Some things to know about the TSOs

Some things to know about the TSOs.

TSOs comprise a broad range of individuals, from folks right out of high school to retirees, all races and religions and all levels of education. I think the only common factor is that they are all US citizens or nationals. I have never worked in a more diverse environment and I think it is great. In general, most TSOs are just like you – they just want to get through their shift as smoothly as possible and go home. I don’t know of a single TSO who enjoys doing pat downs or digging through a passenger’s bag. They would love to see every passenger breeze through screening with no intervention and be on his/her way. However, when required, a TSO is trained to enforce a carefully defined set of rules and perform a carefully defined set of procedures intended to help ensure airline passenger safety.

TSOs possess a wide range of social skills but almost all will treat you in a fashion similar to how you treat them. If you are courteous and respectful, they will almost certainly return the favor. In my experience about 85% of all passengers are totally courteous and cooperative, about 13% are not particularly pleased but don’t rock the boat and about 2% are complete jerks.

Whenever I encounter a complete jerk, I do what I have been trained to do – call for a supervisor to take over. Especially when we are busy, it can take ten or fifteen minutes for a supervisor to become free and respond to my request. In the meantime, the passenger goes nowhere. Once the supervisor arrives, he/she performs the same procedure that I would have done if the passenger had been cooperative. So the passenger has now pissed away twenty minutes of his/her time to do exactly what would have been done initially. Now tell me what problem he/she has solved and for whom? Meanwhile, I am not helping with passenger screening so this individual is inconsiderately delaying his/her fellow passengers.

As with most companies, there is a pecking order at the TSA. You can tell the rank of a TSO by noting the number of stripes on his/her shoulder boards. One stripe is your basic TSO (that is me). Two stripes is a lead TSO and three stripes is a supervisory TSO. If you ever feel that you are being treated improperly, have a question about the rules or procedures, or just want to vent, ask for a supervisor (supervisory TSO). That way the worker bee TSOs can get back to work helping passengers on their way.

There is a uniform set of rules and procedures for passenger screening that apply across all airports in the US. TSOs have no discretion when it comes to following the rules and procedures. If a TSO violates a rule or doesn’t precisely follow a procedure he/she is liable for disciplinary action, which could include suspension without pay or termination. While that would be inconvenient for someone like myself, it would be devastating for full time TSOs. These jobs are at the very bottom of the government pay scale but young families, single parents and just plain regular folks trying to get by depend on them. You should understand that what may appear to be overzealous behavior on the part of the TSO may be just, arguably misplaced, concern with following procedures. They are just trying to do their job and stay out of trouble.

Each TSO has an assigned position with a particular role and responsibilities (x-ray, metal detector, etc). They rotate among different positions during the course of their shift. In most cases, a TSO is prohibited from leaving his/her position. Sometimes it may seem like they are being unhelpful but frequently that is because TSA rules prevent them from leaving their post – and there is normally a good reason why.

Previous Table of Contents Next

Disclaimer: This material was written by a private citizen hoping to be helpful, not as a representative of the federal government, the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority or of the Transportation Security Administration. Any opinions expressed as well as any inaccuracies are solely the author’s.