I break mirrors all the time. Sh%$ happens in the real world. We have a box of replacement mirrors sitting on a bench in our auto shop, and if you write it up on your DVIR the mechanic goes out there and sticks a new one on and calls it good. Its a $3 piece of glass with glue on the back. Life goes on.
I must be too simple minded to understand certain things. I made a mistake and owned up to breaking the mirror. It cost three bucks and the mechanic takes a ratchet and 1/2" socket and screws a new one on in a minute or two. My mechanic replaces so many, he puts them in perfect position and I don't even have to adjust it after he slaps one on.
wow scratch, I'm sorry they're making such a mountain out of this. It's the way they are and we all know it but dammit, it still stings.
My original title for this thread was going to be "Making a Mountain Out of a Molehill"
My center is the same as Sober's--simply write the mirror up and it will be replaced.
Scratch, it sounds as though your new division manager is trying to make a statement. I am wondering what would have happened had you decided not to call and to simply write the mirror up in your DVIR.
Probably if I just wrote it up on my DVIR and told the OMS when I got back in, this would have had a better outcome. All the FT management are long gone by then. I do have a new DM. I like her from my first impressions, she seems to have made an effort on fixing pre-existing sloppy practices. I'm talking about sloppy uniforms, RS labels and DFUs not attempted, and so on.
Why did your sup even bother telling your center manager, and why did your center manager then feel the need to go running to the DM's office with the terrible awful news that one of his drivers had *gasp* "Broken a mirror!"
Charging you with an accident over this is the biggest load of BS I've seen in a while. What a wonderful company we work for.
+ All the management is on edge right now, somebody made an anonymous corporate complaint and LP had been through the building lurking around recently. Nothing concrete showed up, no "Walks of Shame" with an LP escort out to the parking lot.
And make sure you grieve being charged with an accident. You have "Past practice" on your side.
I have 21 years safe driving out of twenty-six. I have never grieved an accident before. It happened, I was driving, so I just figured to take the warning letter. This is so minor though.
I always think of Growth. If you hit your good employees with this petty garbage (charging an accident for a cracked mirror), your employee is not going to get sales leads.
Happy employees get you sales leads, not employees who you just screwed out of their safe driving years for a $3 mirror.
++ I DR about 125 stops out of 145 a day, I'm mostly residential and have few businesses on my area. A new company just moved in that uses Fedex and the USPS that I was thinking about turning in. I really have 22 years of safe driving, they have screwed up my anniversary date and haven't fixed it despite me asking 5-6 times. I would like to make the Circle of Honor, just for bragging rights.
Scratch-
You had a choice of going left of center to avoid the tree limb and causing a head on collision or breaking a 3 dollar mirror.
Which would they have preferred you do?
Excellent point, I face this very scenario all the time. Trees grow all over the place where I am at, the limbs hang out in the roads and the long driveways I have to go up sometimes. Tree limbs grow, they get wet and hang down, the wind blows, etc. I have some streets I go down everyday with totally blind curves in them. If a car comes around that corner from the opposite direction, you do have to make that choice, either a head on accident or you go into the bushes/tree limbs hanging over the road. The county road crews don't trim things, sometimes I have to do this myself. This incident actually happened in a long driveway with a turnaround at the house about a quarter of a mile from the road, all uphill with tree branches on both sides. I guess I could have walked it off from the street in 20-25 minutes, that would have done wonders for my SPORH and killed my energy level for a while. I think my SPORH is 17.7, I haven't looked at the Operations Report in years, I don't worry about that. When I get rolling on my trace, I hit 20 an hour in some sections.
Well there goes your employee of the month
.
Now tell us how many accidents did you have before you totally were driving unsafely and took out this bohemeth limb?
I had the same thing happen once, power was out, limbs were heavy.
How could I have avoided it? Standard answer. I could have stayed home.
Or I could have veered into the other lane and took out a car and passengers, to avoid breaking a 3 dollar mirror, or I could have locked it up and got rear ended. .
Im sorry it got you, its getting us all.
That is actually funny in a way. I got Employee of the Month for my December Peak Season performance, and I got it again Tuesday morning and had breakfast with my new Division Manager. My Center's EOTM is based on three criteria: Service, Safety, and turning in a Sales Lead. I didn't turn one in in December, I guess somebody in management did this. I didn't turn one in for this past month either. I asked about this and my center manager said in that morning meeting with my new DM that my imaginary December Sales Lead was "producing". I wish I knew who this company I supposedly turned in is, maybe I should buy something from them. Wednesday morning I had a late air, it was an Int'l ASD that was marked "Express Plus" when I delivered it at 10:15. I have an 8:45 Start Time and our EAM commit time is 8:00, I wasn't on the clock anyways. I got the Parking Place and luckily I picked out my $50 worth of stuff out of the catalog and ordered it Friday morning just before I broke the mirror.
