Originally Posted by
Tom M.
Another way to look at this situation is to realize how easily a group of TSO's at a checkpoint can be diverted from their primary mission.
If these TSO's were professional, they would have not taken the actions they did. Not necessarily because of courtesy to the OP, but based solely on security reasons. Resources and attention were diverted to a person who wasn't a threat. If the OP had been working as part of a team, the others would have possibly had an easier time getting something through the checkpoint.
My private theory on this is that those who are distracted come into the job with personality problems. We know that happens in every workplace. No two people do the job with equal efficiency. And a lot of the difference comes from personal issues. Theoretically, you might train enough to overcome that, but I think reality is you never do. So when someone gets overbearing, it is perhaps because they either believe others don't respect them or, worse, they don't really respect themselves. That fuels intense emotion whenever anything hits that hot button.