Gentle Readers:
I precipitously declared last night that there was no rumor or gossip circulating about the Office. How ashamed I am to admit that I was wrong. But its so seldom….
These little tidbits appeared in my inbox this morning in response to Shelob’s cry of hunger, and are being offered up as canapés to a hungry crowd of little monsters. Tasty, but not enough to fill us up. So we are still hungry. Perhaps the last piece will amount to something. Just note, most names have been changed to protect my innocence.
*****
It appears that Mtu Wavivu has been sent to the Blue Zone to begin life as a line assistant. The Frumster reported this morning that he was sent off to the Red Zone. http://frumfollies.wordpress.com/2014/01/25/thompson-continue-to-trim-the-fat-at-the-expense-of-political-appointees/ Sorry Fummy, you got it only half right.
The office phone directory shows Mtu’s new title is “Sr. ADA.” Wow, that’s a big drop. Also, Thompson staffers were downstairs last week sniffing around the Blue Zone to make sure that the office he’s assigned to sit in (recently vacated by Lindsey Gerges who is off to Homicide to replace the recently fired Julie Rendelman) was ready for his move-in. Will Lindsay, who was “counsel” to Blue keep her title or become a Sr ADA or mere assistant?
Momba also was demoted to Sr. ADA. That was expected. After all, there can’t be two “First Assistants,” now can there? No word if the title downgrades came with a salary reduction. I would think it strange if it didn’t, but we’ll have to wait for the civil list publishing (which is a while off) to be sure.
As to last week’s firings of assorted assistants, they weren’t much of a surprise for two reasons. We expected people to be canned, and for the most part the firings were right on the money as to relative worth of the terminated – solely in the opinion of this writer, I assure you. It was the manner in which the firings were done. Everyone was told to get out by the end of the workday – not a lot of time to pack up.
The Lebanese Wicked Witch of the East (who spent the last two/three years ensconced in an office in the Grand Jury after being unceremoniously booted from Major Narcotics) had a house fall on her last week. Knocked her silver slippers right off her feet, I’m sure. I’m told by those in GJ that Gingema reportedly spent her office time (when she bothered to show up) doing nothing. Most assistants over there never saw her or spoke to her. For some reason, the 19th floor never fired her when MNIB imploded two/three years ago.
The implosion occurred — according to Rumor, that unreliable wench — because cops refused to bring narcotic cases to the office. There were two issues cited – her unreasonably demanding and demeaning way of speaking to them, and that the bureau was on a skeleton workforce — cases were backed up due to a lack of assistants.
My sources recall that assistants ended up in MNIB only if they had no other option. Morale was horrible. No one would volunteer to go. You worked unbelievable hours. You got yelled at. Sarcasm was a second language spoken by supervisors. When the matter became to a frothing, bubbling mess of cholent, someone hid her away in the GJ, and never took away her title or money. Wonder who had the power to do this? Could that be because, as she reportedly claimed, her parents were big fund raisers for the ol’Boss?
In retaliation for such outrageous uncivil behavior by the office against her, Gingema promptly did even less work. Just to note, she made $162,989 in 2012, according to the civil list…not a bad gig and worthy of some hard, knuckle-staining grubbing. Unless you’re an entitled princess; I guess then no one can make you do something you don’t want to do.
So the Munchkins left behind are all chanting that wonderful ditty, which begins, “ding dong,” and searching for the silver slippers.
Last week the support staff was all in an uproar – it was a mixed bag of emotions from anger to fear. A quick survey of the water coolers revealed that many of them supported Kenny hoping for raises and office change, and he got their vocal and physical support during the election through their union. Now, he’s firing union staff; according to my sources, this is not permitted until they’ve done something REALLY wrong.
Apparently union workers have a little thing called ‘due process’ before they can be canned. It’s a concept that an employment lawyer should understand, but I guess public sector slugs who are used to trying cases in the press don’t comprehend that particular legal theory. If they’d done a short Google search they’d have seen that Civil Service law was designed to stop the “winner take all” philosophy of Tammany Hall machine politicos. In short, when a new administration takes over, that doesn’t mean everyone left from the prior administration gets fired.
Unlike assistants, support staff aren’t “at will” employees. Quite frankly, I never focused on this too deeply. The closest I came to realizing their virtually absolute job protection was when I was first hired. I asked my para to do something and she told me she would do it when she had time — which never came. I complained to my zone deputy and she explained it as “we’re dealing with civil service workers.” Apparently, according to her, absent killing someone they can’t be fired.
These recent firings made the support staff on the lower floors nervous and angry, ‘cause if Kenny can fire union workers without cause, some of them could be off-ed too, and where’s the union in this? (P.S., some of them should be off-ed, in my humble opinion.) But some of the people fired had up to 30 years of experience with the office and were given absolutely no notice and no time to pack up — just a bit too high handed a way to handle them, in the minds of many.
Sources say support staff went to a meeting last week on 19 with union reps. The staff came back and told us that the union reps told them they were looking into the firings and they will bring the office into court, if necessary, to force Kenny to rehire the fired workers.
Curiously, the last bastion of independent union news, THE CHIEF, hasn’t reported on this news. I don’t recall if the Chief’s editors supported Thompson in the election, but I’m puzzled as to its quietude. . .
Now this is good Gossip.
Appellate Review 