As the LIRR/disability matter and the bus driver “spat upon” case have suggested, there are some transit workers who get paid to recover from injuries that perhaps are not all that injurious. (For what it’s worth, NY Times-man Jim Dwyer smartly points out in today’s rag that fully half of the spat-upon bus drivers came back to work for their next shift.).
Some are simply punching the clock, while others, in transit parlance, go the extra mile.
In fact, I saw a sterling example of each, not 10 feet from each other, at the top of the escalators heading down to the 4-5-6-7 under Grand Central today.
I guess there’s construction on the escalators, because the human morass heading down was enormous, and there’s always freakin’ construction going on on those elevators. MTA set up a steel police barrier separating those coming up from the subways (a thin crowd) and those heading down (a major crowd), to keep the downbound from clogging the up staircase. (Forgive me for thinking that the police barrier would make a decent bike rack, since we currently do not have one in Hawthorne station.)
MTA stationed a pair of workers to make sure no one snuck past the police barrier. One, a black woman of 35, wore a blank expression and stood stock still; a mannequin could’ve done the job just as well, and for considerably cheaper, even with MTA’s mismanagement factored in.
Ten feet down the line was another MTA worker, also a black 30-something woman, in the white MTA short-sleeve dress shirt, I think with a white hardhat on with a blue brimmed MTA cap on. Standing about 4′ 11″, she wore a big smile on her face and somehow made eye contact with every one of the pissed off commuters jammed up waiting for the down escalator.
“Hello! Good morning!” she hollered. “Hello!!! Good morning!!!”
And on it went, everyone getting a well-intentioned salutation, some returning the favor, appreciating the small salve for the irritation of escalator work and the resultant delays.
Good morning right back at ya, Ma’am.
UPDATE: Saw the happy greeting lady again this morning. The crowd at the top of the escalators wasn’t bad, but she was there to brighten the mood nonetheless.
“Hello!” she said to each and every commuter, able to connect individually due to the lighter traffic load. “Good morning! Hello!”
She got me directly, her eyes a pair of lasers zeroing in on the twin oval targets on my face. “Good morning!” she said.
“Good morning,” I replied. “How are you?”
“I’m great, thank you!” she said. “Have a great day!”
Trainjotting 