Originally Posted by
TSO1973
Contrary to what appears here on this board, there are many TSO's out there who do try their very best to do their jobs with respect and courtesy to the passengers. Unfortunately it's the bad ones we all hear about. It's a well known fact that word of a bad experience get's out exponentially faster than a good experience does, and that while unfortunate, is simply the reality. I'm sure many of the most ardent disparagers of TSA ( hi Spiff!) have had decent encounters with TSA, but it's the bad encounters that get the attention.
There's a reason for that.
First, there's something called the hygiene factor (first applied to a study of what made employees happy or unhappy, but easily applied to situations such as the checkpoint staff and passengers). It refers to some characteristic which is no big deal when it goes right, but unacceptable when it goes wrong.
There's a restaurant I know where the wine is stored near the open doors to the terrace; sparrows fly in and out all day and the bottles in the wine rack are dusted with birdshit.
I don't eat there, because I don't really want birdshit on my table when they bring the bottle. On the other hand, when I decide to go to another restaurant, I never say "let's eat
there; it's really
clean!" Hygiene is a requirement, but not a selling point.
Second, no matter how much respect and courtesy you bring to your job, you're implementing rules (liquid restrictions, shoe carnival, ID checks, WBI, patting down 8-year-olds) that many of us find illogical, repugnant, unnecessary and/or illegal. It's better to do those things politely than rudely, of course. And I notice that you distinguish between "decent" and "bad" experiences rather than "good" and "bad", so I think you understand this.
Putting these two things together, it's almost inevitable that a person carrying out stupid rules from HQ in a rude way is going to provoke a very negative response, while someone carrying out those rules in a polite way is going to get a shrug and be forgotten. As you say, it's the reality. I imagine the people who clean the tables at my favourite restaurants know how you feel.
