As promised, here is part 2 from yesterday's impassioned letter from a co-worker and reader of the blog.
The Growing Divide between The Hard Workers and “The Wall Flowers”
by IronSublimation
In most other places to work, the trend is often this: the more you do, the better the rewards. With CAS, that trend is the opposite. The more you do, the more chances you have of making a mistake, thus, potential termination.
It has been my constant observation that there are two types of TSOs: the ones that work hard and go beyond their call of duty and the ones that do the bare minimum. I think that last sentence is pretty self-explanatory.
You have the ones that walk away when they hear “[gender] assists” and the ones that actively listen for these calls. You have the ones that hang around the supervisor podium or office, chomping it up with a terminal manager (Shelley Burrell) or other supervisors and the ones that remain on the floor working their posterior off until their next break. Need I go further?
Anyway, the real issue is the growing divide between the two groups. This divide happens at the officer level, the lead level, and supervisor/management level. At the officer level, the hard working group observes the actions (or lack thereof) of the wallflowers. We see it as unfair that we are doing all of the work and that they are doing the bare minimum. But do we complain on the floor? No, because we have a job to do.
At the lead level, leads are responsible for rotations and delegation of duties. A good lead will enforce their authority to delegate and be as fair as possible. A bad lead will take the path of least resistance, which is to delegate the work to a hard working officer who will most likely not resist the request. The wallflowers will resist or will use their friendship with the lead (if they have one) not to do any work or be called out. How many times have you seen hard workers tapped out of a position to get an “assist” and see on the other side of the checkpoint several officers of the same gender as you, doing nothing?
At the supervisor level, when faced with the duty of delegating officer work, the supervisor falls into the same boat as leads: taking the path of least resistance. But a far more sinister path of least resistance lies within the enforcement of rules and actual supervisory work.
I’ve lost count how many times I have seen a supervisor critique or chastise an officer that was chewing gum, talking on an x-ray, or missing a step in a procedure. I applaud that move because at the very least, they are doing what they are supposed to be doing, which is supervising. Perhaps a little more tact in delivering the critique may be in line for some, however, I am sure they mean well.
The issue with certain supervisors is when the critiques become selective to those who offer little resistance. How many times have you been chastised for talking on the x-ray, even if for a tiny period? And how many times have you seen others, who have the reputation of being a resistor or wallflower, continue to talk and talk without receiving any reprimand? I bet you’ve lost count… if you’re a hard worker.
Finally, to complete this divide, we must look to the management level. After all that I’ve said above, we hard workers, not wall flowers, continually observe the actions of our fellow officers, leads, and supervisors. We grow progressively frustrated with all that we see around us. To see this divide promoted by the management, perhaps inadvertently, makes matters even worse. While we are working hard on the floor, we see certain wallflowers cozy it up with the managers, conversing and laughing. While I have no problem with conversations and laughter, it’s the timing of it and the people involved.
It is always the same people who are “hanging out” with the terminal manager; the same people who talk to no end while running the x-ray without getting reprimanded. It is the same people who stand along the wall barely doing anything and walking away when an “assist” is called. We hard working officers are not stupid and we see all of this. A particular example of a terminal manager that does this, quite openly it seems, is Shelley Burrell; unprofessional and unacceptable. It is about time that we take action.
Solutions: Promote officers that value hard work and fairness. Force management to maintain professionalism and to limit fraternization with subordinates. Prevent supervisors from having to complete the bureaucratic processes of TSA (read: paperwork) and keep them on the floor, monitoring the checkpoint actively instead of passively. Educate the leadership on the need for them to maintain a professional and fair attitude, keep personal relationships outside of the work environment, and perform their duties objectively, not subjectively. A possible problem with the last solution is the fact that the problem persists at the top, who would need to be the ones to enact such solutions.
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