In Defense of TSA’s Rudeness

You know what grinds my gears? People who are too selfish to follow simple rules designed to make everyone’s life easier.

At many airports now, they have multiple security check-lines. One is for the “Expert Traveler.” The sign at the start of that line basically says, “This is for people familiar with TSA procedures, have their routine down, and will have everything ready to go when they get to the front of the line.” Makes sense right?

The problem with this system is that it requires people to self-select. And it seems that people either can’t read or don’t care…

A few days ago I was in an airport security line when I hear the TSA employee call out, rather loudly, “You need to have your boarding pass out, your liquids and gels in a separate bag, laptops out of the case, and all metal off. You are in the expert lane – you should know this.”

My first thought was, “wow, that’s a little rude.”

My second thought was, “good for her!”

I know, this is dicey territory. I am big into polite courteous behavior and great customer service. On the other hand, I am also into people not doing stupid and selfish things.

You see, the expert line was shorter than the “casual traveler” line, so of course people walked up to the entrance and didn’t really care about what lane they were supposed to be in. They just jumped into whichever line would be best for them. That, by definition, is selfish. And I for one am glad that TSA called people out for that. I would not have minded if those people had been kicked to the back of the casual traveler line!

Don’t get me wrong; If a TSA worker had sounded rude or impatient because someone messed up the procedure in the casual line, I would have considered them out of line. But these people stepped up, raised their hand and said, “I deserve to be in the shorter faster line because I am familiar with how this works.” They deserve to be slapped around a bit.

That’s the challenge with self-regulated guidelines. People will take advantage and not care. We see it all the time:

• People using “10 item or less” lanes when they clearly have more than 10 items
• People puttering along in the left “fast” lane
• People jumping way out of order when a new cashier opens up and says, “can I help who’s next?”
• People who try to cut into an exit lane at the last minute so they can bypass the long line of traffic (thus messing up two lanes of traffic

I see two lessons here:

If You Want Proper Service, Be a Proper Customer

The minute you act selfish, rude, or inconsiderate, you forfeit the right to demand good service. I’m not saying that it’s a good idea for the business to respond in kind (it’s usually not) but if they do, well, you get what you deserve.

Decide When Good Service For One Rude Person is Outweighed by Bad Service to Many Others

I think this is the toughest customer service situation to deal with. You’ve been there: you’re standing in line and the person at the front is taking forever with endless questions and inane requests. The line backs up, and you start getting annoyed. This is a tough balance, because the person at the front of the line isn’t doing anything wrong; they just need a lot of help, and the establishment is usually right in being as attentive as possible.

BUT, when the offending party is not following the “rules,” so to speak, the situation changes. When a new cashier opens up and the person says, “I can help who’s next,” and someone who was eight spaces back jumps to the front of the new line, would you be offended if the cashier politely said, “excuse me sir, but I think that person was next?” I sure as heck wouldn’t. I would applaud them.

It is a tough line to walk, and you always need to maintain professionalism and courtesy, but I think more businesses could establish more goodwill by simply not letting the selfish people take advantage of the polite ones…

About

By Avish Parashar. As the world's only Motivational Improviser, Avish uses techniques from the world of improv comedy to engage, entertain, and educate audiences on ideas around change, creativity, and motivation. Connect with Avish on Google+

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