1) It is a known fact that when you are outside, there is wind. Very basic stuff. However, people insist on dropping money into your hands when it's windy out and it could blow away. Then the bills get carried to the ground and the morons sit in their cars, staring at you blankly, expecting you to get out of the booth to get the cash they dropped because they're retarded. I mean seriously, the way some people hand off money, you'd think they've never seen the stuff before. It's ridiculous. Balled up, sweaty bills, with random coins jabbed into them. How the hell am I supposed to handle that? Or driving by, not stopping, and throwing money into my hands. I hate that. It makes me want to stab people. The worst offenders (and this has nothing to do with weather) originated with the increase of the tolls to $1.25. Coincidentally, people started confusing nickels with quarters, and conveniently shoving the nickel in the middle of the other four quarters, and speeding off before they can be caught. Fucking tightwad assholes. I absolutely took every plate down that shorted me 20 cents. I don't care if I had the change to cover it, if you're going to try and screw me, I will absolutely write you up and not care. Bastards.
2) Once again, with the outside theme, if we're going to work outside, you'd think we'd have strong equipment that could withstand variances in the weather. However, since this is the Turnpike Authority, everything is done on the cheap, so of course our computers and ticket machines are complete shit. The ticket machines are horrible because in any type of high temperatures or humid conditions, they break. While the high temperature thing isn't that bad, we work in fucking Boston which is humid as shit during the summer. Of course, the ticket machine breaks whenever it's humid and there's no way to fix it unless a) the humidity goes away or b) the machine stops its bitch fit and decides to work for a few minutes before breaking again. I get pissed, will hit the machine to the point of breaking my hand (one of these days I'll either finally break that bad habit naturally or I really will break my hand, forcing me to stop). Inevitably, I hand out blank tickets because I don't like having to deal with those machines. The blank tickets I'm sure piss off the people at the other end of the toll who have to deal with my laziness, but that's their problem. Other than the humidity, heat also gets to the machines. One of the booths has an automatic ticket machine next to where a collector has to work. The machine already makes the booth very cramped, because it takes up half the width of a small space to begin with. It gets even worse when it's hot because the ticket machine jams. If it's jammed because of overheating, that means the door to the automatic machine has to stay open, which further restricts movement and is immensely frustrating when someone is trying to give you a break and two people can't fit in the freaking booth. Argh.
3) Just a random complaint that I won't elaborate on, but the machines are also sensitive to sunlight. I mean, it's not like the machines are outside in booths that often don't have tinted windows, it's not like they'd need to withstand possible periods of sunlight...
4) My last day at my usual interchange, I was in Lane 7, easy day, shouldn't have been difficult. I keyed into the booth and started taking cars. Naturally, someone asked for a receipt, which I attempted to oblige. However, when I printed out a receipt, there were two, one of which was blank. I got really confused but at first assumed the person before me had just put new paper into the machine and printed a receipt but never tore it away. A minute later, I printed another receipt and two came out again so I asked the guy I relieved if that had been happening to him. In true J.D. (name protected) fashion, he responded "Of course, it fucking happened to me. It's been fucking happening for two fucking days now. I fucking told them in the office but no one listens in this place it's a fucking piece of shit." I was slightly peeved it hadn't been fixed, so I called the office to let them know. They pretended they had no clue it had been broken, and told me to call them back if I couldn't fix it, which I'd already told them I couldn't. They obviously had zero interest in coming out to do anything so I just left it and handed people double receipts all day, which was somewhat awkward but i figured better than throwing out the blank half of the receipt.
5) Lastly, the tiny metal spiral, rickety staircases you have to walk up to get into your lane are a SERIOUS safety hazard. As a quick background, to get to your lane, you have to walk in a tunnel under the highway, then walk up a staircase. Going up is never the issue, it's always walking down with a giant ass money bag full of coins and singles (no joke, those things are fucking heavy. I thought I strained a muscle in my forearm last week because I had $417 in change and $1008 in singles [yea I know the exact figures...]) that becomes a problem. I can't count how many times I've almost tripped down the stairs because everything I'm carrying is too unwieldy (I also can't walk across lanes anymore because someone stole my safety vest on Father's Day last year and no one's bothered to get me a new one. Sure my bosses will yell at me for crossing Fast Lanes without the vest, but no one's willing to actually solve the problem and get me a new one. bah.). Anyway, it gets even worse when it's raining out because the stairs are slick and it's easy to trip. Not good times.
I'm done with occupational hazards for now. Tomorrow (or next update, whenever the hell that will be) is probably going to center on people getting more belligerent than ever this summer. Seriously, the road has populated with a bunch of impatient assholes all summer. So stay tuned!
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