Originally Posted by Bart
Supervisors run screening operations and screening managers manage them. Managers are not supposed to be in the weeds. There's nothing wrong with this concept although you apparently believe in micromanagement. What should happen is that the screening manager ensures the supervisor resolves the situation professionally and competently. Should screening managers know the SOP? Well, they should be familiar with it or at least know where to look things up should there be any specific questions about a certain procedure. However, they are not nor should they be involved in the mechanics of screening operations. Problem is that we do have some who are, and it makes screening that much more frustrating for screeners, leads and supervisors because everything becomes a matter of politics and cheap PR.
No, I don't support micromanagement. However, there is a big problem if management doesn't know the SOP. It's a big problem that screeners aren't familiar with it either (or at least appear to be), as they're the ones that are supposed to be enforcing it.
I might be a relatively low person at work and haven't been working there as long as others have (well, if you go by the GS scale, I'm an 11, so not terribly low), but I for darn sure know enough of the SOP to do my job and to keep out of trouble for violating it (and yes, it can have serious consequences). If I don't know a procedure, I ask.
Bart, you and I both know that a lot of the "security" going on now is politics and cheap PR. If it wasn't, we wouldn't have shoe carnivals, multiple ID checks, people barking at checkpoints, etc and more resources going to bigger vulnerabilities like cargo and personnel that actually have access to the plane (a la catering trucks). It's CYA mode to appear like they're doing something to protect us, but it puts undue pain and strain on folks like you and folks like the rest of us.
If I'm going to complain, I want to take my complaint to someone who knows their stuff. If the screener knows more than management, we're all screwed. That means that TSA is an inverted pyramid with the knowledge at the bottom of the heap with management on top with little knowledge. Maybe that's the case now.
I know you know a lot and that you don't fit that mold. However, the average screeners (and supervisors for that matter) fit that mold.
Super