City politics

Blogmaster welcomes the pcoII recently returned to the 1st watch from a detailed position. One more body on the operations floor is always a help. We do sympathize, however, because Blogmaster understands that coming back to the floor was a complete surprise to said pcoII, having been told only the day prior to being expected on the 1st watch. Now that hardly seems fair, considerate, or decent--even if one were to be "dumped" which everyone agrees is an inherent risk in accepting a detail. A few weeks, or failing that, a few DAYS is more like it especially if one must make plans for child care, spouse, etc.

But then Blogmaster is reminded that the OEMC, and the city, are not benevelent organizations. They are not flexible, family oriented, women (read single parent) friendly, and they certainly are not bastion of progression when it comes to doing right by employees. It is shameful that the city does not even offer maternity/paternity leave in the year 2008, despite the mayors public assertions that Chicago is a bastion of progressive policies--it ain't evident from our perspective. And given the mayors tight grip on politics here, and his absolute iron control over his minions (read aldermen and department heads), its a real shame. Municipal governments all over the country have finally begun to behave like private entities and adopted best practices and efficiencies which make their employees happier, healthier, and more productive. But as usual, chicago is light years behind the curve.

These realities are often sugarcoated by the steady paycheck and the occasionally generous benefits. But in reality most city employees work hard for that money, subordinating creativity, innovation, and intelligence for the sake of the job and doing so is bad enough as a pco at OEMC. Blogmaster has some advice to any pco considering a detailed positions: don't. Unless one likes being at the mercy of a political hack or a mayoral minion, it isn't worth it. The bait used to entice pcos--s/s rdo and no operations floor--sounds good till one sees the other side of it and marvels at how well OEMC operations runs not because of the suits, but in spite of them. And when pcos are inevitably returned to the ops floor, they are often left wondering what happened or whether they screwed up. Good luck finding out.