Christmas morning on the railroad

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

Some holiday season reading for all of you, here’s a story from one of my co-workers about his trip on Christmas Day. It ties in nicely to all the past discussions on this forum about railroad management practices and going to the bathroom on a locomotive.

I have edited it slightly to remove specifics and obscenities (not like a railroader would ever swear…).

"Interesting story about Christmas morning. Got called for [time] to go to [location]. Not an issue, I work here and expected it

This is going to be a long one, don’t want to leave out important details. If talking about poo makes you uncomfortable, stop reading.

But as uncomfortable as this subject is, no matter how hard some of us try to not have to take a [dump] at work, sometimes when the time comes, it comes, and with me I have to go within about 10 minutes after all my warning shots are used up (farts)

So back to the story. We pulled into a siding and we had to meet 3 trains. We rolled in with one already there, we caught the second PK, and then when the third train showed up, I waited for my conductor to go out for a pk and I did my business (note, we were a single engine and in the middle of a town, I wasn’t about to [go] outside where someone walking by could see).

When I was done, the train we were meeting was gone, but my conductor was still outside. Apparently he was ambushed by a TM. He was wondering why I wasn’t outside inspecting with him. He was honest, and said “he’s taking a [dump]”.

So the Trainmaster climbs in, holding his phone in the air, and I hear the voice of a woman asking “who am I speaking with”. He had the General Manager on speaker phone, and she wanted to know why I wasn’t outside. I tried to explaining it without going into details, I was pretty uncomfortable talking about it, but she wasn’t getting it. So I just came out and said "when the conductor goes

2

Well, isn’t “Looking Out For Each Other” supposed to be a hallmark of your safety culture?

I suspect there is a Christmas carol in this story somewhere.

3

Business school whiz kid. Head full of pretty theorys, no experience of how the real world works. Her, not you, obviously.

Correct me if I’m wrong anyone, but we had 'em where I used to work. [banghead]

4

The ‘Gotchas’.

However, putting on my Officials cap, part of ‘Efficiency Testing’ it to test when employees are least expecting it. That being said, to fail someone because of the calls of nature is scraping the bottom of the port-a-pot.

5

I would say the Engineer was most definitely looking out for his Conductor by taking the opportunity to go in relative privacy.

I’d settle for the GM’s heart growing three sizes, then all Christmas discipline could be forgiven.

6

She must not understand we humans have a thing called a digestive track leading to intestine where waste is processed and excremented… I imagine she wears diapers to work… Pretty ridiculous Mgmnt… The C1’s still can’t figure out why no one wants work for them… I had an opportunity 13 years ago with Union Pacific up in Minneapolis… I’m glad I passed it up.

7

In the interest of conciliation, buy the lady a cinnamon roll and a big cup (or 2) of coffee in the morning, then about mid morning, call an emergency meeting and refuse to pause the meeting when she needs to use the facilities.

Or would that run afoul of the labor laws about providing facilities and time to use said facilities when needed?

Seems to me, the only alternative would be for the engineer to call the dispatcher and the dispatcher to halt all trains in the vacinity, giving time for the engineer to complete the necessaries such that the required work could be correctly completed to the satisfaction of all involved.

8

We had a superintendent once who put out a message thanking all the managers who had joined him in effeciency testing on Christmas Eve.

Jeff

9

If the Manager was told a person was on the toilet and then takes the phone on speaker there or to the general vicinity. That should really be an issue reported to HR as it shows a lack of descretion and judgement. I realize that HR works more for management than the employee but that specific manager needs counseling by HR.

If it was me I would never had responded to the speaker phone.

I had a Manager over me in 2004. That strung a lot of presumptions together and responded to an email I sent in a very nasty and condescending way. I merely walked over to my manager in charge of me whom was copied on the Email and she looked up at me and said “I am already on it , don’t answer or respond to the email…I can’t believe what I read”. Two hours later I had this 2 paragraph apology email. He had a VP talk to him about his future (ha-ha) or so I heard. Thats how it should work at a functional company, in my view.

10

Have a frank discussion with her. If she were as lacking in understanding as some on here suggest, she would not have bothered to make the offer.