Tuesday, January 8, 2013

PMUA:Not Yet "In the Zone"

In the zone: Expression used to describe a state of consciousness where actual skills match the perceived performance requirements perfectly.

So yesterday (Monday) a PMUA truck arrives in our driveway and goes all 300 feet  down to the trash bin. What's wrong with this picture? We are in Zone 8 and our pickup days are Tuesday and Friday, I rip the PMUA calendar off the refrigerator, throw on a jacket and go out to ask. I have my calendar, they have a clipboard. Something doesn't add up, even though they acknowledge the clipboard indicates Zone 8.

The locations on their paperwork are not street numbers, but tax lot addresses with sets of numbers. First one guy points out what he thinks is our location, but actually it is the street on the south side of our block. Ooops. He turns the page and finds another a location starting with 117. That must be it, he suggests.

By now, I realize he has never seen this calendar nor does he know that pickup had settled into Tuesdays and Fridays after a spate of mixups. Now it is back to random appearances of PMUA trucks, sometimes two in a row.

These workers are faithfully doing their jobs. So were the people who designed the calendar to inform the public. The mismatch between the two is preventing these workers from being "in the zone."

Maybe if they saw the same thing residents see regarding pickups, if the clipboard matched the calendar, there would be a better match. If indeed PMUA is helping individuals return to the workforce and learn job skills, it's only fair to align their performance with what PMUA tells residents they will be doing.

Just a suggestion ...

--Bernice

12 comments:

  1. Bernice are the property owner? If not maybe the owner paid for a exra pick-up. I don't see where the problem is. What is the problem if they came to pick-up the gatbage.

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  2. Anon 9:27 – What’s the big deal? The PMUA has already caused enough confusion in switching the schedule. But here in my zone, pickup has gone from Tuesday to Monday. So if the trucks come when they’re supposed to come, but hey, what’s the problem if I still put my garbage out on Tuesday, then there is trash sitting out on the sidewalks for the rest of the week until the next pickup. Come on, doesn’t this city have enough trouble, can’t we at least keep the dumpster garbage in line since the garbage in city hall seems to never go away?

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  3. Bernice you are right. Those on the front lines are doing what they are told. However, instead of perfecting the PMUA basic function, leaders focus on hiring/rehiring people who does absolutely nothing. The number of office staff is crazy. Their daily accomplishments are ordering food deliveries, tweeting, and gossiping the whole day. Management should stop changing routes and schedules because they think its a good idea at the time. Workers get confused and so does the customer.

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  4. The muckety-mucks who run the city,from Jerry Green on down, spend too much time scamming us to worry about minor details like garbage pickup. In fact, they use the excuse that garbage is actually picked up to validate their scams. Are we not lucky?

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  5. After carefully perusing the new calendar switching my zone from Tuesday and Friday to Monday and Thursday, I realized that I am losing 8 pick-ups to holidays. I'm sure my grossly inflated PMUA bill will be adjusted accordingly.
    If only!

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  6. Bernice need to ask the owner of the property if they have paid for a extra pick-up. Bernice stop causing issues when there are done to cause. Put your garbage out an leave people alone.

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  7. 100% management failure

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  8. Management or rogues, that is the question.

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  9. What some people making comments don't realize, is that if two or three trucks come to the same location, they are wasting time and not reaching others who should get a pick up. This also shows us that the PUMA is not being lead in an organized and efficient way. We are already being ripped-off by the PUMA and this kind of disorganization just indicates that prices will continue to go up and serve go down.

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  10. To 9:27 and 10:48, We know you are likely getting a piece of the PMUA RIP OFF PLAINFIELD PIE, but all good things must come to an end, so I want you to make sure when the FEDS start clicking on the cuffs you speak up loud and clear on how they should be left alone, I certainly wouldn't want you to miss out on that part of the party.

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  11. The essential problem here IS 100% management failure, but the bigger problem is that 99% of the leadership in Plainfield is a failure.

    The leadership here has become somewhat "inbread" over the years and they keep dipping into the same pool of knowledge, which is not very expansive. A resume will hold has much as you write on it and one can have all sorts of titles, degrees, and community involvement, but it doesn't mean one knows how to operate and manage a municipality or any part thereof.

    Leadership in Plainfield has failed its citizens time and time again, with waste, fraud and plain 'ol quackery.

    Most of these so-called leaders in the city administration and the PMUA and beyond are well aware that they have failed the people of this city. They try to mask their failure through religious rhetoric at meetings or perhaps putting on some of their taxpayer funded fairs, hat shows and fish fries for their faithful constituents.

    The waste (pun intended) at the PMUA is ridiculous, from million dollar payouts to the number of people on the payrolls. This agency is overstaffed. I understand it provides jobs for special folks, but it shouldn't be coming out of my pocket or anyone elses. I already have enough taxes pulled out of my paycheck to support every other entitlement program in which Plainfield participates. I'm tired of it!

    The PMUA is as much a staffing agency as it is a sanitation service. The economy may not be the best, but there are many large box retail stores, warehouses, etc. all around us offering employment. I'm not interested in subsidizing a for profit agency's payroll.

    The point in all of this, mostly to those who are attacking Bernice for her comments, is that in the "real world" an individual or a company who does not perform their job in an efficient manner suffers consequences. Unfortunately, the majority in Plainfield, (from council members and city leaders to state representatives) don't believe in consequences and don't have priorities. They don't have standards or very low ones, at that. Those are the same people we have to thank for high crime, a poor educational system, low real estate values, and on and on.

    Please go to Council meeting or a PMUA meeting, bring a neighbor and let your voices be heard.

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  12. The problem is that "epic fail" in Plainfield at any level means...Status quo.
    You've done nothing wrong.
    The bar has been set that low that any suggestion of changing it to the "real world" causes fear.
    Good luck with the PMUA.. they'll change when local government changes: THE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL AS WELL AS OUR "POWERFUL WIZARD OF OZ" - Jerry. That's right won't happen.
    Blame the New Dem's as much as the RDO's ... they are complicit. They're only worried about the size of their slice of the corruption pie.

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