Airport security is a topic on which I could write volumes detailing its craziness. For now, we’ll just focus on one woman.
The shortest version I can tell and feel I’ve done this woman justice is this: While trying to get to Cleveland, Ohio for my grandfather’s funeral in February, I set off the alarm twice because I forgot my cell phone was in my back pocket, and therefore needed to be wand searched off to the side.
Fine. It was my fault; I had no problem with it. So I waited in the little fiberglass box for about ten minutes before anyone showed up to execute the search.
The woman who eventually came over was a real piece of work. Attitude like you wouldn’t believe and the ugliest scowl on her face I’ve ever seen on a “lady.” She never looked at me; she merely threw her head back and motioned for me to step out of the box. While walking to the search area, we passed my family who were all laughing at me for getting myself into this mess.
The horrible security woman screws up her face and says, “Huh, don’t even touch them.”
What? Then I saw it. She was mad that she had to get out of the comfy booth upstairs and work, and I was being forced to pay for it. She then subjected me to about 15 different embarrassing search procedures before she walked away and left me standing there with my legs spread wide, and both my arms out with the palms up. She was gone for at least three minutes, then came back, said, “You’re free to go,” and walked off.
I wasn’t going to take this ridiculous treatment. I jogged up to her and said, “You know, I could have done without all the attitude.”
What she said next is a perfect example of the quality of the airport staff. With her demeaning tone and ever-so-disgusting smirk, she said, “I did you a favor. I could have left you there for hours!”
“NO,” I said, “You did your JOB.”
She then told me how she was the supervisor, to which my only response was, “That’s a shame,” and then my father grabbed me by the arm and pulled me down the aisle. That snot got lucky . . . there was a lot more coming her way.
This security woman did a lot to make my already difficult trip even worse. But even though she upset me, the worst part of it is that this kind of treatment and attitude runs wild throughout airports across the globe. The people I dealt with were the exact stereotype of the average airline employee, ignorant, dim-witted, indignant and lazy.
Traveling is hard enough without having to battle your way through the sea of attitude-filled employees who couldn’t care less about you, your safety or your comfort. I will never forget the appalling way I was treated that day. It was something that could have, and most definitely should have been prevented-had professional and appropriate behavior been required from all staff members, at all times.
When management stops caring about people, everyone eventually looses out. I beg each of you to remember this as you go to your jobs, and serve people food, check groceries or answer phones. Don’t be a jerk. There is nothing to gain from it, no matter how justified you feel your behavior is.