I just want to first say that I was very glad when I first obtained this Job at Air Safety. It was a change of career for me and I thought a good choice. About two months after I starting working for the company, I noticed that there was absolutely no communication between departments. Whenever a new task was to take place it was told to you on the spot without any notification. This raised a red flag to me right from the very beginning. I thought is this how this company operates, they just pull things out of there hats and slam them on you with out notice and you are to adapt immediately.
Well I thought maybe this was a one-time situation, but then it started happening all the time. I thought to myself that the company has serious organization issues and they have no planning. Then the big changes came, the company acquired a huge contract of students from China, and went from small operation to a big operation almost overnight. I want to stay focused on the effects this company had on me in my position as a transportation employee. I took great pride in my work as the company grew. I was responsible for transporting students on a fixed route, which had serious defects within the design of the route. Most of the time you had to go over the speed limit to stay on-time.
Then there was the maintenance of the vehicles, which was virtually non-existent. The 44-passenger bus had serious issues right from the very beginning. We drove the bus illegally all the time because we would report issues that needed fixed over and over and the issues would never get fixed. Many issues were serious DOT issues in which we could have been ticketed for. We drove the bus for 4 months without any emergency flashers which by law is illegal to drive a bus without emergency flashers due to boarding and de - boarding of passengers.
There we also times we drove the bus with tires that were below the legal limit witch was illegal, but again all these issues were reported but Air Safety chose not to correct the maintenance issues. Keep in mind we were transporting the schools students in these vehicles. Had a blown out tire occurred Lord knows what could have happened. I prayed every day when I came into work. Not only did the larger bus have safety issues, but the smaller 14 passenger vans had their share of maintenance issues as well. Driving on illegal tire tread limits, non operative seat belts in the front passenger area, and an older van that needed to go to the junk yard, it had seen its days.
So I was quite worried using these vehicles on a daily basis, but had to do my job, and that I did very well. I came to work everyday and was never late, did pre checks on all the vehicles every day (Which I cant say to much for another transportation employee) He eventually became buddy buddy with the management, which was his intention all the time, so he could move up the latter. I found out in the end (my last day) after I quit that my co-worker was talking behind my back to management, and I actually trusted him the entire time I worked there. (Be careful whom you trust)
Then the layoff came without notice on 11/21/08. We were all gathered in the lobby of the airport and told we had no job. We only got a bottom of the barrel paycheck to leave with and never got paid for one week of pay, which I am in the process now of filing a notice with the labor board to try and get my pay check. I was called back to work on 12/1/08 but stripped of pay, deletion of all benefits, health, dental ect.
I worked for the company a few months after that and finally had to make a decision to find work elsewhere. I needed more than a paycheck, I needed security and benifits which I came to the conclusion I would never have that with Air Safety. I loved my students though, they were the only ones who treated me with dignity and respect, and I actually cried the day I left and I shook all of there hands.
All I can say is that the management of this company has allot to learn about running a company and treating employees with respect. How about an occasional (your doing a great job, we appreciate your hard work) Never did I ever hear those words come out of anyone's mouth except Mark? (Thanks Mark) Unless you change the way you respect your employees and be more evolved and informed about what they do you will never have lasting employees that will work for you. I have said my peace. (Oh an one last thing I still have not received my w2's for tax filings. I guess I will have to report that as well.
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