Coffee?

Another week and another TTC scandal.  The Amalgamated Transit Union confirmed Thursday that the driver on the 310 Blue Night bus has been suspended after he was captured on video by Reuven Politi stopping on his route for seven minutes to grab a coffee and go to the washroom. The video shows the bus left idling with its door open and when a rider complained about the delay, the bus driver can be seen putting his finger to his lips in a gesture meant to silence her. Politi said the driver often left the bus for a break and when asked to skip the break since the bus was running 15 minutes late, according to Politi, the operator replied, “This is the 21st century, kid, not the ’60s; I can do whatever I want.”

As somebody who also regularly has to work nights, I do sympathize with anybody who does shift work. Despite the night shift "premium" which is not enough incentive and amounts to only a few bucks, I dread looking at the schedule and seeing my string of five nights coming up.  I have no idea what a TTC bus driver's schedule is like but when I am on nights, I would be lucky to even get a 15 minute break with most nights consisting of running out of the lab to quickly eat something.  I do understand that working shift is part of his job description but I think we should have a bit more compassion realizing that working in the wee hours of the night is unnatural and most of us need to force our bodies to adjust whether that be with a cup of coffee or caffeine pills so that we can get to being close to 100% effective.  The worst part about a job that requires shift work is that I suspect working nights will only get worse once you have kids and a family. 

What might skew other readers is Politi's interpretation of the events where he alleges that the driver swore at him and dared him to complain giving his bus and badge numbers saying that the union would protect his job.  Sure this sounds like another rude TTC worker but this exchange cannot be easily proven so let's focus on what we can tell from the grainy cell phone video that has become the TTC's version of the Zapruder film.  I do not necessarily feel that taking a break is unreasonable if the driver absolutely had to go to the bathroom, needed a coffee to continue and explained this to the passengers. In this scenario, I hope people would be more sympathetic.  However, it does appear there was a lack of communication from the TTC bus driver to his passengers and the driver should not have taken an unannounced break mid-route while leaving the bus idling with its door open and unattended.  Clearly this situation mimics the TTC sleeper with both employees neglecting their duties and leaving passengers in an unsafe environment.  I doubt this TTC bus driver would leave the door to his own house open and unattended at 3am.  Furthermore, when I used to take the GO bus during all hours of the day, the driver usually would either let people on the bus and then shut the door with the engine off or just not allow anybody on the bus while he went to the bathroom.  From my experience, all of the GO bus drivers did this at the beginning/end of their route and not in the middle. 

What also needs to be discussed is whether it was fair for Politi to actually take the footage?  It is sad if the only way passengers can get the attention of the TTC is to put their employees under constant supervision through viral videos and pictures.  However, I do not believe Politi would like it if somebody followed him around and unbeknownst to him videotaped his actions at work.  I highly suspect that 99% of workers (including Politi) take 7 minutes or more to do something they are not supposed to be doing while at work.  The obvious difference between a guy in a warehouse standing by the water cooler for 7 minutes and a TTC bus driver leaving his bus unattended is that the latter's actions are in the public view so yet again, we can see how this situation mimics the TTC sleeper in that both workers were either arrogant or stupid to the point where they thought they could constantly get away with their less than stellar work ethics.

In the last two weeks the power of the internet has shown the TTC at its worst.  I can only imagine being a TTC employee right now wondering if you will be the next target of these photos and videos as passengers search for the next token booth guy or bus driver who lets his guard down.  On the bright side, it does appear that the TTC is being more accountable but it is still sad that it had to get to this point for action to finally happen. And hey, at least the bus driver was not asleep like the token guy...