Bad Optics

[Commuter X]

Will the MTA ever learn?

https://www.foxnews.com/us/mtas-top-ear ... -last-year" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[freightguy]

The MTA NYCTA president is correct:

It’s cheaper in the long run to pay someone overtime vs hiring another 3 people with pension and health benefits.

[Kelly&Kelly]

Put in a resume.

[jlr3266]

The work has to get done, but there is a hiring freeze. As long as these men were actually working, the news folks should leave them alone and ask MTA why it is mis-managing the staff.

[Absolute-Limited Advance-Approach]

Somewhere else in the world, an Executive Board gets a $400,000 landing pad while their company circles the drain and their top earner is praying they can get their 2% raise that they learned to ask for in business school.


I get why people are mad, but which one of these is really whats wrong with US?

[KT3]

Neither of these situations is wrong. Is the $300K+ in overtime for one employee a bad look of the MTA, especially as it's a taxpayer-funded entity? Of course it is and we shouldn't kid ourselves otherwise or make excuses for why this was allowed to occur. It occurred and that's that. But at the same time, we shouldn't blindly malign someone in the private sector who, in effect, does the same thing as the LIRR employee who secured $300K+ in a single year in overtime - secure as much income as possible for the work that they perform for their employer. Both are examples of individuals doing what people are supposed to do in a free market - pursue the maximum value that someone is willing to pay them for the value that they deliver to their employer.

[ExCon90]

In fact, would he even have had the option of refusing overtime?

[freightguy]

Funny thing, some of the newer employees do not want to report to work for 5 days a week at 40 hours. This will create problems in the future(already started) at the MTA. Quite a juxtaposition between the older and more recently hired employees although I don’t want to lump them all in one group.

[BuddR32]

Funny thing, some of the newer employees do not want to report to work for 5 days a week at 40 hours. This will create problems in the future(already started) at the MTA. Quite a juxtaposition between the older and more recently hired employees although I don’t want to lump them all in one group.

This is certainly true. How many guys I see getting trial notices because they simply cannot or wont show up. I am in my 19th year, and on day one there was a woman manager who very bluntly said to us: if you cant show up, and show up on time, we will fire you.

I prefer not to work a lot of OT, a few years ago, I took a management job, good pay for a 40 hour week. Most that work for me, make more than me, and good for them, its there, why not.

[Kelly&Kelly]

Unlike many employers, the Railroad offers a variety of professions, trades and positions, each with their own pay scales, rewards and obligations. There's also quite an opportunity to move between jobs. If you don't burn bridges, practice a level of professionalism and - as Budd said above - show up every day on time, you can usually get to where you want. But vast opportunity doesn't work for everyone. The biggest failure I've seen are employees who follow only the dollar or the title, wind up in a job that makes them miserable and destroys their family and personal life.

Bad "optics" and class-envy enticing headlines doesn't always reflect a bad workforce or management. Most of the folks I know personally on that highly-touted "Top 20" list are fine professionals who work countless hours in very unique crafts that took twenty years to master. It wouldn't be exaggerating to say that some save the taxpayers many times their salaries every year.

[Commuter X]

We all know why Mr. Caputo chose to work all of those hours

How productive he was working all those hours without sufficient rest is up for debate

What is not up for debate is that Junior would rather raise fares and taxes instead of working with the MTA to update its work rules.

Another story about Mr. Caputo is below -- and it is not from Newsday ....

https://nypost.com/2019/04/26/mtas-top- ... ay-expose/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[DutchRailnut]

Mr Caputo does not and is not allowed to talk to media.
you guys be crying like bitches you are if Mr Caputo had not answered his OT calls and restrictions had been put up till he could asses them during his normal working hours.
As for Junior he does not negotiate the LIRR or any other MTA labor contracts, so no matter how he huffs and puffs he can not change the legal contracts between MTA and its Unions.

[BuddR32]

Bad "optics" and class-envy enticing headlines doesn't always reflect a bad workforce or management. Most of the folks I know personally on that highly-touted "Top 20" list are fine professionals who work countless hours in very unique crafts that took twenty years to master. It wouldn't be exaggerating to say that some save the taxpayers many times their salaries every year.

THIS, as K&K said is true. For example, changing a truck on an MU for whatever reason, factoring in, moving the car to the shop from wherever the failure was discovered, into the change-out area, then through the inspection and replacement process of components on that truck can total $105,000. (Not counting the lost revenue with the two cars out of service)With the knowledge of the yard folks, ability to spot and correct many issues before it gets to that point is priceless.

[Commuter X]

Mr Caputo does not and is not allowed to talk to media.
you guys be crying like bitches you are if Mr Caputo had not answered his OT calls and restrictions had been put up till he could asses them during his normal working hours.
As for Junior he does not negotiate the LIRR or any other MTA labor contracts, so no matter how he huffs and puffs he can not change the legal contracts between MTA and its Unions.

Mr. Caputo is now retired and no longer works for the MTA/LIRR, so I doubt these restrictions apply to him

Junior had his fingerprints all over the 2014 contract. After all, it wouldn't be good for his re-election prospects if there were a transit strike

https://www.politico.com/states/new-yor ... eal-000000" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

When the current contact expires, the congestion tax will be in place, and Junior can give the rest of the store away.

[SwingMan]

It is simply amazing how ignorant and contradictory the vast majority of public can truly be.

My whole life it has been "go to school, be as smart as you can get, then use what you learned in school and opportunities to become the best at your profession". For pretty much any of those at the top of anything, that is what they had to do. It is no different for the people on that list. The have acquired many years of experience in a specialized field that many would avoid at all costs because of how difficult and brutal the path to get to a point where you can even make that much really is. The hours of experience, the knowledge to attain, the days-weeks-months-years you lose giving your family the best life they can possibly live.

Quite frankly, people need to learn to mind their own business. There is so much brown-nosing which, contrary to their "educated" beliefs, will cost the state and tax payers considerably more money. It is and always will be cheaper to pay fewer people OT than to employ more people, period.