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Sleepy collector awakens the TTC

The public furor over a single TTC employee sleeping at work

By Joshua Errett

Normally only pictures of sleeping cats go viral. But this week a Twitpic'd photo of a sleeping TTC attendant made the rounds online, in the media and apparently at the offices of the TTC.

It was taken by Jason Wieler of the site OGLE Toronto on Jan. 9.

Almost two weeks after the fact, this tweet from TTC chair Adam Giambrone: "Investigation of sleeping collector underway. Clearly not acceptable behaviour."

Which was then followed by this statement from the TTC union: "Whatever the outcome of the enquiry, it is very discouraging that the picture taker and, apparently, other customers, made no attempt to determine if there was anything wrong with this TTC employee."

Amazing that a photo of a sleeping anyone can inspire this sort of reaction. Has the whole TTC gone mad, or is this a problem of proportion?

I don't think there's any risk of oversimplifying here, just because, at face value, this is so f-ing simple: One guy fell asleep on the job. Not the first time that'll happen, not the last either.

How does that warrant an enquiry? Just phone the guy in the picture, tell him not to do it again.

A single employee sleeping on the job is certainly not an indication of systemic or widespread problems.

More objectionable than the snoozing collector, from my perspective, is this response we're seeing. Here are, in bullet-point form, some questions I'm asking myself about this "enquiry."

Does it not cost money to have an enquiry?
If so, can the TTC afford that? For a guy who fell asleep?
Is this sort of back-and-forth about investigations healthy for the union-management relationship? Is it worth it?
Besides asking TTC employees not to sleep, what can seriously be done to curb sleeping at work? Skip the morning shoot-around?
Could the TTC just say that it's not official policy to sleep on the job, that it shouldn't happen again, and then be done with it?

Clearly sleeping at work is not acceptable. That I'll grant our esteemed TTC chair. But the more publicity this photo gets, the more people will look to catch misbehaving TTC employees on camera. Just look into it and let it go. Let's all keep at least some perspective and not let this isolated yet embarrassing case become more embarrassing.

Jan 22, 2010 at 12:16 AM

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Comments

Posted by Colin on 01/22/2010, 01:41 PM

I can't imagine there's much to investigate. They know where and when this picture was taken and presumably who was working there at the time. He's also a rather distinctive looking gentleman, so he should be easy to identify.

Figure out who it is and reprimand him. Assuming he doesn't have a length rap sheet, I don't think this is an offense he should be fired for. But a fine or something is definitely in order to calm the seething riders.

Posted by everlast on 01/22/2010, 01:51 PM

Sleeping at your booth? At any other job it would get ya fired. Well no worries. The TTC union will protect him I'm sure. He'll be back to his nap time on no time.

Posted by Razh on 01/22/2010, 02:33 PM

I'm afraid the TTC Union saw hope set sail on reducing the embarrassment factor any when they turned around and used a press release to insult and admonish an already frustrated ridership. Sure, they have a point, but wrong time and wrong way to attempt to make it. Epic PR fail. People will have their cameras out in droves now to 'catch' TTC workers behaving less than perfectly, and in the face of such a self-important, rider-hating union, I'm not so sure that it's wrong.

Posted by Silver on 01/22/2010, 02:46 PM

What's disappointing is that this is the type of employee problems they investigate. What about the employees who yell at customers for not speaking english - which I phoned the TTC about to get NO RESPONSE from. There are worse behaviours TTC employess consistantly demonstrate, but I guess because it is directed at the customers / riders its not as bad as having to pay someone for sleeping. Personally, I'd rather pay my fair to a sleeping TTC employee than a scowling, rude, yelling employee who looks annoyed when I want to buy tokens!

Posted by leftyloons on 01/22/2010, 02:46 PM

This pic shows the money wasted on token collecters and that its time to get rid of these dinosaurs. These guys make over 30 bucks an hour and getting rid of them the money saved would be huge. I've been around the world especially Europe and they have token machines EVERYWHERE instead of these deadweights. The TTC is still doing things like they did 20 years ago and its time to catch up to everyone else.

Posted by TOKATOU on 01/22/2010, 02:51 PM

I agree that it should be a slap on the wrist and a serious discussion with the employee to see how this can be avoided in the future and is there a simple way to improve the working conditions and therefore increase the standard of customer service. This incident encouraged me to instead of talking in twitterverse about a TTC experience, I decided to make a complaint/inquiry. This is about a streetcar driver who was on her cell phone as I got on yesterday. I thought I could write in an email somewhere and get a follow up. Not so. You have to either Fax (who can do that for free anywhere?) or mail a signed copy of your complaint as per the Collective Agreement with the Union. How is that good customer service? They have to get with the times. If it is easier to snap a pic and make a comment on twitter or facebook than it is to make a formal complaint, more people will do it. They seem to not want to hear from us. Or, at least the union doesn't. Apparently, from their comments, they have taken a stance against the public. The only people who can change the way the union is dealing with these things are the TTC employees themselves, who are, I'm sure, mostly awesome people who care about the city.

Posted by Hanna on 01/22/2010, 05:30 PM

I am furious that they're, as always, trying to blame the public for their employees behavior. It's pretty obvious that he's sleeping, so don't try to pin it like he's choking on his 5th coffee and the public is failing to be caring. Bullshit ttc.

Posted by Robert on 01/22/2010, 08:49 PM

Well, whoever is asking the public to find out if there was anything wrong with this TTC employee is an "IDIOT". If there was something wrong, the employee should have slept at home instead of coming in and "getting paid for sleeping". I had seen another incident at Sherbourn station where the TTC ticket collector left the booth to have a smoke and atleast 3 passengers entered the station without paying the fare. So was something wrong with that employee too? or is something wrong with all the TTC employees?

Posted by J-STAR on 01/22/2010, 10:03 PM

why do I assume all of these replys are from condo lifestyles. The mans working full time ya dig? When was the last time you bought a TTC worker a coffee, or even made eye contact as you bought your pass. Holy shit I just got the results of the enquiry: Brother was mad tired yo. SPORTS TALK WITH J_STAR!

Posted by Threenie aka how much it cost now to get in the TTC system on 01/22/2010, 10:59 PM

Bob Kinnear is an idiot. And that is the problem with the TTC: the collectors are actually mechanics who have health issues and have NO CLUE HOW TO DEAL WITH THE PUBLIC. There is actually quite an etiquette to deal with the public, and frankly the TTC just completely LOST IT. I have no confidence in the union. The service is gizmo. The price is insane. I'm buying a car this year after 8 years without one. Why? Had enough of the TTC and abysimal service!

Posted by Jonathan on 01/22/2010, 11:03 PM

THE POINT IS THAT THE BOOTH GUYS ARE NOT NEEDED!

Yeah..okay he was tired and fell asleep...fine. BUT WE

DONT NEED TO PAY THESE GUYS 60K A YEAR. JUST PUT UP BARS

ACROSS ALL ENTRANCES AND AUTOMATE THE DAMN THING! HAVE

A BUTTON IF YOU NEED HELP TO SPEAK WITH A HUMAN

Posted by pissedttcrider on 01/23/2010, 02:22 AM

today the ttc union says the rider should have check if the collector was ok. what?? the union wants to put onus on the guy who took the picture? if i snooze like that at my job my ass would be on the street in a heart beat. while we are on this subject i have seen ttc employees watch movies on their laptop while i enter the gate at don mills stn.

Posted by loerchner on 01/23/2010, 05:59 PM

A new public forum has started to air out all the dirty laundry and help the TTC be the better way. (It's facebook friendly too!)

http://www.trashtalkthettc.com/

Rant, po

Posted by RKO281 on 01/24/2010, 09:11 AM

A little sampling of what perhaps the new ad campaign for the TTC should represent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Si1cUc7w3Y

Posted by Rachel on 01/26/2010, 03:03 PM

What is most disturbing about the TTC Sleeper photo was the union's indignant response to the public reaction. The public reacted in the way it did for a reason -- customer service at the TTC is atrocious, our public transportation costs have gone up, and Giambrone had the gaul to announce his expensive plan to establish a blue ribbon panel to "examine" customer service issues at the TTC. A blue ribbon panel?!

It is quite obvious what needs to be done in this case (re: replace those human change machines with...well, machines). What is even more obvious is the union's arrogance and entrenched power, because we know quite well that "station collectors" will retain their useless jobs.

And a single photo you say? There have been several that have surfaced since; including, this one posted in the National Post (http://bit.ly/4FRjUQ).

Posted by abccheck123 on 02/05/2010, 11:39 AM

Time to allow competition and privatization!

Enough with the TTC and its union! We need an alternative! We are all disgusted with the poor customer service, the frequent strikes, and constant fare hikes. On top of that we pay through taxes to keep this disaster of an organization running and 6 figured salaries to people who drive buses. To top it off even further, they sleep on the job, do banking, buy doughnuts, etc!

Look at the world's private transit companies. They provide much better service, are much cheaper, much cleaner, much more reliable, and don't run their local governments into massive debt, of which, you and I have to pay for through taxes!

Time to allow for competition! Keep the videos coming so that at the least, the government will allow competition! And send them to the media, not the TTC or city council!