Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Shout, sister, shout!

Regular readers of this blog are familiar with my occasional rants against the Washington metro system. In freezing weather this year, several of the trains I road had cold air blowing inside. Two years ago, during a dreadful hot spell, I rode the train to and from work for five days in a row, and there was no air conditioning (the temperatures inside the cars approached a hundred degrees). There are track problems and train malfunctions (usually doors that won't close) every single day.

And then, there's the escalator problem. I have related previously that, when I purchased my second home in Richmond, I picked out a lot, had the contractor build the house, and closed on the whole thing in less time than it took the escalator crew to finish servicing one escalator at the Vienna station. Now, Mary Katherine Ham finds out that the guy who has presided over escalator maintenance has just been promoted to head of the track and engineering services unit.

It's kind of like the Peter Principle, except that, under that proposition, I believe employees are generally assumed to have at least started out with some degree of competence before ultimately being promoted beyond their ability.

5 comments:

JeffS said...

Government maintenance is an oxymoron of the highest order.

DavefromTacoma said...

As is government worker.

Paco said...

Hey, I resemble that remark!

RebeccaH said...

I think the real problem may be that competent repair workers have simply been priced/regulated out of the area. Soon they'll have to start importing them from Texas to get any work at all done.

Paco said...

Rebecca: You're probably right about that. On the occasions I've actually seen these guys "working", they proceed with the slow deliberation of Gulag prisoners trying to preserve their strength on a diet of thin soup.