Saturday Slanguage: Bad Order

Today we will talk about bad orders.  Bad orders have nothing to do with work orders.  While a bad order is generally something that does not work as designed, it has various contexts in which it can be used.

Bad Order: (noun)
Defective equipment or equipment needing repair before it can be used as designed.
For example, one might say a hopper car is a bad order.  This means that it has a problem that prevents it from safely moved across the railroad.  Typically the bad order is reported to mechanical personnel and the car is left behind until repairs are complete or until mechanical forces authorize movement.

Bad Order: (verb)
1. To put a piece of equipment out of service.
2. To terminate employment.
For example, if I determine that an end of train device is not working properly, I can bad order it to prevent someone else from using it before it gets repaired.
For the second example, we can say that a Conductor was recently bad ordered because she called in sick so frequently that she was at home more often than at work.  This is not to be confused with being fired.  In railroad terminology, being fired does not mean you have lost your job.  It means you did something wrong and the railroad is punishing you by not allowing you to work for a specific period of time, usually just a day or two.  A Conductor that gets bad ordered no longer has a job with the railroad, while a Conductor that gets fired just has a few unplanned days off and some retraining to do.