So, I travel a lot, as many of you do…
The TSA folks aren’t my favorite people, obviously, but I do understand they are merely the object of my ire and not the cause if it; and they have a job to do, that I sincerely hope they do well.
But seriously… look at this picture. It’s a sign posted at the Elite check-in line at Houston’s Intercontinental airport. If you are having trouble reading it, here’s what it says:
“Thank you for your patience as we carry out security procedures designed for your safety and required by law.
Our Transportation Security Officers also have rights. To protect their safety, threats, verbal abuse, or violence of any kind will not be tolerated.
Please give our officers the respect they deserve.
“Your safety is our priority.”
Really??
Are you kidding me?? Nowhere (I looked) was there a sign about respecting travelers, or that travelers had any rights at all. Do we? Why would you put something like this on display in such a prominent location, with no context at all?
I mentioned the sign to the agent at the I.D. desk, she said “well, some people aren’t very nice.”
Really?? Not nice? The horrors of it all…
I travel frequently (much to my dismay). I see a real “jerk” traveler emerge maybe once every third trip or so. That’s it. Hardly common, clearly an exception to the norm.
This has application in your organization. If you have problem employees, pain-in-the-ass people that annoy everyone, do only the minimum to get by, and/or are simply disruptive… Deal with them.Swiftly, mercilessly, and definitively.
Don’t create some over-arching “policy,” thereby penalizing all for the transgressions of a simple few.
I still can’t believe that sign.
But that’s just me…
