Tonight I saw the worst power abuser in the whole world. The bus station agent – the guy in charge of tearing the tickets as you get on the bus – refused to let a passenger on the bus because he was 5 feet from the door when he closed it. The passenger was actually running, and he had 5 friends already inside. The agent physically stood in front of the door with his arms stretched to prevent the passenger from going through the door.
The passenger pleaded that he was late because the automatic ticket machines were not working. The agent wouldn’t have it. Then the passenger referred to the machines as the “f*cking machines” and that was the end of it. He had to sit down and wait for an hour to take the next bus.
I’m Winston Wolf. I solve problems.
I called the agent Sir. I offered that karma was a good thing to have on your side. I told him he had a choice: Force the passenger to sit here for an hour and most probably feel crappy about it, or do a nice thing and get that fuzzy warm feeling that comes with it. He wouldn’t budge. I asked him to imagine himself in the passenger’s shoes. How would he feel about the agent? What if the passenger turned out to be someone important to the agent in the future? I offered the agent 20$.
Nothing worked.
The passenger cursed at the agent. The agent left and hid in the custommer service office. The passenger phoned his friends on the bus to tell them he was going to be late “because of an a$$hole”. He then hung up and cried.
An hour later, the passenger got on the next bus, but not before he thanked me and shook my hand. As he was getting aboard, he turned around and looked for the agent. The agent was nowhere in sight. The bus left. The agent got out of the office 30 seconds after the bus left, smiling.
What an ass.
I need blankets, I need comforters, I need quilts, I need bedspreads. The thicker the better, the darker the better.
Anyone?
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