The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-07-09


 same, the young woman lost her job. Under the so-called Merit System . city employee can be fired ct any time, no matter how long his term of service. Point Number One.
 Screaming Permitted
 It was developed at the hearing that the fired clerk refused to do work which did not come under her civil service rating. And that furthermore she declined to do the work after oftlce hours. Tn the resultant altercation she said that her boss screamed" at her. He declared she screamed" at him. Tn any event 1t Is clear that the possibility of screaming at the help or by the help is not removed by the so-called Merit System. Also that classification under the so-called Merit System means nothing. Point Number Two,
 Economy Minus Efficiency
 It was further developed, in proof of the junior clerks incom- potency that she made c lot of er- TOTS in typing the purchase orders, invoices, price lists, names, etc. In refutation 1t was developed that the girl had . typewriter old enough to vote. Twenty years of age to be exact. Apparently un- der the so-called Merit System economy can mean loss of efiicien. cy. Point Number Three.
 Incompetency-Yeah?
 When the accusation of incom- potency was raised against the discharged girl the natural inquiry followed, "Why if shc could not do her work al it take fourteen years to find it out?" To this it was an- swered by the president of the Purchases Board. who Is also the city clerk. that the clerk had been "changed from one job to another t0 find something she could do in . satisfactory manner" My un- derstanding If the so.called Mer- 1t System is that it Is operated on e basis of strict justice, If that should be so--which 1 doubt--it would seem that when the clerk fell down on her first Job she should have been fired at once, made to take another examina- ton, been re-claSsified, and given the chance to fall down on her next job. Obviously the so-called Merit System rules, for reasons, may be changed while the game Is going on. Also that 1t permits the Run-Around. Point Number Four. Charges
 But what interested me par ticularly and should, think, In. terest everyone who k being ca- joled into signing the current petition to the Board of Aldermen to put the so-called Merit system Amendment to the city charter on the ballot next october, was the list of charges brought against the discharged clerk by her immediate boss.
 1. "she used the once telephone
 for social conversation and in
 so doing tied up the lines for
 officlal calls. Repeatedly the
 boss had to break in on his
 subordinates talk and inform
 the party on the other end Of
 the wire that this k busi-
 ness ofiice'." Terrible. The
 clerk said she stopped talking
 on the office phone when the
 boss told her to do so.
 2. "she whispered with other
 girls and passed them notes!"
 Frightful!
 3. "she told other girls in the
 office they were suckers to
 work after five o'clock. and so
 destroyed otflce morale"
 Abominable
 {. "0bjectea e signing the pay
 waiver" Horrific
 Kindergarten Stun
 The first three charges seem to me to be Kindergarten stun al- though can see how the pastiIie first one objects to might be quite objectionable. I cannot see how the boss got onto the fact the tele- phone was being put to social in- stead of official use except by listening which does not strike me as being strictly kosher in an ex- ponent of the so-called Merit Sys- tenn. But introducing the fourth charge, that of refusing to sign the pay waiver, would appear to come under the head of paying off an old grudge. Which no one de- voted to the so-called Merit Sys- tenn should practice. can un- derstand why, when there was a need of cutting the expense of municipal administration during the depression period, 1t became necessary to ask employees volun- tarily to waive their stipulated wages and accept a cut. But I cannot understand why with the so-caIled Merit System in opera ton, anyone who declined to make such waiver should bc fired. Under that misnamed plan I thought justice without fear or favor ruled administrative departments. It is possible that what the political 'spoilsmen" balk at doing those