I was on my way to Farringdon from Horsham yesterday and I sat down in front of a man. Shortly after I boarded I heard the guard coming down the train to check tickets. He sounded jovial and like he enjoyed his job, had a somewhat relaxing effect on me. The guard got to the man sitting behind me and some communication started. I wasn't really listening but they were talking loudly enough for me to get what it was about, and it turned out the man had short ticketed, which the guard deduced through questioning and receiving inconsistent answers. At this point he went from chirpy to alpha male boss mode and in a firm but very polite manner, proceeded to tell him he now owes a penalty fare of £100, which the man was not happy about. Although he tried to argue and voices were somewhat raised he didn't sound aggressive or that anything was about to kick off. The guard, still being firm and fair, managed to extract his name and address. By this point we had reached Redhill and they both got off to continue with their incident.
I was very impressed with how calm and solid the guard was, demonstrating great control of emotion given that in a situation like this, adrenaline must start flowing as you can never know if someone is going to fly into a rage, and if they do there is little the guard can do about it. I doubt I could do a public facing job which carries the risk of conflict like that for any legth of time, as I'm not sure how long I'd be able to hold my tongue dealing with someone who is clearly in the wrong but is either stubborn or entitled.
I was very impressed with how calm and solid the guard was, demonstrating great control of emotion given that in a situation like this, adrenaline must start flowing as you can never know if someone is going to fly into a rage, and if they do there is little the guard can do about it. I doubt I could do a public facing job which carries the risk of conflict like that for any legth of time, as I'm not sure how long I'd be able to hold my tongue dealing with someone who is clearly in the wrong but is either stubborn or entitled.
