<p>So…you just want to vent? You aren’t going to do anything, are you?</p>
<p>I will speak to my friend who sits on the town council, probably the safest way…i don’t need them to plow me in during a snowstorm. ;)</p>
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<p>Sounds like a small town. That right?</p>
<p>I’d want to know more about the circumstances. Is this something that just started, or has it been going on for weeks/months/years? Is the muni budget especially tight, are other muni areas being shortchanged on street cleaning? Are they leaving behind litter, or being somehow loud/annoying? Are they paid an hourly wage, or are they being paid based on getting the job done? Is there overtime in the winter, or are wages averaged out over the year?</p>
<p>They might be lazy bums who are taking advantage of the system. They might also legitimately be getting through their workday faster for unforseen reasons (e.g. warmer winters meant less snow means less road repair/roads in better shape, hence street sweeping routes go much faster).</p>
<p>Qdogpa…:)</p>
<p>Slithey,approx 20,000 residents, depending what census you use as the municipality has several "areas’ within it with different zip codes and names…in any event, it has been going on for quite awhile,though only a few times a month…salaried employees who perform different tasks as needed,overtime on as needed basis…i vote for lazy guys taking advantage of system…</p>
<p>Says the armchair sweeper who sits comfy in his home chatting away online.</p>
<p>In the private world, upper management scrutinizes how workers spend their time because they must provide the best investment to the shareholders. In this case the taxpayers are the shareholders and the same scrutiny should apply. If it is legit then no harm done.</p>
<p>I love the defending of this,lol…there are several threads on executives and other white collar employees stealing,et al…</p>
<p>Well, you’re right. If it had been about execs, there would have been posts recommending that you send photos to the media and about fat cats wasting time while maybe, maybe reading how to invest their ill-gotten gains on DStarks’s Investment Gambling thread. ;)</p>
<p>I love the point that implies that if you report on NYC public employees you need to fear thuggish backlash.</p>
<p>Kajon…Wow…that is not my world, necessarily…</p>
<p>I find that upper management cares about upper management… themselves.</p>
<p>An example…shareholders may want to sell out…but if they do…upper management loses their jobs. Most people don’t like to lose their jobs.</p>
<p>Another example…shareholders may prefer profits…upper management may want to build a fiefdom. Just keep on keep on keep on expanding.</p>
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Fact is, you do. </p>
<p>Last year someone disposed of pool chemicals improperly, sending the garbage man to the hospital. No one would pick up his garbage for months. But I stand by my position which is that it’s not always clear at first glance what’s going on.</p>
<p>My husband gets done in about 3 1/2 hours every day. He has a route, tonnage requirements and a truck to fill. His pace of walking is up to him and his work ends when the truck is full. Some people want overtime and drag it out. Some want to get done.</p>
<p>Of course, none of us have ever spent an hour at work cruising the internet or posting on CC or shooting the breeze with the person over the cube wall or taking an extra long lunch or cutting out an hour early for whatever reason.</p>
<p>Nope, nothing but work every minute of every hour of every day.</p>
<p>I am a government manager and I say there should be no problem reporting them. Here is what I tell my staff- be prepared every day to say what you did and why you did it. Assume everything you do is on camera and on tape. </p>
<p>On a daily basis my staff is in shopping malls, bars, at golf courses etc. We follow up every complaint. My employees either drive their own cars for which we reimburse them a whopping 31 cents a mile or a marked car telling people to call if they see a problem.</p>
<p>By the way my boss who came from private industry says he has never seen employees treated as poorly as government employees. He says that people blow up either small transgression or when there is a huge issue people believe that is something that every employee gets away with. He claims the facts do not match the perception. The fact that we buy our own office supplies still amazes him.</p>
<p>zooser I was a garbageman one summer. Someone put chlorine in their garbage and it set the truck on fire. We ran around trying to put the fire out with hoses from the houses. Some lady was laughing at the comedy show so the driver dumped the garbage on her lawn to save the truck. We got done early that day because it was one less trip to the dump.</p>
<p>" We got done early that day because it was one less trip to the dump."</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>I knew a garbage man once. On one trip he looked into the can of garbage and saw ashes. He asked the owner of the house if they were at all hot and she said no. He took off his glove and stuck his bare hand into the ashes to be sure and immediately withdrew his hand and put it in the snow. It had been burned from the hot ashes which would have set the truck on fire if they had been loaded. The lady’s response was “Well, I thought they weren’t still hot.”</p>
<p>I live in a suburb of NYC. Our taxes are staggeringly high. Our sanitation trucks have 3 men assigned on each truck, even though I understand that many other localities only have two. I was also told on reliable authority that when the shifts end very early as they usually do, that the men go back to the headquarters where they have a fully equipped gym to use. I can attest to the fact that if you happen to be driving past the sanitation garage at the precise moment that the day shift ends, you will encounter a line of cars pulling out as fast as they possibly can. I understand that they work hard, but I also believe, having been to local Town meetings, that the union is very unwilling to recognize what the economy has done to our Town. I have seen the same thing that the OP has described with our DPW workers. Multiple trucks, including supervisors, pulled over in the neighborhood with seemingly nothing being done for long periods of time. No meeting going on. 9 a.m. It is aggravating to see, and no, I’ve never reported it.</p>
<p>Momof3sons, I’m in the private sector so I can see both sides. There is no excuse or three men to be on a truck. That’s just taking advantage. However, people often get done early because the truck is full. When it is, it has to be dumped and it’s up to each locality to determine who, how, where and when the truck is dumped. Men here don’t go to the gym. They eat. Garbage men here are generally extremely obese.</p>
<p>The garbage collectors in my town are private, so I never hesitate to complain, and there was a major burglary ring here years ago run by one company - I would be concerned about anybody casing my house who was frequently outside.</p>
<p>UPS at one time took lunch breaks in front of my house. When I asked them about it - just why are you here frequently, in a friendly manner, they never returned. That may be all it takes.</p>
<p>It could be a simple matter of being at your location when break time comes up.</p>
<p>More likely, they are hiding out to avoid being assigned something else to do.</p>
<p>Shall I tell you about the garbage collector who urinated on my garage door? As I watched? I walked up to him and asked him what the heck he was doing. His response, “I had to go.” It happened in an alley, pretty much out in the open. There were bushes and trees right there, why he didn’t walk ten feet is beyond me. Or go to a real bathroom.</p>
<p>My husband called the company and he and the supervisor were cackling about it.</p>
<p>I blame it on weak managers.</p>