Clinton vs Obama

I have been listening to the ever increasing war of words between Obama and Clinton with a growing sense of dismay. I really believe that the Clinton's would do or say anything to get Bill his 3rd term. Yes, that's right a 3rd term. If anyone believes that this is about Hillary just listen to Bill on the stump. He is not a surrogate, he is campaigning like he did for himself in the past. If Hillary wins we will see more of Bill than her. Face it of the two he is the more likable and the better politician. Hillary may be Madam President but Bill will be right there as Mr. President just as he has been for the last 16 years. 

While Obama has been trying to stay above the fray he is getting just as dirty as the Clinton's. The items about the Rev. Wright are going to hurt him and will haunt him until election day. Race and religion are the two biggest hot button issues we have and he has done nothing to defuse either. Obama doesn't need to distance himself from the Rev. Wright he needs to denounce him and in no uncertain terms. 

The issue of the Super Delegates is also going to be contentious and has the power to rip the party apart. I'm not sure how either candidate can stop to that but the party leadership needs to try. Also the unseated delegates is also going to hurt. In this one both Clinton and Obama need to work together to get either a re-vote or some agreement on division of those delegates between themselves and get them seated.

While John McCain is not the strongest of Republican candidates as long as the Democrats keep bloodying each other McCain will be the winner. Already some national polling is showing McCain as the winner over either Clinton or Obama. As long as the Democrats show that they are no better than the Republicans in their battle to be the nominee the Republicans will win in the Fall. 

Retirement

After a lot of thought and being pissed off just one more time I have decided to retire from Ada County 911 Communications Center. I have worked there for the last 24 and a half years and it is time to hang up my headset. I have dispatched Fire/EMS the entire time I have been there and handled my share of ugly calls. O, I have helped birth several babies but lately it is the deaths that I'm remembering. Also I have been loosing  my sense of humor more and more. I do believe that this is one of those jobs that you can be at one day too many. More and more I have to stop myself  from telling people to just grow up and start acting like adults. So I have reached my Monty Python moment and am ready for "something completely different". 

I know that I have to continue working but I want a job that has no stress and no life or death decisions that have to be made immediately. I also need a job that has health benefits. I'm covered under Carol's policy with City of Boise but I would really like to have one of my own just in case. Being an over weight, high blood pressure Type 2 diabetic I really need to have a policy that covers me till I'm 65 and hopefully MediCare kicks in. It is a little scary to have to start looking for a job at my age and after working for as long as I have for one employer. 

I'm not sure yet just when my last day of work will be but it will be sometime in June as I have about 6 weeks of vacation that I will take. My actual retirement day is 1 August 2008. I plan on taking some time off and to just try and relax. I'm not sure how long I will be able to do that. We have really let the yard and house get away from us. So I have a "honey do" list that is book length. I also plan on taking pictures and walking the dogs. Actually the dogs are demanding that I walk them and the longer the better. I would also like to do some woodworking just for the craft of it. I have always wanted to learn how to build some simple furniture items. I would also like to have a garden again. We have a 1/2 acre lot so I have lots of room for that and hopefully the time I need. 

A New Shift, Finally

On Thursday we had a meeting with the Sheriff and the Dispatch Commander and we were told about all the things that have been swirling around the schedule process. We were also given two different shifts to look at. Schedule 1 was a 5 day 8 hour shift with 2 days off. The advantages are less overtime by about 300 hours a month and no mandatory overtime required to make it work, though there would be overtime to be signed up for. Schedule 2 was a 4 day 12 hour shift with 3 days off. There is 8 hours of overtime a week built into the schedule that everybody would work. That is over 1100 hours a month built in when we have only been averaging 800-1000 hours month. There is no other overtime required unless a large number of people are off at the same time for illness or what have you.  

After talking about the merits and drawbacks of both schedules we were told to vote for the one we wanted. If this was how the Sheriff wanted to handle this why did we have to wait so long to do it. I really didn't care what shift we ended up with but I did vote for the 12 hour shift. I rather thought that the 8 hour shift would be the one that won but to my surprise the 12 hour schedule won. So starting April and going at least through June that is the shift we will work. I for one am not really looking forward to 48 hour weeks but I will take the extra money and run to the bank. This also helps with my retirement as it is based on the highest earnings you have had. So I will pad my retirement out a little bit. 

The funny thing about all of this is that it was the gross amount of mandatory overtime we had been working that started all this. So the answer is a schedule that builds in more mandatory overtime than we had ever been asked to work. Go figure.  I wonder how all this will work out when we do the employee satisfaction evaluations later this year. We were told this was a temporary thing until we had more people trained and we could reach some agreement on what minimum staffing was. That's right we really don't know what the staffing levels should be for any given time in the center. Strange way to run a business especially since all the previous overtime was to meet minimum staffing levels. So how are we going to know when we can go back to 10 hour shifts. Also we are still going to lose about 10 people before the year is out. So we could be on this shift for some time to come.    

No Respect

It has been awhile since I last wrote here and sorry to say little has changed at work, in fact things are worse. We have been fighting an up hill battle to get a shift schedule that will remove some of the overtime that we have each month. We have had as much as 1000 hours with 700 being about average each month. The biggest reason is that we are short of people. Last year the department spent over $300,000 for overtime in dispatch. and this year really doesn't look much better. Back in January we were promised that the administration was going to do something about it and soon. Well, here it is the 4th of March and still no new shift. In fact the decision was put off again today at the supervisors meeting.
The sticking point is the shift. We have been working 4, 10 hour shifts with 3 days off. It seems that is one of the least efficient uses of the limited manpower we have. The shift right now that makes the most sense and has the least amount of overtime is 5, 8 hour shifts with 2 days off. You can believe me that is not a popular idea but, most of us realize that it is necessary for the time being. We have been promised that it is only a temporary fix till we get some of the 10 people that are in training out and on the floor. I for one believe them when they say that. Right now we have only 37 dispatchers that are working. The last time we had only 37 dispatchers was in 1987. So we need to get those people trained and if working 8 hour shifts helps that happen and takes away some the the overtime then lets do it.
The problem seems to be a combination of the Sheriff and a series of outright lies that are being spread around by the Boise Police Department. The Boise police are saying that the dispatchers will mutiny if we are put on 8 hour shifts. I'm not really sure were they got that one but what a load of rubbish. They are the only ones I have ever heard of using work slow downs and the blue flu to get what they want. The Sheriff received several e-mails from dispatchers saying that they were unaware of the shift change. This is an outright lie. The shift change has been the only topic of discussion on the floor for over a month. The Sheriff by dragging this out and listen to all the untruths that are floating around is only making what is a difficult decision worse. He is also undercutting the authority of his supervisors by not listening to the information that they have been giving him about the different shift schedules that are up for discussion. He is being disrespectful of the workers and our needs to know just what is happening to our jobs and to plan how we are going to make this work for our families. The Sheriff needs to make a decision and make it soon. He talks a big battle about leadership well now is the time to back up his works with action.