TSO Shouting Instructions: "Nothing else in the Universe w/your laptop"
Apr 18, 2016, 8:20 am
#16
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Arizona, USA
Posts: 2,403
Since it would be trouble to just pepper spray him, I'd love to "take the high road:"
Stop, calmly explain, "Hi, I'm Dr. Mats. Let's go sit down over here. You seem pretty upset..."
Maybe he would open up about his abusive childhood, struggles with alcohol, unhappy marriage, unhappy mortgage, or whatever else is causing him to act out.
That's a fantasy of course. But this guy represents what I see so often (especially at O'Hare and Newark): complete inability to control emotions. This guy is sick; he needs help. It's not just that he's embarrassing himself and his employer, it's that he's in a fair amount of distress. He's genuinely furious that people might have Kleenex in their pockets. That's a loss of rational thinking.
This man has the potential to endanger many people:
- His greatest risk is to himself. He's struggling.
- If a real threat presented itself, he would either be distracted by his own performance, and/or unlikely to control his emotional response. The key to emergency response is under-reaction.
- As if they didn't have a problem before, he discredits aviation security as a concept. No reasonable person would have faith in the security measures in place. The rules are senseless anyway, but if they are enforced with histrionics and anger, nobody is going to listen.
The TSA staff complain so bitterly about how they lack respect. This is why. I am uncertain as to why TSA supervisors take such a permissive approach to such public displays of psychopathology. The TSA could help its credibility (and help its staff and their families) if it took the more active role of finding help for guys like this.
Stop, calmly explain, "Hi, I'm Dr. Mats. Let's go sit down over here. You seem pretty upset..."
Maybe he would open up about his abusive childhood, struggles with alcohol, unhappy marriage, unhappy mortgage, or whatever else is causing him to act out.
That's a fantasy of course. But this guy represents what I see so often (especially at O'Hare and Newark): complete inability to control emotions. This guy is sick; he needs help. It's not just that he's embarrassing himself and his employer, it's that he's in a fair amount of distress. He's genuinely furious that people might have Kleenex in their pockets. That's a loss of rational thinking.
This man has the potential to endanger many people:
- His greatest risk is to himself. He's struggling.
- If a real threat presented itself, he would either be distracted by his own performance, and/or unlikely to control his emotional response. The key to emergency response is under-reaction.
- As if they didn't have a problem before, he discredits aviation security as a concept. No reasonable person would have faith in the security measures in place. The rules are senseless anyway, but if they are enforced with histrionics and anger, nobody is going to listen.
The TSA staff complain so bitterly about how they lack respect. This is why. I am uncertain as to why TSA supervisors take such a permissive approach to such public displays of psychopathology. The TSA could help its credibility (and help its staff and their families) if it took the more active role of finding help for guys like this.
Apr 18, 2016, 8:30 am
#18
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Apr 18, 2016, 8:37 am
#19
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Since it would be trouble to just pepper spray him, I'd love to "take the high road:"
Stop, calmly explain, "Hi, I'm Dr. Mats. Let's go sit down over here. You seem pretty upset..."
Maybe he would open up about his abusive childhood, struggles with alcohol, unhappy marriage, unhappy mortgage, or whatever else is causing him to act out.
That's a fantasy of course. But this guy represents what I see so often (especially at O'Hare and Newark): complete inability to control emotions. This guy is sick; he needs help. It's not just that he's embarrassing himself and his employer, it's that he's in a fair amount of distress. He's genuinely furious that people might have Kleenex in their pockets. That's a loss of rational thinking.
This man has the potential to endanger many people:
- His greatest risk is to himself. He's struggling.
- If a real threat presented itself, he would either be distracted by his own performance, and/or unlikely to control his emotional response. The key to emergency response is under-reaction.
- As if they didn't have a problem before, he discredits aviation security as a concept. No reasonable person would have faith in the security measures in place. The rules are senseless anyway, but if they are enforced with histrionics and anger, nobody is going to listen.
The TSA staff complain so bitterly about how they lack respect. This is why. I am uncertain as to why TSA supervisors take such a permissive approach to such public displays of psychopathology. The TSA could help its credibility (and help its staff and their families) if it took the more active role of finding help for guys like this.
Stop, calmly explain, "Hi, I'm Dr. Mats. Let's go sit down over here. You seem pretty upset..."
Maybe he would open up about his abusive childhood, struggles with alcohol, unhappy marriage, unhappy mortgage, or whatever else is causing him to act out.
That's a fantasy of course. But this guy represents what I see so often (especially at O'Hare and Newark): complete inability to control emotions. This guy is sick; he needs help. It's not just that he's embarrassing himself and his employer, it's that he's in a fair amount of distress. He's genuinely furious that people might have Kleenex in their pockets. That's a loss of rational thinking.
This man has the potential to endanger many people:
- His greatest risk is to himself. He's struggling.
- If a real threat presented itself, he would either be distracted by his own performance, and/or unlikely to control his emotional response. The key to emergency response is under-reaction.
- As if they didn't have a problem before, he discredits aviation security as a concept. No reasonable person would have faith in the security measures in place. The rules are senseless anyway, but if they are enforced with histrionics and anger, nobody is going to listen.
The TSA staff complain so bitterly about how they lack respect. This is why. I am uncertain as to why TSA supervisors take such a permissive approach to such public displays of psychopathology. The TSA could help its credibility (and help its staff and their families) if it took the more active role of finding help for guys like this.
I've seen TSOs rant here and elsewhere about 'stupid' people who show up at the checkpoints not knowing what to expect. Those TSOs take it personally, like they've told the pax 100 times, how can they be so stupid, etc.
Someone really needs to do a study (if one hasn't already been done) to determine just how many of the folks who show up at the checkpoint are infrequent or first-time flyers. Then explain to these idiot unprofessional barking TSOs that many of these pax have never heard the rules before. They are not stupid, they are innocent, decent people being yelled at for not knowing the unpublished rules that change with every checkpoint and every screener.
This clown acts like an exasperated parent or teacher or drill sergeant: "I've told you people a thousand times before, why do I have to keep repeating myself, bla-bla". Hey, sport - you have to keep repeating yourself because 1) you make up the rules as you go, so what you are barking today isn't necessarily the same thing you or your comrade barked yesterday and 2) many of these pax have never heard your spiel or they flew through a different airport a week ago and heard a different set of rules.
Apr 18, 2016, 8:40 am
#20
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Some of this is down to training, training people who do not have a clue who their 'customer base' is.
I've seen TSOs rant here and elsewhere about 'stupid' people who show up at the checkpoints not knowing what to expect. Those TSOs take it personally, like they've told the pax 100 times, how can they be so stupid, etc.
Someone really needs to do a study (if one hasn't already been done) to determine just how many of the folks who show up at the checkpoint are infrequent or first-time flyers. Then explain to these idiot unprofessional barking TSOs that many of these pax have never heard the rules before. They are not stupid, they are innocent, decent people being yelled at for not knowing the unpublished rules that change with every checkpoint and every screener.
This clown acts like an exasperated parent or teacher or drill sergeant: "I've told you people a thousand times before, why do I have to keep repeating myself, bla-bla". Hey, sport - you have to keep repeating yourself because 1) your agency has no consistent rules, so what you are barking today isn't necessarily the same thing your comrade barked yesterday and 2) many of these pax have never heard your spiel or they flew through a different airport a week ago and heard a different set of rules.
I've seen TSOs rant here and elsewhere about 'stupid' people who show up at the checkpoints not knowing what to expect. Those TSOs take it personally, like they've told the pax 100 times, how can they be so stupid, etc.
Someone really needs to do a study (if one hasn't already been done) to determine just how many of the folks who show up at the checkpoint are infrequent or first-time flyers. Then explain to these idiot unprofessional barking TSOs that many of these pax have never heard the rules before. They are not stupid, they are innocent, decent people being yelled at for not knowing the unpublished rules that change with every checkpoint and every screener.
This clown acts like an exasperated parent or teacher or drill sergeant: "I've told you people a thousand times before, why do I have to keep repeating myself, bla-bla". Hey, sport - you have to keep repeating yourself because 1) your agency has no consistent rules, so what you are barking today isn't necessarily the same thing your comrade barked yesterday and 2) many of these pax have never heard your spiel or they flew through a different airport a week ago and heard a different set of rules.
Apr 18, 2016, 8:47 am
#21
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I blame it on lack of leadership.
Good leadership would remind TSOs that they can not assume that the pax at the checkpoint speaks or reads English, has good hearing, has flown before, and knows what the individual screener rules are that apply at that checkpoint on that day.
They should act as though every single one of these pax are flying for the first time (in the US - non-US checkpoints won't prepare you for the madness that is TSA). They should act as though none of these pax know the particular screener rules in place at that checkpoint on that day: whether light saber canes and Buzz Lightyear Griptoys and generously-frosted cupcakes or medical nitro pills are allowed that day or not.
Good leadership would remind TSOs that they can not assume that the pax at the checkpoint speaks or reads English, has good hearing, has flown before, and knows what the individual screener rules are that apply at that checkpoint on that day.
They should act as though every single one of these pax are flying for the first time (in the US - non-US checkpoints won't prepare you for the madness that is TSA). They should act as though none of these pax know the particular screener rules in place at that checkpoint on that day: whether light saber canes and Buzz Lightyear Griptoys and generously-frosted cupcakes or medical nitro pills are allowed that day or not.
Apr 18, 2016, 8:54 am
#22
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: DFW
Posts: 28,111
I would go as far as suggesting that a person of this type is not fit to be a government employee. If TSA employees require a security clearance of any type then this person in my mind is not qualified.
Apr 18, 2016, 9:05 am
#23
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His time would be better spent the way it is at some European airports: stand at the belt and quietly guide pax who don't know the SOP-of-the-Day.
You can tell by the looks on the faces of some of the pax, they are avoiding eye contact and embarrassed by his yelling. In their situation, I'd be looking elsewhere and trying to tune him out, too. There's already too much noise pollution at too many US airports.
You can tell by the looks on the faces of some of the pax, they are avoiding eye contact and embarrassed by his yelling. In their situation, I'd be looking elsewhere and trying to tune him out, too. There's already too much noise pollution at too many US airports.
Apr 18, 2016, 9:22 am
#24
Join Date: Dec 2007
Programs: DL, WN, US, Avis, AA
Posts: 662
lack of leadership
The obvious fact is that the senior TSA management at the airport think this is proper behavior, otherwise it would not be allowed to continue. Do they actually believe that people truly listen to that sort of barking. I would think that 95% of passengers automatically tune him out due to his attitude.
However, they must actually believe that this is the most productive use of that employee's time. It is inescapable that TSA does not have a few "bad apples" but rather, is rotten throughout the entire barrel.
However, they must actually believe that this is the most productive use of that employee's time. It is inescapable that TSA does not have a few "bad apples" but rather, is rotten throughout the entire barrel.
Apr 18, 2016, 9:57 am
#25
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We send privileged TSA folks to foreign airports - places like CDG, for instance.
Too bad we don't ask those folks to take a few minutes during their taxpayer-funded boondoggle to observe their checkpoints.
No specially-overpriced-for-the-taxpayer big-screen TVs and overhead sound systems bellowing a non-stop loop of advice, some of it outdated or incorrect. No dozens of signs and agents barking conflicting commands. Half the number of people staffing a checkpoint, all seemingly actively performing a useful task. No idiot confusion of people standing around, separated from and unable to see their belongings, while waiting for an 'anomaly resolution' grope.
Instead, privileged TSA employees get to party on the US taxpayer dollar while telling non-US security how to do it like we do.
I wonder what the test scores would look like at some of these non-US airports where we have told them how to do things better by copying us. Be funny if they treat pax better with a smaller staff and still get better test scores.
Too bad we don't ask those folks to take a few minutes during their taxpayer-funded boondoggle to observe their checkpoints.
No specially-overpriced-for-the-taxpayer big-screen TVs and overhead sound systems bellowing a non-stop loop of advice, some of it outdated or incorrect. No dozens of signs and agents barking conflicting commands. Half the number of people staffing a checkpoint, all seemingly actively performing a useful task. No idiot confusion of people standing around, separated from and unable to see their belongings, while waiting for an 'anomaly resolution' grope.
Instead, privileged TSA employees get to party on the US taxpayer dollar while telling non-US security how to do it like we do.
I wonder what the test scores would look like at some of these non-US airports where we have told them how to do things better by copying us. Be funny if they treat pax better with a smaller staff and still get better test scores.
Apr 18, 2016, 10:34 am
#28
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 616
I got yelled at for keeping my passport and BP with me once by a similar TSA worker at another airport. I kept it with me because I had been yelled at for not keeping it with me at a different airport.
Apr 18, 2016, 10:36 am
#29
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Do you think his behavior contributed anything positive? Might his time have been better spent checking IDs to speed things up?
Have you ever witnessed a security screener behaving this way at any non-US airport?
Apr 18, 2016, 10:47 am
#30
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Surrey, BC
Programs: A few, *G,
Posts: 124
yes
yes
yes
Me thinks the vocal few in this thread look for anything to complain about.
Maybe each queue should have a sensitive comfort person assigned for each and every pax, who can speak to each in soft calming levels, soothing their possible anxieties arising from how they will "feel" moving through the inspection queue.
Or one person can convey instructions to many, at the same time. Being loud like a loud speaker is not anger.
yes
yes
Me thinks the vocal few in this thread look for anything to complain about.
Maybe each queue should have a sensitive comfort person assigned for each and every pax, who can speak to each in soft calming levels, soothing their possible anxieties arising from how they will "feel" moving through the inspection queue.
Or one person can convey instructions to many, at the same time. Being loud like a loud speaker is not anger.