[PRCo] Re: signals

[Fred Schneider]

I take it that those are the "official" lunch hours?  L&I was much more rigid
than PennDOT.  I remember when L&I under Governor Thornburg had spotters in the
lobby at quitting time to take names of anyone who walked out early ... they
even tried to change all the working hours to one standard 8:30 to 5:00 to make
it easier to catch anyone walking out before five.  It didn't work.  The
governor at the time of the energy crisis championed alternate work hours in
order to enable use of public transport and car pools and that directive was
still on the books.  And the Harrisburg city wanted it to stay in effect because
of traffic congestion.

Can you imagine the traffic jams in any state capital (other than perhaps Carson
City, Pierre, Cheyenne or Montpelier) if everyone in government left their jobs
at 5:00 PM?   And heaven forbid that the federal government should ever have
uniform work hours.  I can still remember the stories of the riots and fires  in
Washington DC back in the early 1960s.  I  forget the exact year.  The Federal
offices were all closed at 3 PM.  The traffic was so abysmal that some people
were unable to get home before 9 PM.   The result was standard policy that even
early outs for snow have staggered hours.  I think the normal quitting time in
Washington is stretched out from 3 PM to 6 PM.

John Swindler wrote:

> Sorry to hear that about Derrick, as I only get four lunch "hours" a month.
> The other 15-16 per month are lunch half-hours.  Fred the thirds' experience
> at Labor and Industry in times past shouldn't be projected to current
> conditions at PennDOT.
>
> John
>
>

xx