DMV workers speak out

JUNE 17, 2010

By ANTHONY PIGNATARO

For reasons that shouldn’t surprise anyone, employees of the California Department of Motor Vehicles have a lot to say. In May, when DMV officials began circulating a “Two Minute DMV Employee Survey,” 4,547 staffers responded – 51 percent of the department. Though 59 percent of respondents said they’re “satisfied” with their jobs, 2,252 respondents (roughly half of those who completed the survey) gave often negative comments about what the department could do differently. In fact, of the 229 “sample comments” included in the 62-page survey report, just four were positive.

In a May 24, 2010 memo on the survey obtained by CalWatchdog, DMV Director George Valverde called the outspoken comments “thoughtful” and “detailed” and said they “provided a number of ideas to help bring about positive change at DMV.”

The survey, a copy of which was also obtained by CalWatchdog, show respondents came from offices all over the state. The comments they provided offer a fascinating snapshot into life on the other side of the DMV counter. Here a few choice samples, complete with whatever spelling and grammatical errors were present in the originals:

“Managers/supervisors should be more sensitive, respectful to their employees. i.e.: if managers need employees to stay to help, please ask nicely and not be mean. Be sensitive and respectful even though we’re just your employees, we have feelings too. After all these furloughs, long hours, we need to be treated better….”

“Where there is upward mobility and technicians become management they are taught to be disrespectful of the worker. They do not trust us anymore and treat us like children. Walk a day in our shoes undercover. See how it is. As a tech, I have watched many people put down and when a customer writes in, their words are taken for golden truth and we are the liars. It is very unfair. When we lay down the law as government workers, we are threatened and told off in colorful language. Then when that customer writes in, we are written up….Don’t get me wrong, there are wonderful managers, but few.”

“Have more employees so more windows are open”

“The Department promotes ‘green’ technology. We recycle, we have [sic] are provided with helpful hints on way of improving our environment, we construct ‘green’ workplaces. Why not allow telecommuting when the job duties allow it? It would help the environment by eliminating fuel emissions and traffic congestion. Stress would be greatly reduced and there would be less absences. There are not a lot of ‘perks’ to offer to employees. This should be one of them…it would make a lot of people happy and more productive.”

“4 hours of customer contact is enough in any one day. The other 4 hours could be doing something else. Just to keep sanity.”

“DMV employees are harassed about time off. You can’t get it easily. To plan vacation days off in Dec, this is very difficult. Field office is very limited….”

“Overhaul the management mentality. Train management to manage with a participative management style not the authoritarian style of yesterday. Require more education of management, not simply high school level.”

“Just treat all employees with fairness and understanding no one employee should be treated better than another and keep in mind we are all humans, not robots.”

“…Stop hiring people that are your friends and hire someone that can actually do the job.”

“Supervisors need the authority to discipline employees properly, and the furloughs, salary cuts, budget cuts are creating a very stressful workplace. The entire staff is getting burned out having to listen to upset customers due to the prolonged wait times….”

“Hold rank & file accountable to the job they are paid to do. State workers are coddled too much and the union is allowed to hinder production far too much supporting baseless employee complaints.”

“…Many of the employees are dressed in un-professional clothing and shoes. I have seen employees in flip-flops, pajamas and even shorts. I have observed staff sleeping at their work stations and in the bathroom chairs. While I understand employee rights, I do believe the Department of Motor Vehicles has a right to appear to the public and internal customers to be of high moral, integrity and professionalism.”

“Update computers – work done on a 1980’s system is ridiculous….For as many customers as we service, our computer systems are not user friendly.”

“The question should be for the general public – we baby the public to the extreme. They have enough reading material to come prepared for whatever transaction they are here for. But they are never ready! That is why the lines are so backed up. The emphasis should be on better preparation before stepping in the door.”

“Get rid of those automated voice response systems where you have to press numerous buttons to get to someone who can answer my customers’ questions. And quite often, after pressing all the buttons, the line’s busy anyway.”

“More parking.”

For its part, the DMV seems pleased with the survey. “The department hasn’t done a survey in many years,” DMV spokesperson Jan Mendoza said. “We were very, very happy about the number of comments.” Mendoza added that the 51 percent response rate was “much higher” than department officials had expected, and they were considering sending out annual surveys.