Far more than buildings were damaged by the Canterbury earthquakes
Still affected by the Earthquake Commission’s incompetence? you may want to read this article in today’s Stuff:
Earthquake Commission (EQC) staff have been caught out using a Class A drug, assessing earthquake damage in 76 seconds and bullying.
A long list of behavioural and performance issues has been released to The Press under the Official Information Act and reveal the “unhealthy at best” culture within the organisation, a community advocate says.
Former EQC staff and contractors have spoken anonymously about the way the organisation operates with one saying the commission’s disciplinary procedures were “horrendous”.
Many complaints related to incompetence when assessing quake damage and identifying the correct repair method.
Other examples include one employee being charged and convicted of assault after a domestic incident with his partner…
…One assessor who was incompetent and could not correctly identify quake damage and repair strategies was also sacked after a meeting with HR, the documents show.
An ex-EQC contractor, who did not wish to be named, said the culture within the organisation was one of “shut up and do what you’re told”… more here
Severe Earthquake
A severe earthquake has been recorded today, 155 km east of Te Araroa at 11.33am this morning. The prolonged 6.5 magnitude quake occurred at a depth of 31km. At first it was erroneously recorded as centred at Hanmer Springs. It was felt widely around the North Island
You may also be interested by
Christchurch Earthquake Workers Threatened with Knives (E2NZ.org)
Darfield Quake Report Released – Cheapest Options To Be Taken, updated (E2NZ.org)
http://EQCRoyalfamily.wordpress.com (External site, HT to P. Ray for the link)
E2NZ.org 
This kind of behaviour is what Kiwi’s understand as work life balance. ie. you simply fail to draw a line between work and play continuing your everyday lifestyle of taking drugs, drinking, abusing and bullying people into the workplace so that it feels just like home. Sadly it is not limited to EQC and I note the Chief Exec of CERA is going on a ‘well deserved holiday’ today after having resigned from his post following allegations of sexual harassment. It is however pleasing to see more people are speaking out and naming and shaming these people and organisations.
The Italian language has a term that roughly translates into English as “the kingdom of s—“. This is exactly what EQC and the people running the organisation are. EQC is the encapsulation of everything that is wrong about New Zealand. The sad thing is that most New Zealanders gladly put up with this rubbish whilst having the chip on their shoulder and wrongly believing that they are the only ones in the world with earthquake insurance.
Look Idon’t wonder about the drugs at kiwi workplace. When I worked for a Wellington Bus company, smoking cannabis was perfectly okay and encouraged for heavy vehicle HT drivers, and live line (electric wires) workers, the favourite place for some was right in front of Beehive, New Zealand Parliament, late workday afternoon, then the government workers were rushin home. I was abused for taking my own stand at this. Moreover, I was systematically abused for “being gay” (in their opinion), whereas the service truck that the dope smokers drove was stinking quite distintively that someone had sex there – most workers were married males. I’ve been in this Sodom for 5 years, in our Capital, that I had to leave in the end for just not being a dopehead dirty animal appareny.
You catch whiffs of weed everywhere in New Zealand. The fact that they barely hide it and it’s so well accepted there suggests that the accident rate could be improved with better policing of drug use. But if no one thinks it’s a problem…
I spoke once to a joker who lived on a farm somewhere in Franklin and he said to me something I’ll remember forever while living in this land. His words were: “But, nothing is going to change.”
The only problem I have with puffers at my employment that costed me so much time learning, working and upskilling to get, is that, while I am required to work with them as a team, I have no right to make my own choice about substances and sopcialising at work around substances, including alcohol, and that kiwi management often supports the other side.
When I migrated into NZ I signed nowhere that I consent to become a working dope smoker.
It’s my life and it my physical and emotional wellbeing. I don’t have to be abused, called paranoid for making my own choice and declaring me unsafe and antisocial at work with all that stuff going onto the national safety database is nothing short of the total celebration of evil.
But this is how they saw it! Way up in the government apparently?
I remember a few times seeing line workers standing around on the road after a storm, live wire flipping around in the air zapping at the end like an angry snake, cars trying to slip past them, and they were standing around with the smell of weed in the air – in their raincoats. Waiting for something? Who knows.
As the saying goes, “Fish rots from the top”.
It looks like some of the traits ascribed to top management there may be true, going by what I read at eqcroyalfamily.wordpress.com/