You want to be a NYCT Transit Bus Maintenance Line Supervisor? DON’T DO IT!
If it wasn’t bad enough that the Transit Authority has long struggled to attract and retain qualified Line Supervisors (LS) in the Bus Maintenance Department, management has now made a difficult job nearly impossible.
Being a Line Supervisor today is like being a correction officer on Rikers Island. You report to work with no guarantee of when you will go home. If your relief does not show up, you are stuck. That means covering the next shift — and sometimes the one after that — resulting in 16 to 24 straight hours on duty.
At the same time, you are responsible for supervising anywhere from 15 to 30 employees, working in multiple locations throughout the property. You are accountable for everything.
But here’s the problem: management, in its “infinite wisdom,” has buried Line Supervisors in clerical work. Instead of being out on the floor — ensuring employees are where they are supposed to be and performing their duties — LS’s are trapped behind desks pushing paper.
Then comes the final insult.
Managers show up at all hours of the night and day looking for a “gotcha.” If they find an employee out of position or sleeping, they suspend or demote the Line Supervisor — the very same supervisor who has been overloaded, understaffed, and buried in paperwork.
They expect perfection while creating conditions that guarantee failure.
If you are considering becoming a Line Supervisor in New York City Transit, MaBSTOA, or MTA Bus, Department of Buses, understand this clearly:
Management will not protect you.
They will not support you.
They will throw you under the figurative bus if it serves their narrative.
They do not care if you are exhausted.
They do not care if you are supervising too many employees.
They do not care about the impossible workload they created.
Philip Valenti
President
