Hey, there! Log in / Register
MBTA installing new phones so workers can call home on breaks
By adamg on Tue, 06/30/2009 - 2:02pm
The MBTA is installing 42 phone lines at key employee gathering spots as part of its total ban on employee cell phone use, T General Manager Dan Grabauskas told the Department of Public Utilities today.
Grabauskas said the new phone lines represent one of several steps the T is taking to ensure workers are reachable in an emergency. Grabauskas's comments came at a DPU hearing at which he asked the department to permanently enact the emergency ban put into effect after that May Green Line crash caused by a texting trolley driver.
In addition to the new phone lines, the T has a 24-hour emergency hotline family members can call if they need to get in touch with a T worker. Grabauskas said this has been used 100 times with just one case in which the employee was not reached "in a timely manner." The T now also conducts daily checks of radio equipment on both trains and buses, which he said show the systems work 98% of the time on trains and 95% of the time on buses.
We are committed to putting the necessary systems in place to allay any concerns Operators may have about their families and dependents contacting them in the event of an emergency while they are at work.
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Very smart policy, mainly
Very smart policy, mainly because pay phones and public phones almost do not exist anymore, so its not like that is an option.
I bet the drivers and other employees will still be upset because much of the communication that takes place happens via instant text messages, voice mail, and email. All of which are accessible via a phone, but not a public phone. Granted most of those exchanges are not "emergency", they are more along the lines of can you pick up something on the way home variety.
Not a very smart policy
It's a clumsy, resource-wasting band-aid on a stupid policy decision that was made quite recently.
I don't want to belabor the point, but applauding kludges like this is a bit too much like historical revisionism in mere months.
For all their alleged benefits,
let's remember that cell phones are still a CONVENIENCE, and are NOT a necessity. The world got along quite well for several centuries before cell phones came along, and will not suddenly stop spinning on its axis just because phone use is restricted in certain circumstances.
An inconvenience, sure, but really nothing more
I worked in a hospital where our offices were in the basement. There was no cell reception in the basement, and we were forbidden from taking cell phones onto patient floors. Sure, it was at times a little annoying that I couldn't make long-distance calls and had to limit my calls during breaks to people and topics that I'd be able to justify having made on a company phone if it ever were to come up. It was a little inconvenient, but just one of those things you deal with, much like having restricted internet access at work.
Employment laws don't actually include the right to make calls other than during scheduled break periods on a payphone, and I imagine that people working in certain environments and certain high-security positions have always been forbidden from having a phone with them. It seems to be something people in other fields accept when working in a position where they're responsible for a lot of people's safety, and it seems fit that operating a transit vehicle be considered one of these positions.
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Hit the nail on the head
Hit the nail on the head there.
The policy is sound, and needed.
If you absolutely need a cellphone and to be able to chat in a potentially dangerous MBTA position, there's a lottery with plenty of individuals who will gladly take your position and benefits, follow the safety policy, and work happily.
In high-security
In high-security environments, mere possession of a phone (or any of a number of various other devices) can constitute an information security threat.
can't they just use the
can't they just use the phone that the station attendants use to call home during their ENTIRE shift????
But then there'd be no one
But then there'd be no one for the station attendants to talk to.
I guess it's the best thing to do..
When the total cell phone ban was first announced I thought it was a little drastic. After all I thought, can't they just ban the USE of the phones during work hours. Certainly mature adults could adhere to that and use them only on breaks. Well, after seeing the photos of T employees using phones after the policy was announced I guess I was naieve. It looks like they knew what they were doing.
Grabauskas reads UHub comments?
"Where do they take their break? Put a phone in for them. Let them use it for free. Hell, give'em 2, just in case one of the other employees is using one at the time."
--Me, 2 days after the Green Line accident :)
Back in the olden days ...
Everybody did just fine working an entire day without keeping constant tabs on facebook gossip or even their spouse! I worked for several years before anybody had cel phones - even doctors! Somehow, it wasn't really an issue. Sure, it's convenient, but it simply isn't necessary to be in 24/7 contact.
My father in law drove a bus for 33 cellular phone free years!
I do carry a cel phone, but if I'm at work I will ignore it and turn it off during meetings unless there is something urgent going on. Maybe because I started working long before cel phones became "necessary" and it became mandatory to keep in touch with somebody somewhere 24/7 or else you go poof and disappear!
I'm a crotchety old woman I guess - I just don't understand who all these people with cel phones in their ears are constantly talking to or why. I don't understand why it is so necessary to be on the phone all the time. The roadways have turned into one massive telephonic auditory circlejerk.
For someone who does not
For someone who does not understand why people want to be connected throughout the day you sure seem to be online communicating with people allot.
Perhaps
Yet I disappear from time to time when travelling or when my work does not require me to be constantly writing on a computer.
My point is that there was a time, a very recent time, when none of this electronic communication was available and yet it really didn't seem to matter. It is a convenience, but not a necessity. My first professional job didn't even come with a desktop computer OR an e-mail address, and I shared a phone extension reached via switchboard! People weren't given e-mail addresses, even at engineering consulting firms in 1989 or at hospital research labs in 1994 for fark's sake! I didn't have a work e-mail until I went to work for a university in 1998. I had a work cel phone at that job (I did a lot of field work), but I didn't get a personal cel phone until 2001. Somehow, I managed to cooordinate child care, a personal life, etc. without them.
A lot of youngsters, including my own, just don't understand that constant electronic availability is not necessary for the vast majority of people and 24/7 important for a very very few ... that there are other ways to organize your life, that you do not have to answer every phone call, and that constant communication has a serious downside.
Yes, but by that logic
Yes, but by that logic phones are not needed either, nor are highways, cars, or bikes. Society is what we as a people make it out to be. If we all decided tomorrow smoke signals were the way to go, we would all be lining up at home depot to pick up our fire pits.
My first jobs were retail and they would forbid phones on the floor, but for the most part allowed us to check them on our breaks in the break area where they could be kept in lockers. Only recently did I get my own desk, and everything that comes with that.
Take it or leave it
I find it amusing that we now have experts that have to advise us that we don't have to answer the phone when driving, that we should turn off the phone during certain hours and activities, and that we shouldn't feel guilty if we don't answer every call or text.
In other words, a lot of people who came of age in the era of cel phones find the whole concept of selective engagement with communication technology to be some sort of alien and novel idea. Like it would be some horror show to not be in touch with everybody all the time. That it would be unthinkable to sort out the benefits from the risks - personal risks and safety risks - and make active decisions about where and when these technologies benefit our lives and when they don't. Thus we get T drivers using their cel phones while they are driving - they are, by and large, young people who cannot fathom turning off and tuning out to save their lives and the lives of others.
You notice that firepits are still available at home depot. Also notice that most places have wired phones that can be used for occasional and emergency contact. Just because cel phone technology and wifi and smart phones and the like are available does not mean that they have to be purchased, that they have to be used everywhere and all the time, or that they benefit our lives when turned on 24/7.