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We are maintaining a multi-million dollar Electronic Medical Record with 5% of the already barely adequate staffing we had before.

It's like Battlestar Galactica up in here.

Shit breaks- we are like.. uh, work around it and we will get someone to look at it. New system gremlin comes up? Put in a ticket. Who is going to work the ticket? They haven't been hired yet. In fact, their job probably isn't even posted.

There is no "someone" and help isn't coming.

captoveur wrote:There is no "someone" and help isn't coming.

We pretty much got this "pep talk" in our shift briefing this morning.

The overtime is taking it's toll and people are constantly complaining that Command Staff needs to do "something" about staffing. There really isn't anything that can be done aside from hiring more people. You can't hire people that don't apply. And people aren't applying.

I've done the math and based on Academy size, training times (both academy and field training), and the amount of "hard vacancies" we have, we'll reach full staffing sometime in mid-2024. That's assuming no one leaves in the interim.

ShyFlyer wrote: There really isn't anything that can be done aside from hiring more people. You can't hire people that don't apply. And people aren't applying.

We are fighting that battle too. Our leadership has determined our compensation is competitive, while everyone leaves for more money, and no one with the skills we need is willing to work for the money.

But we got a new mission statement.

We have actually been trying to cut down our training sessions because we barely have the staffing to train new clinical staff coming on.

When we hire new developers we lack the people with the skills to train them- so the rare person who does come on, gets their basic certifications, and realizes there is absolutely no one to guide them on what to do- and leaves for a hospital literally 3 blocks away, and a 20% or more raise.

captoveur wrote:We are maintaining a multi-million dollar Electronic Medical Record with 5% of the already barely adequate staffing we had before.

It's like Battlestar Galactica up in here.

Shit breaks- we are like.. uh, work around it and we will get someone to look at it. New system gremlin comes up? Put in a ticket. Who is going to work the ticket? They haven't been hired yet. In fact, their job probably isn't even posted.

There is no "someone" and help isn't coming.

Holy crap. Are some execs getting bonuses for saving money or something?

Lucas wrote:Holy crap. Are some execs getting bonuses for saving money or something?

Nope.. Just stupid. and HR uses some weird metric to calculate our total compensation.

A state pension isn't a selling point to a 23 year old right out of college.

In application news, I've submitted four to a certain government contractor to work in the Ramp Tower for the following airports:

CVG
FLL
MCI*
MCO*

* These airports are listed as "pending contract award."

ShyFlyer wrote:In application news, I've submitted four to a certain government contractor to work in the Ramp Tower for the following airports:

CVG
FLL
MCI*
MCO*

* These airports are listed as "pending contract award."

That contractor offers pretty good pay.

captoveur wrote:...HR uses some weird metric...

I'm pretty much convinced that HR Departments are simply collections of people that aren't qualified to be out and about unsupervised.

At "J-1" they've consistently made mistakes regarding my job's Seniority List. There are only 22 authorized positions for this job. Most movement is either new hires or lateral transfers to a job with a different list. Few transfer internally to the job. Yet every year around shift bid time, they issue a seniority list with at least a few errors. Mostly due to the fact that they interpret the seniority policy differently each time they look at it.

Lucas wrote:That contractor offers pretty good pay.

Hopefully they offer to pay me.

As much as my job drives me crazy, I'm hesitant about changing. The FAA is mandating that I transition into NAS stuff and away from talking to airplanes, and they want me working M-F 8-4 by next year. As it stands, I should be on that line by December, and the structure of how my company does business is going to change--we'll be morphing into some select towers becoming ab initio academies. My wife and I make about a quarter million a year, and between the pay raise and the cut in hours, we won't see a huge hit to that amount. She still wants us to start our own business, and so do I, because ultimately that's better for everyone. We're going to wait until sometime after this spring to reassess.

Also, I'm one of those dumb people who only has an Associate's degree, so I'm really limited in what I can do without going the Praxis/Exit Plan route.

Lucas wrote:As much as my job drives me crazy, I'm hesitant about changing.

Same, but for different reasons. Though, I think for me the end is near.

All of the supervisors on my Team are scheduled to transfer to other areas of the agency. Normally not a big deal, but evals are part of our yearly raise and it looks as if all my hard work this year will be essentially wiped away. These evals usually start in late October, just when the last one is scheduled to leave.

Financially I can't just quit J-1 and go full time at J-2. So I'm stuck.

Lucas wrote:...I'm one of those dumb people who only has an Associate's degree...

At least you made a better career choice than I did.

ShyFlyer wrote:

Lucas wrote:As much as my job drives me crazy, I'm hesitant about changing.

Same, but for different reasons. Though, I think for me the end is near.

All of the supervisors on my Team are scheduled to transfer to other areas of the agency. Normally not a big deal, but evals are part of our yearly raise and it looks as if all my hard work this year will be essentially wiped away. These evals usually start in late October, just when the last one is scheduled to leave.

Financially I can't just quit J-1 and go full time at J-2. So I'm stuck.

Lucas wrote:...I'm one of those dumb people who only has an Associate's degree...

At least you made a better career choice than I did.

If we ever start doing the ab initio, you'll probably be allowed to apply for that. Not that tower is where it's at, in my opinion.

As for making better career choices, I'd say that I've kind of puttered around in this field that I don't really care for just so that I can be home every night. Certainly not a life of glamor.

If only I'd been born 4 years sooner or later.

Short story of one day at work: I fell off a boat, was lost at sea for seven hours, got a fat bonus and a nice bottle of Port.

Person who used to sit next to me, left to work for my old boss. For $35,000 more per year.

I really hate my old boss, and I don't miss the anxiety she caused.. But that's a shit-ton of money.

Lucas wrote:If we ever start doing the ab initio, you'll probably be allowed to apply for that.

I'll certainly be interested in the details. I suspect, though, that it'll be a lot like the cadet pilot schemes that, while interesting and attractive on the surface, once I dig in I find that my time for that has already past, for different reasons.

Along those lines, a few have enthusiastically told me about F9's new program. I bit of digging on my part shows that while it is a great way for someone to start their career, one still has to front the cost of flight training. That's a six-figure investment once you consider compounded interest. Far too rich for my blood.

We have entered a death spiral.

New hires are now training new hires.

One of my employees is openly Marxist (from CA, go figure), absolutely lazy, and routinely fails to complete even the most basic tasks. You'd think that working 8-hrs/day at most, 5 days/week, with only a HS diploma, you'd be pretty grateful to make $130k for the year, but he isn't. Dude has 0 other skills.

He should probably be terminated for cause, as I can't seem to rehab him. If that happens, I'm back to having a lousy schedule.

Sick of the entitled attitudes.

captoveur wrote:We have entered a death spiral.

New hires are now training new hires.

Are you going to jump ship?

"The Commissioners" wish to show their appreciation of the work that we do. Their gratitude is so vast that they are going to descend out of their offices and bestow upon us a....Popcorn Party.

No, that's not a euphemism. They are literally going to give us all you can eat popcorn and the chance to "talk" with them. Hiring bonuses to attract new applicants? Nope, can't do that. Retention bonuses to retain the valuable talent we have? No, sorry, not in the budget. How about an across the board pay increase to make our pay more competitive in the area? No...stop asking.


Meanwhile, at "J-2," a supervisor position is open. I applied for it. If I "land" it, it would be enough of a pay increase over "J-1" that I could go back to just having one job, even though the pay is less than J-1 + J-2. The difference, though, is minor. Plus, I already know I'll like the people at J-2, so it's not such a radical change.

I love my role at "J-1," but this latest act by "The Commissioners" is such that I know my time is up there.

ShyFlyer wrote:
No, that's not a euphemism. They are literally going to give us all you can eat popcorn and the chance to "talk" with them.

An actual slap in the face would have been less insulting.

Lucas wrote:
Are you going to jump ship?

Nah.. I am going to ride it in. I kind of just want to see where it goes at this point.

captoveur wrote:We have entered a death spiral.

New hires are now training new hires.

Companies that cannot or refuse to evolve and keep talent or attract new talent deserve to fail.

An offer has been made. An offer has been accepted. It is not at "J-1" nor "J-2." It kinda sorta combines aspects of both, though.

While the full details are still being hammered out, "New Job" will allow me to further my career goals and allow me to enjoy more time off while bringing in what "J-1" + "J-2" brought in. There will be a longer commute though.

Just sold a dozen engine blocker doors assemblies to a big 3 domestic airline for a pretty penny, which is good with my down month.... but they have to go out to get Overhauled.

I think there is a 50/50 chance that they will all go BER and be no good.

This is my job, to sell things where 50% of them are no good.

Lucas wrote:One of my employees is openly Marxist (from CA, go figure), absolutely lazy, and routinely fails to complete even the most basic tasks. You'd think that working 8-hrs/day at most, 5 days/week, with only a HS diploma, you'd be pretty grateful to make $130k for the year, but he isn't. Dude has 0 other skills.

He should probably be terminated for cause, as I can't seem to rehab him. If that happens, I'm back to having a lousy schedule.

Sick of the entitled attitudes.

The youngsters have made up a new shiney name for laziness, "Quite Quitting" and they think it can be rationalized.

GQfluffy wrote:Companies that cannot or refuse to evolve and keep talent or attract new talent deserve to fail.

This is state government baby.. we can't fail.