... About Thankless Jobs.1

(Sorry for the long layoff. No way to blog without interrupting an already full schedule. After we deal with today's topic fora few days, we'll move on to discussing some of the stuff I heard last wekk at my seminar.)

Thankless jobs. There are many. I encountered a few in my travels this week. One that tops the list is Airline Ticket Agent. When things are well for travelers, this person goes unnoticed; you don’t even know they are there. You may see their tired smile as they rip your boarding pass and send you on your merry way. But, when things are not going well for your flight, you notice them. They are the ones you see being yelled at. Take my week in the great flying adventure:

My problems included a weight restriction delay that ended up being a total re-schedule, to sitting on a runway for two hours waiting for weather to pass in Chicago, (which, as I am writing, is happening presently and I may end up missing my connecting flight home), to having to drop off a rental car at one airport while flying out of another.

When things go badly for flights, these people take the brunt of everyone’s anger. From my experience, there are just a few other things in life that people get more stressed-out over than when flying goes wrong. It’s an amazing transformation that people go through. You know how you look around at everyone flying with you – your flying companions and you wonder about who they are, what they do, where they are going (hey, I know I’m not the only one that does that!). You think: these seem like nice people. When things go badly flying, these quiet, unassuming people turn into whining, complaining bullies. I’ve seen this happen.

All the while, these Airline Ticket Agents take everything in stride, handle everybody’s requests, find new flights, give out vouchers, give out hotel vouchers and show people how to call for rides to these hotels, all usually with that same tired smile. It always amazes me how upset people get when things don’t exactly as planned. Sometimes I find myself getting frustrated; more so when traveling with my family (I guess I’m stressed out enough for them!). I try not to let it show to the people working, because I know this is not their fault.

I guess the purpose of my article today is to say thank you. Thank you to these people that toil on doing their thing while the world gets mad and complain. So, I guess since I just said thank you to them they are no longer involved in a totally thankless job. That is however until the next time a flight gets messed up and people start yelling anyway.

How about you? Anyone have another thankless job nominee? Let me know.