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Wow, this might be the first cameraphone picture as NY tabloid cover photo in history: The Daily News published a picture of a sleeping token booth clerk today! Reader Denise Davila sent the DN the photograph she took over the weekend at the F train's Prospect Park stop at 15th Street, saying:
It p----- me off seeing him snoozing like that. Is this where the fare hike is going? To support guys snoozing on the job? I couldn't believe it. He was completely passed out and unaware of anything that was going on."To be fair, the fare hike is going into effect because the MTA has totally mismanaged the entire system - from the NYC subways and buses to LIRR - but we understand the DN's hook. Davila took the picture at 2:30AM, definitely sleepy time, but for graveyard shift employees, especially in subways, you'd like them to be a little bit on the game. The MTA said that the employee had worked the graveyard shift for four years, and the transit workers' union said that the worker could have been resting his head (though Davila claims she waited five minutes). Gothamist did think it was nice of the DN to mention a subway clerk who stopped a robbery to show that these incidents aren't the norm (though Satan's Laundromat did find a napping clerk once upon a time). Expect a lot of furor from riders and politicians and lots of Red Bull from the MTA.
What has your experience with token booth clerks been? Gothamist has to say that we've been lucky, they've been attentive, if a little tight with the subway maps (only one per person). Also, the NY Post tries to advise people on how many rides they need to get out of their new unlimited Metrocards; we can only assume reporter Clemente Lisi (whose subway reporting we do enjoy reading, alongside the NY Times' Sewell Chan and Newsday's Joshua Robin) checked out Grant Barrett's awesome subway fare analysis (here's the PDF) after we posted about it. Gothamist on bothering token booth clerks.
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With the popularity of Blogs, I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often...
I have had extremely positive experiences with token booth clerks and I have had intolerably stupid, awful experiences. Just like every other category of daily NY life. My favorites are the ones who refuse to give directions to foreign tourists who are lost in the oh-so-well signed MTA. And the one who accused me of "breaking" my new, defective metrocard. But I have seen more of them be helpful and kind than useless and rude.
my $.02
Regarding the NY Post article and whether or not the 30-day card is actually the best buy, I just want to point out that it does not take into account the Transitcheck option, and me & some people can get their cards through their employer pre-tax, which is the best bet.
abc 7 also reported something similar last night.
I one time lost a set of keys in the subway and went to each subway stop to ask the token clerks if they had been dropped off to the lost and found. Each token clerk was polite and tried help me but did not have the keys in their posession.
I finally found the keys with a token clerk who ironically was at the subway stop near the apartment they belonged too. Apparently a good smaritan picked them up and gave it to him. He told me I was lucky if no one had claimed them by the end of the day it would have gone to the main lost and found and it would have taken two weeks for them to be retrieved which would have sucked since we were closing on that apartment that week.
I thanked him profusely and wrote a letter of commendation to the MTA.
Clerk snoozed
Kalikow knew
Turk 182
Token booth clerks, in my experience, have been the most surly people I've ever come across. I dont know if its working underground all day or what, but the simplest of questions that you would expect MTA employees to know, like "Is there local service today?" are often greeted with smug looks and a why-the-fuck are you bothering me attitudes. Man the MTA sucks from top to bottom.
hey, the night shift wreaks havoc on people's systems. so the guy fell asleep-if he wasn't just resting his head, BFD! What a cheap shot. Unless he was comatose, if someone came by asking for help, he would still have been able to help them. the guy is not a cop and isn't paid enough (and neither are cops, for that matter) to be one. the person who took that pic and gave it to the paper is an insenstive jerk.
hey, the night shift wreaks havoc on people's systems. so the guy fell asleep-if he wasn't just resting his head, BFD! What a cheap shot. Unless he was comatose, if someone came by asking for help, he would still have been able to help them. the guy is not a cop and isn't paid enough (and neither are cops, for that matter) to be one. the person who took that pic and gave it to the paper is an insensitive jerk.
well, i feel like these guys really don't do anything all day. i think i walk by the booths all the time and see them looking off into space or sleeping. i think it is because of the proliferation of the automated metrocard machines. because of the machines, the more useful original task of the booth clerk is no longer needed.
back before the machines, the booth clerk actually had people coming to him for metrocards, tokens, etc. they were actually functioning and doing something. now, its basically just tourists asking them how to get to the empire state building.
so i too think its a cheap shot. i think that while we do need humans down in the subway for security, we should cut these guys some slack. if you sat in a booth doing nothing all day, don't you think you would want to put your head down once in a while?
My token book clerk experience has been fairly positive, but then, I live at the end of a line, near a rail yard, and there's always some activity in the station, even in the wee hours of the morning.
Aren't they pretty much forbidden from having anything to read or look at with them in the booth? I seem to remember a while back reading a story about how a clerk couldn't even write pleasentries on the dry erase board behind them. It must suck having to sit in there all day long with absolutely nothing to do. Besides, how many of us are practically nodding off in front of our computer monitors with plenty of human activity all around us right now? It's not even 2:30 p.m., much less 2:30 a.m.
He was tired, he took a nap. Is that so wrong?
If you find a booth clerk sleeping on the job, use the machine. If you have a question read the map. Do what you have to do without asking these people questions. The less you interact with them the more likely their jobs will go away.
So I think they dudes in the glass boxes should maybe don fancy metallic turbans and tell people's fortunes as they approach the window. I think the human element is gone thanks to the Metrocard, so when many MTA people actually have interactions with subway goers, they are shocked into surliness. Some are nice, but others like to stand around and chat with each other(in that special way that a lot of cashiers like to when you are standing there trying to make a purchase and wondering if you'll get any bit of eye contact from them..."He said WHAT? Nah-uh, no, she didn't"). Or are they ALL sleeeeeping?
I feel bad that guy was caught, but then again, I'd be pissed if I had wanted some help and he was busy drooling on himself. Same way as if when I'm crossing a cross-walk, I'll take my sweet time, but if I were driving the car that was waiting for that slacker to cross the road, I'd be turning red and itching to honk them to the curb.
I think the MTA really needs to step up to the plate. Maybe they'll have well-rested employees in 3-5 years....or was that 6-9 months?
if you need help when a booth clerk is sleeping, maybe cough or clear your throat really loudly as a first resort, then maybe try "excuse me, sorry to bug you, but i need help" if that doesn't work, then knock away. if he doesn't help, make a complaint by calling 311 when you get above ground. if it's an emergency , scream. it's common sense.
treat people with some respect. night shift jobs suck--they are bad for people's health and bad for having a family life or social life.
My wife and I were just in that same station two weeks ago after leaving a movie at the Pavilion Theater right across the street at 12:30am. An informative station cleaner instructed us to "watch out for the blood on the stairs, there was a mugging". The blood was all over the place! We were at the "unattended" end of the platform. I wonder if this was the same booth clerk on duty then? These people earn above average salaries with good benefits. The least they can do is be awake on the job they are paid to do. I think a both attendant in a subway station at the corner of a major city park late at night should watch out for himself let alone the rest of us!
Okay, so here's the deal. You give token clerks less to do. Encourage straphangers to use machines. And generally devalue the token clerk to a perverse degree. And this is exactly what you get.
Try sitting in a booth all day doing not much. And I would not blame the token booth clerk. I have no doubt that guy must have been pulling one long shift. But blame Kalikow and the crappy MTA management.
And the N.Y. Post article can easilly be used by the MTA not to discipline employees but get rid of them. They can easilly say "Look, the clerks do nothing! Let's get rid of them!"
Thanks N.Y. Post for perversely hastening the de-humanization of the MTA.
The Post is fulfilling its function of redirecting the public's frustration and anger at the MTA management to the subway blue collar workers.
And unfortunately many people will take the bait.
What needs to be done is someone to take photos of POST or MTA execs goofing off or worse, which they doubtlessly do on a regular basis.
as i first started reading, i thought, "that's just what the guy at my subway stations does!"... surprise, it was him. our station (15th street, prospect park) is dirty, smelly, truly disgusting, filled with rats and homeless people and urine, and until the fall had two tollbooths, now we have one, and this sleeping guy is in it.
i'd been thinking i should take the same picture and send it to mayor bloomburg... is it just me or have to subways gotten worse since he came into office?
I live in Chicago and I would actually be surprised to see a clerk who was not sleeping. The CTA staff are some of the laziest people around - I am not exactly sure what the clerks' functions are since they don't make change and they usually don't have maps. If you have a lot of luggage they'll maybe open up the side door for you so you don't have to use the turnstile. Once I needed a map and I asked the clerk for one and he gave me the only one he had - it had writing all over it. I had to wake him up to get the map. Normally I would complain but I like how the CTA gives jobs to poor people, even if the jobs are so boring they fall asleep. It's better than being unemployed.
Frankly I could not agree more with what most other people have said here. These people are experienceing less and less human interaction while straphangers are encourgaed to use machines. To be perfectly frank 99% of the time that's what I do. The times I have talked to the booth workers they have always been kind and helpful. The toll hike has very little to do with the duties of the workers. So frankly Ms. Davila's outrage is misguided. The NY Posy and the DN are tabloids that hardly ever report real issues. They deal with something that will grab people from the gut to get a reaction. Frankly I don't usederstadn why this is a front page story and why it is such a big deal. Night shift jobs are draining. Adn maybe he should have not been asleep, but did Davila try and wake him up? Did she need anything from him? Maybe she should have tried to see if he was ok or try to wake him up if she was really so concerned. It seems to me she is a rather obnoxious pusedo yuppie twit who seems to think that with all that is wrong with the world: a man sleeping during the graveyard shift is the worst thing she could stumble upon. Her mental state is equal to that of the NY Post: all flash with no depth or understanding.
No one should sleep on the job but...
Immagine being in a booth in the dead of night with no customers all night. No radio or TV or books or newspapers allowed in the booth... now... STAY AWAKE FOR 8 HOURS because if you drift from the silence and boredom, someone totally undeserving of his/her job may take your picture and get you in trouble right at your 7th hour.