Public employees often are the target of the public’s bashing. Maybe it’s because they are so, well, public. We interact with them on a daily basis.

However, not only do they often have a thankless job, but also they are the targets of criticism when it’s not deserved.

Here’s one case in point.

I was riding Metro Transit the other day. It was mid-day and the ride and route were uneventful.

Then, a woman got on, flashed her transfer to the driver and headed to a seat. The driver asked her if he could see the transfer. While Metro drivers say they aren’t there to be the fare police, they do check transfers to make sure that the alloted time on them hasn’t expired.

The woman tersely said: I showed it to you. To which the driver calmly replied, may I see it.

She flashed it to him again, and the scene repeated it self, this time with the woman telling the driver to stop harassing her. The driver looked surprised, as if to say “what?”

Then it turned ugly.

The woman, now in a seat, announced to those near her that she was being harassed by the driver. That wasn’t true. He never raised his voice nor said any threatening words.

We now move to uglier.

The woman next announced to all that she “speaks English.” Hmmm. I’m pretty sure this was in reference to the driver’s accent. It’s Asian.

Throughout the trip, the woman kept jabbering on, to everyone and no one, about her being harassed, how she’s an honest person and, apparently, how she doesn’t deserve such treatment.

Really? And the Metro driver does? For merely doing his job and asking to actually look at a transfer?

It’s not easy being a public employee these days. With the sour economy, people have a habit of telling those in the public sector how “their taxes pay the public employee’s salary.” Do they ever stop and think that public employees also pay taxes and that therefore they are paying part of their own salary?