AGAIN, after waking up, Bub made me a cuppa java and I went WRITE (get it? get it?) to the laptop in the dining room to WRITE.
Get used to this blond overbite typist clipart, folksies. Sometimes, though, it MAY be different, so heads' up! Like today's.
Went online to check out doctor and prescrip stuff with Bub's insurance, and glory be, say hallelujah, gimme an AMEN!! Almost ALL our providers and meds are also the same!
So I'll start transferring stuff over and alerting our providers about the change of primary insurance.
I turned Barry on to Cake Wrecks (www.cakewrecks.com) for a laugh. I found the website when I was checking out cakes for Jax's wedding to get an idea about how much they'd cost, and found it in my favorites. I started looking at it again and laughed at the new cakes that I hadn't seen. Barry want to know what was so funny? So I told Him to sit at the laptop and check out the website.
LAUGH!? Boy, did Barry laugh his butt off! He was on it for about an hour.
I realize that now I won't be too tired to LAUGH or do things with Bub! Coming home after work, the adrenalin from work would be all used up on the 57 freeway, so I'd drag myself into the house and veg. Not now! We can do more stuff together when we feel like it, not when I come home and Barry has to wait until a day I come home and feel like going to Costco or wherever.
Stopped by WalMart this afternoon to have McDonald's and get a few things, just a few, really reining in on the money, honey, and while I was there I found out that another one of my ex-coworkers is REALLY now an ex-coworker. Apparently they were forced out. Emails go around to notify everyone of someone's departure if it's a) voluntary or b) involuntary if the person is high enough on the management food chain. Involuntary separation in any case is always right then that suddenly someone's not there, whereinthehell did they go? and the party of the first part aka person shown the door and shooed off the premises isn't allowed to go around and say goodbye to anyone. Technically, someone whose position is now wearing a toe tag, has circled the drain, no longer running in the rat race, had a substantive negative outcome, , bought a pine condo, deader than a Monty Python parrot, belly up, gone to the big donation center in the sky, 'Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200', deleted from the Shared Drive, the fat lady has sung, 'Dr. Faustus, I presume?', permanently out of print as a Career Opportunity, "Its parchment processes are a matter of interest only to historians!", left the building, Hotel California, OK you get the idea, that someone is now considered a visitor to the company and not allowed to wander the halls unescorted.* What, I guess the powers that be think that someone'll go around for bids for sympathy?
Hell, yes!!
So that makes (including me) 5 laid off/let go/position eliminated/reduction in force/forced out from my old ETES department and 1 quit from another department since last Friday May 23rd until today May 28th.
Dammit, a lot of GOOD GREAT people are leaving!
Some of us were going to meet on Friday at a local place, but that was put off until next week. I guess. I think that the more we put stuff off, the less likely we'll get together.
*Thank you, Monty Python, for those mahvelous ideas!
I was talking to a girlfriend and we were joking about how, when we woke up for work, and we woke up a little late, we'd have to decide, 'hair or makeup'? Makeup won hands down with her, but hair won with me. We decided that if we worked at the same place sometime, we'd get a limo and have time to work on both things!
According to the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), a lot of companies go through this.
EXAMPLE:
The AQMD Ridership Transportation Survey Registration Packet.
Per the South Coast Air Quality Management District (and they take THEIR marching orders from the Feds/EPA!!), every year a company with 250+ employees at any one site has to have what's called an Employer Transportation Coordinator and they have to do what's called a Ridership Transportation Survey of all the people working at the whole site and submit a registration packet with all the survey information that the employees did. There has to be at least a 60% return of employee surveys to be valid, and a 90% rate of surveys returned allows the company to get some extra 'points', let's say.
There is a timeline:
1. 3-3 1/2 months before the due date of the AQMD Ridership Survey registration packet to the AQMD:
Figure out a survey week (which would be scheduled usually AT LEAST 2 months before the registration survey packet is due, BUT survey weeks cannot be any weeks that have holidays in them)
2. 3 months prior to the due date: Get a list of the people at the survey site: Alert management that this is coming up (but don't give them the week of the survey, that could skew the survey): Contact the electronic survey database administrator to get paperwork going.
3. 2 1/2 months prior to the due date: Get survey packets ready to go to management:
Send out the surveys to management the Friday before the survey week: Set a due date for all employee surveys to be entered or turned in to you, usually at the 1 month mark before the due date of the registration packet.
4. 1-2 months prior to the due date: Get surveys back from employees or the employees enter them into a database online: Either way, DAILY track who has submitted surveys so the ETC can bug management about employees who haven't returned them. The ETC checks off who has returned them so that the ETC can determine if the company return rate is 60% or 90%, which is REALLY HARD, considering that 90% of 518 is 467!!! The ETC has to HARP on management to get those surveys IN! Plus if a lot of employees do the hard copies, and so when the ETC gets them, the ETC enters them onto the online electronic database and has to put his/her regular duties off to enter the survey information, or put in OT. If 467 employees do the survey and 30% of them are hard copies, the ETC has to enter 140 of them! That takes TIME.
5. Hopefully around 1 month prior to registration packet due date: When the 60% or 90% return rate is reached or the survey return due date is reached, the ETC notifies the online electronic database administrator that the surveys are ready to be number crunched:
6. 2-3 weeks prior to the registration due date: The numbers are crunched, the information comes to the ETC electronically and in hard copy form:
7. 1-2 weeks before the due date: The ETC fills out 4 additional pages for the packet, completes the packet, signs it and gets it signed by the highest ranking official aka CEO, gets a check for the fees and sends it in by the due date.
TIMELINE EXAMPLE:
Say a company's AQMD Registration Packet is due June 15th (and the due date NEVER changes):
February 1st-10th, figure out a survey week. The survey week can be no more than 5-6 months before the registration packet due date.
March 10-get a list and number of employees at the site. There are 518.
March 12-contact outside electronic survey database administrator consulting firm. Let them know how many people appx, the survey week dates, etc. Get surveys from them and print out for department management whose employees don't have computer/online access. Put into department packets. Prepare email for management.
March 15-Let management know that this is coming up. They can discuss at their meetings.
March 30: Finish up making hard copy packets for management.
April 4th-send out hard copy surveys to management and email management with online electronic survey link for their employees.If hard copy interoffice mail takes a day to get to an office, send them on the Thursday before.
April 7-10th Survey week. NO SURVEYS should be turned in until Friday afternoon April 10th!
April 13th-May 16th-THE HARD STUFF BEGINS Collecting hard copies that are sent in, checking online surveys, comparing to master list of employees, getting on management's tail for their people who haven't turned in surveys. Make sure all hard copies are entered.
Friday May 16th-notify electronic data administrator ready to crunch numbers.
Monday May 19 -communications between electronic database administrator and ETC to winnow out issues, correcting final numbers and error messages. MOST OF THE HARD STUFF IS BASICALLY DONE NOW! All that's left is the calc'ing and the collating of the registration packet.
Wednesday May 21-the electronic brain starts calc'ing the surveys and their information.
Tuesday-Wednesday May 27th-28th-the ETC gets the finished information and begins to collate the AQMD Ridership Transportation Survey Registration Packet with information from the finished calculations and the blank pages in the packet.
Monday-Thursday June 2-5 Complete packet is done, ETC signs it, send to CEO or highest ranking official at the site on that day (if CEO on vacation), ETC collects the packet, scans it in, photocopies it as well, puts with other documents, sends off certified/return receipt requested to AQMD in Diamond Bar. If packet collating and/or signature process is running slow, ETC may have to hand deliver packet on the actual due date of June 15th.
For this example company, if there is a misunderstanding on the part of management and an Employer Transportation Coordinator tells their bosses that the SURVEYS are done, NOT the whole registration packet, and if no one asks the ETC if the whole Ridership Transportation project was done, then obviously management just assumes it has totally been done. Bad move, especially if they let the ETC go before it's totally done.
IF the ETC is let go from a position just before the AQMD registration packet is due (the registration packet has the survey information and other documents), like, say, around timeline number 7., and it's assumed it was all done, and since the poor ETC has no knowledge that they're going to lose their position, then there is NO MALFEASANCE OR REVENGE INVOLVED by the ETC regarding the packet not being completed, IN FACT the ex-ETC let their ex-company KNOW about the spot the company was in, well, the Ridership Transportation Survey Registration Packet is in limbo. All the hard work is done, now all that needs to happen is the numbers transferred onto the document pages for the company.
By someone who knows what they're doing.
And is an ETC.
Now someone at that company has to a) compile the report, b) fill out 4-5 pages of registration documents, c) order a check for the fees, HERE'S THE KICKER d) has to be an ETC in order to sign it (an Employer Transportation Coordinator has to sign the registration packet as well as the CEO.), e) put the packet and the check together and have it in by the close of the business day the day the packet is due, say the middle of June.
A company HAS to have an ETC at the time of filing the registration to, I say again, SIGN the registration packet, and since theoretically with this company example, the ETC's position was eliminated, the company whose example I'm using doesn't have a current ETC.
So now the example company is in a bind.
They can't ask for an extension, an extension has to be 2 weeks prior to the due date.
They can hire an outside consultant who is an ETC to finish the registration packet.
They can have another employee go to the ETC class, BUT the next class is the day after the registration packet is due.
They can shine it on until the other employee goes to class and then can finish it, but there will be a 50% penalty tacked on to the packet and its' normal fees. So if the example company has 518 employees at that site, and the regular fees are $1002.32 (from the AQMD filing fee schedule), then penalty would be $501.16 for a total of 1503.48. Plus $163+ to train another employee to be an ETC, since, I say AGAIN, a company HAS to have an ETC to sign the registration packet!!! and a company HAS to have an ETC within 8 weeks of losing one!
Here's another kicker: If the AQMD KNOWS that the example company has lost their ETC, the company would do well not to 'forge' the ETC name and signature.
Small kicker-the CEO is listed in the AQMD's database, along with the ETC. So the AQMD knows who is supposed to sign the registration packet.
HUGE KICKER-the CEO is the responsible person for the whole registration packet. It's all on that person in that position. The ETC is just the tool to coordinate it, so if the packet is wrong, doesn't go in, or the company doesn't call the AQMD and lay themselves at their mercy, the AQMD goes STRAIGHT for the CEO.
Information for violations:
http://www.arb.ca.gov/DRDB/SC/CURHTML/R112.HTM
SOUTH COAST AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT DISTRICT
RULE 112 - DEFINITION OF MINOR VIOLATION AND GUIDELINES FOR ISSUANCE OF NOTICE TO COMPLY
MINOR VIOLATION:
- The failure of any person to comply with state requirements, District rules or regulations, requirements of any District plan or permit, or requests for information or records by the District, which meets all of the following criteria:
- Does not result in exceedance of de minimis levels of emissions as specified in the District’s Protocols for Issuance of Notices of Violation and Notices to Comply which is published and updated periodically by the Executive Officer;
- Does not endanger the health, safety, or welfare of any person or persons;
- Does not endanger the environment;
- Does not preclude or hinder the District’s ability to determine compliance with applicable state or federal requirements, District rules or regulations, requirements of any District plan or permit, or requests for information or records; and
- Except as provided in subparagraph (3)(A)(i) above, does not result in a failure to comply with any emission standard in the applicable District rule or regulation, District plan or permit, including requirements for control equipment, emissions rates, concentration limits, product material limitations, or other rule provisions directly associated with emissions.
- The violation is knowing, willful, intentional or grossly negligent; or
- The violation enables the violator to benefit economically from noncompliance, either by realizing reduced costs or by gaining a competitive advantage; or
- The violation is chronic; or
- The violation is committed by a recalcitrant violator; or
- The violation results in a public nuisance pursuant to District Rule 402.
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