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Getting Hired By CTA As A Motorman/Operator


juelzkellz

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Or deal with this! ...

As far as I know, they still practice "Nikkin Kyoiku" according to the episode. :(

I read the transcript about the attendance policy at CTA. While not as bad as Nikkin Kyoiku, the way Haywood spoke during the interview made it sound like the CTA "took off points" or "marked you up" for not attending your job if you are sick. Now I don't get sick much, and have had an almost perfect high school attendance record :P, but I'd at least like to know I have the option to say "Hey, things are REALLY rough right now, I might need to take a break."

On a personal note, the last time I had a family emergency I still attended school to take my mind off of it, instead of staying home. It also helped my attendance.

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I still think she was at fault, she's just trying to blame the CTA. Yes, 55 hours in a week is a lot of hours..... BUT..... the CTA said she had 18 hours off between her previous shift and her overnight shift. The human body requires 8 hours of sleep to be functioning fully and she had another 6 to do with as she pleased with 2 to commute to Forest Park Yard or Rosemont Yard to pick up her train and begin her run.

dre, I don't know your schedule is on the Green Line, but I'm sure you're awake and alert if you have 18 hours between your shifts to go to Harlem or 63rd Yard, pick up your train and do your run for the day.

As far as I know, they still practice "Nikkin Kyoiku" according to the episode. :(

I read the transcript about the attendance policy at CTA. While not as bad as Nikkin Kyoiku, the way Haywood spoke during the interview made it sound like the CTA "took off points" or "marked you up" for not attending your job if you are sick. Now I don't get sick much, and have had an almost perfect high school attendance record :P, but I'd at least like to know I have the option to say "Hey, things are REALLY rough right now, I might need to take a break."

On a personal note, the last time I had a family emergency I still attended school to take my mind off of it, instead of staying home. It also helped my attendance.

I look at it this way. Having worked in government service myself, I know they work you like a dog. But the thing is when things go wrong and they often do, management will throw you under the bus in a heartbeat. Management is never going to say they were wrong and take all of the blame. In the event that they are forced to admit wrongdoing, they will make changes but the person on the bottom of the totem pole will be the "sacrificial lamb"

With that being said, if I were in Brittany's situation, I would have either called off or stopped the train for a few minutes to gather myself. Is there a chance I will get disciplined, sure, but at least I get to "live another day" so to say. It's only dumb luck that no one was killed in that accident. Had that crash occurred during rush hour or any other peak period, there would have been hundreds of deaths and there is a chance she would have also been facing some prison time. Is some paperwork in your file worth having your life completely upended and what makes it worse is you could have avoided it? I think not.

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Someone gave her a key and a train. You saying that someone other than a motorman is responsible for an 8 car train with potentially 1100 passengers on it? Sure there were only 30 some on a truncated owl run, but that didn't seem to be a meaningful distinction.

I think what dre means was that she wasn't an "official" motorman so to say. As if she was under some sort of temporary probationary status upon completion becomes an "official" motorman.

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..t.he way Haywood spoke during the interview made it sound like the CTA "took off points" or "marked you up" for not attending your job if you are sick....

At the time, Claypool was making a big deal about how big the extra board was and that he was going to fire anyone who abused the absence policy. So, I can see the source of that comment.

I think what dre means was that she wasn't an "official" motorman so to say. As if she was under some sort of temporary probationary status upon completion becomes an "official" motorman.

That could be the case, since when Chuck Gowdie took the radioed badge number to the Salary Spreadsheet, it still had her as flagman.

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Ultimately, regardless of lack of rest or whatever reason, Haywood failed to maintain control of that train! I can understand some disciplinary action being taken for the previous station overrun incident that occurred with Haywood. A "slap on the wrist" But a major rail accident where people certainly could have lost their lives from an out of control train weighing at 400,00lbs. In my career I have seen death and destruction. I cant even imagine the chaos that would occurred had that OHare train accident happened just three hours later! I think CTA made the right and just decision of terminating her.

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Therein lies the conundrum of maintaining on-time performance. To my recollection, JR (the railway that had the bad driver) is contracted out by the government to perform services and they have to maintain on-time performance (and if you thought we complain about a train being 5 minutes late, try their standard of being seconds behind because of pinpoint transfers.

It's not so much bullying (the corporate culture in the Far East is ridiculously stringent), it's the standard and pressures of being punctual and meeting the regulations that was contracted (which means that's passed down to the controllers if something goes wrong). At the same time, those rules make for issues with safety and maintaining performance.

With that said, if you can handle the pressures, potential mistakes, and managerial (punitive or otherwise) "approaches," then good luck to you.

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