State employee hears thousands of cranky calls

Amanda Tidwell has a Smiley Face sticker on her computer at work. For sure, she needs to be in good humor.
Tidwell is the employee at the Tennessee Department of Transportation who listens to public comments on TDOT’s toll-free Record-A-Comment line. Or, more accurately, the Record-A-Complaint line.
Think you have a depressing, thankless job? She spends up to four hours daily listening to cranky calls about traffic tieups, potholes, the ever present orange cones and so forth on Tennessee’s lengthy interstate system and other roads.