I made a note to write about the local cable TV office earlier in the year. I had a memorable experience there that required sharing. My blog output shriveled up but I saved my notes.

When I got home from work yesterday, Melanie told me she stopped into that same cable TV office to drop off our old equipment. She had gone back to the old house to get some things we left behind and clean a little.

Melanie found a long line of miserable, complaining people once inside the office. She turned around and left. I have always found that office to have a line. But the last time I was there I waited in that line. Our remote control had suffered a fatal injury at the hands of the children. I had no choice but to wait.

I immediately made several observations. Let's run 'em down.

1. The customers showed signs of agitation. The customers being waited on at the window bristled over their problems. The four people ahead of me in line stood in various poses of anxiety. One man rocked from side to side while gripping his cable bill in his hand. He looked like he was about to run out of a tunnel and into a stadium for an athletic event. He worked himself up for the showdown with the women behind the window.

2. The "customer service" people sat in tall chairs behind a glass window with a small hole cut in the bottom for speaking. They sat side-saddle so they could read a computer screen and talk to customers simultaneously. Whoever designed this setup must have foreshadowed conflict. A tall, insurmountable barrier defended by people who didn't have to look you in the eye.

3. Conflict. Signs of conflict erupted everywhere. Stanchions with ropes lined the office corridor outside the windows. Whenever I see see ropes and stanchions I think of disorder. That's why they're there, right. People are disorderly so to keep them in line let's put up fences to corral them into line. Spartan decor. As drab a room as you'll ever see. Why? so when the irate customer goes off they can't flip a chair or table over or crash the glass with a lamp. Ever wonder why certain offices have glass windows? Some post offices I've been to. Doctor's offices. Banks. Check cashing joints. Gas stations. In the Bronx and Brooklyn I remember seeing chicken restaurants with glass windows and no sitting area.

My mentor, Harry educated me on the chicken restaurant gauge of crime levels in a city. Harry explained that if the neighborhood had a KFC, you were in a good place with little to fear. Popeye's? Not much to worry about. Kennedy Fried Chicken, a knock-oof of the Colonel was a step down. Crown Fried Chicken? Don't stop at red lights or stop signs.

Harry's advice was spot-on. When you see a fast food restaurant with no dining area and a pass-thru window to receive your food, keep moving.

My point here is that by setting up businesses in this way a message is being broadcast. The signals say we don't trust you. There's valuable stuff in here you can't have. We talking about things you shouldn't hear. You're so unimportant I can shut you out with a sliding piece of glass. You want to talk to me? Push that little button and maybe I'll be able to hear you.

I'm no idiot (debatable). I know crime happens and some information has to be protected. I get it. But when you erect a piece of glass and expect humans to communicate through it, especially when one of the two has a problem to fix it's a bad idea.

How about the next time you get pulled over by the police, only roll your window down a fraction. Tell the officer the computers are running slow today and he'll have to come back in an hour.

Maybe carry a piece of clear plexi-glass into an office that doesn't have glass next time you are going to argue over a service or bill. Seems to work at lot's of places. I think it gives you the right to flip out and go apeshit because with the glass in place you really can't do any damage.

I like the way hotels and airport desks are set up. You can get right in someone's grill and talk about what's on your mind. No separation. No barriers. When I see that glass in a business I always wonder "Did someone get shot in here? I hope they got caught. But I guess they didn't or all this glass wouldn't be necessary."

Search for "customer service" in Google images, filter it for photos only and see what you get. Do any of these people look like the service agents ant any business you've ever been to? I can think of a handful. But maybe I couldn't see lots of those other people so well through the glass.