A railroad crew room is a noisy place where inbound crews are trying to tie-up, calling for lodging or for transportation. Outbound Locomotive Engineers and Conductors are holding their all important job briefings, checking to see if there have been any new General Notices or new General Orders added to the more than 170 we already have, making sure they understand their Track Warrants and Bulletins and Hazardous Material and other restrictions.
Others are trying desperately to get the dispatcher to send their paperwork. In the background, the phones ring, the computers terminals beep and the printers rattle.
This was the scene recently when a crewman was talking on the phone to a dispatcher who suddenly demanded, "Tell those men who are talking to quiet down."
The crewman, aware of the high noise level, replied, "They aren't bothering me, I can hear you fine."
The dispatcher repeated, "I SAID, 'Tell them to SHUT up,' I CAN'T hear myself think."
The man turned, and said in a raised voice, "Hey fellows, the dispatcher said for you guys to 'Shut Up.'"
Suddenly, all activity in the room came to a halt. Everyone looked up in amazement. Some of them said, "Huh?"
The man on the telephone shrugged and repeated, "The guy said, 'SHUT UP.'"
One of the crewmen looked questioningly across the table at his partner and asked, "Huh! Who's that son-of-a-bitch thinks he IS?"
The dispatcher overheard the remark and said, "I HEARD THAT! TELL that man that to come to the telephone."
The man got up, went to the phone and told the dispatcher who he was, and "Yes," he was the one who called him a dirty name.
The situation started going downhill fast after that.
Fortunately for everyone concerned, however, one of our more sensible local managers just happened to come by and heard one side of the heated conversation.
When he asked what was going on, the other crewmen told him what had transpired. He took the telephone and arranged for the crewman and the dispatcher to get together with him on a conference call.
The dispatcher said he would settle for an apology from the crewman for calling him a dirty name. Then, the crewman said, he wanted an apology, too. He said the dispatcher was out-of-line for rudely disturbing HIS line of thought when he was going over his Track Warrants, by telling him to "Shut up!" -- from across a room and 800 miles away -- and then having the nerve to be offended when he accidentally overheard what were private comments.
I don't know what all our local manager said to cool off the situation, but it wound up with one of the men saying something like "I'll apologize, but not unless he does," and the other one saying, "OK, I will if he will...."
This local manager is Kenneth Cope. He did a great job of de-fusing and bring to successful close a serious confrontation between two people working under FAR too much stress. It is my guess that when both parties hung up the phone, they did so with their self-respect intact.
Those of us who work with Ken Cope know that he brings out the best qualities in all of us.
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