Imagine for a moment you are driving a company vehicle. This vehicle is fitted with automatic transmission and has a handbrake so strong that if you put the handbrake on and left it in gear and pressed the accelerator, the engine would blow up before the vehicle would move. Then of course it wouldn't move. So you don't press the accelerator if the handbrake is on. So you are driving along in broad daylight with clear visibility. Then you come to a halt because there is a line of stationary traffic in front of you stretching as far as the eye can see. In this case, which we are all imagining as far as you can see is 115 yards, that's 104.5 metres if you are using the new fangled metric system. 15 vehicles are stationary in front of you with no sign of movement. Even though this is all made up you also know, because you have driven along this road, in your mind, at least 10 000 times and it is unusual for there to be stationary traffic here, it just doesn't happen. Except that is, when there is an accident. And there is an accident black spot ahead.
After about a minute and the status quo is still status quoing you might begin to think there has in fact been an accident. So you decide to take a photo of the stationary traffic for the record. Watching carefully for movement in the traffic ahead you take your camera out of your bag. All the time you are ready to return the camera to the bag without taking the photo if any of the 15 vehicles ahead show any sign of movement. But they don't so you take the photo and still watching the traffic you return the camera to your bag. This takes about 15 seconds. By now more than 2 minutes has passed since you stopped. An other minute passes and the traffic starts to move.
Oh yes, imagine this was the photo you took.
Someone from your company's management team saw you take the photo. Remember you are imagining all of this, what exactly do you expect to happen now?
13 comments:
Keep going David. I love your blog and to know what is happening in Torbay.
You get fired?
You get fired. Spend your time travelling the county on a free bus pass and draw unemployment benefit fortnightly.In all probality you will reflect on how many times you had done it previously
If you get fired for doing that, what do they do if you are caught using a mobile phone?
Or
listening to an i-Pod ?
i cant see how people can work blog without attempting to concealtheir identity and then take photographs of any sort as it reveals 1/ you are photographing rather than working 2/you are photographing on your breaks but these may become indistinguishable from work time from the management perspective 3/your photographs compromise your identity,location,day to day activity.
having said all that it was bad luck.
knowing how managers dont like having their staff blogging at all, I imagine they have been watching and waiting for you to make a 'mistake' like this - or at least something they can use against you.
All the best Graham
You get sacked because bus companies are like the gestapo
Ah! this explain it all, Dave. It's the end of the season and an incident like this gives them just the excuse to shed staff thereby reducing costs.
There was something nasty about how it was done. I bet the 'someone' from the management team didn't take the issue up with you at the time but more likely reported it when he or she was in the safety of the office? That's what today's manangement is like, I'm afraid.
There clearly wasn't a safety issue either so is there no chance of an appeal?
It's true that companies don't like bloggers in case they 'spill the beans'.
I do hope you find some decent employment soon. I left Torbay in 1970 to do just that having worked for some truly horrible employers there who thought that they owned me just because they paid my insurance stamp.
Good luck and best wishes,
-Dave-the-bus-nut.
Continuing the imagine theme:
No doubt bloggers are not top of the pops with management.
However I suppose that 'someone in high places' felt that if a driver in service would take such a boring, mundane shot as the one displayed on your blog what would that driver do if he/she had a bus load of passengers and there really was something worthwhile to photograph? I imagine somewhere in the rules that act gave the opportunity for dismissal, the blog only occasionally showing a photo when perhaps that driver was known by management and colleagues (who may well have been the ones to complain) to be regularly photographing from his cab. Additionally many modern vehicles carry CCTV that is trained on the driver (as well as passengers and the road), thus providing as many examples as the company wanted of any driver's actions.
Thus the blogger + safety issues = dismissal for that imaginary individual.
A shame because that imaginary person meant no harm but the company's actions are perfectly understandable. Everything is about the safety and comfort of passengers. Their journey must in reality be just that; so too must their perception they are getting a safe journey and not one travelling with the anxiety that the driver is going to get a camera out whenever he pleases.
Nevertheless, good luck to you and keep up the good work even if it is from a slightly different perspective these days.
Dave,
I'm sorry to hear that you and Stagecoach have parted company, as your blog has provided me with much entertainment over the years. As for the circumstances, it was unfortunate, and clearly an over-reaction of the modern 'health and safety' culture that we live in. I do admire you for making your identity public, and I never found any of the content of this blog to be anything but an accurate reflection of the life of a bus driver - unlike some other work blogs that set about slandering and defaming everyone and everything to do with that persons work.
I only hope that you can find another job, whether as a PSV driver or as something totally different. Despite the current economic climate, I'm sure you'll find something out there!
All the best Dave,
A Frequent Reader!
Right, so taking an image while stationary is more of a problem than drivers going 35mph+ in 20 zones, not caring for passengers and being total twats.
I think what you imagined is much more innocent than some drivers and the fact you get action taken on you is pathetic on their part.
Once again, get rid of the good driver, replace with the crap ones. :(
Seems pathetic really. Witnessed a driver the other day rolling up cigarretes whilst in the drivers chair. Not to mention the grumpy twats out there! One in particular, what a miserable sod!
Hi Dave,
Imagine if you were doing the route exactly the same as you did it a few days ago. A couple of hundred yards before meeting the traffic and having to stop, you knocked your mirror against some trees at the side of the road. Normally, the wing mirror stays in place but this time it was knocked so it now only gives you a good view of the scrolling destination board on the side of the bus. When you reach the parked cars and realise how long you will be stationary for, you decide to grab the moment to re adjust the wing mirrors so that they are facing the right direction again and you are back in safe control of you vehicle. You apply the brake, leave the cab and having opened the door adjust the mirror. Would Stagecoach sack you for this? You would have done exactly the same thing when taking the photo as you would be doing to adjust the mirror which I have seen being done a number of times.
Regards,
Matt
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