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Comment by Sagat | Hacker News Reader

Why would a "competent, intelligent human being with discretion" choose such a crappy job in the first place?

Because they need the money? Many people have little choice in the work they do. It's this shitty job or that shitty job or no job.

Why do many people have little choice in the work they do?

Are you talking about short time scales, or periods of years?

Because they lack the ability to rewind their lives and change the decisions that resulted in their being trapped by obligations and scrambling to get by at age 30 or 40 or 50? And, instead of providing substantial adult job retraining assistance, the US federal gov't spends trillions on dubious military adventures and the domestic security state.

What if their most cherished assumptions were actually the source of the biggest obstacles they faced?

Many people, but precisely not "competent, intelligent human beings with discretion". The very people who would make the TSA (or any other place) a better organization have the ability to navigate away from thankless, low paid occupations.

I think you have that backwards. The TSA is not going to hire people who might try to improve the situation.

Having worked in a company whose product was rent-a-cops it was not uncommon to find many who took the job because to them it was easy, usually indoors, and people you met treated you nicely.

We had students who used their time to study, some read books, others used their beats for exercise, and some just plainly enjoyed a job that was stress free ninety nine percent and more of the time.

At first when I worked there, coding a wide range of programs including payroll, I was a bit distressed at the pay scales. However after meeting many different guards I came to realize that many saw advantages I didn't and they could not understand why I wanted to work so hard, all day and sometimes more at a computer.

To some, it's not a "crappy" job. Friend of a friend left his "crappy" position as a manager at a popular retail chain to go work for the TSA, AND secured an extra $8k per year in doing so.

They're not making engineering salaries, but for a job which, let's face it, requires no skills or education, the make a very decent rate.

Add in a personality which loves a little power and being a TSA jockey surely looks pretty good.

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