MetroNorth employees Netflix & Chill at GCT

[Deucey]

https://gizmodo.com/secret-man-cave-discovered-in-room-in-beneath-grand-cen-1845165983

Quote

Dreams do come true—but sometimes, they also get you in deep shit. 

A trio of almost-clever Metro-North employees are at risk of losing their jobs after bosses at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority uncovered their secret “man cave” deep in the bowels of New York City’s Grand Central station, according to a newly released report by the MTA’s Office of the Inspector General. Not only was the totally sweet man cave a secret, most people didn’t even know the room they set it up in existed. 

Like any good man cave, the Metro-North workers equipped their “Unauthorized Breakroom” with a hideaway futon and cot, air mattress, refrigerator (containing a half-empty can of beer), microwave, and a flatscreen with an Amazon Fire TV, the OIG said in its report. It also featured—if you zoom in on the makeshift TV stand above—what appears to be a drawing of a stick figure with an erect penis next to a dog. Beyond the simple pleasures of beer and naps, these were clearly connoisseurs of life’s finer things. 

The employees accused of setting up the man cave—identified only as a wireman, an electrical foreman, and a carpenter foreman—used the space to “hang out and get drunk and party,” according to a complaint received by the MTA, which is the only thing you’re allowed to do in a secret underground man cave, as decreed by the Brotherhood of Great Ideas That Definitely Won’t Get Us Fired.

All of this was tucked inside a locked storage room that was only accessible through the locksmith shop located at the end of Grand Central’s track 114, and nobody seemed to have the key when the bosses finally discovered the room. They eventually had to break in by completely replacing the lock.

The saga of the secret man cave dates back to February 2019 when an anonymous snitch ratted everybody out. (Notably, the anonymous complaint about the room came around the same time as a disciplinary hearing of a Grand Central electrician “who was accused of workplace violence against the Electrical Foreman,” according to the inspector general’s report. A transcript of the hearing shows that someone—we don’t know who—revealed the presence of the room, which the person described as “a little apartment. He has a big screen in there. It used to be an old locksmith storage area.”) Another complaint—the “get drunk and party” one—was filed in June 2019. Both complaints and the transcript were ignored until the OIG got involved.

What followed after the bosses discovered the man cave was a flurry of denials and ass-covering. But none of it worked ‘cause the bosses had the receipts—quite literally, in the case of the wireman, whose name was printed on the receipt for the air mattress, which was still in the box. The other two were just as careless, according to the OIG: “The television had a list of network setting connections, 1 of which was to the hot spot from the Carpenter Foreman’s smart phone. The OIG found 2 datebooks and a pull-up bar bearing the name of the Electrical Foreman and the streaming device was registered to the Electrical Foreman.” Oops.

The trio was eventually put on administrative leave without pay and are at risk of termination because the room was found to be a safety risk, and apparently it’s against MTA policy to set up a secret room and drink while you’re working. The MTA is also overhauling its complaint-tracking process, which allowed the complaints about the man cave to go ignored. And they’re now undergoing an effort to map the labyrinth that is Grand Central’s vast underbelly.

Secret areas are just a part of Grand Central. Deep below the train station is a bunker called M-42. Rumor has it that during World War II, “the bunker had guards with shoot-to-kill orders, for fear of sabotage while the station’s trains were being used to ferry troops into and out of New York,”  Time wrote. Then there’s Track 61—an entirely secret train track that was used exclusively by rich people which led straight to the lavish Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The secret track was most famously used by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was trying to hide the paraplegia that resulted from him contracting polio.

As with these other once-secret spaces at Grand Central, the worker’s man cave is now wide out in the open. What will happen to the man cave now is anyone’s guess, but knowing the MTA, it’ll probably become a rat-infested hellhole like everything else.

Edited September 25, 2020 by Deucey

[Lex]

I hope it was worth it to them.

[QM1to6Ave]

And I'm sure there was no overtime fraud happening in there...definitely not...no way 

My question is, was there an air conditioner or something in there? Must've been pretty hot otherwise

[R10 2952]

As crazy as it sounds, it's not a new thing out of the blue.  Few years ago I read a story about the shop crews that worked at 207th and Pitkin Yard back in the '70s and '80s- had their own makeshift kitchens, stovetops, lounge quarters like in this case.  I think the book was "New York Calling".  Interesting stuff.

Edited September 25, 2020 by R10 2952

[Missabassie]

Somebody got reeeaaal sloppy....

[Via Garibaldi 8]

On 9/24/2020 at 11:09 PM, QM1to6Ave said:

And I'm sure there was no overtime fraud happening in there...definitely not...no way 

My question is, was there an air conditioner or something in there? Must've been pretty hot otherwise

Depending on where it was, they may not have needed one. It can be cool underground.

[B35 via Church]

I know this is unrelated, but I'm still going to (sarcastically) convey the paragraph below.....

Yes, because it was passengers that had all them god damn 5 gallon water bottles stacked up in the tunnels (amidst other trash that shouldn't be that deep into the tunnels) at random points b/w the northern end of the platforms & (around the) 59th st emergency exit .... Come on, Who believed this????? Although pax. are most certainly filthy, I used to get miffed on how pax. would get ALL of the blame for the system being filthy... Them contract workers/construction workers aren't any saints when it came to that category either....

Now I come upon to this little tidbit of information about an e-legal bat cave & I am laughing my royal ass off .... Thanks for this.

On 9/24/2020 at 11:09 PM, QM1to6Ave said:

And I'm sure there was no overtime fraud happening in there...definitely not...no way 

My question is, was there an air conditioner or something in there? Must've been pretty hot otherwise

The only AC they were concerned about, is power..... Everything else is second fiddle - especially for all the productivity (or lack thereof) that was taking place inside that room .... God knows wtf they were doing in there.....

On 9/25/2020 at 2:05 AM, R10 2952 said:

As crazy as it sounds, it's not a new thing out of the blue.  Few years ago I read a story about the shop crews that worked at 207th and Pitkin Yard back in the '70s and '80s- had their own makeshift kitchens, stovetops, lounge quarters like in this case.  I think the book was "New York Calling".  Interesting stuff.

...on the clock, like they're going about life, like hobo's.

I wouldn't be a stool pigeon if I was an employee that knew about these hidden rooms or whatever, but I personally would want no part of anything of the sort.... I wouldn't look for ways to make life easier nearly to that extent, under a tunnel.... I don't exactly find the underground life appealing, but that's just me.....

[Jsunflyguy]

5 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

I wouldn't look for ways to make life easier nearly to that extent, under a tunnel....

You may say otherwise working an evening shift that ends after the last train home leaves.

[B35 via Church]

17 hours ago, Jsunflyguy said:

You may say otherwise working an evening shift that ends after the last train home leaves.

Negative.

I'm not resorting to building and/or chilling in anybody's underground makeshift breakroom... I'd much rather deal with the (outside) elements.