Comment by Sandra McCartt on February 27, 2013 at 12:43pm

This is "bubba" country around here. When we have a snow every bubba with a four wheel drive pickup thinks they have to get out in it. This time the "bubbas" got themselves stuck right up to their gun racks and their "jesus saves" window decals. The story emerged from one very frustrated DPS officer who had to dig bubba out. Seems after an hour of digging he looked at this guy and said, "ok, bubba, now let me tell you what jesus would do. He would take his big ass and his big ass truck home before he derailed a snow plow and he would get that dog out of the back of that truck in this weather before he caught an animal cruelty charge."

I guess it's the code of the west that the bubbas have to do it but this time bubba got busted.

Comment by Valentino Martinez on February 27, 2013 at 7:57pm

Sandra, the supervisor in question here is in trouble for ordering employees into life-threatening conditions; her supervisor is also in trouble for not intervening and countermanding the original supervisor’s direction based on dire weather conditions; and senior executive management are also culpable for “after-action” results, i.e., personal injury, damage to POVs, etc., based on those orders for employees to report to work in validated “significant unsafe travel & road conditions”.  

I understand from commentary in the Amarillo Globe-News ,by Dividend 02/25/13 - 06:24 pm(http://amarillo.com/news/latest-news/2013-02-25/blizzard-buries-tex... ), that of the 75 employees ordered to report to work or suffer penalties, only four reported – and after the two hours it took for them to get to work – “they were sent home at noon”.   Suggesting that 71 employees decided life and limb and child safety trumps AT&T nonsense orders – and refused to report to work at their Call Center.

I suspect the fallout within the AT&T employee population, local to Amarillo, Texas & nationally, will be in support of their fellow employees who refused to report to work in such life-threatening weather conditions.  So not only has the bad press begun thanks to this frontline manager’s bad decision representing AT&T – the event has stirred their rank-and-file and is reverberating with customers, consumers and the general public.

Your outrage in this matter and alert to the recruiting community is important because we should be cognizant of employers and their managers who uphold and/or defend practices that are contrary to employee safety and good common sense.

With luck hopefully those four AT&T employees who reported to work made it back home safely -- and completely avoided running into the Bubba's out there doing brodies in the yellow snow.

Comment by Sandra McCartt on February 27, 2013 at 9:03pm

Good to know Valentino, what is your source so I cn pass it on. I had not read the comments in the paper but I got almost the same information from some of the people who had contacted me when they were again told to report yesterday. I have not heard any reports about the four who reported except that one was the local union president. I thought that a bit strange but there were a lot of Facebook posts saying they needed a new union pres.

Stupidity always irritates me but stupidity that jeapordizes the health or safety of a person or an animal makes me madder than the fires of hell. When a stupid person in a position of power uses that power destructively putting people at risk I would relish seeing them fired, sued, and publically excoriated.

Comment by Will Thomson on February 27, 2013 at 9:31pm

I am late to the game reading this. It amazes me that in Amarillo you are having the worst storm since 1903 and in Austin our grass is turning green and it is 75 in the afternoons. Stay safe!

Comment by Sandra McCartt on February 27, 2013 at 10:34pm

This is Amarillo, if you don't like the weather hang around for six hours it will change. On Sunday afternoon at 4:00 PM while I was frantically hanging extra water buckets and piling hay in stalls to get horses set for this mess it was 68 degrees and sunny. When I headed back to the city at 5:00 it was 28 degrees, 40 mile an hour wind and blue/black clouds.

Comment by Valentino Martinez on February 28, 2013 at 12:43am

My source would be a company Personnel Policy Manual that has sections addressing Training & Safety with subtitles, Safety Program Policy & General Safety Rules and Precautions.  AT&T’s Paid Time-Off Policy (I didn’t find anything more current than 2007 but all companies keep such policies handy and current) speaks to  Re:  5-5 Employee Responsibility and 5-6 Supervisor Responsibility, page 25 (http://www.cwa3407.org/CWALocal3407/Education_files/attpaidoff.pdf). 

This AT&T policy manual outlines to the supervisor’s responsibility to see that each employee take their vacation and personal days off.  However, it makes no mention of emergency situations like for taking paid time off due to a record setting blizzard.  That direction will come from the HR Policy Manual.  My HR Problem Solving Handbook does emphasize that “management must focus on a style of leadership and interaction to individuals by (based on) situations, and to embrace rather than resist changing conditions.” (People in Organizations – Problems of Workplace Behavior III.13 – Joseph D, Levesque). 

I expect HR & Senior Management at AT&T are going over their manuals as I write this.

Comment by Greg Downs on February 28, 2013 at 10:34am

I would tell that manager that he could come pick me up and bring me home after work. Otherwise he would see me when the travel ban is lifted.

Comment by Kelly Blokdijk on February 28, 2013 at 10:50pm

Sounds like someone needs to implement an inclement weather policy STAT. And, not that I would encourage outsourcing or off-shoring under normal circumstances, but part of a business continuity plan is to have alternate resources on stand-by in the even of an emergency, natural disaster or other conditions that render the primary work location or workforce inaccessible. That may mean internal employees located at another site or an outside vendor domestic or international.

Another alternative is to outfit select CSRs with telecommuting equipment for situations like this. Either way, it seems unreasonable to put public safety at risk or to expect (most likely lower compensated) employees to figure out how to plan around mother nature to avoid attendance policy violations. 

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