Co-Mayor Funky's latest newsletter is mostly pointless but buried in the self-promotion is a blatant and disrespectful attack on City Workers.
Check it:
The Mayor told Water Department workers that they, and the rest of City Hall, need to "change the culture" of how customers - city residents - are treated. The Mayor told the workers about a visit that he and the first lady made to a Plaza coffee shop, and the rude way they saw a city worker treat a woman driving on Jefferson Street.
"That lady was probably on the way to the Plaza to shop. She was going to spend money in our city. She pays our bills," the Mayor said. "We need to treat our customers like customers."
Now, out-of-towners and a great many racists like to complain about Kansas City's diverse work force . . . And here's a straight forward question:
WHAT DO YOU THINK MAYOR FUNKY WAS TRYING TO IMPLY BY ARGUING FOR A "CHANGE OF CULTURE" AMONG CITY WORKERS?!?!?
Politicos always speak in code but THIS PHRASE SEEMS EXCEEDINGLY TROUBLING GIVING THE RACIALLY DIVIDED POLITICAL CLIMATE THAT MAYOR FUNKHOUSER HAS HELPED TO FOSTER!!!
City workers vote in big numbers and it's horrendous to see Mayor Funky show such bias against the people who help run Kansas City.
And c'mon . . . With a barefoot wife running around City Hall in an administration that's responsible for spending more than half-a-million bucks on a lawsuit over the word "Mammy" . . . The Mayor has failed to lead by example when it comes to changing City Hall culture.
Take a look at the newsletter in it's entirety for yourself:
THIS WEEKS CITY BUSINESS
The Mayor made his pitch this week to bring more international business to Kansas City.
The city this week hosted the 14th Biennial Edgar Snow Symposium, which brings together Chinese and American business, government and education representatives to talk about understanding and communication between the two countries.
The Symposium was held in conjunction with the Mayor's Energy and Environment Summit, which focused on green solutions and clean energy.
The two events here in Kansas City came out of discussions between the Mayor and the Chinese Consul General.
"When then Consul General Ping Huang of China talked to me about the rapid development of energy-efficient public transit systems in China, I thought about the application of this technology in Kansas City," the Mayor said.
"When he talked about the problem of pollution in China and other side-effects related to its rapid economic development, I thought about the fact that Kansas City has not been just the father, but the grandfather, of sustainable development."
On Tuesday night, the Mayor delivered a keynote speech before a large, international crowd at the Edgar Snow Symposium banquet.
"As the global economy evolves, we need to understand global competition is no longer limited between countries - global competition today is between cities," the Mayor said. "It is not just between the U.S. and Russia, or the U.S. and China, but between Kansas City and Shanghai. We all need to understand that we need to find our place in the global economy."
The Mayor knows that Kansas City is an untapped market in the global trade market. And he is doing everything he can to take advantage of our place in the center of the United States and use that to become a key player in the global export market.
"Kansas City has goods that other countries need. With our physical location being in the center of the country, we can get those goods to other countries quicker, and thus, become a major player in the global market. This means more jobs for Kansas Citians, and a burgeoning economy for our city."
On Thursday, members of the City Council reversed last week's vote and ratified the Mayor's reappointment of Claudia Onate Greim to the Tax Increment Financing Commission.
After a short-but-heated debate, the Council voted 8-2 to reappoint Claudia, an attorney with the Ashcroft Law Firm and an expert in, among other things, urban development and affordable housing policy. She has a degree in economics and psychology from Stanford University and graduated from Harvard Law School. She holds the Mayor's vision for the TIF Commission and is a supremely qualified person for this board.
The Mayor told the Council that Claudia has done "an outstanding job as the TIF Commission chairwoman. She has supported the economic development incentive policy that was adopted by the council. She is a qualified, competent person doing a good job and ought to be reappointed."
The Mayor attended three Town Hall meetings this week - an employee session with the Water Department, a session with the Kansas City LGTB Community at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Student Center, and a third sponsored by the Don Bosco Centers in the historic Northeast.
The Mayor told Water Department workers that they, and the rest of City Hall, need to "change the culture" of how customers - city residents - are treated. The Mayor told the workers about a visit that he and the first lady made to a Plaza coffee shop, and the rude way they saw a city worker treat a woman driving on Jefferson Street.
"That lady was probably on the way to the Plaza to shop. She was going to spend money in our city. She pays our bills," the Mayor said. "We need to treat our customers like customers."
At the LGTB Town Hall, the Mayor said he would like more members of the LGTB community to sit on city boards and commissions. The Mayor continues his quest to fills those seats with "everyday folks." Interested? Check out the Mayor's boards and commissions page at www.kcmo.org/mayor.
Want to see more photos from the Mayor's activities this week? Friend him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/funksfrontporch) or visit his flickr (www.flickr.com/funksfrontporch) page.
ON A MORE PERSONAL NOTE
Funk lost weight on the campaign trail in 2007, and he's never made up for it. His busy Mayoral schedule lends no time for ordinary things, like eating three meals a day or sleeping a full night. All that, coupled with his new walking routine, seems to mean his trimmer figure is here to stay.
I guess it's time to have his clothes tailored to match his new self. Luckily, trim figures are healthier figures.
In Faith,
Gloria & Mark
Do you have a comment or question? Email us at funksfrontporch@gmail.com.
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Service with a smile?
ReplyDeleteActually I do not want to be treated like a "customer." I want to be trated like a "citizen," an owner of the facility.
ReplyDeleteFunk is such a stupid asshole.
Good grief! Have you ever dealth with the Water "Services" Department? I once had an issue that was clearly their responsibility. The worker who came out to look at it said, in exactly these words, "They ain't gonna do nothin'." They wound up fixing the problem, but only after I went up a few rungs in the city--not in the Water Services Dept.
ReplyDeleteAdd to that the recent billing changes that will cost captive customers $72 per year more and the awful e-billing system, and it's hard to deny that Funky's got a point about the culture of "We ain't gonna do nothin'."
On the other hand, I ain't gonna vote Funky--he's been there the past three-plus years as mayor and many more as auditor. He ain't gonna do nothin', either.
I'm afraid the Funk's got a point. He would know. I don't have that problem where I live because the culture of government workers (well except cops of course who have a traditional 'us vs them' culture) is that we ARE customers.
ReplyDeleteNothin worse than people who know they can't be fired, who don't see a direct relationship with customers and paychecks.
Your problem, Tony, as you hate the Funk so much, are so prejudiced against him, that no matter what he says, you'll be against it.
You have the same prejudice about race and people with means, as in Johnson Countians.
You have a lot of prejudices, Tee, and sometimes they get in the way of your thinking. Maybe you should work on those first, before you try to 'fix' the city.
Just sayin.
What makes you think City workers can't be fired? They can and do get fired all the time. There are many good, competent people at City Hall who are making the best of being left behind to do the work of many good people who have been laid off. Funkhouser has managed to insult the whole group for the action of one water department employee. What about the rude, sexually filthy, and racist remarks made by his wife down at City Hall? If he is truly interested in the behavior of city staff, he should start with her. Oh, that's right....she's just a volunteer. So the rules of common civility don't apply to her.
ReplyDeleteYour logic is flawed 9:42. You too have an issue with the first family which is getting in the way of your expectations of city employees to their customers.
ReplyDeleteOne has nothing to do with the other, even though you're right about the mayor's wife's misbehavior. She has made it much more difficult for Funk to do the job we pay him for. And sometimes that's when he has to ask city employees to act in a better way his wife has.
You must not be a parent... knowing it's your job to get your kids to behave better than YOU did when you were a kid. No matter the hypocritical sound of it, it's your job.
So, people voted Funk in because they wanted a change from the suits and the establishment.
ReplyDeleteGuess that didn't work out to well.
Yes many good city employees, but not many of them work at the Water Department. And of course the Flunk held his employee meeting at the Water Department this week at 3pm ! Big turn out so one only can imagine how many customers were put on hold while the employees took a break to sit and listen the Mayor.
ReplyDeleteRadioman....you are way off base. I am a parent and a grandparent. I am also a City Employee. And before people go batshit crazy on me.... I have won several awards from customer groups that I serve in my job and regularly get letters of thanks and praise from clients and management. As a parent, you should know that a child will not listen unless they respect you. That respect has to be earned. What I am saying is that no one finds it easy to take criticism from someone they do not respect and that Funk has lost our respect. As for the Water Department staff, I don't know what problems they may have. I do know that the people I work with on a day to day basis down at City Hall are trying very hard to take care of the needs of our citizens. Believe it or not, most of us love Kansas City and the people in it. I am sure that anyone who deals with the general public will tell you that it is not always easy. No complaints here....my greatest pleasure is to resolve a problem for someone who walks into City Hall frustrated and angry. If they leave with a smile, I'm happy too.
ReplyDeleteTony has no objectivity when it comes to the Mayor so his opinion is generally ignored on the subject. I am voting for Deb Hermann and even I think it goes to far and often reaches for a reason to complain about him.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I went into the Finance Dept. about 3 years ago and three employees were standing in the inner office chatting. I know this because they have a glass door and I was looking right at them and visa versa. I stood patiently as they glanced at me and didn't make a move to come to the service window to help me. The Director came in and they scattered and finally approached the window (10 minutes after I arrived) I asked them why they did not help me before and he said, I am not kidding, "You have to ring the bell" After I got over my shock I said that they were looking right at me and I saw the bell but thought it would seem rude to ring it when they were looking right at me. He repeated, "You have to ring the bell. The sign right there says ring the bell." I might add that he said it with this tone in his voice that clearly showed he was not going to put up with any complaints from me. This is Finance for God's sake. You expect a little more professionalism from them.
Funhkhouser is right about City Employees needing to remember that they can be replaced and there are thousands of people out there unemployed who would be happy to start on Monday.
Motivation, performance standards,pride in your job, and results all start at the top of any organization, and KCMO has no leadership whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteTalk to elected officials, and you quickly find that they don't have a clue about activities in the operations that their own committees supposedly oversee. Meanwhile, millions of dollars are shoveled out the door to not-for-profits that haven't produced any real results for years.
There are lots of great employees of the city,but they get their motivation entirely because they want to do a good job themselves.
And it's not just Funk; it's the whole dysfunctional crowd.
KCMO really doesn't have a city government.
Funkhouser is rude and the same goes for him. He will be replaced. He can try to cover up his bad acts by attacking City Employees all he wants but that will NOT work. We REMEMBER, You are not to be trusted Co Mayors.
ReplyDeleteIt seems hypocritical of him to complain about anyone else's behavior. Any office "culture" starts from the top down, not the other way around. He set the tone long ago.
ReplyDeleteAnon 9:42 AM - "What about the rude, sexually filthy, and racist remarks made by his wife down at City Hall?"
I don't believe I agree with you on this one Byron. Government work forces, are by definition, entrenched bureaucracies. Funk is as responsible as Obama is for how their respective governments work.
ReplyDeleteJust like new Superintendents don't hav ea lot of influence on the culture of union teachers. Most of them will look at politicos (or mayors/superintendents) as just people passing through. The bueocracies have been there for decades and will be there long after the top dog's picture has faded in the board room.
A tough lesson we all have to learn is that even bosses have their flaws and if we are so arrogant as to be unwilling to learn even from them, then we're just entrenched whiners, likely good candidates to be fired.
For we have become too uncomfortable. I'm fine with 10:37 and I applaud him for not having caught the malaise that normally goes with over-tenured people in all industries.
If he's the exception of the rule, then he's definately wrong for suggesting I'm off base.
I expect if this room was the obudsman's office, you'd be hearing a lot more citizen complaints than the 'ring the bell' story which probably doesn't surprise anyone.
Sadly, employees who DO, do a good job suffer when they don't do something to stop the bad behavior of those who don't. But we're in a 'no snitch' world these days, and the featherbedders don't take kindly to being ratted on by 'brown nosers', do they?
Funkhouser could start by doing things better in his own office. Letters are not answered, calls not returned--the mayor's office/staff simply don't give a damn. And they are particularly rude & offensive to other city employees.
ReplyDeleteFunk's gotta go--and take the Jeff Roe-controlled staff, too.
This is anon 10:37....11:39 has it exactly right. Those of us who are performing are doing it almost in spite of the poor management or completely lacking management. We know our jobs. We are doing our best to take care of people. We truly hope that the right people get elected so that things can get better for everyone. It's hard to watch our beautiful city slip into something more like Detroit. I lay the blame for this right up at the top.
ReplyDeleteLay the blame on your coworkers. For as you say, YOU KNOW YOUR JOBS. You shouldn't need a manager riding your coworkers asses every day.
ReplyDeleteAny moron in the finance department knows that when someone's standing at the counter, they WANT SOMETHING, whether they've rung the fucking bell or not!
You're playing the blame game. And it IS a game people play because they're resentful THEY'RE not the manager. So they won't pick up a wrench out of the tool box until their supervisor says so. Right out of the union members' manual!
Wll, man up, and watch your jobs get exported. Or watch your government decide to OUTSOURCE your job to people gratefully willing to do it even for LESS. Too bad MAST doesn't also put out FIRES!
Vote NO on the ETAX, everyone. Let's clean out the dead wood.
Rman:
ReplyDeleteA fish rots from the head down. If you work in an organization where no one at the top is responsibile for all sorts of screw ups, no one ever bothers to involve you in setting priorities, goals, and direction, and no one every even says atta-boy, pretty soon only the most highly-self motivated people do much of anything at all.
And if you spend any time at all talking to elected officials in KCMO, none of them even khow what the role of a municipal government is supposed to be. They are self-important incompetent boobs! And your'e not going to be successful just purely by chance.
KCMO doesn't have a city government.
Right. So do what most people do. Move out. Let that fish just stay on the beach stinkin up the place til the tide comes in and washes it away.
ReplyDeleteVote NO on the eTAX, and move as soon as your lease is up... or call a realtor...for your KCMO property values have nowhere to go but DOWN!
Let Tony be mayor, and the entire city council. His last official act, with help from Local 42's Wright, can be to turn out the light at the fire station.
Maybe if most city employees were not products of the the KCMO School District we would not have the incompetant workers we currently seem to have.
ReplyDeleteThere's that blame game again.
ReplyDeleteRadioman. As I told you, I know my job and I do my job. I don't work in the finance department or the water department, by the way. There are quite a lot of us doing our jobs with or without the assistance and guidance of management. Doesn't matter either way. Good management would help improve or weed out the people who let our citizens twist in the wind. As for the etax issue, if my property tax increases any more than it already is now, I will lose my home and so will a lot of other people. None of us deserves that. And how much flaming dead wood do you really think there is after hundreds of people being laid off? You're on the outside. I'm on the inside. Thought you might appreciate a knowledgeable perspective.....
ReplyDeleteI doubt you'd lose your home because of higher property taxes. No eTax where I live and we manage to pay our property taxes. Yes, its a hard hit but schools here are good and they educated both of my kids well. So I'm not complaining. Definately cheaper than private schools!
ReplyDeleteAnd the plows get my street every time it snows... around 6am, and again when it needs it. True, I pay the trash service and the water/sewer separately. But again, we manage.
It'd be nice to not have to pay that one percent additionally we have to pay because one of us works in KCMO. We definitely don't get THAT level of service by driving on KC streets two and from work.
Let the city belt-tighten like the rest of us have. Fewer cops and firemen, fewer traffic signals at intersections, instead of one for each lane.
Stop the sidewalk mandate, we don't need a sidewalk on both sides of every damned street in the jurisdiction. No more moronic art at the airport. Turn off some fountains. Transfer taxation from property taxes to USE taxes.
Cut back on library funding in this internet age. Sorry. Let the children go to their school libraries. Just how many do we need?
If lots of people have already been laid off at city hall, well maybe it's already close to being rightsized. But one thing's clear. if workers sleep in their trucks, then maybe we need to get the supervisors out of the office to supervise rather than push papers.
How much time is spent by city workers checking Tony's blog each day? And photocopying documents for him to publish, designed to make your employer look bad?
If I were Funkhouser, I'd have my IT department trace the internet and email traffic stuff and fire some people. That includes using fire department phones and computers for the same thing.
Sorry, but I too have worked in government, and been around it much of my life. I think you couldn't handle private enterprise!
And I think it's why private enterprise tends NOT to hire former government workers if they can find similarly qualified people with real world resumes. I think a lot of people who work for government think getting hired was like hitting the lottery!
Security, higher than average salaries, retirement, lots of time off, and generally tenure more important that productivity. Civil service, sometimes even union protections. I bet they don't quit their jobs for private enterprise very often, do they?
Think about that one for awhile and don't whine too much! It doesn't impress us nearly as much as you think.
Shouldn't we at least be happy that the city worker mentioned in the story was at least AWAKE while on the job?
ReplyDeletenumber 1: squit's cauldron is calling the kettle black. Or maybe this is her campaign strategy. "Well funk'd, we ain't never gonna get Local 500 so let's suck up to tea party types that be pissed off at all government." Thus she screws funk'd out of support from the Firefighters/EMS union, the Chief's union and the local AFL-CIO. ohhh she be real smart.
ReplyDeletenumber 2: could be construed as racist. The Claudia Onate Greim re appointment reminds all of us that squit-the-great-unwashed called this highly educated woman "that Hispanic chick." From poorly schooled squit we get this remark?
number 3: First Lady? Are you female squit? We know that you are uncouth. Funny how you post those crazy things like "you better hope funk'd wins. That will keep the libel suit back for another four years." SPOOKY! Freedom of speech, baby! And you want to thrust yourself upon us as a "public figure." My God, you must work hard at being an overweight asshole.
AND BUY THE POOR MAN A COUPLE OF NEW SUITS. No tailor wants to handle those filthy rags he currently wears. He was crying and slobbering in that suit when he was begging for a settlement. A tough son of a gun? No fucking way!A donor funk'd was trying to get money from asked him why his wife was in city hall. Shit, the blasted bastard was in tears, crying to the would be campaign donor "I can't make her go home. It would be the end of my marriage." The fucker was CRYING when he said this.
Now for the important part. Why is squit STILL using city resources? She is the declared campaign manager of this losing odyssey. She has brought up the campaign trail via the losers misshapen clothes. More to come, no doubt, if we do not point out to these creeps that it is unethical for her to use city resources. She is not a city employee just doing a blogger job. She is a quasi volunteer.
There is "legally right" and then there is morally right. These grifters just don't get it. Betcha she runs her sloppy fat ass to the city attorney's office and gets a Legal Opinion. What a dirt bag this mayor turned out to be!
wow, time for fun. See you at my favorite place to hang out!
number 1: squit's cauldron is calling the kettle black. Or maybe this is her campaign strategy. "Well funk'd, we ain't never gonna get Local 500 so let's suck up to tea party types that be pissed off at all government." Thus she screws funk'd out of support from the Firefighters/EMS union, the Chief's union and the local AFL-CIO. ohhh she be real smart.
ReplyDeletenumber 2: could be construed as racist. The Claudia Onate Greim re appointment reminds all of us that squit-the-great-unwashed called this highly educated woman "that Hispanic chick." From poorly schooled squit we get this remark?
number 3: First Lady? Are you female squit? We know that you are uncouth. Funny how you post those crazy things like "you better hope funk'd wins. That will keep the libel suit back for another four years." SPOOKY! Freedom of speech, baby! And you want to thrust yourself upon us as a "public figure." My God, you must work hard at being an overweight asshole.
AND BUY THE POOR MAN A COUPLE OF NEW SUITS. No tailor wants to handle those filthy rags he currently wears. He was crying and slobbering in that suit when he was begging for a settlement. A tough son of a gun? No fucking way!A donor funk'd was trying to get money from asked him why his wife was in city hall. Shit, the blasted bastard was in tears, crying to the would be campaign donor "I can't make her go home. It would be the end of my marriage." The fucker was CRYING when he said this.
Now for the important part. Why is squit STILL using city resources? She is the declared campaign manager of this losing odyssey. She has brought up the campaign trail via the losers misshapen clothes. More to come, no doubt, if we do not point out to these creeps that it is unethical for her to use city resources. She is not a city employee just doing a blogger job. She is a quasi volunteer.
There is "legally right" and then there is morally right. These grifters just don't get it. Betcha she runs her sloppy fat ass to the city attorney's office and gets a Legal Opinion. What a dirt bag this mayor turned out to be!
wow, time for fun. See you at my favorite place to hang out!
number 1: squit's cauldron is calling the kettle black. Or maybe this is her campaign strategy. "Well funk'd, we ain't never gonna get Local 500 so let's suck up to tea party types that be pissed off at all government." Thus she screws funk'd out of support from the Firefighters/EMS union, the Chief's union and the local AFL-CIO. ohhh she be real smart.
ReplyDeletenumber 2: could be construed as racist. The Claudia Onate Greim re appointment reminds all of us that squit-the-great-unwashed called this highly educated woman "that Hispanic chick." From poorly schooled squit we get this remark?
number 3: First Lady? Are you female squit? We know that you are uncouth. Funny how you post those crazy things like "you better hope funk'd wins. That will keep the libel suit back for another four years." SPOOKY! Freedom of speech, baby! And you want to thrust yourself upon us as a "public figure." My God, you must work hard at being an overweight asshole.
AND BUY THE POOR MAN A COUPLE OF NEW SUITS. No tailor wants to handle those filthy rags he currently wears. He was crying and slobbering in that suit when he was begging for a settlement. A tough son of a gun? No fucking way!A donor funk'd was trying to get money from asked him why his wife was in city hall. Shit, the blasted bastard was in tears, crying to the would be campaign donor "I can't make her go home. It would be the end of my marriage." The fucker was CRYING when he said this.
Now for the important part. Why is squit STILL using city resources? She is the declared campaign manager of this losing odyssey. She has brought up the campaign trail via the losers misshapen clothes. More to come, no doubt, if we do not point out to these creeps that it is unethical for her to use city resources. She is not a city employee just doing a blogger job. She is a quasi volunteer.
There is "legally right" and then there is morally right. These grifters just don't get it. Betcha she runs her sloppy fat ass to the city attorney's office and gets a Legal Opinion. What a dirt bag this mayor turned out to be!
wow, time for fun. See you at my favorite place to hang out!
Tony!! WTF? go ahead and trash the copies. the post isn't that great!
ReplyDeleteRadioman... Again, you are wrong. I had a successful career in the corporate world for over 20 years and was offered a job at city hall because of that success. I have found happiness in service to our citizens at city hall. Call me crazy, but I am there because I want to be there. Not because I couldn't make it outside government. Perhaps that is why I am a good employee. You just assume so much about people you don't know....how can you know how much I can afford to pay in taxes and how many people I support, how many kids I have in college, etc? And I am certainly not on here to get sympathy or to impress anyone. I am happily at the age where I don't have to prove anything to anyone....my accomplishments speak for themselves. I was merely trying to give an inside perspective to the nightmare we have endured in the Funkhouser/Cauthen years at city hall. You have revealed that you don't even live in KC. So you are the one sitting on the outside, making harsh judgements on people you don't even know. And for the record....Tony isn't as stupid as you think he is. He's a very smart guy who gets his points across in very creative ways.
ReplyDeleteFeel better toadstool? you forgot the city hall employee at the airport. How was the lard ass changing "city hall culture" when she ranted and raved at security for being told to move her car from the curb? Special First Lady privilege?
ReplyDelete7:43 im with you. You obviously know more inside insight than me. The current mind set with the Co-mayors is not KC. The current rule is not KC. These people are delusional.Everyone wants good govt and this is not it.
ReplyDeleteNo, not everyone wants good government, unless you define that as "getting out fair share" or otherwise having your snout firmly in the trough. There are lots of folks in KCMO who are perfectly happy with the staus quo, including all the murdrers, terrible streets, diesastrous water department, no snow plowing, and all the rest.
ReplyDeleteJust as long as they get theirs. Time for that to change bigtime!
7:43. I'm only wrong about YOU. I don't think you're typical government worker.
ReplyDeleteFor one thing, youre not a lifetime government worker. I wasn't either when I got in government but I sure noticed the ones who hadn't worked anyplace else. Actually I was a contractor, thats' probably why I wasn't the clock watcher most of the GS workers were.
Fine not to lump you in with most government workers. But I'd say most could really use a day long seminar in customer relations, which most of us in private enterprise had several of (except cheap companies and ones in broadcasting) They don't see workers as assets, just expense.
7:43: Can we say not everyone in the city government is incompetent, but many are? I haven't dealt much with finance, but the water dept. Oy! You have to go directly to the top if not out of the dept. to get even the simplest things done, and they make no effort to make things easy--even paying their bills. Try the telephone payment system. In addition to being repetitive and slow, you're asked to enter either your phone number or "your 16 digit account number." What they mean to say is the FIRST 16 digits of your account number, since account numbers actually have 17 numbers. But do they ever change things to make it easy? Nope.
ReplyDeleteSo you're an exception. But you're not what the public gets to deal with.
Tony, you're over reacting on this one. Management everywhere loves to talk about culture and the importance of changing the culture of whatever organization we're talking about.
ReplyDeleteIt's corporate-speak, not veiled racist language.
You're exactl y right, 8:42. Culture is about a lot of things, including dress, formality or informality, enthusiasm, positive or complaining water cooler climate.
ReplyDeleteWillingness to help coworkers or isolate onesselve to his.her job descriptions. Like unions. They won't lift a finger unless it's in the contract. They tend to be in bully mode, thats' their culture.
Ya should try to get work done in Chicago, for example. Once a guy leaning on the back of a big black car tagged TEAMSTER4 told me I would be "sleeping with the fishes" for driving a U-Haul truck into the loading area of his beloved McCormick Place exhibition center.
And of course to get a wire laid, you need the carpetlayers union to lift the carpet, the electrical workers to lay down the line, and the carpetlayers union to come back and put the carpet down over the computer wires. And of course after it's all done, call the electicians back to plug the extension cord into the socket.
That's culture to the point of absurdity. Were the flights not so good into Chicago and the hotels soo good, no one would go there because its such a nightmare. Are teachers and firemen just as bad?
No one will tell you ON THE RECORD, but they might over a cup of coffee. Why? Because unions' best weapons are retribution and extortion. And of course someone might accidentally key your car if you don't watch it carefully. Especially if its a Japanese car.
I'll go ahead and sign my name because my web producer is non-union so they won't stage a work slowdown in protest of my comments.
I do remember once though, when the Machinists called the station executives where I worked threatening a sponsor boycott because I talked about violence ont he picket line at Boeing, some 30 years ago. Guess my union contacts weren't so solid after that. Which was too bad, because in the media, you can always count on union people to whisper adverse company tips to reporters.
Tee probably sees a lot of that when he plays one political candidate's handlers against anothers. It's fun gettin all that attention! Ya think they actually LIKE you. They don't. They think you're disgusting and dangerous but they're nice to you, so you'll give them good press.
Glo should know rude.
ReplyDeleteThe Co-mayors dont know the first thing about establishing a culture. Worst mayoral administration in the history of KC.
ReplyDelete