So from a TSO perspective, how exactly do you see the TSA management as being crappy?

As a manager, I am sure that my perspective is a little different. The main complaints I hear from TSOs are that managers are too strict about sick leave and that we are too willing to write people up.

Many officers argue with me that sick leave is a benefit that the agency gives them to do with as they please. But that is not the standard that the agency has established. Sick leave is given for officers who are too ill to come to work have family members who require care. It is given as an insurance policy. When officers use excessive leave, it is the manager's responsibility to ensure that it is being used for legitimate medical needs.

I consider myself fairly liberal with regard to sick leave, however I have recently had to do an airport audit of all our officers. Full time TSA employees earn 4 hours of sick leave per pay period, or 104 hours a year. On a traditional schedule (five 8 hour days per week) that is over 10 sick days a year. I simply do not accept that the vast majority of people need to use 10 sick days each year. Certain people are sicker than others, and some people will need to use more sick leave at certain times. It is an insurance policy, you save it so that you have it when you need it.

My audit discovered that of the officers that have been with TSA from the beginning, over ninety five percent had used all but 20 hours of their sick leave. Some of them had serious medical conditions, but most think of sick leave as entitlement that they can use for non medical purposes.

The other concern is that managers are far too willing to use the disciplinary process. My experience has been that TSA has been far too willing to accept unacceptable behavior from its employees. Early on, I witnessed officers take actions that should have resulted in removal. As I rose through the ranks to manager, I saw many get away with all sorts of things because no one documented anything. Supervisors would tell an employee to knock it off, but the same types of behaviors would repeat over and over.

Since I learned early on that nothing happens without documentation, I tend to go to the other extreme. I know that everyone is capable of making mistakes, and I have made my share of them. However the way things get done in the federal government is to follow the disciplinary process.

Castro Benes