Security at Terminal 5 (Heathrow)
I'm actually in the terminal at the moment. The good news is that the queues for security were pretty short. The bad news is that the person I had to pass by was the stereotype of the rude, unpleasant and unhelpful security officer. Not just for me but he seemed to take delight in making up his own rules for every passenger and then becoming quite aggressive if, for example, a mobile phone was not placed in its own tray o pass through the x ray machine.
I was so annoyed that I sought out a supervisor. In some ways this has made my annoyance worse. I identified the security check number and the initial response was "I'll go to speak to him on your behalf". I watched him head off and then, after looking around to see whether I was watching - I was sneaky enough to have stopped behind a pillar - he walked away laughing with another worker.
In some ways it is such a pity. I should be praising Terminal 5 for efficient security procedures. Instead it appears, in the hackneyed phrase, that it has an institutionalised culture of customer contempt that reaches beyond more junior operators up to higher levels.