FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Really, does Amtrak always suck so badly?
Old Apr 27, 2011, 10:17 pm
  #32  
BobKinkaid
 
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Originally Posted by gatelouse
Let me try to steer this discussion back onto the main track before it gets diverted to OMNI. Focus on culture. People can come from any number of cultures that cut across demographic boundaries. Some cultures are service-oriented, some crave power, some feel self-entitled, some are unusually ambitious. There's also an internal culture within an organization; this forms as a result of morale, relations between labor and management, dominant cultures and personality types in the workplace, and so on.

I'm willing to bet that Amtrak's internal culture isn't the most supportive of newer, enthusiastic employees and is driven by those with lots of seniority. The culture that forms within Amtrak is one of, "Our job is hard enough and is getting harder with all these budget and staffing cuts, so we save ourselves first." Not a customer-friendly attitude by any means. The good employees resist this, but I do see this attitude more often than I should on the non-corridor trains.
I would be willing to make that bet with you. I think you're right on target with that. But, there have also been many organizations that operate under the similar, disadvantageous and adverse conditions, whose employees have formed a sort of "esprit de corps" attitude/culture and soldier on, more often to success.

That's not present at Amtrak.
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