Our Mystery Contributor is back. See his most recent piece before this one, here
The Weakest Links?
The piece on trying to recruit more women bus drivers prompted me to pen my thoughts on the subject. In this age of political correctness and positive discrimination, writing on a subject such as this is fraught with danger, especially as I do not have the figures to back up my thoughts. Despite this – here goes.
Female bus drivers overall tend to have more time off work than their male counterparts. There will be those who are excellent attendees but, overall, family and outside pressures will mean that for every 20 woman drivers, they will have more time away from work than twenty 20 drivers.
Transport for London is of course correct when it say that a modern bus is no more demanding to drive than a car, and many woman drivers are more sympathetic to the needs of their passengers than their male colleagues, but often they are less willing or able to work the shift patterns required in the bus industry. I have advocated in the past a flexible approach to rosters, but there will never be the ability to meet the requirements of all drivers. In a typical shire county bus depot, the peak driver requirement will be at school and college opening and closing times – just the times when many women need to be away dealing with their own offspring. Equally, with council budgets under constant pressure, there will often be fewer evening shifts available, which may previously have suited the family commitments for some women. I know that the above sounds condescending and sterotypes all women, but experience has told me time and again that it is true.
The art of employing women bus drivers is therefore to ask sufficient questions at the interview stage, and to be clear what will be required should they be offered the job (this also applies to male applicants of course) so that if employment is accepted they are able to become reliable, skilled and valued members of the driving team, rather than always being considered the weakest links.
Monday, 7 July 2008
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2 comments:
Ah! but you cannot ask those sort of questions at interview as that is discrimination. As soon as you start to mention "Have you any family committments?" or similar you are on a slippery slope. Couple this with family friendly policies and you are correct in the remainder of the post. I do have some excellent female drivers working for me who work all shifts with no problems. Those with families are often a different matter.
"Why didn't you come to work yesterday?"
"Little Johnny had a sniffle so I had to stay home".
"What about Johnny's Dad?"
"He cant stay home as his boss doesn't like it!!"
Heard this one several times.
I have had requests for just about every variation of shift pattern possible and too be fair when possible I look to accomodate. The difficulty comes from the remainder of the workforce who do not have a string of brats at home or if they do they have their lives suitably organised so that it does not conflict with the family's bread winner's ability to work shifts. Whilst there is some merit in family friendly shifts, it does annoy the older drivers who have had their children and seen them grow up during which time their dad worked all the hours going to keep the family afloat. Woman drivers worse than men? In attendance probably yes, in driving standards and customer care? Definately not.
I don't know whether to laugh or cry. It isn't April 1st is it?
Best man for the job even if (heaven forbid obviously) that's a wo man.
Positive discrimination is abhorrent, but so equally is any type of discrimination.
Now where's my club.
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