The majority of the people who read my blog, know what I do for a living, however for those who do not, I will tell you. I am a Revenue Protection Officer on the railway. My job involves ensuring people pay for their railway journeys, and where they do not we enforce a fine for traveling without a ticket, or in some extreme cases we will question people about their ticketless journey and submit a report to our prosecutions office for consideration. Majority of the time my role involves me helping passengers, pointing them in the right direction, giving them information and ensuring they get the correct and cheapest ticket for their journey and needs. However sometimes I get passengers who are unhappy (it happens!)
For the last 3 shifts I have had, some of the passengers that I've had to
Monday I had a lady screaming so loud that she was causing a scene. She was shouting, and crying and near hysterics. Whilst trying to help her and calm her down she was screaming at me, and not two inches from my face, I could see her tonsils, and my ears hurt. As I couldn't get her to calm down, I stepped back, I suspect if I hadn't stepped back she would have hit me. She wasn't going to calm down no matter what I did. In the end the police dealt with her.
Tuesday I had 2 young men who had travelled with no tickets and no means at all to pay for any tickets. The police also stepped in on this one. One of the guys was on his way to his court hearing (I didn't ask!) so I questioned him, filled in my report and off he went, and his friend was penaltied, whilst wearing handcuffs. Whilst I was trying to question him, the police were running his details and the next thing I know is he's being handcuffed as there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest for serious violent assault on a female. I was just going to leave it at that, but the police officer advised me to penalty fare him.
I had no issues on Wednesday, as it was my day off and I rested, cleaned and cooked.
Today I managed to calm down and placate a very disorientated and upset schizophrenic man. I know he was schizophrenic because he told me he was, and his behaviour was very text book (well wiki page). At one point he was aggressive and then he was crying, and then he was fine. It was like every few moments a switch was flipped on his personailty. It was scary and not scary at the same time. Not scary because I knew that I could get through to him and help him, but scary because you just don't know how some people will react to you. He seemed to react better to a woman helping him rather than a man. He also didn't really like black people or police officers.
It's really bizarre how I cope with stressful situations, especially ones that are emergencies or are dangerous. However despite having a cool composed shell, you can bet your ass on the inside that I'm all "OH MY FREAKING GOD!!" It's like this woman is running around my brain.
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