November 2002

A concerned employee sugggests:

Christopher Lotts recommends doable improvements for his Branch:
Would his boss respond?

Ways To Improve DLSE

I sent this to Chuck Cake over six months ago and have never received a response from him. The problems at DLSR mirror those at DLSE. Enjoy the reading.

-----Original Message-----

From: Christopher Lotts
Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 2:14 PM
To: Chuck Cake
Subject: FW: Ways to Improve DLSE Morale

Hi Mr. Cake,

I know you're busy, so I'll keep this short. First, thanks for coming down and taking an interest in our concerns. Below is an email I sent seven months ago where various management types wanted our input. Subsequently, the Labor Commissioner hired an "efficiency expert" to interview employees (that were hand-picked by Susan Nakagama) to discuss related morale issues. Ultimately, the "efficiency expert" didn't note any problems because the end result was that nothing changed.

Ultimately, counter-productive management should be replaced with productive management. This would improve eight different areas: Operational Efficiency (* Increase inspections, * Increase wage collections, * Increase labor law compliance, * Expedite caseloads * Fill employment vacancies and Office Continuity * Decrease grievances, complaints, unfair labor practices, * Increase cooperation/communication between employees, * Increase employee retention/reduce turnover).

If this helps you and Mr. Smith, then it's an email well sent.

Christopher Lotts, CASE Representative
Bargaining Unit Two

-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Lotts
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2001 12:04 PM
To: everyone
Subject: Ways to Improve DLSE Morale

If someone thinks that there are some useful suggestions contained in this email, please feel free to distribute. In keeping our eye on the ball, our mission, whether supportive, administrative, or investigative, is to help those that cannot help themselves.

There's an old Japanese adage that, "Fish stink from the head." Can anyone guess how many Deputies complain about being refused to take a case criminally because of politics? Do you think there might be Quality Control issues because Deputies have so many duties that everything has the potential for mediocrity/sub-standard work?

When I recently asked what our priorities were, "Everything is a priority," was the response. Wow, that clears it up for me...thanks. Now, my focus is clear.

Suggestions to improve morale:

It's a real shame that current leadership does not have the wherewithal to figure this out on their own...that communication is so poor that the word 'proactive' is non-existent.

DLCs have (at least) ten different job duties/responsibilities:

End of month/week paperwork [Daily Activity Reports, Travel Logs, Monthly Inspections, Penalties Received, Citations Issued, Violations Annotated]
New admin paperwork [Productivity Statistics, Appeal Hearing Stats, Field Stats]
New cases [Inspections, Docketing, Maintenance, OTAs/Subpoenas, etc.]
Current cases/closings [Prepare to close, Submit, Revise/Edit, Re-Submit, Legal]
Assisting others with their cases [Garment confiscations, Spanish translations, In-home visits]
Misc. office tasks [Photocopying, faxing, emailing, phone calls, etc.]
Public Information Unit
Counter Duty
Hearings [Prepare, Attend, Follow-up]
Sweeps [EDD, Garment, local PDs, DOSH, CSLB]
<> This time^pie represents what is done in any given month.....increase one slice, and you decrease another slice...there are only so many hours in a workday. Implementing new standards, protocol, procedures without realizing its subsequent impact merely decreases overall productivity.

Home | Back Issues | Support | Contact | Top of Page