Sunday, April 17, 2011

We're From the Department of Transportation and We're Here to Keep You Safe

So, the AP reports that Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's solution to drowsy air traffic controllers is adding an extra hour between shifts and -- get this -- "[m]ore managers . . . on duty during the early morning hours and at night to remind controllers that nodding off is unacceptable."

Yeah. That should do the trick.

4 comments:

  1. Wait... shouldn't that be one of the interview questions, like "Do you think nodding off is acceptable?"

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  2. Heh. Reminds me of times I popped into my SOC (Site Operations Center) at oh-dark-thirty yelling "Wake Up! WAKE UP!" My shift workers were NOT amused. Then again, we only controlled web sites, not air traffic.

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  3. Moogie, this deal has puzzled me since it recently surfaced. Lookit, I'm 51 years old, and as far as I can remember I've NEVER gone to sleep on the clock (regardless of whose clock I was punching).

    It just seems so bizarre to me that any person whose job must be done correctly at the risk of hundreds of lives can actually, factually, really go to sleep. But then it came to me...

    I've NEVER worked a US Gubmit Job! My performance on the job has always really mattered...either to an employer, or to my own personal well-being in my own biz.

    Lookit, I'm not gonna paint with a broad brush about the FAA & Controllers, because I'm sure that the GREAT majority take their job seriously (just like cops, firemen, doctors, nurses, etc.), but the VERY IDEA that someone could show up for work with hundreds/thousands/tens of thousands of people's lives hanging in the balance, and not be well rested is just too foreign to me.

    I think you're right. MORE MANAGERS should be able to clear this all up.

    That's DC's answer to everything. Get out your wallet...

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  4. You'd think so, wouldn't you, Harvey? Or, maybe just a question that asks, "Are you a morning person or a nightowl?"

    I can picture that, Buck!

    Yep -- more folksd on the government payroll to point out the glaringly obvious is "The Washington Way."

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