Staff using phones

[AlterEgo]

The picture clearly shows he is not using the device for customer service or internal work reasons.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Today at 11:18 ==


If the job is that monotonous and isn’t considered safety critical as the ‘insider’ posters have said, why not get rid of the roles at quiet stations like this one? Plenty of metros globally have their gate lines unstaffed

Because having a staffed system is important for actual safety and the perception of safety. (New York has loads of staff by the way, including at gatelines and on platforms)

Gateline is an important job in that they are mostly useful in crowd management and emergency response. On the Tube, in confined underground stations, there should be staff who are trained to assist in evacuation and to close stations to the public at very short notice.

 

[MaidaVale]

why not get rid of the roles at quiet stations like this one?

Presuming you mean the one featured in your original photograph, then the reason is quite simple. I can't identify the exact station from the photo but it's clearly a deep-level Central Line station, most of which require minimum numbers of staff to remain open due to fire and safety regulations in the UK as well as LU Policies and operating practices. If they do not meet these minimum staffing numbers, then they have to close. If you took this member of staff off of the Gateline / publicly facing position, they'd still need to be employed and positioned somewhere on the station for it to operate.

A notable example of this is Paddington Bakerloo, which according to minimum staffing rules should (or did, I think it may have changed recently) always have a member of staff positioned in the connecting passageway between the Bakerloo and Elizabeth Line platforms due to fire regulations. This is a position which rarely sees customer interactions as most people that are already interchanging via that passage already know where they are going and are not passing through barriers. Nevertheless, it (is/was) still a critically required position.

Plenty of metros globally have their gate lines unstaffed

Which to be fair I'd argue is unhelpful and not really providing a good enough service. I can genuinely say I've personally had experiences in two of the previously mentioned examples (Paris and New York) where I've faced issues with the barriers not accepting my ticket despite validity (especially in the days of the magnetic paper tickets in Paris which often just stopped working for no reason) and haven't been able to find a member of staff anywhere nearby resulting in me either having to cross to the complete opposite side of the station to find somebody, or in one instance, have to completely change my route and get a bus. Just because other places don't provide things doesn't mean we shouldn't too.

Whether they're on their phone or not, they're still there to provide a service (and whether it looks like it or not, are doing so) and from personal experience having previously worked on Stations as well as using the network daily myself, I've never once encountered a member of staff who has continued to completely ignore a customer when they've requested help or not sprung into action during an emergency. If they did prioritise their phone use over their active duties then I'd consider it unwise and unprofessional to be using their device (or of course at all times if currently undertaking a heavily safety-critical task like driving a train, obviously). When it comes to gateline duties (and some more active ones) there genuinely are times when there is nothing to be done right there and then other than just simply being there in case you're needed.

 

[AlterEgo]

I occasionally watch YouTube when I’m waiting for something or have a break. I also occasionally watch the informational videos on my employer’s various channels whilst on a break, or even during working hours if I’ve got nothing else to do. If anyone has a problem with this because they can’t tell whether I’m allowed to, obliged to, or simply not allowed to do so, they’re welcome to contact customer services. What I don’t appreciate, however, is the immediate assumption that I’m not carrying out my duties.

Well, quite. There's a big difference between "bad optics" and an immediate assumption that someone is not concentrating on or performing at their role.

Staff sitting at their place of work and being seen by customers (who pay high fares and who are absolutely cogniscant of industrial action to secure better wages) watching videos for personal entertainment is bad optics regardless of internal policy.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Today at 12:12 ==

Whether they're on their phone or not, they're still there to provide a service (and whether it looks like it or not, are doing so) and from personal experience having previously worked on Stations as well as using the network daily myself, I've never once encountered a member of staff who has continued to completely ignore a customer when they've requested help or not sprung into action during an emergency. If they did prioritise their phone use over then I'd consider it unwise and unprofessional to be using their device (or of course if currently undertaking a heavily safety-critical task like driving a train, obviously). When it comes to gateline duties (and some more active ones) there genuinely are times when there is nothing to be done right there and then other than just simply being there in case you're needed.

That was also the case when I worked in call centres, including for the railway. But we were not allowed, nor did anyone think, that when people simply weren't calling we could do nothing or watch YouTube. We were kept productive on other duties, like responding to emails, auditing some delay repay, or quality checking letters. One obvious flaw with rail staffing is that much of it is inefficient; roving members of staff who are multifunctional across a shift would serve a better purpose than someone purely sitting on a gateline. The staff already have multiple roles and skillsets, it simply doesn't make sense for them to be head down watching a video instead of doing a number of other things.

 

[bluegoblin7]

From the OP’s tone I think it’s clear they primarily have a bee in their bonnet about fare evasion. Most staff feel the same way, but decisions by LU management and beyond have made this a significant problem and something which can’t be tackled easily. Staff can’t physically stop a fare evader, and whether they’re on their phone when no one needs assistance or not really is irrelevant - I witness fare evasion on a daily basis through gatelines with three, four, five members of staff monitoring it. They’re going to push through regardless - maybe the OP would like to do the same instead of vilifying staff members.

Gateline work is soul destroying, and I’m pleased I don’t do it any more. As time-served members will I am sure attest, I always took the job seriously and was proactive, but I had no qualms using my phone during quieter periods or if no-one needed assistance. It didn’t draw my attention away from the job and didn’t affect anybody.

My views would be quite different if the CSA was on their phone with a huge queue of members of the public waiting to be assisted, or actually carrying out safety critical duties.

I again ask if the OP would like someone to come into their workplace and take unsolicited photos of them at perceived transgressions, whilst airing grievances that are entirely not the fault of front line staff. I wish my life was so perfect that I genuinely got worked up by something as irrelevant as this.

 

[ainsworth74]

If the job is that monotonous and isn’t considered safety critical as the ‘insider’ posters have said, why not get rid of the roles at quiet stations like this one? Plenty of metros globally have their gate lines unstaffed

For one I've been trapped by other metro systems either in or out of the system and have had to either pay again, tailgate or force my way through the barriers at unmanned barrier lines. I'm not convinced that this is an area where we should be taking lessons. Quite apart from a staffed station, even though it isn't the role of the staff to be security, feels safer and more welcoming than an unstaffed station. Especially in urban metro areas.

 

[35B]

From the OP’s tone I think it’s clear they primarily have a bee in their bonnet about fare evasion. Most staff feel the same way, but decisions by LU management and beyond have made this a significant problem and something which can’t be tackled easily. Staff can’t physically stop a fare evader, and whether they’re on their phone when no one needs assistance or not really is irrelevant - I witness fare evasion on a daily basis through gatelines with three, four, five members of staff monitoring it. They’re going to push through regardless - maybe the OP would like to do the same instead of vilifying staff members.

Gateline work is soul destroying, and I’m pleased I don’t do it any more. As time-served members will I am sure attest, I always took the job seriously and was proactive, but I had no qualms using my phone during quieter periods or if no-one needed assistance. It didn’t draw my attention away from the job and didn’t affect anybody.

My views would be quite different if the CSA was on their phone with a huge queue of members of the public waiting to be assisted, or actually carrying out safety critical duties.

I again ask if the OP would like someone to come into their workplace and take unsolicited photos of them at perceived transgressions, whilst airing grievances that are entirely not the fault of front line staff. I wish my life was so perfect that I genuinely got worked up by something as irrelevant as this.

I wish my experience of gateline staff attentiveness matched the standards you met. The problem is that it too often does not, and that the tolerance of ill-attention is too great. That's not about at quiet periods, but at stations with a constant flow of passengers using the gate line. Whatever the rights and wrongs of responses to fare evasion, I have too often been delayed either struggling to get attention when my ticket hasn't worked at the barrier, or someone in front of me has found themselves with a problem, and they have been unable to get those on the barrier line to respond

 

[Mawkie]

Obviously I wouldn't directly quote any internal documents, so from memory my understanding of the policy would be:

"Employees are ordinarily permitted to make limited use of their own computer or mobile device on TfL premises where it does not interfere with productivity of the employee or TfL’s business, and does not inhibit any TfL activity"

This is not anywhere near the policy.

FOI of LU Code of Conduct

(Employees must not) 3.7.10 carry out any leisure activities whilst at work other than during official breaks (e.g.
read for leisure, play computer games, use CD/cassette equipment, use personal
mobile telephones for personal calls or text messages), without permission to do so from a manager.

Sorry for the formatting.

There are a lot of things I should do whilst at work. I should wear dark coloured socks - news flash, I don't!

I'm supposed to wear my name badge at all times - again, call the press, I don't.

Most people, not all evidently, don't understand that gateline staff (and in fact most operational staff) get paid for what they know, not what they do. What happens when there is a fire alert with no staff? Or a person under a train? Who checks the mirrors and monitors every day? Who does the asset checks? Who opens and closes the station or deals with overcrowding? That individual will be straight into the scene of any incident using their skills, knowledge, and professionalism. There will be no sign of a mobile phone when escorting a visually impaired person, or assisting with retrieving something from the track.

What most people don't see is the work that gets done behind the scenes - they see someone sitting for a few minutes and think that's what an 8 hour working day consists of.

 

[MaidaVale]

We were kept productive on other duties, like responding to emails, auditing some delay repay, or quality checking letters.

Which obviously should take precedence over someone's personal device, I'd consider this in the definition of affecting productivity, but this kind of thing just isn't often part of the remit of most operational railway staff. I'd fairly confidently say that the majority of railway operational staff across the board do not have very many work emails to personally respond to on a daily basis, and reading briefing documents like a traffic circular or relevant training material isn't likely to take up all that much time at all. If you work in an office where your remit and training expands beyond a specific single task, or you're in a roving managerial position (which do exist) in which you genuinely can find things to be getting on with, even if it's essentially just networking, then that's great and it should obviously be prioritised over anything else (and in my experience, almost always is).

But the reality is, there genuinely are positions across the railway and wider transport industries, as well as many other industries, that require someone to be in one exact location for operational, safety or legal reasons but don't necessarily have productive work-related tasks to be undertaken throughout every minute of the working day. Providing they're still 100% able to jump straight back in and do their job when required, then being on their phone is essentially no different to just sitting there doing nothing and staring into space, or re-reading this fortnight's traffic circular for the 40th time. Whether that should be the case or whether it's down to inefficiencies of staff allocation or convoluted government regulations is another thing, but let's be real, that's unlikely to change and is a systematic issue rather than being the fault of the general operational staff member.

 

[Harratt4]

What is the old phrase... If you've time to lean, you've time to clean!

I agree the optics are bad - and those saying the optics don't matter because the public don't understand how the railways / LU work are spectacularly missing the point. I would also suggest that the majority of the public can distinguish between someone using a device for a work purpose and someone using it to scroll social media most of the time...

 

[jon0844]

* - as an aside, the station I use most is Kings Cross St Pancras, and I sometimes observe the behaviour I complain about there. Given the specific history of that station, and the importance of station staff in an emergency, I find the tolerance of sloppy behaviour because the staff are not safety critical bemusing.

Funny you mention that station. A few weeks ago there was someone in the corridor between the Pic/Vic/Northern lines and the sub-surface lines who lit up a cigarette as he walked the other way past me. I mentioned this to the three gateline staff who were talking to each other and they immediately jumped into action, informing control who sent someone out to look for him and also do a manual PA to the station.

I'd say that's them doing their job perfectly, even if they were gossiping when nothing of note was taking place at the gates themselves (the gates will alarm if someone pushes through - and even then, the best course of action is to report it via the appropriate reporting app).

 

[AlterEgo]

Which obviously should take precedence over someone's personal device, I'd consider this in the definition of affecting productivity, but this kind of thing just isn't often part of the remit of most operational railway staff. I'd fairly confidently say that the majority of railway operational staff across the board do not have very many work emails to personally respond to on a daily basis, and reading briefing documents like a traffic circular or relevant training material isn't likely to take up all that much time at all. If you work in an office where your remit and training expands beyond a specific single task, or you're in a roving managerial position (which do exist) in which you genuinely can find things to be getting on with, even if it's essentially just networking, then that's great and it should obviously be prioritised over anything else (and in my experience, almost always is).

But the reality is, there genuinely are positions across the railway and wider transport industries, as well as many other industries, that require someone to be in one exact location for operational, safety or legal reasons but don't necessarily have productive work-related tasks to be undertaken throughout every minute of the working day. Providing they're still 100% able to jump straight back in and do their job when required, then being on their phone is essentially no different to just sitting there doing nothing and staring into space, or re-reading this fortnight's traffic circular for the 40th time. Whether that should be the case or whether it's down to inefficiencies of staff allocation or convoluted government regulations is another thing, but let's be real, that's unlikely to change and is a systematic issue rather than being the fault of the general operational staff member.

Well I'm not blaming the staff member here and I'm with others who think taking a picture to make some sort of point is bad form.

The fact is it looks bad, and a customer focused operation wouldn't tolerate it.

TfL probably could have multifunctional gateline positions which were more productive - I accept and defend the need for the staffing level and think that there should always be someone in the vicinity of the gateline on the subterranean Tube. But I have to say that while I cannot recall a member of staff being visibly watching Tiktok or whatever in all my trips, if a staff member is resorting to doing that then there is probably something else TfL can get them doing in the vicinity of the gateline that doesn't involve being behind glass and watching funny videos.

I understand that some people have very unreasonable demands of front line staff but I'm not asking them to be in the army here and to stand to attention in busy periods. Go walk the station hall, see if there are any abandoned cards or tickets, check the TVMs, maybe check the top of the escalators for rubbish. But again let me be clear I'm not criticising staff here but rather how station roles can be very strictly defined, and frankly unenjoyable. Behaviours and culture come from the top and shaming individual staff members isn't on.

 

[jon0844]

If the job is that monotonous and isn’t considered safety critical as the ‘insider’ posters have said, why not get rid of the roles at quiet stations like this one? Plenty of metros globally have their gate lines unstaffed

Because when something goes wrong, most people will be glad to have them there to step up.

 

[35B]

Most people, not all evidently, don't understand that gateline staff (and in fact most operational staff) get paid for what they know, not what they do. What happens when there is a fire alert with no staff? Or a person under a train? Who checks the mirrors and monitors every day? Who does the asset checks? Who opens and closes the station or deals with overcrowding? That individual will be straight into the scene of any incident using their skills, knowledge, and professionalism. There will be no sign of a mobile phone when escorting a visually impaired person, or assisting with retrieving something from the track.

What most people don't see is the work that gets done behind the scenes - they see someone sitting for a few minutes and think that's what an 8 hour working day consists of.

I've no issue with that - the specific issue is to do with the appearing to be attentive when in publicly visible roles. And that's an issue about both staff (why are they making themselves targets) and management (how are they managing the station teams) - if enthusiasts are asking those questions, you can bet that others will be too.

 

[bramling]

I've no issue with that - the specific issue is to do with the appearing to be attentive when in publicly visible roles. And that's an issue about both staff (why are they making themselves targets) and management (how are they managing the station teams) - if enthusiasts are asking those questions, you can bet that others will be too.

The reason a blind eye is turned is likely to be because managers and supervisors will have seen from their experience that even the most enthusiastic staff will become worn down by the role after a period of time.

It’s a relatively thankless and boring role, essentially there to tick a box, and there’s only so much which can be done to deal with that.

I would prefer management to focus on those staff that have a bad attitude when they are actually needed to do something.

Realistically, if manages start being overly fussy with staff then firstly they will be awkward in return when a favour is needed (not exactly uncommon on TFL), and eventually they will leave, get replaced and essentially the cycle starts again, just with a load of uncovered shifts in the interim. It’s a case of picking which battles are worth having.

 

[35B]

The reason a blind eye is turned is likely to be because managers and supervisors will have seen from their experience that even the most enthusiastic staff will become worn down by the role after a period of time.

It’s a relatively thankless and boring role, essentially there to tick a box, and there’s only so much which can be done to deal with that.

I would prefer management to focus on those staff that have a bad attitude when they are actually needed to do something.

I understand why that might be, but Peter Parker's words about the crumbling edge of quality come to mind.

 

[bramling]

I understand why that might be, but Peter Parker's words about the crumbling edge of quality come to mind.

Just a fact of life unfortunately. Here we have a role that has essentially been partly automated, yet still requires a human presence. There’s related issues with ATO trains and the monotony this causes.

Humans get bored, some more easily than others, and that’s not going to change.

 

[notadriver]

FlixBus drivers are often on their phones. Plenty of YouTube clips of this. Surely that’s a safety critical activity.

 

[martin2345uk]

FlixBus drivers are often on their phones. Plenty of YouTube clips of this. Surely that’s a safety critical activity.

Whilst driving..!?

 

[D6130]

FlixBus drivers are often on their phones. Plenty of YouTube clips of this. Surely that’s a safety critical activity.

Hopefully using 'hands-free' equipment!

 

[Islineclear3_1]

When is a grass a grass; a person with a bee in their bonnet; a person deliberately out to vilify staff/cause trouble and someone genuinely reporting a staff member they believe are not working (i.e. scrolling on their phone)?

To the OP - was this staff member rude to you...did he (or she) give you any grief...did he prevent you from entering/exiting the gateline?

Let it go...

 

[Daniel]

This is not anywhere near the policy.

It very much is in the HR policy that I've seen.

 

[Bishops]

This is not anywhere near the policy.

FOI of LU Code of Conduct

Sorry for the formatting.

There are a lot of things I should do whilst at work. I should wear dark coloured socks - news flash, I don't!

I'm supposed to wear my name badge at all times - again, call the press, I don't.

Most people, not all evidently, don't understand that gateline staff (and in fact most operational staff) get paid for what they know, not what they do. What happens when there is a fire alert with no staff? Or a person under a train? Who checks the mirrors and monitors every day? Who does the asset checks? Who opens and closes the station or deals with overcrowding? That individual will be straight into the scene of any incident using their skills, knowledge, and professionalism. There will be no sign of a mobile phone when escorting a visually impaired person, or assisting with retrieving something from the track.

What most people don't see is the work that gets done behind the scenes - they see someone sitting for a few minutes and think that's what an 8 hour working day consists of.

That document is over 10 years old now and mentions nothing about smartphones so it must have been updated since then

 

[Dr Hoo]

I’m surprised that the gate line role is seen as so limited - basically providing assistance if asked (other than in emergency evacuations and so on).

I would have thought that keeping a general eye on the entrance and booking hall area would have been possible, e.g. alert for begging, vagrancy, people not in a fit state to travel (Ickenham refers) or in a delicate mental state. Not for direct solo intervention but to alert colleagues and the Control Room.

Then there’s things like being able to timestamp the CCTV when incidents of tailgating, push-through or jumping occur. This can greatly speed up analysis of the footage.

I can well believe that a wet February Tuesday at Roding Valley can get tedious but at least make the most of opportunities to be useful when you can.

As a former BR station manager I was always sub-consciously ‘scanning’ everyone in sight, alert for anything untoward.

 

[MaidaVale]

I would have thought that keeping a general eye on the entrance and booking hall area would have been possible, e.g. alert for begging, vagrancy, people not in a fit state to travel

This is very much the case at busier stations where there are multiple CSAs allocated to the gateline area. You'll usually have one or two actually on the gateline itself and a few milling around the ticket hall assisting customers with ticket machines etc. Typically these, along with the security check duty, will report things like that. Additionally a lot of large Zone 1 stations have a dedicated Station Control Room as well as the regular supervisors office which is focused on monitoring the CCTV cameras around the station and managing crowd control, PAs etc. If something like this is spotted, they'll usually send a CSA to head there and assist.

Then there’s things like being able to timestamp the CCTV when incidents of tailgating, push-through or jumping occur. This can greatly speed up analysis of the footage.

Ironically this is actually one of the things that gateline staff do have to use mobile devices for, which may appear to the public as them just 'being on their tablet'. Station staff have an iPad app in which they can report fare evasion related incidents to a central system that then flags them with revenue teams. Even if every single report isn't manually stifled through (because it would be near impossible with the volume) then a large number of reports coming in from a particular location will usually trigger a general revenue crackdown operation at that station.

Generally CSAs at most Central London stations and busy outer zone stations will be active and there will generally be multiple people based in the gateline area and ticket hall rather than a single member of staff posted to just man the gateline on it's own. The former leaves little-to-no room for device use, and would be less excusable. Quieter stations, or stations which see much lower tourist numbers and a higher percentage of regular commuters, are far more likely to be the ones you *might* witness a single member of staff manning the gateline, so are more likely to be in an assistance pod and/or have a far lower volume of customer questions and queries to deal with. This can also happen at busier stations that have a smaller side or exit-only gateline that see far less queries. Those are the instances you'd be more likely, if at all, to see phone use. In some instances, you'd be genuinely lucky to get a single question an hour even if you actually stood outside of the assistance pod, greeting every single passenger.

 

[Mawkie]

It very much is in the HR policy that I've seen.

That document is over 10 years old now and mentions nothing about smartphones so it must have been updated since then

It has been updated, but that particular section hasn't. And the quoted document was released under an FOI, so it's the one that's in the public realm already.

 

[Metrider]

Getting paid to scroll Instagram, not bad work if you can get it! Maybe this is why we have the most expensive metro in the world?

 

[bramling]

Getting paid to scroll Instagram, not bad work if you can get it! Maybe this is why we have the most expensive metro in the world?

This reminds me of the oft-heard saying, that managers are often pleased when they walk into a control room and the staff are all doing nothing, as it means the service isn’t disrupted.

There are a lot of positions on the railway where people are essentially sitting around waiting for something to happen, but it would soon be noticed if they were done away with.

LU’s station staffing isn’t especially lavish these days, on the contrary. However if X station requires one member of staff on the gateline and there’s periods of non-activity then I think the majority of people wouldn’t care if the member of staff finds something to help pass the time.