I am sad to learn that he has left US. I'm a long time poster but posting under a different name as I don't want Tempe or PHL management to track my IP address.
My coworkers and I were sitting around talking about Tony Grantham after we saw him at the funeral of our fellow worker. A lot improved here while he was here. Maybe not as fast as we would like, but he did take on a station that was forgotten about by Crelin and US.
During his under two years here we got more equipment (tugs, belt loaders, push tugs, carts), about 500 additional ramp employees, an upgraded bag sortation system, additional x-ray machines, bigger checkpoints at B and C, refurbished gates, refurbished break rooms, and the RIDS (ramp screens you see at all of the gates at B and C Con). Customer service got a new station accounting office, and a new POC. Read the PHL Pride newsletters (oh wait, do we still get those?).
Performance did improve while he was here too. The bag rate started to get a lot better in the fall last year and continued to drop until he left. Injuries were down, and morale was on the way up, because he cared about us as people and employees.
When I had a death in the family, he sent a personal note of sympathy to my family. I won't forget it. I guess he did that with all employees too.
He also dealt with two 100 year ice storms and made a critical decision in one of them to bring back airplanes off the gate to avoid a JetBlue incident.
He was also the one in charge to improve the bag delivery times to baggage claim from over an hour to under 25 minutes.
He did more in 6 months than the whole entire group that replaced him.
So why am I paranoid? My friends in OCC say that Tempe overscheduled the operation in 2007 to prove to the city and airport that we needed more gates. They knew we would have a big customer service and baggage problem but they gambled anyway. Not a bad move probably, but to blame TG or the employees for that is wrong. Four things helped bring down the mishandled bag in PHL 1. More equipment, employees, and tools (credit Grantham), 2. Better operation (credit Isom), 3. Hard working employees who were forcused (credit the employees), and 4. Better weather.
We're not against the current team that replaced him, but Tempe has brought in about 7 people to replace him and in the recent Inquirer article the current VP takes all of the credit. What the?
Finally, I was standing in line at Chick Filet (however you spell it), and it was the day before payday. Grantham was in front of me and we were talking. In the conversation, he learned I could only get some nuggets because that was all I could afford. Without telling me, he ordered me two sandwiches, fries, and a coke and gave it to me. He gave it to me and said a happy employee is a productive employee. He gets it!
PHL did not chew him up and spit him out. Tempe chewed him up and spit him out. I will miss him. If any of you know him, please let him know the Chick Filet guy says hello and a big thank you. By the way, what has 7 people who replaced him refurbished since they arrived?
Enough said.