In my latest heartbreaking failure, I was fired by the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) for bringing my rented bicycle into the APHL Newborn Screening Symposium 2022 organized by the Newborn Screening Technical assistance and Evaluation Program (NewSTEPs) on Sunday, October 16th, in the Greater Tacoma Convention Center. Or, perhaps more precisely, I was fired by the APHL contractor, Insight Global, for discussing bike security at the APHL Newborn Screening Symposium 2022 in the Greater Tacoma Convention Center in a way that, though social distancing was maintained and the only threats levied were by APHL staff against my rented bicycle, was not acceptable to APHL. Either way, dumbasses working in public health and espousing concern for future generations fired me over bringing a bicycle into their national meeting at a convention center.
NewSTEPs is publicly funded largely through the Health Resources and Services Administration as part of national efforts to maintain and upgrade health data portals, access and utility. These are great programs that exemplify good government, but there are still dumbasses involved who fire people for bringing a bicycle into a national meeting at a convention center. APHL failed at working in a modern urban setting. Bringing it back to the babies, where the focus must be, newsteps.org is antiquated and not prepared for next generation newborn screening. The NewSTEPs five year cycle of funding is coming up for bid/approval in the approaching months. Is newsteps.org hosted by APHL the best we can do?
It took me hours and hours of phone calls over many days and weeks to find that bike rental. It finally came through in the final days from Lone Pine Adventures, out of Tacoma and Gig Harbor, run with the generous support of Old Town Bicycle. I have no idea about their political affiliations. I only know that the kind proprietor runs a worthy business burdened by tremendous insurance costs in car infested America. They rent quality bikes in the South Sound area. They are working to stay afloat while the owner’s nurse spouse provides much support. Among details discussed over the phone prior to arrival, I promised Lone Pine that I would not lock the bike outside unattended in Tacoma.
Once in Tacoma, the meeting was great. I cried much of the first day meeting people given life and hope through newborn screening, as well as, in thinking about my own family and our physically and mentally challenged sister. APHL and NewSTEPs organizers did a fine job, except for neglecting bicycle security and intolerance of conversations about bicycle security at a national meeting in a convention center. I would have liked to provide more warning about biking, but please see above paragraph, and organizers were busy with so much. You could have honored my request to talk directly with convention center staff. You could have talked with me any time after that 5 minute conversation, but you chose the HR way. Nice professional culture there NewSTEPs and APHL.
Here is what happened, as I recall.
I flew in and took the $3.25 bus from SeaTac to Tacoma, on which I also paid the fare for a person without cash just ahead of me who turned out to be returning from an international pathology conference in Sydney to join spouse attending our the APHL Newborn Screening Symposium 2022. Lone Pine Adventures dropped the bicycle off with me in front of the Hotel Murano (teal roof light great for navigation, BTW).
It was afternoon, and the meeting had started, so I rode to the convention center as soon as I was ready. I dismounted the bicycle outside, walked in with it, and sought to speak with convention center staff, evident in black and white, to inquire about bicycle storage. If they could not provide secure bicycle storage, I wanted them to pass the request up the management chain for future events.
Before I reached them, APHL staff made their way to me and we began with hellos between remote colleagues. We talked about the bike. They told me it wasn’t allowed in the convention center. I acknowledged that the bike would likely end up in my hotel room and requested that they let me speak with convention center staff about it.
Soon there was concern expressed about taking care of members and time. I said that I could deal with the bike and tried to continue on to the convention center staff. I still wanted the convention center to know about cycling and my request for secure bicycle storage.
Before that conversation with one APHL staff member concluded, another APHL staff member approached and got involved. They reiterated that bicycles were not allowed inside. I tried to make sure that they knew I wanted my request for secure bicycle storage to go up through management.
I inquired about leaving the bike in an organizer break room. I also asked what would happen if I left the bicycle in an unused room. An APHL staff member told me that they take unattended bikes outside and deposit them on the street. I responded by asking if they have an unattended bag policy. No answer. I repeated my question. They said it was different. In an understatement, I said it was similar and that neither I nor the owner of the $1000 bike would appreciate a bike being treated so callously.
By that time, several APHL staff had gathered round. None of them expressed sympathy towards cycling or my situation. Nobody considered the painful plantar fasciitis I told them about in previous meetings. I felt belittled by APHL staff intercepting me and attempting to prevent a civil and respectful conversation. I felt pressured to quietly conform to their disregard for bringing a bicycle into a national meeting at a convention center. I repeated that I had tried to extricate myself from the conversation and they kept it going. I apologized sincerely for taking the three minutes (5 maybe) it took for our conversation about a bicycle and proceeded to take the bike to my hotel room after a brief and respectful conversation, as I sought, with convention center staff.
I commented on the encounter here.
That was it. I left shaken and wondering if I should apologize for how I sounded, but never for what I said. I see no reason to apologize for bicycling, being passionate about it, or anything I said at the Tacoma convention center on October 16th.
That was the last I heard of the encounter until 4 pm, Friday, October 29th, when a contractor rep called to tell me I was fired just as I was wrapping up an afternoon of connecting the DB through R as the start of producing R Shiny dashboards.
I was doing this, because the need for dashboards is well known in my former team at APHL, and I had time while still waiting for correct configurations for my development environment from the web site contractor.
I have contributed to R Shiny work and run R Shiny servers, along with RAILS, Django and GMOD tools in Apache and Nginx systems. I know a little about what is out there. Your current technology and DB won’t cut next generation newborn screening, newsteps.org and APHL.
APHL transparently does not value my advice. For the sake of infants, I hope they or the next stewards of infant screening data find the will to transition to technology, platforms and tools that are capable of handling next generation newborn screening. Look at newsteps.org for yourself and see how ready it is for omics, informatics, messaging or other modern technology. Try not to think about their disaster recovery or continuity of operations. Is that what babies with treatable rare conditions deserve? I tried to help, but was not welcomed at APHL.
Maybe I am wrong for the reasons behind the firing. Maybe it was my failure to appear at a 7 am Monday meeting. That was dumb. Checked my schedule about 7:30. Made it to the rest of the meetings though. Even moved chairs into a crowded one. Maybe I was fired over too much of my untimely dry sarcasm. Never heard a word about that, but that could be due to my opaque density to messaging.
Whatever it was, nobody at APHL helped me understand. It wasn’t my work or effort. Nobody expressed dissatisfaction with my production, other than shared frustration over my lack of a development environment for the required work spaces. Even then I was supported with 100 hours of orientation time granted, of which I only used a handful.
My only indications about my firing are that my work was met with satisfaction and encouragement, and APHL had the recruiter tell me I was fired over an animated conversation the previous week. There were no other animated conversations, and the one about bringing a bicycle into a convention center at a national meeting could have been much more contentious. I complied with everything they wanted except shutting my mouth right when they wanted it shut.
In short, APHL handled my situation with complete and unprofessional disregard for the organization, society or me personally, probably all in accordance with HR and legal advice.
To think how much I trusted and confided in my APHL colleagues is sad. Does anybody there appreciate that I tried to share my best work with you? Of course not, I said it wrong, apparently.
If you learn from mistakes with me, APHL, then get the next developer set up with a code contributing development environment ASAP. Once again, I forget that APHL does not value my advice.
Here is one more suggestion for my immediate supervisor at APHL. If you seek an intelligent conversation about agriculture, then it doesn’t help to open with food shaming. In the unlikely case that you are serious about food, then I will ask you why is it that store bought meat is not acceptable to you? Where should people get protein? There have been lots of great conversations on such things at Daily Kos over the years. I highly recommend each of the writers in the Anti-Capitalist Meetup for relevant discussions.
Funny thing is that the food shaming happened at the same meetings where I was fired over bringing a bicycle into a national meeting at a convention center. Even more hilarious are APHL’s repeated calls for recruiting technology people as they fire me and my three decades of experience over bringing a bicycle into a national meeting at a convention center. Real forward thinking there, APHL.
Finally, I will never work for APHL again, but I still want to use this opportunity to acknowledge widespread need for reconciliation and great work of groups such as Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Now for some Jerry for your listening pleasure while we continue donating, volunteering and GOTV.
UPDATE: Sunday, Oct 30, 2022 · 2:35:47 PM +00:00 · greenandblue
Commenters caught me leaving out information. I’m sorry I withheld. Here is what I left out
I was betrayed, belittled and hurt. APHL lied about its values and promises, and I suffered for believing them.
I walked into the convention center with my bicycle believing all of their stories of equity, tolerance, acceptance and standing up for what is right. I believed that I might have found a group that could accept me and allow me to inquire about cycling in the weeks of national meetings free of guilt and shame.
I was so wrong. In 3 minutes, all of the stories were revealed as PR facades. There was no tolerance or acceptance of me. They would not allow me to be myself or embrace alternatives to vehicle transport. All of their lies came crumbling down in my sight in 3 short minutes. I was betrayed. They did nothing in my remaining two weeks to change that disillusionment.
In 5 minutes I went from an APHL believer to seeing their true face. APHL does not really espouse the values they say they do.
Based on this encounter, reticence of others to talk about it, and repeated top down cheerleading from APHL, I gathered that they are a top down hierarchy built on ass kissing sycophancy. They value image and PR over communication and effectiveness. They avoid tough conversations and working for the future. They care more about their public funding from taxpayers than they do about their members, staff, infants, mothers or public health. They are an organization of yes people stuck with old technology incapable of handling modern technology and workflows.
I would challenge APHL to prove me wrong, but they don’t care about the impressions of ordinary citizens.