NEW YORK — A Long Island Rail Road dispatcher supervisor and dispatcher have been disciplined after being found asleep on the job by investigators from the Office of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Inspector General.
A report by Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny says the office received a tip that overnight dispatchers were turning off the lights in their office and sleeping while on duty, and would yell at coworkers who attempted to wake them up.
Investigators made an unannounced visit to the office in Jamaica, Queens, on Oct. 1, 2021 and found the supervisor and dispatcher in a dark office, asleep to the point they did not realize the investigators had entered. “They certainly would have not been capable of responding to dispatching emails while asleep and we question whether they would have heard dispatch calls,” the report reads. Investigators were unable to determine if another dispatcher at his desk was asleep, although they believe it was likely.
The report recommended discipline “up to and including termination” for the supervisor and dispatcher who were found asleep, and discipline “as the LIRR deems appropriate” for the other dispatcher.
The New York Post reports the supervisor received a 15-day suspension and the sleeping dispatcher a 10-day suspension. The other dispatcher received no discipline becase it could not be confirmed whether he was asleep.
An MTA spokesman told the newspaper, “The LIRR expects all employees to be engaged and attentive while at work. Failure to do so is unacceptable, and the railroad has assessed maximum possible discipline.” The railroad has also implemented random spot checks and other oversight measures.
Holy moly! I’ve held far less critical jobs that warranted IMMEDIATE firing if your were found asleep on the job. And IF I had facilitated others being asleep, it would have meant a suspension at a minimum.
What a JOKE!
First of all, shame on Trains for not clarifying that this was a crew dispatch office. No safety was ever impacted by this. Secondly, this is not news. Railroaders in every craft working nights catch a few z’s when the work is completed, during downtime, etc. If anything, a quick nap refreshes you and keeps you alert for when you actually need to focus. Stopped in a siding at 0200hrs? What is the crew supposed to do..just sit there, staring at a stop signal for hours? Give me a break. The MTA IG should fully investigate why East Side Access is costing 11 Billion Dollars and 13 years behind schedule if they need something to do. Leave hard working people alone!
Hahaha if only they knew what else goes on at the LIRR or the MTA as a whole. Sleeping on the job is a very common thing and literally anyone who isn’t in top-level management has done it at least once. Even some of the big wigs too, back when they first got started on the railroad. This is nothing. Walk into any office on the overnight shift and I guarantee you’ll see at least one person sleeping.
Sleeping while on duty is not limited to the 21st Century and in my 35 years as a telegrapher, locomotive fireman, train and chief dispatcher, and, finally, rules instructor, in my early years, I dozed off on the job out of exhaustion more than once and was brought back to consciousness by a fellow employee.
As a chief dispatcher and rules instructor, I never encountered a sleeping employee nor did I want to, given my youthful encounters with soporific enticements. As a locomotive fireman working sixteen consecutive hours in helper service, I was worn numb by the fourth such trip but I stayed awake.
And I stayed awake in pool freight service while doing what I could to screw with the head brakeman to keep him awake and if I couldn’t, I’d put a knuckle in his grip so that when he’d put the engs away, getting his grip off the eng was a chore he’d remember.
WOW Charles L.
No mention of Joe Biden nodding off?
Not an equal nodding off advocate?
I worked 3rd Trick for some five years when I went dispatching after many years in the towers. Some nights there was a lot going on and I didn’t get sleepy in the slightest. But I always came to work with a full tall thermos of black coffee and some dark chocolate. And just about 0300 every night I “chowed down”. The coffee I didn’t drink I had as part of my breakfast when I got home. Worked pretty well I’d say.
There’s a book out about MTA’s LIRR, written some years ago about the building of it’s Hillside facility and things leading up to it. As I recall, there’s a story in it about the ‘bench’ shop, where torn, damaged and worn out benches were sent for repair. Seems the employees piled some up high enough to essentially make a mostly closed off space to use as a bedroom so they could sleep instead of working. Now this isn’t as dangerous as a dispatcher sleeping on duty, but it goes to show that sleeping on the job isn’t new at LIRR.
I had a friend years ago who got a job sweeping out subway cars overnight at NYCTA, another part of MTA. He learned he was only to sweep out 2 or 3 cars, which didn’t take long, and then sleep the rest of the shift – or go home. With the latter, it seems they took turns punching out for each other. With all this, he found he even got paid for a fair amount of overtime. My friend was too honest to do this and left. And hopefully it’s no longer happening. But overtime scams and the like seem to be part of how at least some parts of MTA ‘work’, and that comes still from recent headlines.
When you’re a train dispatcher, there is NO difference between nodding off on the job and deliberately going to sleep. You are asleep while in charge of the railroad.
That said, I knew a block operator who liked his ZZZ’s late at night. He got some devices that would sound a loud alarm when a track occupancy light came on. After they caught him, he accepted a job as a ticket clerk.
The lights were out. That is enough to convince me it was deliberate. They are really lucky there were no accidents or deaths that night.
Asleep at the switch. Just another railroad term. Or in this case many switches
Isn’t there a difference between nodding off on the job (like Ronald Reagan) and deliberately going to sleep?
Considering their position, and the offense, the two sleepers should have been fired.