Originally Posted by
chollie
People can not maintain a state of 100% focused red alert for long periods of time.
It's even more difficult when you are trying to maintain a state of ready alertness while looking over your shoulder and carrying on personal conversations with co-workers and playing with your cellphone with barking co-workers and overly-loud taped messages blaring in the background.
Perfect place to test someone's powers of concentration. TSA does nothing to make it easier for their folks to stay focused, ie, ban barking, personal conversations and cellphones at the checkpoint.
I've seen the same behaviors in emergency rooms where I've been regular or on call staff. You need good supervisors who stay on top of the situation though even they can get sucked into it.