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MAX OFF! … Not So Fast!

Hello brothers and sisters! A carrier emailed me on a problem he had about vacation scheduling and vacation cancellations, which brought up an interesting subject about what exactly is “max off”?

Management would like you to think that max off is the max percentage allowed off according to your local memorandum. So if it is 14%, such as it is with our local and you are allowed, let’s say 5 off. Does that mean only five off are allowed off during a week?

Let’s check this out according to management’s way of doing things! Can you put in for a day of annual leave on your day off? Guess you can, but they won’t approve it. Why? No leave can be taken on an SDO. So if no leave can be taken on an SDO, how many carriers are actually off in a week? Kinda reminds you of that school question….If a train leaves the station going west at 30 mph, and a train leaves the other station headed east at 25 mph, how many stupid supervisors would screw up the train schedules?…or something like that!

Now, let’s look at it this way. Carrier A has Monday off. Carrier B has Tues. off, and so on through the five days of the week. This means that on paper we have 5 carriers off and according to mgmt., max off. But is it really? On Monday Carrier A has his SDO…and you can’t take leave on an SDO. So is it max off? No. 4 carriers have scheduled leave on Monday. Carrier A has only his SDO. No leave is granted on an SDO so there is no max off. Now take this down the line and you have a whole week where a carrier may submit incidental leave, leaving 6 carriers off, but the 6th carrier has leave on all the other carrier’s SDO’s! This is a perfect situation of all the carriers having their SDO’s lined up in a row for this example. This would probably never happen, but you get the point. You can put in for leave on a carrier’s SDO and management cannot deny you because of max off, because it is not.

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This should be reserved for an absolute must day off and not abused. I say this because usually if the max percentage is off, then the “extra” carrier off may affect the other carriers in your station and their overtime and ability to get home to their families at a decent hour. The mail still has to be delivered and an additional route to pivot may make for some long days for the others. Although if your supervisor is a real jerk (let’s see…that covers most of them doesn’t it!) then put in leave slips for every SDO day of every month and watch him be taken out the door in a straight jacket with the guys in the white coats pulling his hair out! He he!

So the next time you hear your stupidvisor tell you, “Leave? Nope we have max off!”, Begin by asking him, “Well then can I take A/L on my SDO?” And when he says NO, put that smile on your face and then tell him you need to talk to him about your leave request! Start that wheezing kind of laugh like Scooby Doo and tell him to step into your office, you need to teach him a thing or two! Watch the blank look on his face when you tell him! Oh, yeah, I forget, they always have that blank look on their face!

Remember….If you are not informed, you are ill advised! If you are not professional, then improve yourself! And if you are not Union then join and support the organization that gets you your salary and benefits!

Denny “SDO” Belden
Aka: VetCarrier

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