Campfyre Stories

If you don’t like the job that you have, you should find a different one.  I mean it.  I’m not talking about a job that you don’t particularly like, I mean the job that you hate so much that, while you do it grudgingly, you take out your anger on the people you are supposed to be helping.

What happened yesterday shocked me and even conveying the story when I called to lodge a complaint, I was astounded by the enormity of the situation.  There have been very few times that I can think of where I have felt that someone should be REMOVED from their job, but this was certainly one of them.

I got to the bus stop and waited for about 20 minutes for a bus to come.  There was a broken-down bus at the stop, and I was pretty sure that, had it been working, it would have been my bus.  I wasn’t in a hurry, though, so I didn’t mind waiting.

Finally a bus came and there was a large group of us waiting.  I stepped onto the bus and the driver SCREAMED at me.  The gist of it was "GET OFF THE BUS!"  So I got off the bus, not really understanding why he had screamed…  it wasn’t like I knew he wasn’t running, or even that I had actually done anything wrong.  In fact, prior to attempting to board, the whole group of us were waiting on the sidewalk, so he could have easily said something earlier.

The regular driver went over and spoke with this guy and told him that his bus had broken down, so he’d need to take the group of us who had been waiting.  Clearly, the guy was pissed off, but he took a couple of drags off his cigarette and allowed us to board.

I shrugged it off.  I still feel that this was completely uncalled for, but a single instance, to me, does not necessarily make for a complaint-worthy situation.  But there was more…

This driver kept screaming at people, for no apparent reason.  When passengers needed assistance, he would slam things around and huff and puff.  He was tailgating cars in front of us, weaving in and out of traffic, slamming on his brakes and missing bus stops (both for picking up and for dropping off).  Never before have I felt UNSAFE while riding public transportation, but I certainly did then.

It got to a point where he just plain stopped picking people up unless he had a drop-off at that stop.  He would cruise past bus stops with anywhere from 2-8 people waiting and just not even be concerned with them.  At one point he stopped the bus, got off, screamed at the people waiting to "Don’t move!  Stay where you are!", walked to the back of the bus, got back on, closed the doors and drove off without picking up any one of the 6 people waiting.  Shortly after that, a kid got off the bus (half a block away from the actual bus stop when the bus finally came to a full stop) and took his bike off the rack on the front of the bus.  He wasn’t yet on the sidewalk with his bike when the driver pulled away, nearly clipping the kid.

I was astounded.  This driver was a menace and completely out of control.  I called the bus company as soon as I got home, giving them a full description of his inappropriate behavior, the bus number and a physical description of the man himself.  I also made a point to mention that I have not seen this driver before and that he does not usually drive this route, as well as to say that I have never experienced anything even coming close to this level of inappropriate behavior from any of their drivers.

I’m pretty sure that this guy is a sub, who only actually takes routes when there is a significant delay.  This means that most of his days are spent sitting around, not driving, not doing anything…  maybe reading a book.  I’m sorry, but if you’re unwilling to do your job when it needs to be done, you should be doing something else.  It must be nice to get paid to *not* drive a bus, but you’re not being paid to not drive, you’re being paid to cover when needed.

And good grief, I don’t want this guy to be on the road.  I really hope that I’m not the only person who called to lodge a complaint, because this guy should not be allowed to treat customers so poorly and to create a dangerous situation in rush hour traffic.