Suckers!

So last night I was at work at the airport. I am supposed to get off at 10:30pm the supervisors let a bunch of us go early because it was PAINFULLY slow.

Anyway, there is a shift that ends at 10:00pm. When I walked up to the time clock at 9:58pm there were about 6 people standing there waiting for the clock to say 10 so they could clock out. Now, I'm not sure why they were waiting for the clock. We can clock out up to 12 minutes early without written approval, as long as we are not needed. Believe me, they were not needed. And the difference in pay for 2 minutes is pretty nominal, so as I said before, I'm not really sure why they were waiting for the time clock to say 10.

So I made a joke about being a rebel and not waiting. They all laughed at me and made a few random jokes. So I turned around and said "I'm going to laugh when I make the shuttle and you guys don't!" Then I said, "Now that I say that, everyone of you will make the same bus I do!" There were a few more random jabs thrown back and forth as I was walking out.

What you need to know is that the shuttles do not really run on a time schedule. If you miss a bus, there really is no way to know when the next bus will come along. Also, all of the guys that work on the ramp get off at 10pm. The shuttles FILL up, and they all smell. Not that it is their fault, that is just the nature of their job, but they still smell. Anyway, a 10 minute shuttle ride with a bunch of sweaty rampers is not fun. This also means that a mass of people are trying to exit the parking lot at the same time. There are only 2 gated exits and it takes FOREVER to get everyone through them, especially if it is busy. I don't know why the computers slow down when 2 people try to exit at the same time, but they do. It can take an extra 15 minutes just to get out of the parking lot! If I had the chance to get to the bus before them, I was going to take it!

So I exited the building and headed toward the shuttle stop. There were 2 shuttles waiting. The one I could see was not my bus. I was hoping the 2ND one was. The first shuttle pulled away and I could see that the second shuttle was the one I wanted, and it was basically empty. NICE! That shuttle started to pull forward, I wasn't worried. Then it started turning it's wheels to pull away. I started waiving my arms wildly in the hopes that this was one of the good drivers who would stop if they new you wanted on that bus. IT WAS! He stopped. I was still about 50 feet away so I ran for the door. There were a few people on the bus who I had just been working with. We all joked about the situation, then I told them about all the people waiting at the time clock and how happy I was that they hadn't made the same shuttle as me.

All those people standing at the time clock not only missed this shuttle, but they were guaranteed to be stuck on the shuttle with all the rampers. SUCKERS!