I am in the Air Force and work in Air Terminal Operations Center. Itis really just a big title meaning that we make sure things get done ontime.
My job entails a wide rage of responsibilities from making sure thatpassengers and cargo are downloaded and uploaded in a timely manner and thecrews of the aircrafts don’t cry due to lack of coffee. My shift is smallwith only two main characters and I’m one of them, but we do interact withthe other two shifts daily. I have in time come to the conclusion that halfof my coworkers are bipolar and the other half of them are crazy. A shiftchange and complete shift can always result in the maximum amount of rudeand impolite things said to each other. Although we bicker and have a lackof knowledge in certain areas of politeness, we get the mission complete.
On an average day I show up at 2:15 p. m. , a good 20 minutes earlyjust to try to figure what is going on that day and listen to all thethings I supposedly messed up the day prior. Day shift has only two realplayers and one day the police are bound to be called due to violenceexhibited toward each other.
SSgt Brown and SrA Gibson are a greatcombination and a great example of craziness, but amazingly day after daythey get their job completed. On any single day you can walk in and see oneof them throw a back pack at the other for something as simple as the backpack being in the way. They constantly bicker back and forth about smallthings from a lunch schedule to who is going to put paper in the printer. Although they play around and goof off, as soon as a plane lands and thereis work to do they get the job done. Given there are always sly commentsmade and dirty looks given, they correctly do their job.
Just last week Ishowed up at 2:00 p. m. because I had stuff to do before I started workingand when I walked in the two were standing up yelling at each other overwho was going to go out to the plane that just landed. This particularargument stemmed from the fact that they both wanted to leave early butsomeone was going to have to stay to work with me. I went ahead and wentout to the aircraft and let the two fight it out which turned out to be abad idea.
They both decided that neither was going to leave nor were theygoing to do anything. They both sat at their desk without speaking a wordto each other until the rest of my shift showed up. Out of all my coworkers I like to believe that I am the only normalone for the fact that I realize I do dumb things daily. My shift supervisoris what I like to think of as a circus freak. SSgt Krysler can’t be tallerthan five feet flat and has no sense of humor.
Daily he is the butt of alljokes and rude comments. He always strolls into work just on time and doesnot even know how to correctly do his job correctly. Everyday he asks me ifI want to do the desk, which means that I will do all the paper work so hecan work ramp, which means he goes out to meet the aircraft and do no paperwork at all. The only reason he loves working ramp is because he doest havethe slightest clue how to do the paper work.
Time after time, he has workedthe desk and another coworker or I have to go behind him to correct themess he has made. A polite person would sit him down and show him how tocomplete our job, but he has already had that training and just isn’tpicking it up. Plus, sad as is sounds, it makes me happy to see him therewith stacks of paper around him. He gets that look in his eye like a lostpuppy dog who just wants to go home. I admit I am the devil and will oneday go to hell, but this is when I usually tell him I need to leave earlybecause I have some fake appointment in the morning and need to sleep.
Evenwhen I leave early, or don’t help SSgt Krysler with his work, I know thathe can’t mess up to much. I always make sure all the important things getdone and leave him with the small paper work. The paper work only requiresthat you go over times and make sure they are correct. .
Although this mayseem harsh, it is the only way he will learn, plus I can’t do his job forhim everyday. There is nothing worse than having a crappy day at work and having adumb person walk in for the shift change. Grave shift is a total of twopeople; one normal nice lady and one bipolar freak. I rarely get to seeTSgt Hughes who happens to be one of the nicest people around, due to ourdays off. But I am lucky enough to see SSgt Webster everyday I work. Ihonestly believe this woman is bipolar.
I try to be polite and ask herevery evening when she comes in how she is doing. Her usual responsesinclude, “What!” to “Did you do any thing done today!” Now SSgt Webster isa hard nut to crack. She is knowledgeable in her job but has no peopleskills at all which makes for a bad environment. She comes in screaming andyelling asking if we got all the mandatory objectives complete that day andturns around with a smile on her face asking if we want some of the cookiesshe made.
This is one scary woman but I admit she knows her job. Overall, our attitudes are our biggest set back. No one ever wants toadmit that they don’t know what they are doing or ask for help, yet themission is always completed with minimal delays.
