I have written about him here before. The year he turned 50, he was involuntarily switched from another railroad department to this job. His job was blanked, so the choice was to take the job he is working or go back to the craft, and having been an assistant supervisor, he did not want to go back to the craft.
He has been on the job for four and a half years now. The job consists of patrolling the track for maintenance issues. The man lives a good sixty miles from where he starts work, and a lot of his job consists of driving because the track to be patrolled is 130 miles long. He is tired of driving. He is also "not comfortable" with making the decisions he needs to make to do his job.
I get most of this. I have been married to a railroad for almost 27 years now, so I know that the travel is wearing and so are the calls in the middle of the night and on evenings, weekends and holidays. What I don't get is being in a supervisory position and not being comfortable with making decisions.
The other night, my husband received an urgent call about a bridge in the northern part of his territory so he sent out his assistant. It was obviously the assistant's job. The call went out around 1AM, and several others had to be called, the problem being so big that my husband will have to check on it all weekend, a two hour drive each way for him.
The assistant went home around 4 when the troops had things under control. No big deal, really. What was a big deal is that he did not inform my husband of what was going on or that he was going home, and when my husband called him to find out if he was coming in at noon or whatever, the assistant said he would come in the next day.
Railroading is hard work. There is favoritism, I think, shown to the railroad which bought Conrail, and as a result, my husband works with half of the men he is supposed to have. The problem with that is that he doesn't have half the workload. I am sure my husband is in this particular position because he can hold things together with spit and chewing gum. Often, that is what he does, but such an approach really demands that everyone work together.
His assistant doesn't. Period. Even on patrol, although he will sometimes report things, he does not fix them unless he is forced. My husband felt compelled to say something to him about his going home, and the man's reply was that he was not going to kill himself for the railroad. Like I said, I understand that, but the point was that he, in this instance, failed to communicate.
My husband and I have often talked about the difference between "manspeak" and "womanspeak." He says that womanspeak has no business in his department because, well, there aren't any women except the occasional dispatcher, and they all speak manspeak. His assistant, however, speaks mostly womanspeak, and that is hard for my husband.
It was hard this time too, because the minute my husband pointed out the problem, his assistant went on the attack. My husband is hard to talk to (nobody else seems to think so), moral is low, my husband never pats anyone on the back... I don't believe these things are true, and while you might say that I am biased because we are, after all, talking about MY husband, I have found him to be a very good teacher. If anyone has a problem with him, it is because he does really expect you to work all day if you want to get paid for the day. Some of his employees, because the territory is so long and my husband cannot be everywhere at once, make a junior high game out of hiding. And the dodging work wouldn't even be so bad if there weren't so many other factors that are not under their control. They can't work on the track until the dispatcher gives them the track, and that seldom happens on a schedule that is convenient to their work. One of the things you have to understand about the railroad is that it make money by MOVING freight, so even though it is necessary to have track that is in good condition to move the freight efficiently, moving the freight is the first priority.
My husband's assistant says that there will be a voluntary separation from the railroad in July and that he is going to take it. I hope so. I think he is delusional at the age of 54 and with only climbing and inspecting bridges as experience, to think that he can go right out and get another job, but he certainly doesn't like this one, so maybe he belongs elsewhere. If he does leave, I hope whoever my husband gets as a replacement will care about a job well done.
He has been on the job for four and a half years now. The job consists of patrolling the track for maintenance issues. The man lives a good sixty miles from where he starts work, and a lot of his job consists of driving because the track to be patrolled is 130 miles long. He is tired of driving. He is also "not comfortable" with making the decisions he needs to make to do his job.
I get most of this. I have been married to a railroad for almost 27 years now, so I know that the travel is wearing and so are the calls in the middle of the night and on evenings, weekends and holidays. What I don't get is being in a supervisory position and not being comfortable with making decisions.
The other night, my husband received an urgent call about a bridge in the northern part of his territory so he sent out his assistant. It was obviously the assistant's job. The call went out around 1AM, and several others had to be called, the problem being so big that my husband will have to check on it all weekend, a two hour drive each way for him.
The assistant went home around 4 when the troops had things under control. No big deal, really. What was a big deal is that he did not inform my husband of what was going on or that he was going home, and when my husband called him to find out if he was coming in at noon or whatever, the assistant said he would come in the next day.
Railroading is hard work. There is favoritism, I think, shown to the railroad which bought Conrail, and as a result, my husband works with half of the men he is supposed to have. The problem with that is that he doesn't have half the workload. I am sure my husband is in this particular position because he can hold things together with spit and chewing gum. Often, that is what he does, but such an approach really demands that everyone work together.
His assistant doesn't. Period. Even on patrol, although he will sometimes report things, he does not fix them unless he is forced. My husband felt compelled to say something to him about his going home, and the man's reply was that he was not going to kill himself for the railroad. Like I said, I understand that, but the point was that he, in this instance, failed to communicate.
My husband and I have often talked about the difference between "manspeak" and "womanspeak." He says that womanspeak has no business in his department because, well, there aren't any women except the occasional dispatcher, and they all speak manspeak. His assistant, however, speaks mostly womanspeak, and that is hard for my husband.
It was hard this time too, because the minute my husband pointed out the problem, his assistant went on the attack. My husband is hard to talk to (nobody else seems to think so), moral is low, my husband never pats anyone on the back... I don't believe these things are true, and while you might say that I am biased because we are, after all, talking about MY husband, I have found him to be a very good teacher. If anyone has a problem with him, it is because he does really expect you to work all day if you want to get paid for the day. Some of his employees, because the territory is so long and my husband cannot be everywhere at once, make a junior high game out of hiding. And the dodging work wouldn't even be so bad if there weren't so many other factors that are not under their control. They can't work on the track until the dispatcher gives them the track, and that seldom happens on a schedule that is convenient to their work. One of the things you have to understand about the railroad is that it make money by MOVING freight, so even though it is necessary to have track that is in good condition to move the freight efficiently, moving the freight is the first priority.
My husband's assistant says that there will be a voluntary separation from the railroad in July and that he is going to take it. I hope so. I think he is delusional at the age of 54 and with only climbing and inspecting bridges as experience, to think that he can go right out and get another job, but he certainly doesn't like this one, so maybe he belongs elsewhere. If he does leave, I hope whoever my husband gets as a replacement will care about a job well done.
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