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TSA Worker Fired After Napping on Break
By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 29, 2010
Modified Jan 29, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 29, 2010
Modified Jan 29, 2010
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[UPDATE BELOW] On Monday Bucky Turco at Animal New York published this photo he took at La Guardia airport, showing a Transportation Security Administration agent apparently napping. Now the unidentified worker is under investigation and has been reassigned to desk duty. High-five? A TSA spokesman tells the AP she may have been on break, but whatever, we certainly wouldn't want her sharp and well-rested while on the job, and the rules require her to rest in the designated TSA break room. Turco acknowledged that, "to be fair," she may have been on break, but he still got an earful from one Animal New York commenter:
To be not fair, I’m posting this picture of a tired worker anyway and titling it with the sarcastic "Your TSA Hard At Work" without her face blurred and identifying the airport she works at because TSA-bashing is in enough right now that I can publicly shame their workers doing normal things. Next on animalnewyork, ‘Your Bailout Dollars Hard At Work’: Bank of America cashier seen eating lunch at her desk*
*could have been on break
To be fair, we asked Turco how he feels now that his photo has led to an investigation, and he says, "I don’t think she should lose her job, but she should be disciplined and the TSA needs to take a hard look at itself. These are not just regular civil servants, they're the first line of defense and the people recruited for this job need to stay crispy and take it a lot more serious. In fact, I’d rather see them increase their salaries and start staffing the agency with highly qualified workers."
UPDATE:Aaaand, she's fired. On his blog, Turco says, "It looks like the TSA is going to make an example out of their employee that was caught snoozing in a public area and has decided to terminate the worker according to an anonymous source. We’ve also learned that she began her shift at 4AM and that her boss was furious after learning about the photo."
UPDATE: Bucky wrote in with a small correction: she hasn't been officially terminated yet, but termination procedures have begun. She can still appeal— but with all the news attention, it seems likely she's going to get the boot.
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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