When tsa was new, and they first came out with tsa-compatible luggage “locks” ….
- I left my luggage locks on the zipper pull, not locking anything … they cut them off! And left a nasty note inside my luggage about non-standard “locks”
- I did try the standard “locks” once, although they seemed more useless than ordinary suitcase locks. Yep, they cut them off
The weird thing about this thread is just how many people hate the TSA.
And I’m not suggesting they shouldn’t, but - it’s weird. I don’t hate the guys and girls who work at airport security anywhere else (and I fly a lot, around Europe and Asia.) They’re just people doing a job that I regret is necessary, on the whole keeping people safe. Even the ones in China with a battery and cigarette lighter fetish.
What is it about the US that means as soon as someone gets even the remotest sniff of ‘power’ that they have to turn into a monumental asshole? There has to be something about education, society, organisation structures, whatever that makes the US almost uniquely like the Stanford Prison Experiment on a continental scale.
I had the TSA is NYC chastise me and almost deny me flying because I didn’t have real ID. It wasn’t even required yet. Not my fault Oregon is the last state to accept Real ID is here.
Alternatively I usually have pretty good experiences with the pdx TSA. Guy got a good laugh once when he had to search my bag and found my harmonica neckband.
It’s not just a few workers letting things goto their heads, but tsa is the embodiment of “security theater”. High visibility, truckloads of money, and sometimes it’s hard to see how they’re helping actual safety, more than just inconveniencing everyone to look like they are. Some of their choices and practices have been remarkably ineffective while also being remarkably expensive
They’re just people doing a job that I regret is necessary…
I think this is the difference, many people believe that the TSA are not necessary nor effective.
9/11 (which was the fuel to create the TSA) happened because at that time the expected response when you (as the passenger) plane was hijacked, was to stay calm and sit and wait for the plane to land, while random demands/negotiations were made with local governments. Yes, a few people might be killed as an “example” or threat, but if you wanted patiently your government would save you.
9/11 shattered that illusion/“rules of engagement”. Now, all of the sudden, if your plane is hijacked you’ll find yourself as an unwilling participant in someone’s suicide run and your only way to survive will be to fight as though your life depends on it (because it does).
I this respect, the complacency of 9/11 will never happen again regardless if the TSA exists or not.
I mean, sure, if the only threat you can imagine is an exact replica of 9/11, sure, I guess they’re useless. But there have been far more people killed by bombs on airliners than 9/11, and someone needs to do the screening.
It can be true that the TSA are assholes, and also that US airport security was laughable before 9/11 and someone probably ought to be checking baggage for threats. Particularly while, as a nation, you seem to be doing everything in your power to make every country in the world except Russia hate you.
And don’t forget that airports were unprepared, and took years to figure out how to handle it. Arguably they still don’t, since I last year I had to wait in a security line that stretched outside the terminal, and down the sidewalk
I still find it fairly wild that on US domestic arrivals they seemingly dump your baggage straight onto the sidewalk and you have to race to get to it before the nearest tramp does… There is much about US airport design that seems absurd in an international context.
Are the airport facilities (i.e. how much space is given over to security, how many scanners there will be, the queuing arrangements, that sort of thing) part of TSA’s remit, or is that someone else’s problem and they just work with what they’re given by the airport authorities (genuine question)? Because as an outsider, it doesn’t feel like “having basic airport security” is an absurd thing - it’s “doing it badly with completely inadequate capacity” that is. It doesn’t have to be that way (nowhere else in the world seems to have this problem), but it seems like in the US instead of doing the job properly they’ve instead decided to just come up with an endless number of schemes to allow people to pay to jump the queue instead of actually fixing the queue. I guess if that’s the TSA’s responsibility, I’d probably hate them too…
Sure, the inadequate airport facilities are part of the problem. Facilities have generally been sufficient for the older approach where airlines were responsible for security and have had huge problems scaling up. I think the airport really gives space, and tsa decides how to use it, how many scanners to set up, how many people to have on duty at any time, etc. It doesn’t help that it’s one more entity to coordinate with for airports As terminals are remodeled over the years, they have been getting better. However many of us still feel like we need to get to airports two hours ahead of our flights and expect to spend most of that in the security line
Personally I’m surprised it hasn’t
causeda terrorist attack. If “terrorist” is largely about how many people you can terrorize … Instead of everyone being scattered across many gates where they can’t be reached without going through the airport and dealing with security, now you have hundreds of people clustered near the entrance, seemingly much more vulnerable, for a much larger attack. It seems like an obvious security hole and none of the security theater addresses it
No pay, no work. Them’s the rules.
Hey, he doesn’t want to give up the power to legally molest strangers.
Or his retirement and health insurance
“Y’know, Earl, I never had a fetish for grannies or pancake tits until I started this job. But five years in … ?”
Or his retirement and health insurance
Unfortunately, when you work for the government, it’s not that simple.
HOWEVER, work to rule is very much a thing. If your job description doesn’t say you do it, don’t do it. Stick to established work hours. Let your manager cover the shortfalls that result. It’s ot like they can dock your pay, and stripping your benefits package for doing the job you agreed to is highly illegal and may provide an extra multimillion dollar windfall.
“Other duties as assigned” is the bane of my existence
Get another job, TSA is and always has been a farce and a joke.
If he wants taxpayer money, perhaps he should consider a line of work that’s beneficial to taxpayers.
This is 100% not a requirement to receive government money. The vast majority is not spent for the benefit of taxpayers.
Thanks, Sherlock.
Nobody has claimed otherwise.
But he’s unlikely to get much sympathy from people who notice that what he does for work shouldn’t be allowed, let alone paid out of their pockets.
Communist!!!
Sorry… Sorry. I just got out of federally mandated class.
One of my coworkers actually is former TSA that left after the last shutdown.
She was looking for a job longer than the shutdown was happening. The job market is rough and I genuinely can’t blame someone for sticking to something where they know they will at least be paid at the end of it as compared to job hunting where it can take months.
If I was a TSA agent not getting paid, I’d not bother taking anyone’s water bottle away. Let them pop on the plane. May the cabin be forever soggy.
Air travel was cooler when your soda bottle was an all in one demonstration of altitude and air pressure.
Are the cans they serve made different?
Neither bottles nor cans will actually explode because the difference between the cabin and sea level air pressure isn’t that much and the containers are already able to handle some. When you’d open a plastic bottle you’d get a bit of a pop. And if you drank most of the bottle and resealed it, it’d crumple when you returned to sea level.
The effect only applies to gas since it’s compressible under pressure. Liquid isn’t, so it doesn’t matter what the outside pressure is. So the cans (and full bottles) might have a little pop from the gas at the top and it might be a little fizzier at altitude, but most of the volume is liquid so it’s not that much.
Yeah; I had a job once where I went without pay for a few months on more than one occasion. My family paid the price. Eventually, I cut my losses and moved on to better employment.
I hope you stole things
Stole your fucking sandwich. Wasn’t even hungry, just wanted to feel something. Didn’t eat it… Kept it in my drawer until my coworkers started to complain, and then I hid it in Janice’s desk.
Finally felt fucking alive again. Alive enough to eat the 34 erasers from the supplies cabinet.
“I understand that the landlord needs to get paid.”
Seems like any time the federal government tells a worker they need to work without pay they should also mandate that all their debts and rent should be paused as well.
What’s also interesting is while the Federal government is unable to pay its workers, the people at the top are sure living large.
GOP senator criticizes Pentagon’s $93B spending binge on fruit baskets and king crabs
My employer stops paying, I stop working. Simple as. Quit and hope someone will employ an unrepentant authoritarian.
I don’t know that the TSA is a repository of true believers. They’ve mostly seem bored and annoyed when I’ve passed through.
I could see why people would stick with it. It’s a relatively low-stress job that pays decently, has government labor protections, government benefits, and doesn’t require a lot of education. Some searching suggests the average pay of a TSA worker is $56k. Plus retirement and health insurance. And the only credential required is a high school diploma or a GED.
What other job that requires nothing more than a high school diploma has pay and benefits that good? Maybe if you start your own business up. But in terms of wage labor, very few things come as good, at that education level, as a TSA job. A couple, each working at the TSA, can easily bring in $100-150k per year if they stay there awhile.
It’s quite understandable why the TSA agents won’t quit during a shutdown. When the money is flowing, being a TSA agent is a pretty decent gig.
The other jobs are: Military, Police, Postal Worker. I wouldn’t consider the first two under current circumstances, but I was in the Military, within 4 years my total monetary compensation was in the ballpark of 85k plus retirement, plus free healthcare.
Other options include working up to management in retail or food chains, it’s easier to make that kind of money than you are giving credit for.
If they weren’t authoritarians, they wouldn’t be working for an enforcement agency of the government. They don’t need to be true believers to be on a side.
Welp time to get a real job
Most likely ICE though
Quit
I feel really bad about that, anyway…
Then maybe he should get a real job. Or start selling some of the ‘contraband’ he ‘confiscated’ from people (otherwise known as the TSA side hustle).
