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Public Transportation and The Golden Rule: Customers Behaving Badly

July 30, 2010 By 21 Comments

I can’t say enough about how much I LOVE this post from the Flightster blog: The O.C.: The Onboard Conflict! It is so rare for us to get the other side of the coin when it comes to services that so many take advantage of. This stance may sound tough upon first read, but it makes you wonder if too many businesses aren’t just folding under the pressure of the potentially unhappy customer. At some point, the employee must demand respect.

“For the duration of the flight you do have to listen to our instructions and obey as well as abide our airline and FAA regulations. No matter who you are or where you’re from.”

It is just this issue that is causing a driver shortage for the Ride-On bus system in Montgomery County, MD. Drivers are being stretched to their limits by 10 hour workdays driving passengers around in circles, passengers who are not always kind and often try to argue with the driver. The bus driver and passengers involved in this melee will likely never forget what they saw on this day. The saddest part is that the driver is likely not permitted to get involved. This is a graphic video shot by a bus rider of two men fighting on a public bus in Oakland, California.

I took a bus one day that arrived after the preceding one failed to show up. The passengers who had been waiting an hour were very upset but most got on the bus and kept quiet. As we approached another stop, we packed in closer, and I could feel the tension mounting. A woman stepped onto the bus and proceeded to argue with the bus driver about being late and not caring about passengers. Clearly, the driver had had enough. He let her know that he took this shift as overtime and that this bus wouldn’t have even come if he hadn’t done so. She walked quietly into the bus. Afterwards, I spoke with him about the cause of the shortage, and he said no one wants to apply for this job because there is too much stress involved. It takes a special type of person to work all day driving loud and rude people around.

“If people were nicer, the job would be a lot easier. There just aren’t any sweet people anymore,” commented the driver, sadly. I rode quietly the remainder of the way pondering our society and how we treat each other. If everyone who was tired of having to accept bad behavior from customers who treated them as less than human walked out on their jobs, what would we do?

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Comments

  1. Jasmine Henry says:
    July 30, 2010 at 10:49 PM

    Unfortunately there are a lot of rude people who don’t care for hard-working souls like your bus driver. It’s sad that they have to put up with behaviour like that and I feel sorry for the drivers who obviously can’t cope with the stress that the job brings.

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  2. Gurl says:
    July 30, 2010 at 11:00 PM

    If everyone who was sick of being treated poorly by customers quit their jobs, our economy would fall apart. I’ve worked as customer service so I know both sides of the coin. Its tough to give good service when your rules make frivolous and stupid restrictions. Its tough to be the customer on the other end…but there are times when one must be rude to get done what needs to be done. The finesse is knowing when to cross that line and when to add a little more sugar.
    Gurl recently posted..My Blogging Trials and Tribulations A RambleMy ComLuv Profile

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  3. Joanna says:
    August 10, 2010 at 10:32 AM

    I just found your blog from Flightster, and can’t believe how ironic I found this with the JetBlue news from yesterday regarding a FA that walked out on the job. Great post!

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  4. Lauren says:
    August 10, 2010 at 12:40 PM

    Hey Chanelle,

    You know what, since I moved to China, I ask myself that even more than I ever have before. The way the culture is here, people treat one another so terribly. Especially between the upper and lower classes. Its terribly sad to see. And far more extreme than I’ve ever witnessed in parts of the states.

    Most of us that had any kind of part-time job back in high school working in the food and beverage industry can relate to this. Looking back on my time as a server I can remember very vividly some of the true a**holes I waited on. And I can also remember some of the people that were friendly, outgoing, nice customers. They made it worth it.

    No matter how stressful or relaxed a job is, there will always be assholes. There will always be people who don’t understand the big picture. And there will always be times when every once in awhile, without meaning to, maybe we can be an a**hole too.
    Ah, such is life.

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  5. Yasmine (Arrows With Soul) says:
    August 11, 2010 at 2:56 AM

    I like the perspective shared here: that horrid customers are repelling people from doing such jobs.

    In the public buses where I come from, there are now signs in the buses that say “our drivers deserve to work in a safe environment too. stop abuse!”

    there’s actually a lot of nobility in such jobs. we just take it for granted. but when you think about it, you place total TRUST in your bus driver to take you where you want to go in ONE PIECE. just like your hairdressers not to punk out on your hair, your waiters and cooks not to poison your food, etc etc etc :)

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  6. Jools Stone says:
    August 21, 2010 at 1:37 AM

    God, that video clip is really raw and upsetting isn’t it. I wasn’t quite prepared for it. You make a good point Chanelle. On our buses and train stations here in the UK there are lots of very emotive and effective posters reminding people not to abuse staff verbally or physically.(I tried to find one online just now but I couldn’t track one down.) I suppose they’re needed, which is a depressing thought. A good post though!
    Jools Stone recently posted..You could have won a trip to Paris with Eurostar just for votingMy ComLuv Profile

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    July 30, 2010 at 11:32 PM

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