Improving health has allowed me to resume a more regular, slightly strenuous calendar, including frequent out-of-state travel. Returning to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport recently, with near-continuous construction that routinely relocates services and amenities, I noticed it doesn’t always have corresponding new or temporary signage.
In the most recent case, I was attempting to locate the pickup location for off-airport parking shuttles, which have been located underneath the North Terminal for the past two years, and then beyond the MARTA station and Sky Train.
I approached two uniformed Hartsfield employees who were engaged in conversation. I paused and waited for a break in their chat, apologized for the intrusion, and asked where the current pickup location for off-airport parking shuttles is.
Each employee practically scowled; one shared that she was not a shuttle driver and that was not part of her responsibilities. The other nodded, but noting I wasn’t moving away, pointed generically in the direction of the MARTA station, and said, “Out there.”
“Thanks, that’s very helpful,” I said and got on my way. Turned out, the shuttles were still on the far side of the MARTA rail and Sky Train, through a series of convoluted sidewalk barriers — again with no signage — and easily tripling the length of walking from the baggage claim.
On the plus side, I was running up my step count on the Fitbit that day.
The day I departed, there had been a mix-up with reservations at the parking facility (which generally runs a good shop), and my parking entry was not timestamped. So, though I had pre-paid, there was no exit scanner for me to show my QR code on an early Sunday evening to exit the lot.
I got out of the car and walked to a gate attendant on the parking facility property and explained my situation. She seemed to understand, but then said, “Without a receipt, I can’t know you prepaid.”
Yes, and though I had a pre-paid reservation and arrived on time, that lot was full, and I was directed across the street to what is evidently overflow and employee parking.
“I paid in advance, the botched reservation was not my error, and I need to get going,” I explained. “I have been parking here for years, you can check my account number, so, can you please let me out?”
This time, though not rude, I was apparently raising a challenge outside of her depth. The cashier said she had no way to raise the gate on that side without the electronic badge carried in the window of all of their vans and shuttles.I watched the next two shuttles depart the lot. The gate was a bit slow, and as the vans/shuttles were not all uniform in size, I noted that when the gate lifted, it remained up for about five seconds after the prior shuttle or van pulled out.
So, I got right on the tail of the next exiting shuttle. The shuttle exited, and I sped out right behind, with the gate dropping just as my car cleared the driveway. I heard the attendant, unable to assist me, yelling, “Hey!”
A few days later, I was in a building witnessing a cleaning crew at the end of a long business day. I had been at it since about 7:30 a.m., and it was nearing 7 p.m.
I couldn’t state that I know the particulars about the day of the cleaning worker, but he was a younger man, in his mid-20s, who clearly got winded and sweaty while vacuuming. His colleague suggested he pause a moment, and a roughly 30-minute break ensued. I know this because I had been watching the newscast clock when hearing the chat, and then again when the vacuum turned back on.
A half-lunch vacuum break?
All this concerns me in a world where we all seem to be drawing further and further apart, in jobs we can’t seem to fill, whether trades and skilled positions, or unskilled but necessary labor that no one seems to want to do anymore. So, again and again, these jobs are filled by immigrants who still understand that our America represents the land of opportunity.
So, if you do remember work ethic, or certainly if you have plenty of your own, pick out a few young folks in your circle. Share, mentor, and help them understand the benefits of sweat equity, over-service, and responding favorably to opportunities as they arise.
It may not be as exciting as a game of Fortnite, but if you are at all persuasive, for the good of us all, please — please! — give it a shot.