In HK people work at least 12 hour shifts and most of the time they aren't paid the extra hours they come in for.

Lower level govt can be pretty ridiculous. i have some buddies that have worked for the city that have some pretty crazy stories about the shit that goes on.

Reminds me of the street crew I drove by yesterday on a road test. 12 guys including the "flagger". Flagger on his cell phone, "slow" sign tucked under his arm, not even looking towards traffic. Of the 11 guys "working, 1 guy actually working, 9 guys standing around talking, 1 guy moving blocks of wood for the cement set, but taking his sweet-ass time with the form.

Clearly, our tax dollars at work, when this is happening.

Good to see something happening about it, somewhere.

Oh, isn't that cute. Last time I checked though, we're in fucking Vancouver though...

isnt there anyway to be more efficient with idling work crews? forexample if the sewer guys are just waiting for the paving crew, isnt there another spot in the city they can go to work on? or does the crew work as a unit? are there redundant jr workers in every work unit?

isnt it possible to devise a more efficient system? especially with highly paid unionize workers on the clock.

In here lies the problem, I'm not sure if it's by appearance or actual. I work as an estimator and project manager for a large construction company. When I estimate projects I do not allow for people standing around with thumbs in their asses watching others work waiting. We have guys that specialize in certain areas, if they have nothing to do in those areas they help out in other areas or they go home.

Maybe in these road construction projects this isn't possible I really don't know because it's not my area of expertise. You would think though that city employees could be more jack of all trades so less guys are needed to do the same work and you could get away with maybe one person or best case scenario nobody standing around. Again I don't know if this is possible, maybe the work is so specialized that it isn't possible.

Visually though, it pisses off taxpayers.

Maybe it's fair to say that city workers are as efficient as the system lets them be. I have plenty of friends who work for the city or pseudo-crown corps like work safe bc or icbc.

NONE of them tell me how hard and demanding the job is. They frequently talk about all the amazing benefits they get though..
They acknowledge that unions are waste tax payers money, but they, hey, if you can't beat them, join them!

I hate unions with a passion.. maybe i'll work in one one day..

Keep in mind that a union is a VERY profitable business. Just relax while revenue comes in every 2 weeks from union dues. Occasionally sympathize with the union boy who got canned for drinking on the job. Every 4-5 years do some negotiating.

i wish we were more "jack of all trades". some cities do a rotation, where you'll be working in the roads dept. for 3 months, then you work in the sewers dept for 3 months...then water...parks...etc. but for burnaby and a few others, we strictly stick to our own depts. i work in water, i have no rights to be touching anything sewer related or paving/sidewalks etc.
if my crew digs a hole and we hit a sewer line, our jobs shut down until a sewers crew can get there asap to repair the line and vice versa.

it is somewhat specialized work, water deals with chlorination, making the water safe and drinkable, were trained how to do it. sewers are all gravity fed and use special tools that water/road workers wouldnt have, and roads crews have steam rollers on trailers that they drag around.

but were all lazy city workers who just dick around until a watermain breaks and your out of water and we have to pull 18 hour shifts to fix it just so people can take a shower in time before they go to work, or a sewer main blows and your yard suddenly turns into a porta potty swamp :p

I worked at the city for five years, it's awesome.

Draw back

You won't get rich doing it.
Posted via RS Mobile

yea, but this is canada, speaking for myself personally, I dont agree with that whole come before the boss and leave after him bullshiet, no coffee/lunch break. I believe in a balance lifestyle.

although I hate unions, but I hate corporations much much more. which is why unions have power in the first place, because there will be people like me who hate corporations.

i hate unions because its hard to fire anyone, i hate that suspended with pay Bullshit.
its based on seniority, and usually the most efficient or productive, junior worker gets all the work.

However I also dont agree with the goals of the corporation. Ie. going for maximize profits. things being like china and driving wages down and making a race to the bottom, caring about profits and laying off people that have been with the companies for 20 + years, while CEO gets crazy severance packages even though they fucked up the company. I understand the arguments for pensions and increasing share price etc, but I like to pull the for the little guys.

Many employees dont report their businesses or companies breaking labour laws because they are afraid of losing their jobs.

Amen.

When you have a monopoly on the work and everything is essentially done at cost plus on the tax payers dime I can see why they don't like to see people standing around. That said I do get that maybe sometimes it might be unavoidable.

my buddy works for Vancouver school board for the past 4 years or so, 2 incidents:

Firstly the VSB installed GPS devices much like this story after people in Burnaby were reporting Vancouver School Board vehicles sitting in Burnaby home driveways all day, same thing guys would just drive home and chill all day, take vehicle back at the end of the day

now Two "union" stories:

A) so my buddy is on the grounds crew, cuts grass etc. he was "done" his day by 10am and was just sitting in his car reading a book when he saw some of his buddies on the construction crew taking down/moving a small chain link fence, he hops out talks to them for a bit and decides he'll help them carry some of the chain link to the Truck hauling it away, shortly after the foreman shows up and TWEAKS on my buddy, SCREAMING "YOU DONT TAKE AWAY WORK FROM OTHER PEOPLE BLA BLA BLA" ok he learned a lesson

few months later in the rainy season him and his crew are at a school and across the street a storm drain is completely clogged with leaves etc. and the rain water has crept up over some guys lawn and it's started to go into this guys Garage, so my friend grabs a peice of rebar and walks through the puddle to the drain to attempt to unclog it to drain

same story, foreman fucking TWEAKS and says he's stealing work from the Vancouver road works crew and it's not his business if peoples property is ruined..

Let's not forget the story of the elementary school kids who planted a garden in an unused bit of school property, then were told they weren't allowed to water it because that was the job of the union landscapers... landscapers who then never touched the garden, and the kids couldn't do anything but watch their garden die...

And thats how any successful business controls labour. The problem I assume is that taxpayer funded work isn't profit driven, therefore if someone in the chain of command doesn't give a fuck, money will just be pissed away. Its bullshit because they think just because they have a budget, there is no need to ever come under it, even though obviously that money saved could be spent on other projects, or additional projects that benefit the taxpayer.

that does sounds negative but from what I understand liability is also a huge issue especially considering the more specialized jobs. If your friend were to get hurt from the chain link fence....

while it could be true, i think that attitude is a part of what is wrong with city works like this