avsfan733

its an arguement of linguistics.
bad apples in society are used as a reason to reduce our rights
bad apples in a company/agency are used as an excuse for unaddressed screwups.

felipegarcia

But what kind of violation was it? From what I've read it appears that supervisors seem to care a lot more regarding scanner policy violations (refusals to accept medical "opt-outs", refusals and forced delays regarding regular op-outs, etc) as well as ID issues than other complaints. Of course, I presume that the amount of people complaining about being refused an opt-out are minimal compared to complaints about confiscated shampoo.

Personally I haven't had any really bad experiences with TSA, other than they had me wait almost 10 minutes for a "male assist" back in June, but I arrived to the terminal 2 hours before my flight to prevent their waiting tactics from succeeding.

I did have a slightly similar experience to yours in ATL, where I was coming out of the secondary Customs inspection and got somewhat lost. I was traveling with a school group and the instructions were "Go out, follow the connecting flight signs, we'll meet by the elevator". We had gone through ATL just over a week before but we met somewhere else. I got lost because I lost my sense of direction when I went through secondary, and I had no idea where in the airport I was (turns out, I was just a few steps away from the regular exit), and I asked some TSA guy directions, essentially just asked him if that was the checkpoint that was after the regular customs inspection for connecting flights, or if there was an elevator nearby (in case the elevator was before the checkpoint), and his response was "If you're taking a connecting flight, go that way, if not, go this way", and every attempt to get more information got me the same response from before. At that point I decided to just go to that checkpoint and hope for the best, and as I got to the line I met with one of the teachers who was going with us, so I knew that if we were at the wrong checkpoint, at least I was saved from any kind of punishment (turns out I wasn't the only one who didn't know if it was the right checkpoint). And yes, it was the regular checkpoint.

I was 16 and anxious to catch another international connection to go home so I didn't complain or anything (pretty sure I didn't know that was worth it, or even possible).

Himeno

I have a new job for that TSO. Think he would like to be Australian Transport Minister? Sounds like he'd do a better job then the current one.

Why are they called "bad apples", why not something like "bad bananas"?

chollie

There's an old saying that goes something like "one bad apple spoils the whole barrel (of apples)".

All too true with TSA, and particularly ironic for an organization that tells us to "see something, say something". If I see a 'bad apple' TSO and other TSOs don't call him/her out, as far as I'm concerned, they are also 'bad apples' because they obviously approve of the misconduct.

Darkumbra

Apples used to be stored for winter... A bad apple could spoil the good ones.

OldGoat

One cannot be fired from the TSA by a single individual. The TSA employees are federal employees, and have the rights of federal employees. Termination is difficult.

halls120

There are indeed competent and professional TSOs and STSOs out there. The problem is, they are the exception rather than the norm.

Caradoc

Statistically speaking, there has to be one somewhere.

The question is, "Where?"

jspira

Given the nature of the discussion here, some of you might want to voice your opinion in a FlyerTalk/Frequent Business Traveler survey on the effectiveness of the TSA.

Click here to take the survey if you wish.

UshuaiaHammerfest

The one from the OP seems to qualify in my book.

Caradoc

You mean the supervisor with an obvious problem on his team that he's failed to address?

UshuaiaHammerfest

Maybe I misread the post. From what I read, the supervisor addressed the problem the very second he became aware of it, while the problem was happening.

That's an example of a good manager.

Short of mind-reading, I'm not sure what would've allowed the supervisor to address the issue faster.

Caradoc

Do you honestly believe that such behavior would be a "first-time" issue?

If so, hey, you'd be a shoo-in for a TSA stuporvisor position.

UshuaiaHammerfest

My, what a rude and troll-y thing to say.

Anyway, since we have no idea if this was the TSO's first day (or the STSO, for that matter), or first time working with this particular supervisor, I stand by the fact that the supervisor strikes me as actually making an effort.

But hey, not everyone is capable of being objective. For those who'd rather just whine and complain, I suppose it's hard to admit that there are individuals within the TSA that are good examples to follow.

Caradoc

If he's standing by himself, it's not his first day - unless all of the TSA employees have been lying about their first-day training and "shadowing" people at the checkpoint.

The employee in question was either improperly trained (supervisor failure) or had a bad attitude to start (another supervisor failure.)

Given that their day starts with "Why, yes, I will put on a law enforcement costume and go violate people at the airport," I can't think of any reason anyone should follow any of their examples.