Has anyone been pulled into their center manager's office to recite the DOK question?

Docparcel79

Well-Known Member
Just recently our center manager has been randomly pulling drivers into the office and making every driver recite the DOK question. If you don't know them, your given a week to study. You don't know them the following week, It's a warning letter. Has any driver been harrassed with these questions?
 

Fnix

Well-Known Member
They ask me everyday the DOK questions so I know them by heart and what order they are in. They just come up to me now with the clipboard and I recite them without them even asking me the questions. If I know them so well why do they still ask me?

I decided to take it into my own hands and ask the supe why he still asks me and he says he needs to do at least 2 per day and he gets a bonus. I ask him if I get one as well for helping him.
 

Docparcel79

Well-Known Member
They are telling us it's for our safety. I think it's just another one of their plots to get you by the **** and harrass you
 

DS

Fenderbender
OK I'm stupid, what what does DOK mean?
Please recite it for me.
Is it like the 10 point commentary?
 

RockyRogue

Agent of Change
They ask me everyday the DOK questions so I know them by heart and what order they are in. They just come up to me now with the clipboard and I recite them without them even asking me the questions.

The first time I worked for UPS, I was that good, too. They were doing a 'safety blitz' type thing in the hub one week and I was approached every day about one thing or another. I found out later I was one of a handful of people they knew would pass. When they had a service test, who do you think they found? Yep, that's right. They took it a little far once in terms of how often they service tested me and I never saw another sort test. -Rocky
 

BigBrownSanta

Well-Known Member
Maybe everyone should take 10 minutes to read through the DOK list a couple of times before leaving the building in the morning and/or maybe another 10 minutes before you punch out at night. Do this every day and eventually some of it will be retained through repitition. You don't think they'd try to fire you for trying to learn, do you? Just my 2 cents.
 

Fnix

Well-Known Member
Actually I have the DOK sheet with the questions and answers on my computer desk right now. I should type it out so if any of you want to read it during break you can print it out.
 

AlaskaMike

Active Member
Just recently our center manager has been randomly pulling drivers into the office and making every driver recite the DOK question. If you don't know them, your given a week to study. You don't know them the following week, It's a warning letter. Has any driver been harrassed with these questions?

Are you given a week to study on company time? Doesn't the national contract require that training be paid time? Our sup is telling drivers that they will face discipline, but nothing has happened yet. He's also giving them time on the clock to study though.
 

2Slow

Well-Known Member
You dont have to know them or study for them, you are protected by the contract.


You could be ordered to study them on the clock and you would have to "work as directed" or face discipline....
Off the clock is another matter.
 

Harley Rider

34 yrs & done!
When I talked to our Business Agent about this his opinion was not to press the Learning on the clock issue. There is really nothing they can do to you for not knowing the questions. If they pay you to study and you still can't recite them............. who knows?
 

BoogaBooga

Well-Known Member
" You don't know them the following week, It's a warning letter. Has any driver been harrassed with these questions?"

I suspect your nucklehead center manager is motivating you to learn the "Depth of Knowlege Safety Keys". I also suspect that some in your work group have not been grasping the importance of learning and applying these safe work practices. Where the heck is your Safety Co-Chair? The Co-Chair does represent the Union members. When your work group learns, recites, and applies these safe work practices, the number of injuries and accidents are reduced. No one comes to work wanting to have an injury or accident, so one's attitude must be on starting the day with safety, and arriving home safely. Being safe at your job is one of many protections afforded to you by the Teamsters Union. I am sorry that your Center Manager has resorted to intimidation, and your Union Safety Co-Chair has not stepped up to find another way for work groups to learn. Our work group was in a similar situation. Our goal was to create postivive learning enviroment. We accomplished that by 100% involvement, a contest, daily, oral, repetition over months. It wasn't easy, but it worked. The Number One Rule was "Recognition for What You do Know". It was personally rewarding for me to watch people over time grasp this knowledge, especially the ones that had trouble remembering. If I had to do over again, I would take 1 DOK section a month, and then add the next one, so people are not overwhelmed. People's minds are still on the job that they need to do, and needlessly upsetting them by stressed out memorization, is not fostering :happy2: "Safety as a Personal Value" at UPS.
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
Hopefully, no one is studying this BS on their own time. There is NOTHING they can do to you for not being able to recite this.

If they tell you to study, ask them how to code that off in your DIAD. (How early should you come to work to study? Where is a quiet spot to study? etc etc).

If they actually WILL pay you to study, great! Work as directed. (They won't pay us to study here.) Listen at the pcm, you'll pick up some of it.

But when it comes down to reciting it, some of us can't remember all that stuff. We're (I'm) too darn old to learn new things! And there's not a thing they can do about that.

It amazes me that on one hand I've heard them say we're unskilled, uneducated labor, but when they need something suddenly we can memorize 10 pages of their BS.
 

Griff

Well-Known Member
Don't even bring up the "are you going to pay me to study" issue. Wait for them to discipline because they have absolutely no case and will lose horribly. Don't tell them how to do their jobs or explain anything about the contract to them, let them find out the hard way.
 

UPS Lifer

Well-Known Member
Don't even bring up the "are you going to pay me to study" issue. Wait for them to discipline because they have absolutely no case and will lose horribly. Don't tell them how to do their jobs or explain anything about the contract to them, let them find out the hard way.

I read 2 posts in this stream that misrepresent to the general BC population the proper course of action. This post was one of them.

Why would anyone tell a brother Teamster to "wait for them to discipline" (you). I am appalled to think that someone on this forum is advocating negative confrontation that will bring both sides a poor result. I can't even put into words how this sickens me.

The one positive aspect that I see and have seen through out the threads is that common sense prevails from the general BC population. The majority always seems to have good advice and realistic solutions to concerns that are brought up. My only fear is that impressionable folks can see through the negative and possibly detrimental advice a small percentage seem to advocate.

For example:
DO
1. Study on company time - Ask your supervisor or safety co-chair the best way to work this into the day. Maybe you can attend a safety meeting where the questions are reviewed.

2. The DOK questions are safety related - You, your co-workers and the general public benefit from the knowledge you gain - especially in an emergency!

3. Use good common sense - always seek information, instruction and guidance from more than one person and then formulate your action.

4. Listen to the voice of reason

DON'T

1. Listen to those that say it isn't in the contract so you don't have to do it. The contract wasn't meant to cover every aspect with specific language. There are many areas that have general language that cover those areas that are not specifically addressed. ....and where language is vague or left open to interpretation there is a dispute resolution process (grievance machinery).

2. Seek to be disciplined

3. Handle situations in a negative or combative or confrontational manner
 

Big Babooba

Well-Known Member
DON'T

1. Listen to those that say it isn't in the contract so you don't have to do it. The contract wasn't meant to cover every aspect with specific language. There are many areas that have general language that cover those areas that are not specifically addressed. ....and where language is vague or left open to interpretation there is a dispute resolution process (grievance machinery).

2. Seek to be disciplined

3. Handle situations in a negative or combative or confrontational manner
The most dangerous language in the contract is the language that isn't written in it . Tread lightly when entering the gray areas, it could mean your job. It isn't a case of what you can't see won't hurt you. Your center manager might be right and he might be wrong. He might have a ruling to back him/her up. I would try to find out from the union if there is a contract interpretation on this matter. Somewhere there might be a driver who lost this case at an arbitration board.
 
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