Random Thought Thread v2

[Cecil Terwilliger]

When I die, if anyone bothers to start a thread about it, I fully expect the comments to be along the lines of “well, good thing it wasn’t one of the more respected CP members” or “I can assure you, he was an even bigger prick in real life” etc etc.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

When I die, if anyone bothers to start a thread about it, I fully expect the comments to be along the lines of “well, good thing it wasn’t one of the more respected CP members” or “I can assure you, he was an even bigger prick in real life” etc etc.

"Finally!"

[topfiverecords]

Strange to think someday this forum is just going to be Scorp reading RIP threads.

[Titan2]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

What’s with the fireworks downtown?

Oilers lost?

[White Out 403]

My little girl was sad today and my wife asked why. She said she missed her grandma, my Mom. She passed from cancer before my kids were born but my little girl has her name as her middle name (Oksana). She's always talked about my Mom a lot and seemed to have a connection with her through pictures and stories, and they definitely share the same personality. My wife, who's much better at handling these things, told her that if she ever wanted to talk to grandma she can and she will hear her. She asked how she'd hear when Isabelle talked back to her, and my wife said that sometimes people who we've lost and love send us beautiful things as a way to let us know they're there for us. A rainbow, butterflies, or a beautiful sunset. I don't have much to add but, I guess I just miss my Mom. I think her and my daughter would have been great friends.

####.

[Wormius]

I wonder if there will come a time when based on DNA alone, you can predict a person’s appearance at different ages. I was watching some true crime stuff, and the reconstructions they try to do with skulls to looks awful when you compare to what the victim actually looked like, and it got me thinking about it. It would be pretty neat to simulate your appearance as you age. I know it couldn’t take into account any non-genetic changes to your appearance, but I’d be fascinated to see how you’d look if you lived to 100 years old or whatever.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

This is like when I lived close to 14th Street NW. They would grade that sucker continuously. I’m surprised they didn’t wear the bridge down so far they dropped into the river. Would it hurt to have some segment of the crew dedicated to scouting and dealing with trouble spots instead of just all of them as lemmings repeatedly following the prescribed routes.

I think people have to realize that there's no degree or diploma required to maintain roads in the winter as people are told to get into the truck and drop the gravel and salt if they see any semblance of snow or ice without putting a lot of thought into the environmental impacts and cleanup. As far as I can see there's not a lot of thought put into it as when there's .25 cm of snow that's going to melt in an hour there's never any consideration not to do a full dump of salt and gravel because they don't care and the optics are better for drivers to return with an empty truck than a full truck.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I think people have to realize that there's no degree or diploma required to maintain roads in the winter as people are told to get into the truck and drop the gravel and salt if they see any semblance of snow or ice without putting a lot of thought into the environmental impacts and cleanup. As far as I can see there's not a lot of thought put into it as when there's .25 cm of snow that's going to melt in an hour there's never any consideration not to do a full dump of salt and gravel because they don't care and the optics are better for drivers to return with an empty truck than a full truck.

The problem is purely bureaucratic, and something I saw all the time back when I worked for the city. In these cases the drivers know what they're doing is a waste of time, the foreman knows what they're doing is a waste of time, but they are not allowed to move on to the next phase of routes until some engineer or tech, who doesn't really understand the conditions because they're working in an office or from home, declares that they can move on to the next step/set of routes. So they just keep driving in circles or hiding somewhere until they get word that they're allowed to continue doing their job. Otherwise they get in trouble.

Was always one of my biggest complaints about the city, they don't treat their foreman like actual foreman that are allowed to run a job and make decisions. They're just more of a coordinator role, a middle man between the worker bees and more senior management.

In the last ten years we've seen the City become more and more corporate, and inefficiencies like that are one of the results. I never worked for roads, or whatever they just changed their name too, but it's the same everywhere. In the age of liability, nobody can do anything until they have a work order, service request, or planned program overseen by a 'technician' of some sort. Try to go above and beyond, start clearing secondary routes before you're told too and end up cracking a sidewalk, or hit a car or something? Now you're screwed because you weren't supposed to be there.

Another thing is in some departments workers are not allowed to leave their zone. So zone 7 might be pretty much cleared, but across memorial it's still a mess, those guys can't just go start working on that, you just have to wait until the zone 2 guys can get there.

The annoying thing is we've seen how much the city can get done when you throw red tape out the window. Just look at the 2013 flood and immediate aftermath, for example

Don't try to make sense of it, just watch in astonishment at how dumb the whole thing is. Then sit and wonder how bad the other companies must be when you realize this is still cheaper and no worse quality-wise than the provincial roads in the city limits that private contractors do.

Sorry, that really turned into quite the ramble. Still having my coffee. #### me I don't miss that world one bit.

[btimbit]

Side note, but that's why citizen 311 requests are so important. (Although maybe not for snow removal) Say there's a bad pothole you drive by every day, if nobody reports it, it might not get dealt with for months until that program hits that area of the city. But when it's reported it can generate a service request and depending on the priority it's assigned, could be bumped to the front of the line very easily.

But I won't go on too much of a rant about 311 or we'll be here all day. Use the app, the actual call centre people are useless

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by btimbit

Side note, but that's why citizen 311 requests are so important. (Although maybe not for snow removal) Say there's a bad pothole you drive by every day, if nobody reports it, it might not get dealt with for months until that program hits that area of the city. But when it's reported it can generate a service request and depending on the priority it's assigned, could be bumped to the front of the line very easily.

But I won't go on too much of a rant about 311 or we'll be here all day. Use the app, the actual call centre people are useless

Yep the app works well. We had a pothole in the entrance of our circle last spring that got large and I called 311 and it was repaired within a few weeks. If anyone is concerned about potholes on their daily commute all it takes is a few minutes on the app and the city will fill it in a timely manner.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by btimbit

The problem is purely bureaucratic, and something I saw all the time back when I worked for the city. In these cases the drivers know what they're doing is a waste of time, the foreman knows what they're doing is a waste of time, but they are not allowed to move on to the next phase of routes until some engineer or tech, who doesn't really understand the conditions because they're working in an office or from home, declares that they can move on to the next step/set of routes. So they just keep driving in circles or hiding somewhere until they get word that they're allowed to continue doing their job. Otherwise they get in trouble.

Was always one of my biggest complaints about the city, they don't treat their foreman like actual foreman that are allowed to run a job and make decisions. They're just more of a coordinator role, a middle man between the worker bees and more senior management.

In the last ten years we've seen the City become more and more corporate, and inefficiencies like that are one of the results. I never worked for roads, or whatever they just changed their name too, but it's the same everywhere. In the age of liability, nobody can do anything until they have a work order, service request, or planned program overseen by a 'technician' of some sort. Try to go above and beyond, start clearing secondary routes before you're told too and end up cracking a sidewalk, or hit a car or something? Now you're screwed because you weren't supposed to be there.

Another thing is in some departments workers are not allowed to leave their zone. So zone 7 might be pretty much cleared, but across memorial it's still a mess, those guys can't just go start working on that, you just have to wait until the zone 2 guys can get there.

The annoying thing is we've seen how much the city can get done when you throw red tape out the window. Just look at the 2013 flood and immediate aftermath, for example

Don't try to make sense of it, just watch in astonishment at how dumb the whole thing is. Then sit and wonder how bad the other companies must be when you realize this is still cheaper and no worse quality-wise than the provincial roads in the city limits that private contractors do.

Sorry, that really turned into quite the ramble. Still having my coffee. #### me I don't miss that world one bit.

Not a ramble. The insight is appreciated.

[btimbit]

Now I suppose I should be fair and point out that all that snow last week was actually cleared very well in my area, windrows and all, cleared within a day and a half. When the system does work, it can work well. Just seems to me that it's still overly complicated and unnecessary compared to just having each foreman, or even teams of foremen, simply be responsible for x area

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by btimbit

The problem is purely bureaucratic, and something I saw all the time back when I worked for the city. In these cases the drivers know what they're doing is a waste of time, the foreman knows what they're doing is a waste of time, but they are not allowed to move on to the next phase of routes until some engineer or tech, who doesn't really understand the conditions because they're working in an office or from home, declares that they can move on to the next step/set of routes. So they just keep driving in circles or hiding somewhere until they get word that they're allowed to continue doing their job. Otherwise they get in trouble.

Was always one of my biggest complaints about the city, they don't treat their foreman like actual foreman that are allowed to run a job and make decisions. They're just more of a coordinator role, a middle man between the worker bees and more senior management.

In the last ten years we've seen the City become more and more corporate, and inefficiencies like that are one of the results. I never worked for roads, or whatever they just changed their name too, but it's the same everywhere. In the age of liability, nobody can do anything until they have a work order, service request, or planned program overseen by a 'technician' of some sort. Try to go above and beyond, start clearing secondary routes before you're told too and end up cracking a sidewalk, or hit a car or something? Now you're screwed because you weren't supposed to be there.

Another thing is in some departments workers are not allowed to leave their zone. So zone 7 might be pretty much cleared, but across memorial it's still a mess, those guys can't just go start working on that, you just have to wait until the zone 2 guys can get there.

The annoying thing is we've seen how much the city can get done when you throw red tape out the window. Just look at the 2013 flood and immediate aftermath, for example

Don't try to make sense of it, just watch in astonishment at how dumb the whole thing is. Then sit and wonder how bad the other companies must be when you realize this is still cheaper and no worse quality-wise than the provincial roads in the city limits that private contractors do.

Sorry, that really turned into quite the ramble. Still having my coffee. #### me I don't miss that world one bit.

I'll go as far as to say that based on what I know and have heard, this is true in other departments as well, whether it's blue collar or white collar roles. There are people making calls that are way out of touch with the actual situation and the decisions they make/are pushing, they themselves are exempt from the scenario.

If things are not changed soon, attrition is going to skyrocket and things are going to get worse. It's a combination of red tape and someone unqualified but with seniority being a gate keeper. You can't acquire expertise and then handcuff/ignore everything they're doing/make it impossible for the revisions they're suggesting to be implemented. But that's what's happening.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

I'll go as far as to say that based on what I know and have heard, this is true in other departments as well, whether it's blue collar or white collar roles. There are people making calls that are way out of touch with the actual situation and the decisions they make/are pushing, they themselves are exempt from the scenario.

If things are not changed soon, attrition is going to skyrocket and things are going to get worse. It's a combination of red tape and someone unqualified but with seniority being a gate keeper. You can't acquire expertise and then handcuff/ignore everything they're doing/make it impossible for the revisions they're suggesting to be implemented. But that's what's happening.

It's a shame, because there are some really fantastic people there. I went into it like a bit of a smartass thinking "heh, can't wait to be surrounded by lazy, entitled morons, city workers am I right?" and it couldn't have been farther from the truth. Actually I'd say there were more lazy idiots way back in my pipelining days than at the city. But there's just so much extremely backwards bureaucratic nonsense, it's why I left after just two years. But I have friends that were there for 10 and 20 years respectively and they've both left now as well, including one that would probably be running TFO now if he stayed.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by btimbit

It's a shame, because there are some really fantastic people there. I went into it like a bit of a smartass thinking "heh, can't wait to be surrounded by lazy, entitled morons, city workers am I right?" and it couldn't have been farther from the truth. Actually I'd say there were more lazy idiots way back in my pipelining days than at the city. But there's just so much extremely backwards bureaucratic nonsense, it's why I left after just two years. But I have friends that were there for 10 and 20 years respectively and they've both left now as well, including one that would probably be running TFO now if he stayed.

Yep. Lots of hard workers around those that have either succumbed to ennui or trapped between morons and slowly going crazy/running out of patience to outlast gate keepers to "fix" things at the city. Lots of hard workers, but they're typically stuck between a rock and a hard place in terms of getting work done. Then the KPI used is so woefully awful and incorrect for the situations to the point that those that want to abuse the system can abuse it to an appalling level.

A contract work situation was frustrating and bizarre enough. I cannot imagine what it's like dealing with it full time. Chatting with some people who currently work there or know people who work there, it's insane to hear some of the things happening there right now that would be considered nonsensically stupid in the 90s and early 2000s, let alone as of today.

https://globalnews.ca/news/9436175/c...m-home-policy/

When you have some gate keeper who is planning on mandating people back into the office 3-5 days a week, but restricting the ability of individuals to adjust their in office work hours (going in early and leaving early or going in late and leaving late for appointments etc.) AND also claims that anyone hybrid working from home actually contractually agreed that they will not have kids or pets at home during work hours... that person is so out of touch on certain boundaries. So out of touch to the point that mentality is going to cause attrition to go through the roof and prevent many people from bothering to apply for the city.

Mandating people back isn't out of the ordinary or the issue or the out of touch part. All the weird extra overreaching aspects of the mandate are the issue. I've heard of the reason why it's like that, but it's like burning a house down to get rid of a few mice. I and most other assume they will revise the office mandate rules not to be that ridiculous, but if not... It's sad that stuff like this is not unexpected.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

Yep. Lots of hard workers around those that have either succumbed to ennui or trapped between morons and slowly going crazy/running out of patience to outlast gate keepers to "fix" things at the city. Lots of hard workers, but they're typically stuck between a rock and a hard place in terms of getting work done. Then the KPI used is so woefully awful and incorrect for the situations to the point that those that want to abuse the system can abuse it to an appalling level.

A contract work situation was frustrating and bizarre enough. I cannot imagine what it's like dealing with it full time. Chatting with some people who currently work there or know people who work there, it's insane to hear some of the things happening there right now that would be considered nonsensically stupid in the 90s and early 2000s, let alone as of today.

https://globalnews.ca/news/9436175/c...m-home-policy/

When you have some gate keeper who is planning on mandating people back into the office 3-5 days a week, but restricting the ability of individuals to adjust their in office work hours (going in early and leaving early or going in late and leaving late for appointments etc.) AND also claims that anyone hybrid working from home actually contractually agreed that they will not have kids or pets at home during work hours... that person is so out of touch on certain boundaries. So out of touch to the point that mentality is going to cause attrition to go through the roof and prevent many people from bothering to apply for the city.

Mandating people back isn't out of the ordinary or the issue or the out of touch part. All the weird extra overreaching aspects of the mandate are the issue. I've heard of the reason why it's like that, but it's like burning a house down to get rid of a few mice. I and most other assume they will revise the office mandate rules not to be that ridiculous, but if not... It's sad that stuff like this is not unexpected.

I had a big story typed up here of something to your point that would happen almost weekly, but it just came across as me having an axe to grind so decided not to share. Long story short, tech or engineer would screw up scheduling jobs, then blame the workers for not being able to be in multiple places at once, resulting in management trying to put further restrictions on using sick days, during a freakin' global pandemic, despite the fact that people calling in sick didn't even contribute to the problem. There's way more to it than that, but you get the idea.

Burning a house down to get rid of a few mice is exactly right. The vibe I got was that there was a weird, vindictive, us vs them mentality from management toward their workers. I never understood it.

It's odd, technically where I work now is still part of the City, but it's completely separated from city admin, and it's the best damn job I've ever had. Just something rotten down there

[GordonBlue]

Sign of getting old.
When you slip and fall in public, people rush over to make sure you're ok instead of just laughing at you.

[Matata]

In celebration of international women's day I got my wife to make me a sandwich for work. It's not a very good sandwich but I won't complain.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by btimbit

I had a big story typed up here of something to your point that would happen almost weekly, but it just came across as me having an axe to grind so decided not to share. Long story short, tech or engineer would screw up scheduling jobs, then blame the workers for not being able to be in multiple places at once, resulting in management trying to put further restrictions on using sick days, during a freakin' global pandemic, despite the fact that people calling in sick didn't even contribute to the problem. There's way more to it than that, but you get the idea.

Burning a house down to get rid of a few mice is exactly right. The vibe I got was that there was a weird, vindictive, us vs them mentality from management toward their workers. I never understood it.

When you put it like that it sure sounds an awful lot like it’s run the same as many private sector companies.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Matata

In celebration of international women's day I got my wife to make me a sandwich for work. It's not a very good sandwich but I won't complain.

Haha, that's funny. You have a wife and a job. Good one!