Overtime, Part II
"within the next 3-5 years, we may experience a large retirement of senior staff members....staffing shortages on watches have created the need for a lot of overtime, exension of tours, and cancellation of time due requests. Personnel are accumulating alot of time due that cannot be used and that is creating a long term liability for the city. As more overtime is assigned and more time due is cancelled, sick days increase and morale goes down. Employee burnout looms on the horizon"
Sound familiar? That is a verbatim quote taken from the executive summary of the OEMC Task Force Report, dated October 1998. Yet it could describe the oemc of 2008 just as easily, because NOTHING HAS CHANGED. The primary problem at oemc, the chronic, underlying problem is a critical staffing shortage that is likely to get worse--much worse--before it ever gets better as pcoIs retire after having done the requisite amount of time in the new pay grade.
And that is the real story folks--the staffing shortage. Yet it just won't die. Cltv and the other media outlets have picked up on the overtime story published in the Chicago Sun Times that highlights the fact that 237 employees have made in excess of $10,000 in overtime in 2007, all the while ignoring the implications and the bigger picture here. And that is twofold: 1)the oemc is woefully under resourced and mismanaged which results in this type of overtime at great, great cost to taxpayers and 2) the city has willfully and deliberately ignored most of its own recommendations with regard to the operations of the oemc as identified as long ago as 1998. The more things change, the more things stay the same.
posted by CPDDispatch @ 12:00 AM
4 Comments:
AND DONT FORGET WHEN THAT STUDY WAS DONE
WE HAD PCO-III'S AND POLICE OFFICERS COUNTED
AS FLOOR STAFF. LIKE 65?? PCO-III'S AND 40?? PO'S?? NOW WE HAVE NO PCO-III'S AND UNDER 20 PO'S AND PAST OEMC MANAGEMENT TEAMS NEVER HIRED CHEAPER PCO-I'S AND PCO-II'S TO REPLACE THEM.
i think they need to expand the ops floor before they do too much more hiring....the last time they mandated days to 3rd watch...most of them were up in front trying to scavenge for a seat that might be open for a half hour or so....they really need to rethink the entire floor and even how it's configured !
not just the physical configuration of the floor but also the way the work gets done too. when they moved from the old room they just took the pen and paper
process and put it on computers without figuring out
the easiest way to accomplish the task. lots of redundant tasks and and copying and faxing of info that could be sent digitally.
New twist on KB's computerizd micro-managing. Keep 1st watch
pco2 2hrs to sit on a zone....then bring in a 3rd watch pco2 6hrs early to now sit in chair that the 1st watch person just left. This will keep the actual 2nd watch pco2 from working a full 8 hr on a rdo. This really makes sense.. right? Now this is not to cover a pco2 who called in on the medical at 0430hrs. The 3rd watch pco2 was hired the day before ...so the shortage was known
before hand. It is getting so f**ked up , that a zone was 'forgotten', had 1 empty chair, a body was not assigned until it was brought to the attention of a supv on floor. But hey everyone, the suits and our very own pr lady tells the public we are properly staffed.
Wake up Mr Ruiz, Mr Rankin, Mr Simmons....before something goes so very very wrong.
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