744
Protesting for tuna
(lemm.ee)
Have you tried pspspsing the cat ?
Nchmchnch works too
I prefer pshpshpsh
21 MAY 2021:
Delays and cancellations to trains between Manchester and London due to 'overhead wire problem' Trains may be delayed by up to 90 minutes or cancelled
The name of that cat? "Wire"
No, the cats name is "Leaves on the line"
And the short form if it is LOL
Jesse, for the last god damn time, it's copper
As Denmark's queen abdicated and Frederik X became (hopefully our last) king, I was forwarding this in the family group chat with the comment "more important things are also happening in the world right now"
For anyone interested, this happened in 2021, as reported on by The Guardian.
After a two and a half hours, the standoff came to an end when a bin was pulled up beside the carriage, giving the animal a platform on which to disembark.
The feline appeared unbothered as it alighted the train, according to station staff, who described it as “swaggering off” into the night as though it had other places to be.
Swaggering off? Fucking cats, man
Imagine having to call your boss and tell them you're late for work because of some random cat.
Imagine having to cat call your boss.
I get your point but easy, if you have a meeting with him or a customer you're gonna be late for.
Genuine question: why can't the train just start? Best case, the cat jumps off. Worst case, it dies through its own fault. Is there something else? Is the presence of the cat on the roof a safety issue?
Maybe they don't want to kill the cat?
I would love for that to be the real reason but I severely doubt that it is. I'm curious about the real reason.
So you think it’s acceptable to kill an animal so people aren’t late?
Should the cat know better? I’m not sure cats comprehend timetables.
No, I don't think it's acceptable. But my question wasn't about me, nor about ethics. There's no way a train operator with a timetable cares about animal well-being or any other question of ethics. I'm curious what the real reason is.
Why on earth would a train operator care about timetables over basic ethics? They are human beings, not robots, you know?
The controller and driver both get paid either way, and I'm sure the train driver is used getting home late on occasion - and I expect they get overtime pay, so he may well be laughing anyway.
And the controller, or whatever they're called, will just be seeing it as a PR issue. The slight lost money on the refunds (that passengers actually bother to put through) is easily worth the good PR.
Edit: Missed random words, impatient brain running too fast for fingers.
I do applaud your optimism. Wish I could have that same rosy view. Unfortunately company executives have shown time and again their true motives. You are of course correct that they are not robots; however, studies do show that they are disproportionately psychopathic compared to the general population, and the behavior of companies often reflects that quite visibly. Profits and the interests of stakeholders always take priority over basic human decency. It would definitely be refreshing if that is not the case here.
You’re missing a fundamental part here. The company execs are not the ones deciding whether to delay a train with a cat on the roof.
That’s the driver and conductor, who are paid hourly or salaried. The execs don’t even know there is a cat on the roof.
Not trying to get personal or anything, but it sounds like you've never been an employee in this kind of organization. It is absolutely the higher-ups (line managers; not necessarily the CEO) who decide whether a train conductor is allowed to delay a train for reasons like this. Employees such as these are under constant stress and pressure to perform to expectations or risk negative evaluations, which can lead to the next raise being denied or, in some cases, dismissal. In many organizations with schedules, timetables, deadlines etc., employee evaluations often depend on coldly calculated heuristics such as proportion of on-time arrivals, not on a human evaluation like how nice you are to animals. Your delayed train just drops you in the statistics and “there was a cat on the roof” simply does not factor into those statistics. This is a direct consequence of the profit motive where “productivity” or “employee performance” is considered more important than peripheral considerations like animal well-being.
My assumption is our laws don’t allow endangering animals, so perhaps they don’t care from a moral standpoint but they will care about repercussions from the law and also the optics of it.
Also, if you’ve never been on Uk trains, we don’t need a reason for them being late. They’re oft late.
This could lead to traumatized customers and a bad image as heartless company.
(or be a total win if the cat stays on top and became the new mascot; but guess they don't want to take the risk)
I think your answer is probably the most plausible compared to the others. It's a public image issue. That makes sense.
Even if killing cats for any reason, either deliberately or accidentally, is legal in the UK there are still two potential problems with starting the train: Terrible PR when the story gets out and opening your company up to potential civil litigation from the cat’s human as well as anyone else traumatised actually witnessing or contractually obliged to participate in (e.g. Driver) said death of cat. In summary, your brand takes a hit and you may lose money. As an added bonus a late train is less newsworthy in the UK than a funny cat so by delaying the train you might even generate good PR at no cost.
Those are all fair points. Still unfortunate that it's still down to money even in your explanation, but it makes sense.
Yeah. Good point. I should’ve explicitly said in a final sentence that the decision ultimately comes down to protecting / increasing shareholder profit and management bonuses; and nothing else.
Yeah because them killing the cat is going to play sooo well for their reputation.
I just really don't think that they would care. It's easier to spin it as, “We didn't know the cat was there, what a tragedy” than to appease all the passengers who are now late and frustrated.
Why do you hate train drivers so much!?
A small delay for a single train, on a network of thousands, is not enough for the "evil train company" employees, that you seem to think that they all for some reason.
The world isn't quite as black and white as you seem to believe it is!
One, it's not the train drivers calling the shots here; the train drivers (like all employees) are stringently controlled by management.
Two, it's not “hate” to observe that companies just don't care about ethics and well-being. I thought most of us agreed on this, even the company executives themselves: when ethics conflict with profits, profits are always the higher priority.
Three, this isn't what “black and white” means.
Lol I really doubt that.
Bad take after bad take from you. SMH.
The train company might not care about ethics, but they're gonna care about PR
For crying out loud, throw water at it.
this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2024
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