Quality individuals
Posted by Blue Eyed Buddhist on April 23rd, 2007
Over the past two weeks, a fellow controller named Peter Nesbitt has made the news. He is the guy that filed the NASA report that described a too-close call at the Memphis airport; it wound up changing the way the FAA handles flights there. (They used to be doing a crazy dangerous flight pattern- I’m a center guy and even I saw it and thought “how on earth do they get away with that under the rules?” Turns out it’s against the rules.)
VectorMonkey has a follow-up to his original post on that story scheduled for tomorrow, but for today I thought I’d share with you a story that Peter told about some attempted FAA retaliation. They’re angry at him for getting the story out there and bringing to light the unsafe procedure at MEM, which tells you something about how pathetic these FAA managers are. A safety issue is identified and fixed, and they get angry at the guy who brought it to light instead of happy that the flying public is safer.
Here’s Peter’s story.
Dear Friends,
I awoke last Tuesday morning at 4:30 a.m. and found my 2 year-old Australian Cattle Dog (Angus) to be lethargic and almost unresponsive. His ears were flopped over onto the back of his head; his tail was dragging; he refused to eat; and he had no interest in his favorite activity: chasing the frisbee. It was obvious to me that something was wrong with my favorite canine
companion.A call to Memphis Tower revealed that Annual Leave was not available, and there were no provisions that would allow me to take Emergency Annual Leave to care for my dog. I asked the CIC to place me on the Annual Leave list anyway, and informed him that I’d be bringing my pooch to work. My plan was to contact the Shelby Center for Animals in Bartlett as soon as their office opened, and hopefully get some Annual Leave to have my little buddy examined.
Angus was loaded into his travel kennel and placed into the bed of my pickup truck for the trip to work. This was not anything new or unusual, as he had made many trips to the Tower in the past. It seems that he is able to get more exercise at work while I’m on a break, as opposed to sleeping all day long at the apartment. The Air Traffic Manager (Bill Wertz) was aware of the fact that Angus was hanging-out in the back of my truck, and other Supervisors and Controllers knew of his presence as well. While somewhat… unusual… no one ever complained.
I checked on Angus after my first break, and placed the kennel inside the truck when it started to rain. The sky was dark. The wind crisp and cool. I had no worries about heat issues with the windows slightly open on my truck to allow fresh air to enter the cab.
While walking Angus on my second break, I noticed one of our Operations Managers (Bobby Parker) exit the front door of the facility. He walked directly to my truck; circled the truck once, looking inside the truck at each turn. It was obvious to me that he was up to something, as he was very curious about the contents of my vehicle. Apparently he didn’t see me and Angus near the loading dock, watching his every move.
About an hour later I was relieved from a RADAR position in the TRACON, and the FLeM informed me that the Memphis Shelby County Humane Society was coming to the facility to “talk” to me. I couldn’t recall volunteering with their organization; I had not mailed any donation checks recently; and I was not interested in adopting another pet — “What do they want?” “Well… someone turned you in for cruelty to animals because your dog is locked inside your truck.”
I asked the FLeM for immediate Annual Leave, because I was not about to allow this organization to take my dog. Leave was denied, and I was told that I needed to go talk to the Operations Manager (Phil Santos). I asked Phil for Annual Leave, but he said that he was unable to approve my request. Phil then said that I needed to speak with Bobby Parker, as he was the “Point
of Contact” with the Humane Society on this issue. Phil would not confirm or deny that Bobby Parker was the one who made the call.The Humane Society van pulled into the parking lot at this point, and I informed my FLeM that I needed a witness from the bargaining unit to come outside with me. Bobby Thompson was quickly briefed on what was happening, and we went outside to meet with Cruelty Investigator Calvin Walker.
Mr. Walker was somewhat confrontational at first. Waving his badge and displaying his “credentials”, he wanted to know why I had my dog at work, and he wanted to see Angus to ascertain his condition . I explained to Mr. Walker that Angus had been sick on this particular morning; that I had requested Annual Leave; that Annual Leave had been denied; that I had been in contact with my Veterinarian in an effort to obtain an appointment for Angus; and that my dog had been a regular visitor to the facility during the cool winter months with no concerns expressed by Memphis Management or any of my peers.
We walked over to my truck, and upon opening the vehicle, Mr. Walker found Angus sleeping inside a clean kennel. Food and water were present; a leash available for walks; and toys for the dog to chase during healthier times. Angus awoke from his slumber and crawled out the kennel to greet Cruelty Investigator Walker, and then proceeded to lick donut residue from the
officers fingers.The Cruelty Investigator took one look at my dog and said, “This dog is not being abused… what’s this all about?” Bobby Thompson, dedicated NATCA Member, then informed Mr. Walker about some of the Labor/Management issues that had been going on at Memphis Tower, and the fact that this “anonymous” phone call was pure and simple retaliation for some of my recent NATCA
activities. Mr. Walker asked if we were in the Union. When we replied “yes”, he said that he knew exactly what was going on, and he wanted to speak with my Manager.Five minutes later, I found myself standing in the OM’s office with Phil Santos, the Training Manager (remember Bobby Parker?), Cruelty Investigator Walker, and Bobby Thompson. Mr. Walker informed the OM that he wanted me released from work immediately so that I could take my dog home and/or to the veterinarian for treatment. He then told Phil Santos that he wanted his word that there would be no punishment, retaliation or retribution for the fact that I was leaving work to care for my dog. There was only a slight pause from Mr. Santos before he said, “Okay”.
Mr. Santos then informed us that, somewhere, buried deep within a portion of the FAA Security Order (that has never been briefed at Memphis) — Pets are not allowed at the facility!
Based on the fact that MEM Tower/TRACON office keys have “gone missing”; a stranger managed to enter and steal a laptop computer last year; the cypher combination locks are rarely changed; the front door can be pried open; our parking lot is open to the public and lacking of any form of physical security… you would think that a vigilant — yet friendly guard dog, would be a welcome addition to the safety and general welfare of the facility.
Oh well, as Chief Master Sergeant Gary Ward once told me in the Air Force: “Expect fire when you are over the target!” I suppose that this is the best that the FAA could come up with while avoiding other more important and pressing issues within our facility.
The more I think about this, the more it makes me both mad and amazed. This is the kind of person in charge of an FAA facility- they try to get back at a controller by attempting to get the animal control people to take away his dog.
Hey, Memphis managers? You guys are absolute scumbags. The only thing that is a saving grace is that you’re such morons that you are almost harmless. Did anyone stop to think for, oh, about a nanosecond about how incredibly stupid this was going to make you look?
I looked up the temperature in Memphis on Tuesday. Mid 70s. Given open windows for ventilation, that’s nowhere near “too hot” for a dog. In a closed-up vehicle on a sunny day, sure- it can overheat quickly- but that was not the case.
What’s more, what kind of jackass thinks that his job is to check on what a controller has in his car? Is there something in the Operations Manager job description that says “be sure no controllers are guilty of animal cruelty”? What motivates a guy to go out and snoop through someone’s truck like that?
Simple- they’re after Peter Nesbitt. If anyone ever needed proof of just how pathetic things are in the FAA, all they need to do is read through this series of events. Peter reports a major safety-threatening problem, the FAA’s safety regulators agree and order ATO to stop it, and FAA ATO manager tries to retaliate through getting the guy’s DOG taken away by the Humane Society.
I swear on a stack of Lotus Sutras I could not make this shit up. I mean, if I were to have made something like this up, it would have been laughed at as an April Fools type of story- so crazy that it’s obviously fake, right? But not in today’s FAA. This is how far we’ve fallen.
April 23rd, 2007 at 6:32 am
Damn! ATO has some very sick managers.
April 23rd, 2007 at 6:42 am
That story is absolutely despicable. These dirt-bags have gone to a new low.
I’d like to see members of Memphis follow these dirt-bag managers on any given weekend especially when they know about a function they are attending where alcohol is involved. As they get in their car call the police. It’s time to do to them what they do to us.
April 23rd, 2007 at 6:49 am
Which pit in hell do they recruit their managers from, anyway?
April 23rd, 2007 at 7:18 am
Maybe the NTSB finally got around to publishing its long-awaited report on dogs in TRACON parking lots causing a loss of separation.
I’m still a little afraid there might be a hell. Otherwise, this management stuff looks like pretty easy money.
April 23rd, 2007 at 8:01 am
Hey Mickey… They come from the NATCA/controller ranks!
April 23rd, 2007 at 8:38 am
At least you are allowed to leave the building, we cannot even go outside with out taking leave. How stupid is that!
April 23rd, 2007 at 9:50 am
Hey Mickey… They come from the NATCA/controller ranks!
This is like implying a tornado-ravaged home is still a home…because it once was a home.
Like a tornado-ravaged home, once a person decides to go over to the “dark side” and become part of the managment team, he/she shall be forever changed. Those who go above the FLM level will not put on a headset ever again. FLM’s will wear a headset for EIGHT hours a month.
Plus, they go through a whole series of indoctrinations and training sessions, including but not limited to:
Kool-Aid Drinking
Spinal Removal
Brain White Washing – The memory banks are cleared of everything they previously knew about human relations, common sense, how to keep the system safe, etc.
There are those in managment that come out the other side of all this crap and manage to be good people. Fortunately for me, my FLM happens to be one of those.
But, for those that decide “Hey…this dark side stuff is not for me!”, they are basically stuck. If they return to the boards, they do so at the new, drastically reduced salaries! Now THAT’s how you keep a cohesive management team. If they decide the new job is not working out for them, we’ll threaten them with a huge pay cut. They will actually be making a LOT less than they did as a controller before!
And they wonder why management “secrets” keep falling into NATCA’s lap!
April 23rd, 2007 at 10:27 am
Embarrassing…next thing you’re going to tell us is FAA management are actually screwing (as in sleeping with) new trainees on government time in a government building.
April 23rd, 2007 at 11:06 am
Putintame – “At least you are allowed to leave the building, we cannot even go outside with out taking leave. How stupid is that!”
What facility is that? What if you need something from your car?
April 23rd, 2007 at 11:19 am
Hapysed – “What facility is that? What if you need something from your car?”
I don’t know what facility Putintame works at but I do know that the folks at Denver Tower can’t leave the facility. This includes not being aloud to walk into the terminal side (right down the hall from the tower) of the airport to get lunch (for those of you who havnt been through DEN there are a ton of places to eat in the terminal area).
April 23rd, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Well for you folks that are allowed (wink wink) do not mention it here. This is one of the sites that these horror pieces get their info. They dont have moles in the system like we do. : )
April 23rd, 2007 at 7:35 pm
“Anon at home
…next thing you’re going to tell us is FAA management are actually screwing (as in sleeping with) new trainees on government time in a government building.”
You might have missed it, but last year in Denver Center, a Stupe was very publicly humiliated for his recurring habit of sexual harassment, sexual philandering with married controllers, and included having sex on company time in the facility!
his penalty? two weeks suspension, with knowledgeable rumors saying that 1 week of this was covered by sick leave.
if you want to see the sorry story, google “denver center” supervisor sex–and you’ll see the tv coverage listed #1
April 23rd, 2007 at 10:10 pm
Here is the news story, with video! Enjoy!
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/9906510/detail.html
April 24th, 2007 at 2:36 am
oh, and i forgot to add, he still is on the job, “working” in the control room and “supervising” controllers. I think that just about says it all about where these people think accountability lies.
April 24th, 2007 at 2:38 am
This agency’s management is a disgrace from the top down. Starting with the politically appointed hacks with no Air Traffic knowledge or experience to the vindictive unchecked power hungry department heads to the spineless Managers, OMs and FLMs that blindly follow. Throw in a galley of lies and you have the ship known as FAA.
Sadly, the crew is jumping ship at the earliest opportunity and soon there will be no-one left but the officers. The flying public will be the ones left without a life boat.
Safety is always an issue to us.
April 24th, 2007 at 8:17 am
I’ve been an avid fan of the follies from the get go and this is the first time I’ve felt compelled to post a comment. By the way, you guys do great work.
As for FAA (mis)management, UFB. What’s next, do they try and confiscate our first born?
April 25th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Locking a sick dog in a car, even if in a kennel, for eight or more hours IS cruel. If you were really concerned about it’s welfare, you should have banged out sick and taken the dog to the vet. I’m sure you’ve banged out for less serious stuff in your career. This story doesn’t ring true.
April 25th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
uh, yeah it does ring true. this is a brother who knows he’s under the microscope so it is unlikely he’d bang in carelessly.
Further, it rings true when an OM casually states that ATC is not neccessarily about “the safe, orderly, and expeditious flow of air traffic”, but rather it is a combination of that and taking care of the user’s bottom line. I ain’t making this shiite up (no religious slur intended). funny, I don’t recall that from day one at the acadamy 18 years ago.
April 26th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
Knockitoff… apparently you missed the part where the guy said he was going to walk the dog on each of his breaks. In fact, it was during one of these breaks when he noticed the manager snooping around and looking in the windows of his truck.
Which means that technically, if the manager told the Humane Society that he saw a dog in the truck, he was lying- the dog was OUT of the truck at that time.
I’ll also argue the point- people regularly kennel their dogs for several hours at a time. Given proper temperature control, it’s not cruel at all; the dog is safe and secure. Many dogs LOVE their kennels. My dog, Indiana the Wonder Dog, never really took to being kenneled, but my ex-gf had a golden that happily ran down the hall and right into his kennel if you told him it was time to “go kennel up”.
In any case, the controller did the best thing he could- take care of the dog, but still come to work when he couldn’t get annual leave. As pointed out, he knows he’s “under the microscope”- the fact that this manager tried to get the guy’s dog taken away or the guy charged with animal cruelty by calling the HS proves that point exactly.
It’s both funny and sad that an animal control officer can see the situation and immediately sum it up and know that it’s a small-minded weenie trying to retaliate against an employee.
I guess I’m lucky; at our facility we had a minor problem with people bringing their dogs in their trucks (apparently a guard slipped in some doggy doo) and our managers didn’t overreact. They just said “look, folks, we all love our dogs, but we can’t bring them to work anymore.” That’s what reasonable people (and reasonable managers) do.
Of course, this isn’t really about the dog at all; it’s about the managers trying to strike back at an employee and strike fear into all other employees. Ridiculous when it’s in retaliation for an employee identifying a safety issue.
April 27th, 2007 at 12:16 am
[...] Quality individuals [...]
April 28th, 2007 at 6:44 am
Quick note: are dogs allowed? No!
was the manager looking for trouble? probably
If the dog died in the truck with mgmt allowing a dog
on the property, would they be at fault? YES, in a
big way.
result: mgmt was correct even though it makes them look
horrible. Get over it!
April 28th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
While he might not have been totally right in this case, the reaction of mgt was very off. A normal reaction would have been to have the controller either take the dog home, or just let him know that the pooch wasn’t welcome anymore. It is the attitude of “we will get you one way or another” that many in mgt have now that is a supreme problem. Of course, they are just following orders, but then that arguement has been used by people in the wrong all through history, and usually they end up paying for it in the end. On a personnel note, I worked with both those individuals of mgt years ago when they were but lowly controllers, and I am saddened by the tone they carry now. It is indeed amazing the changes that occur after the lobotomy and coolaid consumption are completed. I just hope I can stick it out long enough to see the repercussions that I know will come when the s**t really hits the fan, and that day is coming
April 29th, 2007 at 12:07 am
The same management group that tried to get this guy’s dog taken away from him, changed a controller’s transfer date several times for a total of something like 18 months – 2 years, which completely screwed him over, while at the same time putting other controllers into sup jobs.
The last time was after the controller had a letter from the region and the receiving facility, had gotten a personal face to face (with a witness) confirmation from the ATM that it wouldn’t happen again. The controller put a contract on a house to be built after the letters and verbal confirmation. 2 months later the manager did it again, for something like a year, and the same day posted a letter telling everyone 2 guys were being pulled out of the workforce and put into staff jobs. The same week the guy lost his son in Iraq, and the ATM still didn’t do anything to let the guy transfer, finally a Congressman got involved and got the guy a transfer.
I believe that management team is out to get controllers no matter what the cost.
March 28th, 2008 at 3:03 am
[...] recall that this is the facility where an AT manager called the Humane Society to try and have a controller’s dog confiscated after the controller blew the whistle on an unsafe procedure that they were using at [...]
March 29th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Cool,
More people linking to this story to see how pathetic FAA management can be.
A-Holes.
March 31st, 2008 at 10:56 am
[...] including a lack of compassion in denying leave followed by an attempt by federal managers to confiscate his dog. Anyhow, check out the site. It’s filled with crazy stories about federal service; [...]
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:25 am
[...] later had an FAA manager report him to the Animal Control people, which we reported about here on the Follies. Seriously- FedEx complained directly to the FAA Administrator about the issue that Peter had [...]
January 5th, 2009 at 3:23 am
[...] and NASA’s safety reporting program, and the FAA punishes him and treats him like crap. (They even tried to take away his dog. I am not making this [...]
January 7th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Well now, how refreshing to hear that the FAA management hasn’t changed since the PATCO strike in 1981.
May 6th, 2009 at 8:24 am
There is obviously a lot to know about this. I think you made some good points in Features also.