Rotten Apples

"A bad manager can take a good staff and destroy it, causing the best employees to flee and the remainder to lose motivation"
~unknown

The statement above precisely underscores what the CRCU management has done to the staff of the records department. In the beginning the employees thrived under the leadership of the CRCU. It was by no means perfect but the dedication to the division as a whole was there. We did anything we were ask with smiles on our faces and routinely went above and beyond without being ask. We knew that the success of the division rested on our shoulders and we were prepared to do whatever was necessary to ensure it just that...a success. The reason we thrived was because we respected our management and the decisions that they made. The CRCU management treated us with respect. They respected us like professionals and equals. That's not to say we didn't have disagreements, but for the good of the team we worked those out as a team and moved on. Nor am I saying we liked or agreed with every decision that was made. We understood the decisions that the management made was for the good of the division as a whole. The CRCU management understood how to get the most out of employees by showing them the respect they deserved and involving them in the process. As a result the management was able to hire and train long term employees who went above and beyond without being ask. Because of the feeling of security,  employees felt comfortable enough to perform at their very best. That was until the current management took over. Their first mistake was not even knowing the laws and regulations that govern what we did as a records division. Their second mistake was not respecting the employees that built the division they were now running. Because of these two costly mistakes the current CRCU management never garnered the respect of the employees of the department. To this day they don't have the respect of the department because they talk down to employees instead of to them as human beings.  As a result well trained redactors have left the division. This left a void in passing on the knowledge that was achieved  through hours of trial and error. Instead of seeking to replace the knowledge lost with experienced employees leaving, the new management took it upon themselves to place highly unqualified individuals in positions of authority because the management viewed these employees as CRCU "favorites." The current regime passed over very qualified individuals for people who couldn't do the job they were assigned. This resulted in a dropping morale rate almost from the beginning. Even worse is the fact that because of these decisions,  sensitive CPS information has been mistakenly given to the public on several hundred occaisions by these unqualified individuals. The heinous decision making of the current CRCU management has caused highly valued and college educated individuals to view the CRCU as stepping stone to other employment opportunities rather than a career destination, and who can blame them. Hiring decisions that choose the unqualified over the tenured tend and experienced to have that affect on people. The current regime of the CRCU has turned once selfless employees into unmotivated underachieving slackers. Yet they continue to pat themselves on the back like they have accomplished something worth noting. When all they have really done is mask the problems they've created with lies and nepotism. For all of the problems they have claimed to have solved, 90% of the problems were created by their heinous decision making in the first place. 

When Does Loyalty Become Stupidity?

When does loyalty become stupidity with regard to employment? Loyalty to a company or job used to come with a payoff. You came to work early and left late or you worked a few of hours of overtime off the clock and when there was an upcoming promotion or opportunity for advancement you had confidence that you would be considered because of your loyalty. You've gone above and beyond for the company in the hope that your loyalty would be rewarded. But what happens when your loyalty is taken for granted? The promotion you wanted, and often spent time off the clock doing, is given to someone who is inexperienced and undeserving. Do you remain loyal to the job in the hopes that your turn will come? This is exactly the decision that faces CRCU employees on a daily basis. They are staring down the barrel of a dead end job with no real prospect for pay raises or advancement. Some work tirelessly hoping that their time will come or their opportunity will be presented to them if they work hard. The harsh reality is that it won't. As we have discussed before, the CRCU's shady hiring and promotion practices aren't built for the average hard worker to get ahead. That being said, If I know that I cannot advance my career as an employee of the CRCU then why should be loyal to a fault and go above and beyond for someone who doesn't value me enough to promote me? Wouldn't that make me stupid? Yet that is exactly what the CRCU management is unfairly asking employees to do. They dangle promotions in front of hard working employees and then offer excuses (lies) when when they aren't promoted. One employee was told by CRCU management that the reason he wasn't chosen was because they were specifically looking for a supervisor with a four year degree. In their defense the CRCU management did choose a supervisor with a four year degree...in Drama. This is the equivalent of asking for a rocket scientist and then hiring a guy who makes bottle rockets. Only a complete moron would make this kind of decision.  I can only surmise the reasoning behind this choice by CRCU management was so this supervisor could act like he knows how to supervise a team. Yet I digress, because of the top heavy management schematic the CRCU employs, promotion is nearly impossible unless something big happens. For example, the CRCU director doesn't appear to be leaving the department anytime soon. The managers and supervisors appear to be deeply ingrained in their positions as well.  So if I'm Joe Employee coming to work everyday with no promotion opportunities anytime soon, what does my future look like and where is my motivation not to do the bare minimum to get by? Some could argue that your paycheck is your motivation to which I would argue...no it isn't. A paycheck is a recompense for doing the job in which you were hired for. At no time does it state in any job description (nor it it implied) that we are paying you to go above and beyond and do your very best. The point being made is a simple yet powerful statement as to how the CRCU and DCS as a whole values it's employees. They don't. If they did then they would not ask you (as an employee) for the very best that you can do and offer you absolutely nothing in return. Even jack got magic beans for his cow in Jack and the Bean Stalk! So, when does loyalty become stupidity? I supposed it's when you work your fingers to the bone day in and day out fully knowing that any promotional opportunity that becomes available is going to undoubtedly go to someone's family member but you do it anyway. It's when you go above and beyond for a job knowing that there is no raise coming...ever. Maybe its even when you tow the company line by justifying bad management decisions by making excuses for them to other employees. Using lines like "I can see why they did that" when you really can't or saying "its better this way" when it really isn't. Loyalty becomes stupidity when you allow people like the management of the CRCU to undervalue, underestimate, and marginalize you and your talents with no reward. So ask yourself are you being loyal or are you being stupid?

The Double Standard of DCS and the CRCU.

dou·ble stand·ard

noun

1 :  a set of principles that applies differently and usually more rigorously to one group of people or circumstances than to another. 

The directors and management of the CRCU do not like to be lied to. How do I know? They have said so on many occasions. However, they will immediately lie when faced with a situation that they do not readily have an answer to or when lying suits their needs. This is known as the "Double Standard." One CRCU manager blatantly lied about her relation to another employee until the lie could no longer be continued because the employee mistakenly let it slip that the two were related. However, one employee was merely accused of lying and without even a shred of evidence she was released by the CRCU. To make matters worse the employee was lied upon to ensure she couldn't continue her employment. Situations like this are prevalent in the CRCU, employees are ask not to lie to management while management continues to lie without consequences. Another double standard is the fact that some in the CRCU are given "special privilege" while others are fired over the slightest provocation. Take for example the rule asking employees to keep their conversations to 5 minutes maximum. Some employees are allowed to hold court as they see fit. They have conversations that are loud, boisterous, and can last up to an hour without fear of reprisal by the CRCU management. Other employees are not afforded such luxuries. The 5 minute rule is enforced to the minute with stiff consequences for  those who may toddle over the 5 minute mark. These employees live in fear of their jobs on a daily basis. The threat of being fired is lauded over certain employees as if they were slave labor and not human beings with financial responsibilities. Last I checked the CRCU was an office building, not a plantation and do as I say not as I do was not a productive management style. Yet with the CRCU that is exactly what you get. Managers whose actions say "do as I tell you to do, not as we allow others to do." Employees are placed into to separate and unequal classes within the CRCU. Much like the Jim Crow days where certain people were allowed certain rights and privilege because of their race or class. These are broken down into two distinct and very noticeable groups, those who can't do and those who are given free reign to do as they wish. So what is one to do in the face of such adversity? Going to employee relations for the state or the temporary agency you were hired through will only get you fired. Keeping your head down and doing the job you were hired for will eventually get you fired because the management lacks compunction when it comes to the subject of lying.  If the management suspects you of being anti-social they have no problem with lying to get you terminated. I have witnessed this kind of bold fabrication time and again in the CRCU. Not only with the employees the management deems unworthy of their special treatment but also lying to cover up mistakes for those they see fit to go to bat for. Highly sensitive information has repeatedly been given to the public and mistakenly sent to opposing counsel. This is highly classified source information as well as sensitive DCS data that has no business in public hands. Instead of correcting the problem CRCU management covers up the data breaches for those they like and punishes the others like red headed step children. This type of management style is what will be the death knell of the CRCU. A great man once said "what is done in the dark will come to the light" and everything that the CRCU management has done outside the rules will come back to haunt the entire department. The lies they have told on permanent employees, the underhanded business practices with temporary employees, and the covering up the data breaches of their managers. It is the intent of this blog to bring awareness to the public and DCS at large in hopes that they will make a change in the CRCU management before it becomes another major public relations nightmare for the Department of Child Safety. After all, there is only so many times that Governor Deucy can go on radio and television defending this kind of ignorance before he begins to lose credibility himself. 

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The DCS Leaders who can not see it, probably will not find it.

The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.

Max de Pree

Leaders who lack vision cannot inspire teams, motivate performance, or create sustainable value. Poor vision, tunnel vision, vision that is fickle, or a non-existent vision will cause leaders to fail. A leader’s job is to align the organization around a clear and achievable vision. This cannot occur when the blind lead the blind. 

I was an employee of the DCS Central Records Coordination Unit for three years. I have watched the leadership go from outstanding in the beginning to presently mediocre at best. As it stands now the CRCU and DCS finds itself in a constant barrage of trouble. The reason behind it is a fairly simple one...leadership. The right leadership can steer a team to success no matter the obstacles. Whereas the wrong leadership will steer even the best teams inevitably into failure. Working in the records unit I was able to witness a small microcosm of a much bigger problem when it came to the way the department chose it's leadership. In the CRCU leaders weren't chosen on the basis of hard work and merit as it is done in the most successful companies like Apple and Google. You're chosen on who you are related to pure and simple. This means that you have a better opportunity of not only getting hired but even getting promoted in the CRCU if your mother is your department manager. I find this odd because the Arizona Revised Statutes (38-481) states that for anyone hiring a relative is guilty of a class 2 misdemeanor. The reasoning for this is simple, the relative would (and often does) get preferential and unfair treatment because of their relation to management regardless of their education or qualifications. This means that a paralegal who possesses a two or four year degree could be (and has been) passed over for someone with nothing more than a high school diploma and relatively little to no experience. I have personally witnessed experienced employees apply for promotions and leadership assignments only to get passed over for relatives time and again. One would think that because of the highly sensitive information that the CRCU deals with on a daily basis that the leadership would take more care about who they not only hire but who they promote into leadership positions. Instead they promote their family and friends with reckless disregard for the rules and then wonder why there is very little respect for the leadership of the department. Often those that speak up about the injustice at the CRCU are terminated. Going to Employee Relations or Human Resources is a moot point because all they do sweep everything under the rug and hope things get better. I am sorry to say it won't, for things to get better the leadership of DES and the CRCU has to change. Treatment of employees has to get better and morale has to get higher. Passion in the job means perfection in the work. Those who enjoy their job tend to do a better job. At the CRCU things are different because the management in the department doesn't value their employees. Instead the management tends to treat people like disposable paper towels to be used at their leisure and then discarded like so much trash. Those employees who complain are often labeled as trouble makers and let go over the slightest provocation. Sometimes stories are even fabricated to justify an employees termination. In one point, an employee inquired about a particular promotion of a manager's family member.  She questioned the qualifications that this family member has for the job she was given. After which this employee was let go the very next day. Another employee was told she could not be promoted because she was pregnant. This was a blatant violation of her civil rights and it was executed with a such bravado that it seemed like CRCU management didn't even care that they could be sued. Instead she was yet another in a long list of names of qualified employees who were tossed aside for a lesser qualified substitute. As a result, the quality of the work suffers and the training of new employees suffers because the trainers aren't well trained themselves. Information leaks are common place in the CRCU because of not only improper training but management covering up mistakes for family members mistakes in order to see to it that they keep their jobs. Sensitive information has made it into the hands of the public on several occasions because of the ineptness of the leadership of the CRCU. Instead of fixing the problems, they proceed to cover them up and hope that no one notices.  It is a growing problem that will not change unless the CRCU recognizes it has a problem. However, judging by the way they continue to conduct their business by putting their family first it doesn't appear appear that anything will change anytime soon.