"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Thursday 13 December 2012

Customer Service...Not

I have something else to confide.I  take it where I find it. And I like to share. 
Y'all may recall my opposition to re-organisation in the last term.
Nothing has since occurred to  persuade  me I was wrong'
Only now I have examples.
We had the management letter with the auditor's  report.  An organisation only gets a letter if there's trouble.
Treasury staff  were found to be  unskilled and untrained in their function. Management responsibility was noted.
An action plan  to deal with the problem cited an organisational shift. 
Human Resources. transferred to the  Director of Finance  during Re-organization shift  during  the last term was shifted out to deal with the management problem cited by the auditor.
Anr event in the last week- and- a- half  demonstrated further the folly of  re-organization .
Facility maintenance was transferred from the Director of Leisure Services to the Director of Environment and Infrastructure. That made no sense either. Facilities are where the recreation programs happen. 
My daugher Heather is a competitive swimmer and swims at the Stronach Centre. 
A week ago Tuesday,  there were clumps of muck on the dressing room floor when she arrived.  It was being trecked by wet feet into  showers and on to the deck of the pool. 
It was reported at seven  to an attendant. At nine , swim  finished, the muck was still on the floor, spread about by now throughout the dressing room and beyond.
No action had been taken to clean it up.
Two days later, I heard about it and called the Manager of Facilitiy Maintenance. Reached administrative assistant. Related the complaint. Received a call from Director E and I S.
Repeated  the  complaint . Informed that  two separate departments are responsible.
The attendant  works for  the Recreation department. 
Cleaners   work for  I and E S. 
Director of I an ES committed to notify Director of Recreation of the problem. 
A week and a half passed. No update received. 
During  communication on another matter with Director of Recreation, I asked,  had he received the  complaint? He had not.
The town  purchased a program  designed to improve customer service.
Newmarket has it and Whitchurch -Stouffville . So we must have it too.
I'm not sure it's possible to improve customer service while  re-organising , re-organisation  that  transferred responsibilities from staff with experience in the field to others who did not.
Of course there were compensation adjustments.
Yes. you guessed it.
FYI.  A call to your Councillor informing of your position on purchasing culture with tax dollars is confidential. 
He/she needs to hear from you.  
                

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Evelyn - we have been trying to talk to the Councillors but the trust that once existed has vanished. Sorry - doing our best.

Anonymous said...

Christopher has been busy and reports that Councillor Gaertner is now on Twitter following the wrong Evelyn Buck. Why does that not surprise me?

Anonymous said...

But you have the head of the Leadership Group claiming to see every scrap of paper that enters the Town Hall. Obviously the problem lies in the definition of Staff responsibilities. If no one individual knows that a particular item or mess falls into his/her basket, nothing is getting done.
As an example of this weird confusion, the ladies at Reception are charged with handing out re-cycle boxes and bins.

Anonymous said...

The ladies at reception do a wonderful job with the recycle bins. They are kept in a storage room just inside the front door. A quick bit of administration and you're on your way in no time.

Anonymous said...

To a positive 10:38 AM:

Don't get in the way of a good moan - bitchers wanna bitch.

Anonymous said...

12:35 PM
There was neither bitch nor moan - simply a comment about how job confusion could have led to the problems at the pool with an example of mixing 2 types of jobs at the Town Hall. The latter has worked well because it is simple and those involved are bright. But they too find it amusing. Parked your sense of humour at the Centre?