A job at McDonald’s is a position most people would deem ‘beneath them.’ ‘McJob’ is used as a generic description (slur) of any job of perceived low-status.
I found it to be a satisfying and educational experience, and I think it is a great high school job. There is light camaraderie with an ever-change cast of co-workers, and you get free food.
The challenge and pleasure of working for Ray Kroc’s baby is the human interactions. It helps to be a people person.
McDonald’s, the US Army, running distribution centers, consulting…these are all people-first jobs that I have enjoyed. You are interacting and talking and generally being a people person.
And yet, there are many people-first jobs that I am certain I would enjoy less. Teaching and law enforcement come immediately to mind.
But there is one people-first job I am even more certain I would never, under any circumstances, accept.
From the TSA recruitment website: Transportation Security Officer (TSOs) and Security Support Assistants (SSAs) are the face of the agency, the people on the front lines who play an important role at TSA. For many people, working as a TSO or SSA has led to a long, fulfilling career with the federal government.
Any guesses on what makes a great TSO?
Now, close your eyes and recount your last TSA interaction. Did you experience a People Person?
Were I to rewrite this, I might characterize this slightly differently: ’You’re a person who is able to deal with people’.
Because as bad as many TSOs seem to be, they are surrounded every day by the only thing worse: THOUSANDS of people who only experience an airport twice a year.
Those thousands might also be people people too, but they do not make things easy for the People Persons at the TSA.
The challenge is a collision of empathy-less tensions. TSA agents spent all their time dealing with stressed out travelers and have long since emptied their reservoirs of care. Infrequent travelers are in the consumption phase of a relatively large financial outlay and/or have high expectations and stress because they are embarking on an important vacation or trip, and thus are transiting on a knife’s edge of emotion.
This is not helped by the fact that the TSA manages to operate differently in every location, with different rules, procedures, execution, criteria, and focus. It’s a lot of people persons navigating an insanely managed environment without any charity toward each other.
It does not have to be like this. I know this because over the course of a year of travel outside of the US, we never had nor witnessed a TSA-like interaction. The absurdity of security at US airports is a largely an American phenomenon (also the low-cost airports in the UK are absolutely bonkers, but we didn’t go there during adventure year, and their problem is more related to Ryanair travelers). Of course people are harried at airports worldwide, but nothing compares to the tension of the US. This is a problem of our own making.
I’m very sure many consultants have been deployed to try and help the TSA, so I do not need to add to that mountain of external opinion by trying to have a solution for them. Just keep hiring more people people, I guess (and, for the love of all that is holy, standardize your processes between airports).
As for travelers?
Many, many years ago, I had a Southwest flight from LAX. My father was the guy in this video, therefore I am also the guy in this video. As such, I arrived quite early for my flight, on an airline with no lounge, at a time in my life when I would neither have rated lounge access or had disposable income to burn in an airport eatery. Thus, I sat at the gate and watched people.
Specifically, I watched Richard Simmons. The Richard Simmons, you ask? Yes, because he was wearing his standard outfit and was a remarkable ball of energy. He was hard to miss.
I watched him spend nearly an hour, in a common airport waiting area, chat and shriek and dance and take pictures and sign things and listen and treat every single interaction like the person to whom he was speaking had made-his-day by coming up to him. It was incredible. He held babies, he talked to people about their fitness journey. He told everyone they looked great, were doing the right thing, were strong enough to keep at it. He was so, so loud. Every verbalization was an exclamation. He was all over the waiting area. He was happy to be in that moment and was delighted to make everyone else happy in their moment.
That’s a people person.
Being a Richard Simmons-level people person is not attainable for most of us, myself especially. But it is possible to create circumstances by which travelers are able to more people people.
Give yourself time and space to reduce pressure.
Do not worry about what you cannot control to reduce anxiety and become more present.
Orient yourself towards others to improve your experience.
I used wear headphones from the moment I entered an airport, typically without anything playing, just as a defense to not interact with anyone in my commute. Now I don’t. Granted, I’m never going to be the gregarious one, but I can be more more people person in a place that desperately needs them.