Professional Darwinism: Update to OP on p.74

[Outdoor Girl]

My brother has a camp that is water access only.  He smelled smoke one day when he was wandering a trail so he investigated.  He discovered a small, smoldering bush fire and called it in to the forest fire fighting service.  They dropped a crew in by helicopter to put the fire out but the copter wasn't able to wait around.  DB saw them come down and went over in his boat to direct them right to the spot.  He has some wildfire fighting experience, too, so he was able to be there without being a nuisance.  When they got the fire out, they radioed in only to find out it would be several hours before the copter could come back to pick them up.  So my brother told them to radio back and find out when a ground vehicle could pick them up at the landing.  He took them back to his camp, supplemented their packed lunches, they had a quick swim to cool off and clean up.  Then he took them out to the landing in his boat.

The guys really appreciated not having to wait around for hours and gave DB a case of water.  Kind of the opposite way round.  They did say they would have preferred to have given him a case of beer but they weren't allowed to do that.     They did say that by him calling in the fire when he did, he saved a huge wildfire from getting going.

[Library Dragon]

A loooong time ago while stationed at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona, the editor of the post newspaper wrote a scathing editorial about soldiers driving military cars off post to have lunch.  A list of car numbers was given.  The next week an apology was given.  All the cars belonged to the housing office.  The soldiers' jobs were to take new families to find off post housing and inspect it. They were also to take the families to a local burger place (paid for by a local women's group).

That was the end of any hard hitting editorials.

[delabela]

Periodically, someone complains about seeing a fire truck parked in a grocery store lot  They don't seem to understand that the fire fighters are on-duty for three or four days straight (depending on juristdiction) and are responsible for buying groceries to eat at the station during those days.  They use the truck because they could be called into action at any moment. 

(The grocery store near my neighborhood fire station lets the firemen leave the cart at the customer service desk.  Perishables are set aside until they can return.)

On a side note, we run into firefighters at our store a lot (it is very close to the fire station) - I've always just assumed it's because they have to get supplies.  I love seeing them because they are always very kind to my children who stare at them in awe. 

[Iris]

My favourite was someone who once said to me "Railway Track Workers are so lazy! Every time you go past them on a train they're just standing around!"

Well, yes. They're getting out of the way of the TRAIN! You know, the one that you're on? Facepalm.

[PastryGoddess]

My favourite was someone who once said to me "Railway Track Workers are so lazy! Every time you go past them on a train they're just standing around!"

Well, yes. They're getting out of the way of the TRAIN! You know, the one that you're on? Facepalm.

I....er.....wow

[Hillia]

Reminds me of this story:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/wakeup.asp

Summary: a man writes a very sarcastic letter to a local paper in Glendale, AZ, complaining about a flight of 4 Air Force jets flying low over his neighborhood and calling the pilots 'Tom Cruise wannabes'.  The base commander sends a reply, noting that the flight was a memorial fly by for an airman who had been killed in Iraq.  At least the original complainer had the grace to write another letter, apologizing for the first.

[VorFemme]

"Common sense" is actually one of the least common things in the world, in my experience - and that of not a few philosophers over the centuries (Plato to Mark Twain).  Or there wouldn't be so many aphorisms that are variations on that theme.

[Thipu1]

Periodically, someone complains about seeing a fire truck parked in a grocery store lot  They don't seem to understand that the fire fighters are on-duty for three or four days straight (depending on juristdiction) and are responsible for buying groceries to eat at the station during those days.  They use the truck because they could be called into action at any moment. 

(The grocery store near my neighborhood fire station lets the firemen leave the cart at the customer service desk.  Perishables are set aside until they can return.)

Yep.  We have a fire station on the next block and see firefighters in local groceries all the time.  Our understanding is that they have to take the trucks out regularly to make sure everything is in good working order. 

BTW, a best-seller for some time was the FDNY Cookbook. 

[RebeccainGA]

Apparently, since I left yesterday for a doctors appointment, I missed a real life loud flounce!

We have two groups of workers on this (related to mine, but not the group I work in) team. Employees - full time, on the company payroll - and contractors - full time, but on a temp company's payroll. Because of local laws and internal rules about not treating contractors as employees, contractors don't go to all of our staff meetings, or only parts of them, they aren't generally included in luncheons and such, and they are most emphatically not included in our corporate recognition program (which gives out gift cards and swag for people that go above and beyond). This last point is crucial.

One of the contractors, who admittedly is high producing (she also works a LOT of overtime, so this is part of the reason she does so much volume of work) was in the team's weekly progress meeting, along with everyone else on that team. They normally do recognition at a separate, employees only even, but there were two smaller cards that were being given for top performers of the week, and the manager decided that she'd give them at this meeting without dismissing the contractors (this is an accepted thing to do, when the employees only part is short and non-confidential). This contractor decided that she was MUCH better than the two people that got these awards, and not only yelled at the supervisor that was giving the awards, but stomped out of the meeting and slammed the door.

She was walked out a few minutes later, with her complimentary cardboard box to carry her things.

[Jocelyn]

Reminds me of this story:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/wakeup.asp

Summary: a man writes a very sarcastic letter to a local paper in Glendale, AZ, complaining about a flight of 4 Air Force jets flying low over his neighborhood and calling the pilots 'Tom Cruise wannabes'.  The base commander sends a reply, noting that the flight was a memorial fly by for an airman who had been killed in Iraq.  At least the original complainer had the grace to write another letter, apologizing for the first.

Many years ago, I had a client tell me the Air Force was buzzing her house at night. I started thinking that she needed some major psychiatric meds until the case manager with me complained they were buzzing her house, too. Turns out that the Air Force Reserves did training flights during certain months of the year, and part of what they were training on was flying over variable terrain at night, close to the ground. The client was 100% oriented to reality when she said they would fly along the creekbed near her house then suddenly gain altitude to go over her house. It was well-known to rural residents who lived near interesting terrain features, that several weeks out of the year, their sleep was going to be disturbed by jets. They got considerably more ho-hum about it than I would have, though. 

[2littlemonkeys]

I'm hearing about PD via Facebook in progress.  This isn't anyone I work with, I'm hearing this second hand.

Friend does shift work.

A coworker asked Friend if she could switch shifts at the last minute because Grandma died.

Friend had long awaited plans but canceled them to help out coworker

Coworker goes on to post details and pictures all over Facebook for a super fun local event he's participating in (when he's supposed to be in another city at Grandma's funeral.)

Coworker forgets he and Friend are FB buddies.

Friend responds to one of the "Wheee, I am having so much FUN!" posts with something like, "I'm glad you're having fun!  But I thought your grandma died and you had to go to the funeral?"

Coworker realizes he's been busted but is not terribly apologetic.

Hilarity ensues.

It seems there are a few other coworkers on CWs Facebook that saw this and it will be addressed professionally.  At best, this Coworker is going to have a very hard time getting anyone to cover his shifts in the future.

[Twik]

Reminds me of this story:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/wakeup.asp

Summary: a man writes a very sarcastic letter to a local paper in Glendale, AZ, complaining about a flight of 4 Air Force jets flying low over his neighborhood and calling the pilots 'Tom Cruise wannabes'.  The base commander sends a reply, noting that the flight was a memorial fly by for an airman who had been killed in Iraq.  At least the original complainer had the grace to write another letter, apologizing for the first.

I think this is a case of someone making an honest mistake, and offering a heartfelt apology.

A lot of what's been discussed in this part of the thread shows how difficult it can be when dealing with workers who appear not to be doing their jobs properly. Sometimes, it's a valid complaint. Sometimes, there's a very good reason why they're doing what they're doing.

I suppose the thing to keep in mind is that if you are going to complain to authorities/the media about something that looks "off," formulate your complaint so that if the thing turns out to be appropriate, you don't look like an idiot.

[siamesecat2965]

I'm hearing about PD via Facebook in progress.  This isn't anyone I work with, I'm hearing this second hand.

Friend does shift work.

A coworker asked Friend if she could switch shifts at the last minute because Grandma died.

Friend had long awaited plans but canceled them to help out coworker

Coworker goes on to post details and pictures all over Facebook for a super fun local event he's participating in (when he's supposed to be in another city at Grandma's funeral.)

Coworker forgets he and Friend are FB buddies.

Friend responds to one of the "Wheee, I am having so much FUN!" posts with something like, "I'm glad you're having fun!  But I thought your grandma died and you had to go to the funeral?"

Coworker realizes he's been busted but is not terribly apologetic.

Hilarity ensues.

It seems there are a few other coworkers on CWs Facebook that saw this and it will be addressed professionally.  At best, this Coworker is going to have a very hard time getting anyone to cover his shifts in the future.

Oops. But I'd be pretty miffed if I agreed to cancel MY plans to cover someone who supposedly had a funeral or something else like that, and then later found out they really were off doing something fun. No way I'd ever agree to switch or cover for thme again. He really burned that bridge!

[Hillia]

You have to be very careful when playing the Memaw card...

BIL is being saved (for now) from PD by his boss.  BIL was a reporter for a newspaper in a smallish rural city.  He has many FB friends, including most of his coworkers and his boss.  His FB profile clearly indicates which newspaper he works for.   BIL's political opinions are far from center, and he tends to buy into every conspiracy theory out there.

He was recently promoted to managing editor of the paper.  Since then, he's raved about how hard his job is and how much he hates it, how he never wanted to drink before but now he does because of the job, how little support he's getting from his boss.  He's also gone on a few rants, including one that stated that McDonald's hamburgers were made of horsemeat.  I notice that the rants tend to stay up for a few hours, then get deleted; I've heard from MIL that he's been cautioned by his boss about what he posts.  We'll see how long they feel like babysitting him.

[MindsEye]

You have to be very careful when playing the Memaw card...

I know someone who was almost fired because he had gone to so many "Grandmother's funeral"s... until the guy explained that because of divorces and remarriages he did in fact have 8 grandmothers.  (well I think that a couple were actually great-grandmothers)