dranz

>> why stop after?

> Why pass up what the OP thought was a good opportunity to
> insult a TSA employee?

Excuse me???

I was *COMPLIMENTING* the TDC's knowledge/work, to her supv, the 2-striper. Whenever I
encounter a 1-striper that is doing their job professionally & pleasantly, I *ALWAYS* stop by the
pedestal and acknowledge/compliment their work by name.

Sadly; in this case, the 2-striper was the dud and thought her 1-striper had screwed-up. The
2-striper asked to see the NEXUS card. She didn't recognize it as an approved ID; so I gave her
TSA's own documentation. That is hardly an insult.

A DHS ID is not an insult. The CCW ID; perhaps ...

SATTSO

Compliment? You mean the veiled insult?

SATTSO

I didn't say either is acceptable. However, we really don't know what the LTSO knew or not about various identification. Considering that the OP was basically telling the LTSO that one of the staff was not as dumb as the rest, I could easily see that LTSO becoming difficult on purpose. Is that the proper behavior? Nope. Yet lets not any of us claim we have always acted properly to others. If any of you tell me you have always been courteous to everyone you work with, or everyone you encounter, you have just proven yourself a liar. And sorry, some of you may not wish to see it as an insult, but telling a supervisor of staff that one of their staff is "unusually" knowledgeable may be looked at as insulting the rest of the staff (if you claim that it can not be so, well, we know that is a lie).

Vidiot

Read the OP's clarification. You know, just above your post.

Or is this yet another TSA poster claiming that the OP lied and that must not have happened the way they describe?

Vidiot

Ah, the bizarro world of the TSA, where even complimenting them can be seen through the lens of victimization and results in intimidation and demands for yet more ID.

Reminds me of the time I wanted to compliment the TSA staff working at RIC a couple years back (pre-NoS.) Funny how the supervisor "didn't have any feedback forms available", until I mentioned that I was pleased with the service and wanted to send a compliment up the pipeline. Then, lo and behold, he just managed to find a form.

(Too bad that behavior kept me from sending it in.)

StanSimmons

Wow! You really are reading from a different universe.

jkhuggins

Actually ... not commenting on SATTSO's remarks specifically, but that attitude is not that unusual. Witness the number of "kids games" these days that deliberately don't have "winners", because praising a "winner" in a game might hurt the self-esteem of those who didn't win ...

chollie

I guess it's a good thing that earlier this year I tried to submit a compliment for an employee, but didn't manage to do so.

The TSO was professional and courteous and it was the least slimy grope I've received so far. In particular, The TSO's general attitude was great - based just on attitude to pax alone (without cutting any corners), this TSO is an asset to the checkpoint.

Unfortunately, I had to wait just over ten minutes for someone to arrive to speak to me. Then he didn't know where the forms were or if they were even available. That took another ten minutes. When he brought me the form, I pointed out the TSO I wanted to compliment, because my remarks were specifically about one TSO.

Well, he wasn't allowed to give out TSO names (not even first names) or some kind of badge or employee number. Instead, he told me to fill the form out there, return it to him and he would fill in the relevant TSO information and submit the form.

By that time, it was too close to flight time and I just left. I didn't have time to collect my thoughts and write a good note.

Also makes me wonder - does anyone really believe that if I had written a scathing criticism of that checkpoint and handed the form back to the LTSO/STSO that the form would have been submitted?

Sorry, TSA. I am almost obsessive about following up on exceptional employee behavior (even called about a cable installer who did a fantastic job). FA's, store clerks, furnace installers, you name it.

But I am not going to spend crazy amounts of time trying to figure out a way to provide feedback, postive or negative, to an organization that goes out of its way to make the process cumbersome and questionable as far as its integrity and reliability.

Hopefully that TSO will get deserved recognition through other channels.

4nsicdoc

Reminds me of the search and rescue mission that picked up 10 TSOs and one non-TSA fisherman from a boat in the Gulf. Seems the UH-1 couldn't carry that much weight. The loadmaster yelled that one had to go. So the 11, all hanging on for dear life from rescue ropes, were deciding who would go. The citizen immediately volunteered, saying, "I will do anything to keep my country safe. The country needs you brave smurfs." The 10 TSOs all started loudly clapping.

SATTSO

My point of my original post was that we have no idea what the LTSO knew or not. I simply stated I read the OPs statement as a veiled insult - when you approach someone in a supervisory position and say that one employee is "unusually knowledgeable" it can be interpreted as mean other employees are not, which can easily be taken as an insult, whether any of you like it or not. There is a difference in saying an employee is very knowledgeable and unusually knowledgeable.

And then you have to observe the OPs actions after the LTSOs first response.

All the posters on this thread are doing is ASSUMING they know what is going on in the LTSOs mind; the LTSO may have taken the comment wrong, we have no way of knowing. I simply pointed out that more than one possibility exist, that we should assume we can read the mind of the LTSO and know exactly what they meant.

Or have any of you ever had to say "I meant that as a compliment." If you say you haven't, then you know you have lied. And if you admit the truth that you have had to say that before, then you have to admit it is possible that there is more than one explanation for the LTSOs actions, even if you or I do not agree with it.

OttawaMark

Well, I can say that I have been courteous to everyone I've dealt with in my career. If you think I'm telling a lie then all I can say is that it's reflective of your appalling attitude towards people. Just because you can't imagine someone always being courteous doesn't mean it doesn't happen. It does happen, although from your statement it's easy to infer that you've never met a fellow TSO who hasn't been deliberately discourteous.

OttawaMark

Well the LTSO said he'd never seen a Nexus card. Are you now asserting that the LTSO may not have been telling the truth?

asnovici

TSA clerks insult themselves every day they show up for that job program. Take it from a native Russian speaker.

IrishDoesntFlyNow

Geez. That's the most bizarre thing I've ever read. Paranoid much?

I can honestly say that, as a manager, I've never been insulted if someone told me one of my staff was "unusually knowledgeable".

~~ Irish

Wally Bird

Virtue is its own reward.