You're Fired. Just Kidding! Here's Some Money!
By Shannon in News on Jul 23, 2007 7:30PM
Ever since Frank Kruesi got kicked to the curb back in April, we’ve been nothing short of elated. We looked forward to a new reign of … whatever the opposite of ineptitude is. (Eptitude?) With time comes sobriety, as the usual problems have started cropping up once more. Two trains shutting down in one week? Bad form. Honestly, though, we weren’t expecting that kind of mechanical stuff to be cleared up overnight, especially when the failsafe measure of cutting power to the tracks is supposed to help in dangerous situations. Still our faith held strong.
But damn it, Hubie, you’re determined to chip away at our resolve, aren’t you? We didn’t know what else to think when we read about the rehiring of the “Bemont” man. Remember that whole cockup last August? Due to the then-new Pink Line, the CTA had to print up 3,000 maps with its inclusion. However, somebody forgot to use the last Photoshop revision and ended up misspelling the Belmont stop on the Blue Line as “Bemont,” didn’t indicate Fullerton as a transfer and gave out a random citizen’s cell phone as the CTA’s transit hotline (in the 847 area code). On the off-chance our Virgo selves had been careless enough to let any one of those gaffes slip through at our job, we’d be canned on the spot.
So was Charles Arndt, the signage and way-finding manager held responsible for the ill communication. Unlike Arndt, we doubt we’d be rehired at the same job replete with back pay. A closed-door meeting of a CTA panel decided Kruesi had overreacted when he fired Arndt last year. The initial estimate to replace all those signs with corrections topped out at $75,000; with appropriate stickers, costs came to just $800. Apparently that went back into Arndt’s salary, which rose retroactively from $76,529 a year to $82,097. It's the higher salary from which his back pay will be calculated. Of course we don’t know all the details surrounding the mistakes, nor are we even sure current head honcho Ron Huberman was present at the rehiring decision. But boy, are we steamed when we hear about basic company standards being lowered. Is it too much to ask that when someone fucks up royal at their job, they get fired and stay fired?
Image via _nickd.