Current State Of Affairs

[Fedup]

Is anyone else not so kosher about whats going on and how things here are being handled?  Duffy and the moral police?  Taking, taking, taking but no giving back?  Anyone?

[Nick]

What's going on?  And how are things being handled?

[champoleon]

I'm on the Ice, but I missed the big town meeting. Here's what I know.

The long and short of it is that an employee, let's call him "K", decided to host a jello(TM)-wrestling event in the parts supply building of the VMF (vehicle maintenance facility -- a bureaucratic name for garage).  K did not have permission to do this.  No one was hurt, as far as I know, though K did show up a couple of days later with a broken foot.  He may have pulled the whole thing off, too, were it not for a yearly visit by the US Office of the Inspector General.  These people had only a few days to inspect McMurdo, so they worked on Sunday.  K, apparently believing no one would need to enter the garage supply warehouse on Sunday morning, did not completely clean up after the jello(TM)-wrestling event on Saturday night.  His supervisor, who was accompanying the OIG inspector, entered the building, saw half-empty beer bottles and cans everywhere amongst the jello(TM) flingings.  He was not pleased.

He was fired the following week.  I'm not sure what reasons were cited for his dismissal, though quite a few legitimate ones come to mind.  So far, no surprises.  This gets interesting, however, because K managed to spam the entire USAP network with a polemic against those who fired him, including threats to sue for wrongful termination.  It appears HR did not inform the IT folks that he was fired, and that they should delete his email account.  Rather than citing the rules which were broken and letting the whole issue end there, station management called an urgent all-hands meeting and, as I understand it, wagged the corporate finger at everyone for our collective moral failure, citing this incident and one or two more alleging activities involving nudity at McMurdo and the South Pole.

Employees, who could certainly understand the argument that K broke the rules, were not so understanding when a first-season, ex-military, puppet station manager, who worked for Raytheon (and went home for Christmas!) no less, began haranguing them for a lack of moral integrity.

From what I've gathered from people who were there, a mountain has been made of a mole hill, and station management took a forgettable incident and attempted to turn it into a moral crusade.  I doubt this situation could have been handled much worse.

In a wider view, many people in the program feel that a lot of new upper managers are arrogant and unappreciative of their efforts and their often long commitments to the USAP.  Most of the new top brass are ex-military and many of those are former military pilots like Sam Feola, the top dog for Raytheon Polar Services.  They seem to believe that this program should be run in a military manner, that the org chart hierarchy puts them on top and those below -- many of whom have far more experience on the Ice -- should follow orders without question in ALL aspects of life down here, and that the sloppy civilians who work for them need to shape up and fall in line.  Despite the teachings of millennia of great military leaders, our ex-military leaders do not appear to understand the value of morale in the ranks.  "You're here to work, not have fun! And tighten up those morals!!" is not something that the generally hard-working, fun-loving, voluntary workforce down here wants to hear.

Especially from Raytheon.

[Frostyboy]

Here's the text of the email that was sent out...

 I don't have the time to write what I would like to say but I will just say that I was terminated for having harmless jello wrestling.
 
I hope all those of you who attended (including everyone from NSF, RPSC, NANA, NASA, SOPP, ANG, PHI, and Kiwi's)  had a good time.  HR was pressing for names, especially those of  Managers, Supervisors, Foremen, Seniors, Leads and all other personnel in a supervisory capacity, but I refuse to cooperate with a company who fucks over it's own employees and goes on a witch hunt over a bit of jello and a lot of fun, so, all of you who were there, your secret is safe with me.
 
 Sam Feola and Raytheon are always demanding your loyalty to RPSC, I guess they haven't learned that loyalty, like respect, has to be earned and that it's a two-way street.  You gotta give it to get it and firing loyal, productive employees is not going to inspire loyalty or respect, quite the opposite actually.
 
 During the investigation they were concerned with their PR and being embarrassed in front of the client, I wonder how embarrassed they will be when this story hits the papers in Christchurch, the Denver Post, The Rocky Mountain News, and 9 Wants To Know as well as such awesome forums as Big Dead Place...  "How Not To Treat Your Employees: A Study In The Leadership Of Raytheon Polar Services Company"
 
I will be filing a lawsuit for wrongful termination and anyone who would like to be involved can email me.  We all know this is not the first jello wrestling event that has ever happened and no one got fired in the past, even though they stole the jello from the galley and jello still oozes from the walls where the event took place.
 
 No one was injured (5 medevacs from the company sponsored softball game,) no equipment was abused or damaged, no one complained to HR, there was no inappropriate behavior, clothing, or nudity (though the Polar Plunge just hours before the jello event had plenty of nudity but no one got fired or reprimanded for doing that!)
 
They claim their reason for terminting me was disruptive behavoir, no other qualifiers or explanations.  They said I violated Section 17 (no jello wrestling?) but couldn't or wouldn't specify how or in what way I violated it.  A couple of palletized, waste mattresses and a food waste bin with some jello in it sitting in a warehouse on a Sunday morning disrupted a tour of the building by the NSF (National Science Foundation).  Here's a large, 2 story warehouse full of shelves of parts and a few mattresses on a pallet and a bin of jello disrupted that tour somehow, like they couldn't just walk around it or look over the top of it...
 
RPSC says the NSF are the ones who are forcing disciplinary action and termination, so beware of the fun nazis.
Anyways...
I had a good time. Did you?
 
PS - I want to send out a special thanks to all of you who took pictures/videos and put them on the Idrive, Myspace, Facebook, Youtube, or passed around links to photos.  Without you, my termination would not have been possible.  FUCK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!
 

[Slyppt]

Beaker here.

You guys are not going to get much disagreement from me about how Raytheon has changed the place, and not in a good way. My first season down there was 2000-2001, and have been 4 more times after that.   Each time we go down, the place just seems more and more emotionally beat down.   Every trip, there are more and more rules, restrictions and guidelines that seem designed to take all the life out of the place and make it more like a unionized auto factory.

It seems like the lawyers have just taken over. For example,  the "accidental" alcohol shortage a few years ago, to AA meeting signs have became more and more prevalent around base.  I fully expect that the next time we go down to McMurdo it will be dry.  Then there the stupid assigning fault system for workplace accidents.  The 3-point harness rule for climbing over 4 ft.

I know it was not much, but i remember when as a reward for good work, GAs got to come hang out and "work" at Willy.  It was not much, but from the GAs we got and talked to, always said it was a nice change of scenery plus they got to eat lunch out there.  The last time down, it seemed like even that privilege was being taken away.

Yes I know it is a workplace, but they are sucking all the fun out of the place, 1 new guideline at a time.

[Moose]

Seems as though the best thing you can do is wait it out in hopes that the next contractor won't be nearly as backwards.  It's that, or the place will be full of first-timers who haven't got any idea how it used to be, and will gladly be led around like sheep.

[Slyppt]

I thought Raytheon just got a new extension.

[Nick]

...station management called an urgent all-hands meeting and, as I understand it, wagged the corporate finger at everyone for our collective moral failure...

Anyone got video of this meeting?

[Foxtale]

There are a couple of videos out there that I know of. Haven't seen any myself.

Not to take of the gossip without giving in return: It's my understanding that - regardless of the degree of his aforementioned displeasure - the head of K's department (we'll call him MM) actually refused to fire K, telling DD he would have to go over MM's head to do it. 

The fact that even high-level upper management here disagreed with Denver's disciplinary decision should tell you something about how well this whole thing has gone over in the community at large...

[Nick]

Found in McMurdo:




Text: "The question "What would DD do?" is powerful and life-changing only for those who truly know DD and have surrendered their lives to him.  Learn about DD and pursue a life-changing relationship with him that will bring everlasting joy, peace and purpose into your life!"

[Fedup]

The Fun Jell (TM) event was held in the garage supply warehouse, which was K's workcenter.  You don't need permission to enter your own workcenter and with the lack of other venues to do anything in, workcenters after-hours are the usual places to hang out and hold events.  I didn't hear anything about the IG (there's usually a lot more hullaballoo when the IG office comes to town, lots of cleaning and organizing of buildings,) K's supervisor just said that it was him and two people from the NSF doing walk-throughs.  When they walked into the building, there were two pallets of neatly stacked mattresses, one food waste bin full of red Fun Jell(TM), and about 3 bottles and 12 empty cans stashed in corners.  No beer or alcohol was provided so there was only what people brought from the Waste Barn workcenter party.  Definitely not "half-empty beer bottles and cans everywhere amongst the jello(TM) flingings" because there were no "jello(TM) flingings."  The "jello(TM) flingings" were all caught by the plastic that was lining the walls and floors, which had already been properly disposed of the night before.  There was a bit of Fun Jell(TM) on the mattresses and, obviously, in the food waste bin.  It was "Safety First" all the way, even down to not driving the pickle that night to finish clean-up and move the food waste and mattresses out because everyone had had a drink.
He was fired for disruptive behavior because they had no other legitimate reason to fire him.  The real problem was that no one in management or HR could state the real reason he was fired.  At the all hands meeting, the area manager said that it was because of the jello wrestling.  At the night shift all hands meeting later that same day he stated that it was because K didn't have a party pack.  The area manager didn't even have the cohones to tell K in person that he was being fired.  We are still trying to figure out how jello wrestling is immoral!?! 
The only "rule" K broke that could be sited was that he hosted an unauthorized event.  At the most, it should have been a written warning, it didn't warrant termination, especially not to a level 5 employee.

[Fedup]

I thought Raytheon just got a new extension.

Nope, not yet, Thank god!  The contract is up for bid and while RPSC will be re-bidding, popular consensus is that they won't get it renewed.  Yay!

[Fedup]

...station management called an urgent all-hands meeting and, as I understand it, wagged the corporate finger at everyone for our collective moral failure...

Anyone got video of this meeting?

Oh yeah, there's at least one full length video.  There is talk of doing some creative editing and making a movie on what not to do if you are in management.  Might be coming soon to a youtube near you... 

[Nick]

I think YouTube has a five minute time limit.

At archive.org you can upload up to 100MB. 

Any chance of seeing the original footage without the "creative editing" aspect?

[Fedup]

I'll try to obtain a copy of it and see if I can send it your way or post it somewhere.  Pretty sure it's in digital format but not sure of the size of the file.