As you might imagine, we read a lot of stories every year. Between the various journals, periodicals, press releases, websites, newspapers and enthusiast magazines. Sometimes it seems like a miracle that we have time to do anything else.
But every so often, we read a piece that so vividly misses the mark and completely misunderstands what the main point should have been that we have to stop and bask in its glory.
We have to say, at this point, this award usually goes to some TV or newspaper organization that can't afford to hire anyone on staff that knows the difference between hybrid schedule and normal schedule, but what is so odd about this year's winner is that it comes from a source who should know better: the New York Post. (We should note that we have no way of knowing if this story is one of the contract campaign deployed by our employer MTA as an onslaught against its employees TWU Local 100.)
To be honest, the story itself, at least from the title, seems to have merit: Riders rooked on busman’s holiday. It's always good to know that the MTA lives up to their promises, and if the experts at the New York Post - who by all accounts seem to be doing the best job of knowing the types of schedules every year - are interested in calling these employees out. It seemed like it might be a worthy story to look at but we were wrong.
We should also note here that we are not commenting on the story's accuracy. The problem comes when you ask of what use is this information? The answer looks to be not at all. At least, not as it's presented.
Not only is there no context provided, but in this case, the infinite MTA schedules are not being rated or examined as to whether they are serving the needs of New Yorkers but rather the hostility is directed towards the employees (TWU Local 100) who are in a contract fight. It is strange those employees did not create these schedules which was not mentioned in the New York Post article. New York Post did not care much about the waste of taxpayers funds by those schedule wizards who earn six figures riding new SUV’s every year courtesy of the New York taxpayers.
But at some point you have to ask of what use is the message and what is it suppose to communicate, especially when all the employees are complying with the attendance requirement in record numbers. At last you realize it is the contract fight - we get the idea that this newspaper, one that prides itself on its thoroughness failed miserably.
The folks at the NY Post should know better than anyone how important context and perspective can be (It does, after all, have separate messages for attendance versus scheduling). Yet, here they are, providing neither in this story and making themselves, and the message they've communicated (but mostly themselves), look silly.
It does make one wonder why there aren't other top ten posts on their site about employee attendance called, "The Ten Most State Agency Challenged Employee Attendance Record of 2011" or "The Most City Agency with Poor Attendance Record of the Year" with a bunch of state and city agencies splayed all over the photo gallery. Judging TWU Local 100 employees for what they are makes sense. Judging TWU Local 100 for attendance, just looks stupid.
If the NY Post wants to be the best newspaper and drivers in the news universe, we will fight to the death for its right to do so. But if it wants to evaluate employee attendance or to judge and understand what they are, then we say either get smart about your subject or stop pretending to know what you're doing.
We are not sure exactly what we're supposed to learn from the story when employees are judged in such a singularly prejudiced fashion. Maybe that would have been a good question to ask before the story was assigned or written. Some might argue that the message is important and, for the most part, we would agree. But there is also a responsibility for those who should know better to offer some kind of explanation in what that employee attendance might mean or possibly convey.
At no point in the story are any segment comparisons made or any references to other agencies statewide or citywide if we are concerned about waste. All the numbers are left floating in midair without any connection to reality.
Here's some constructive advice: At least offer comparable numbers and values for similar state or city agencies attendance records for that day. As a result you would find that those TWU Local 100 members were ready and available. It might be fun to know what the attendance record of the NYPD, NYFD, NYCDOS, NYCDOE, NYC Parks, DOT or even TLC was. As we know numbers do not lie - for those of us out here in the real world who care about seeing a high number of attendance we salute those TWU Local 100 members who left their loved ones to serve New Yorkers.
