other and NewBoss is great at spinning thing to flatter himself, so I doubt he'll get in any way held responsible for the situation.

Update:

So we have an impossible deadline for another unhelpful client who won't give us the information we need to proceed. This means that the impossible deadline cannot be met. We (the team) felt that Boss does not understand that if we couldn't not start four days ago (and counting) we will not be able to make the go live date. We raise this with Boss. His reply: "You have evenings and weekends. You can do it!".

Um.. weekends and evenings we don't get paid overtime to work and don't get compensated for?

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah, I think not. 

[siamesecat2965]

Weeeell, sometimes if someone commits enough PD, there are results. I've posted about Useless, my one co-worker.  Who does nothing, and continually make the same errors, does the same sloppy work, and has been pretty much stripped of any responsibilities other than busy work.  He was let go today, FINALLY!  And I have to be honest and say I do not feel badly for him at all, as this was ALL of his own doing. He was told over and over what he wasn't doing correctly, etc. and a list of other stuff as long as my arm, and never did anything to change or improve. 

Rumor had it he was being protected by SOMEONE high up, as they "liked" him, but he was really a hindrance to all of us who had the (not!) pleasure of working with him. I guess they finally got all their ducks in a row, and he was shown the door.

[Pippen]

Weeeell, sometimes if someone commits enough PD, there are results. I've posted about Useless, my one co-worker.  Who does nothing, and continually make the same errors, does the same sloppy work, and has been pretty much stripped of any responsibilities other than busy work.  He was let go today, FINALLY!  And I have to be honest and say I do not feel badly for him at all, as this was ALL of his own doing. He was told over and over what he wasn't doing correctly, etc. and a list of other stuff as long as my arm, and never did anything to change or improve. 

Rumor had it he was being protected by SOMEONE high up, as they "liked" him, but he was really a hindrance to all of us who had the (not!) pleasure of working with him. I guess they finally got all their ducks in a row, and he was shown the door.

Joy!

[PastryGoddess]

Weeeell, sometimes if someone commits enough PD, there are results. I've posted about Useless, my one co-worker.  Who does nothing, and continually make the same errors, does the same sloppy work, and has been pretty much stripped of any responsibilities other than busy work.  He was let go today, FINALLY!  And I have to be honest and say I do not feel badly for him at all, as this was ALL of his own doing. He was told over and over what he wasn't doing correctly, etc. and a list of other stuff as long as my arm, and never did anything to change or improve. 

Rumor had it he was being protected by SOMEONE high up, as they "liked" him, but he was really a hindrance to all of us who had the (not!) pleasure of working with him. I guess they finally got all their ducks in a row, and he was shown the door.

Queue the Hallelujah Chorus!

[siamesecat2965]

Weeeell, sometimes if someone commits enough PD, there are results. I've posted about Useless, my one co-worker.  Who does nothing, and continually make the same errors, does the same sloppy work, and has been pretty much stripped of any responsibilities other than busy work.  He was let go today, FINALLY!  And I have to be honest and say I do not feel badly for him at all, as this was ALL of his own doing. He was told over and over what he wasn't doing correctly, etc. and a list of other stuff as long as my arm, and never did anything to change or improve. 

Rumor had it he was being protected by SOMEONE high up, as they "liked" him, but he was really a hindrance to all of us who had the (not!) pleasure of working with him. I guess they finally got all their ducks in a row, and he was shown the door.

Queue the Hallelujah Chorus!

Absolutely!  Now the question remains who gets to take over the piddly stuff (which still takes time) he had left? HOpefully not MY dept. but at any rate, he is gone.

[Twik]

WARNING - may include emotional triggers.

Man who posted "glad girl is dead" loses job - says he's "sorry if he offended anyone". http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1272587--ontario-man-fired-from-job-over-comment-posted-on-memorial-page-to-amanda-todd

Oh, and he "feels a little regret and remorse". Just so you don't think he's a jerk or anything. I mean, he's got his feelings, right?