Jet Blue flight attendant - do you sympathize?
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M$10 Answers
Yes.
Do I think he acted appropriately?
Absolutely not.
I as a service employee for life can 100% feel for him. I know how absolutely crazy, angry, frustrated, jaded, resentful, disgusted, and flat out fanatically homicidal the general public can make the service employees they encounter at any given point during the day... and trust me every one of us (service employees) wishes at one time or another that we could have or really did pull a "Steve Slater" by throwing both middle fingers up, grabbing two beers and telling the people and the job to shove it, I'm going home, I quit, you suck, I have had ENOUGH and I am taking my last shred of dignity and leaving out the emergency exit.
However in this time and age pulling a stunt at the airport? Really Steve? You could have not have chosen a worse place to throw a FTW (not "for the win".. the other one) temper tantrum. Steve would have been better off just leaving right then and there by faking a heart attack or a seizure.. AnYtHiNg besides a verbal berating of the passenger, a petty theft, and what ever other career ending misdemeanors he committed and most likely will be convicted of on his way out.
I do not think he will be hired back anywhere as a flight attendant but I admire his courage to finally say FU to the service game with the career ending tirade of tirades that will go down in the history of service employees as both the stupidest and the smartest thing to do ever.
"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion," Albert Camus
personal opinion
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M$
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M$
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
For the good part of my working days.I also worked in the service field. Being a hair dresser.Then working with the mentally disabled,Then to go on to being a nurse in a hospital.I know how frustrating "PEOPLE" can really be. They want respect from you but do not give it in return.People expect to be waited on hand and foot with no thanks in return.
I am guilty of doing exactly what he did. When I was about 20 yo.I went to work one night.My supervisor had kept changing my assignment stating that I was able to work in more areas and was more flexable.So after this happening for about 3 weeks in a row.I LOST IT!!! I went in to work,Saw my assignment changed,AGAIN! This time I freaked out.I told my supervisor that I was hired for this job.I did it for 1 yr before getting juggled all over the building.So,I pretty much said this...."Take your job,your assignment,Your NEW employees and go F#@$ yourself!The next day I felt horrible! I am not generally that type of person.I must have been PMSing really bad.
Thats my story and I'm sticking to it!
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$At no time should a employee feel like they are being taken advantage of from any customer.
This guy used words and controlled activism to voice his grief and not violence .
If anything i praise him for not screaming "OMG! He's got a bomb!" or worse.
The customer is always right, but the customer is always the customer.
ps: the guy could have done a LOT worse, remember the disgruntled postal worker who brought a AK47 to work the next day ?
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M$No, no, no, no no. It was somewhat pre-mediated; in his own words; he deserves no sympathy. .
I was in hospitality, which is where travel and tourism falls, for over 10 years--four in conferences and over six as a concierge. In both instances, I was in a supervisory and training position.
I've never been in the airline industry but I have flown on plenty of planes. It is only correct that he was charged with endangerment--unless JetBlue, wants all of their passengers sliding down yellow slides.
I have been in this situation...well, I managed someone who was. One of my team members called me one day to tell me he'd been assaulted. I dropped everything and hustled to the other end of the block to his building, and the police had already arrived. I was able to sum it up in my head pretty quickly: He wasn't assaulted. A SIMILAR KIND OF THING HAPPENED: He asked a guy not to bring a hand-cart through the marble lobby of a building and the guy was already at the elevator. The lobby was less than 100 feet long. Our employee was body-blocking the elevators rather than just being a little smart and letting the guy go one time. Imagine how queasy I was when I had to call my boss and say "He just said 'If you're going to arrest me for doing my job, then I guess you're going to have to arrest me,' and they cuffed him."
I do not care how long Steven Slater has has been a flight attendant. Maybe he was mad because he peed on his uniform during some turbulence, I don't know. There's no way this was the first person who didn't ever follow crew instructions, and Slater knows that objects shift in flight. It's a job hazard and if he can't take the heat he should stay off the plane.
Police think he may have been drinking. Washington Post, 8/11:
"Steven Slater, the folk hero flight attendant, may have charmed legions of online fans by his elaborate exit from a JetBlue plane, but now the police and some of the passengers on his flight beg to differ with the nice-guy-pushed-to-the-edge story.
ABC news reports the police have evidence that suggests Slater began drinking before the Pittsburgh to New York flight.
"He got on with issues," one police official told ABC News. "When they were boarding he was very obnoxious."
I was assaulted at work and sent to the hospital one time myself. But did I act unprofessionally and break not only company code of conduct but violate federal law? No. Steven Slater had an option to do something within the bounds of his authority and chose not only not to, but to go out in a blaze of glory.
What burns my ass about everyone sympathizing about it is that in every news report, you can see him smirking about the whole thing. Never has he shown any remorse. He pleaded "Not Guilty." Nevermind that the emergency slide's repair cost is about $25,000 and that crew on the ground were put in harm's way. Like I said, maybe he tinkled on himself and he was upset about the wee-wee.
So let's say, for argument's sake, and I'm not saying he did, but suppose Steven Slater peed all over himself during a bump in the flight. I'm talking, suppose the man doused himself.and was, well, pissed.
No sane person expecting to keep their job goes that overboard. He planned id, or at least had a contingency plan for what to do if he wanted to do it--the video on the Washington Post's website shows him saying he'd been thinking about it for twenty years. He clearly did it for attention. The police record was a consequence he had to see coming.I'm waiting for the public defender to change "Not Guilty" to "Not Guilty by reason of mental insanity."
Slater has set a precedent. Every JetBlue crew member should now be REQUIRED to curse at passengers on the PA system and activate emergency devices. I sure as hell hope The Port Authority Police has extra manpower. And I sure hope JeBlue has their bankruptcy papers signed and waiting to be filed.
The Motley Fool's story on it pretty much sums up what I've written:
If JetBlue (Nasdaq: JBLU) flight attendant Steven Slater were a stock, I'd sell my shares. Warren Buffett has said that the most important quality for an investor is temperament. The same can be said about flight attendants.
Slater has become a cult hero since his dramatic "I'm not going to take it anymore" exit via inflatable slide. He's racked up hundreds of thousands of fans on Facebook. He's been called a working-class hero for anyone who has suffered the slings and arrows of incivility, an inspiration for anyone who dreams of quitting their job.
There's only one problem: Steven Slater is no hero. He's a guy who didn't want to do one of the more difficult parts of his job: keeping it together even when customers can't. He's the firefighter who doesn't want to deal with fire, the doctor who doesn't want to be around blood, the parent who doesn't want to do that whole "parenting" thing. That's nothing to celebrate.
When my 4-year old son has a tantrum, as he did last night, I don't get to respond in kind, throwing a tantrum and matching my son's emotions mano-a-mano. It's my job to rise to rise above the fray and deal. In the words of Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan, it's my job to be "calmly assertive."
As I was thinking about this story yesterday, I wondered whether other people shared my feelings. I emailed Corporate Library co-founder Nell Minow, a woman whose job includes calling out bad corporate behavior, and told her that I was inclined to sell my shares of Steve Slater because of his rich valuation -- Facebook following, national news, near-universal praise/admiration -- and because he cussed out paying customers, never a good practice.
I asked Nell whether she'd be buying, selling, or holding Steven Slater. She replied:
Hold for now -- until the book deal gets signed. He's about 12 minutes into his 15, unless he can come up with a second act. It's a perennial -- there's always a silly August news story that captivates everyone briefly. But this one does have that "take this job and shove it" wish fulfillment element that will keep it, well, aloft, just a bit longer.
I hope Nell's right, and that Slater's 15 minutes are quickly ticking away. I expect to see him on The Apprentice. And according to his lawyer, Slater now wants his job back. Shouldn't he have thought of that before the profanity-laced tirade and emergency slide deployment?
I'm no fan of Steven Slater. I'm a fan of all the flight attendants who don't take the easy way out. And I'm a fan of the millions of people going about their day-to-day lives with a quiet dignity, working jobs that can be difficult because of people who can be difficult."
The New York Daily News:
"Fired-up flight attendant Steven Slater was walking on air as he emerged from jail Tuesday night as a folk hero....
"The woman was outraged and cursed him out a great deal. At that point, I think, he just wanted to avoid conflict with her."
Through his lawyer, Slater pleaded not guilty to criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and trespassing charges.
Authorities said Slater endangered jetBlue employees under the aircraft when he activated the emergency slide, which costs more than $25,000 to replace."
OpEdNews, yesterday (8/13):
"Perhaps Steven Slater was on a high because of the support that many Americans have shown him, but I believe that he's now beginning to realize that he's no hero. The charges and accusations of many unanswered questions aren't helping to shed any favorable in his favor. Perhaps whatever high he was on has long since faded. "
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2010/08/13/quit-celebrating-the-jetbl...
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/08/10/2010-08-10_steven_slater_bai...
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Steven-Slater-s-Rude-Awake-by-Milton-Lee-N...
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/livecoverage/2010/08/the_ballad_of_steven_...
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M$
Thank you. Our guy, I don't know if he was let go or if he voluntarily quit, or a combination of a "go peacefully" settlement thereof, as the employment was at-will, which means they're not obligated to keep anyone employed--but I spent the remainder of the day covering for him at this high-profile location (it's on national news very often now), abandoning my own spot, and soon after--perhaps the next day--I was training his replacement.
Brilliant
Not only that, this guy had been working as a steward for 28 years. Another guy on NPR was complaining about the stress having worked 20 years. No one should be working the same stressful job for that length of time, maybe 5 years should be the max.
So I don't sympathize with this guy at all. He should have changed jobs years ago. Not that I would have wanted him as a steward even then.
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M$
It is not sexist to prefer an entertainer to be a sexy young female. It is sexist to want your airplane pilot to be be a sexy young female, or a mature male, etc. . It depends upon how you feel the job of airline stewardess should be patterned. I think 90% or more of the job is the same as a waitress or more so, and I think Hooter's has the right idea about waitresses. Not that I eat there. It happens to be relevant to this question because if the stewardess was an attractive young lady that would also have defused tensions and reduced the likelihood of conflict with the passengers.
There is no source, I am giving my opinion - the question is am I sympathetic and I'm not! I might add that in my experience the vast majority of wait staff, customer personnel, etc in America are rude and obnoxious and I suspect that the steward was entirely to blame for the altercation in the first place.
@albanian Perhaps i was a little harsh with my assessment of your answer.
It did come across as sexist however. I suppose now in hindsight sexism in different parts of the world is construed differently. How women and men should be taken into the workforce and what roles they play. I make no apologies for my vote, but i'll give you the benefit of the doubt and try and keep an open mind.
I remind you again that this is a question asking about people's feelings/opinion. It is not appropriate to vote down any on topic answer because your opinions or feelings or different. You express your own feelings/opinions in your own answer, and/or add a comment disagreeing. Voting down an answer as unhelpful actually censors it and should only be done if an answer is off topic, spammy, one word, vulgar, drastically factually wrong on a factual question, etc.
"It is not sexist to prefer an entertainer to be a sexy young female. It is sexist to want your airplane pilot to be be a sexy young female, or a mature male, etc. . It depends upon how you feel the job of airline stewardess should be patterned."
If you're talking about a professional position, the word "sexy"...or "fat" or "ugly" or "male" or "female" better not be in the same sentence as the word "job" unles you've got about $10,000,000 to spend on damages, legal expenses and possibly fines. That would be tantamount to begging for an EEOC claim.
While I respect your right to have an opinion, in 1997, there were 3,750,000 other opinions like mine--and I appreciate that you used the restaurant as an example to remind me of the case history, because as a person with cognitive disabilities for several years now, I had completely forgotten about it:
::
"CORPUS CHRISTI — A Corpus Christi man has filed a lawsuit against Hooters accusing the restaurant chain of gender discrimination for not hiring him as a food server. The lawsuit is an attempt to reopen an issue that was settled 11 years ago in a class action that ended in an agreement that established that the chain’s signature Hooters Girls could continue to be the restaurants’ only food servers.
Nikolai Grushevski’s suit recognizes this earlier agreement, disputes it and invites other men to join him in seeking another class action. He asserts in the suit that when he applied to be a waiter at the local restaurant in May 2008 he was not hired because of his gender.
The suit claims that even though food servers are referred to exclusively as “Hooters Girls,” the job should not be limited only to women.
“Just as Southwest Airlines attempted nearly three decades ago with stewardesses, the waiter’s position addressed herein is being limited to females by an employer...” the suit states.
Grushevski says in the suit he isn’t trying to prevent the company from employing Hooters Girls but wants to ensure that both men and women have the chance to work as wait staff.
In 1997, Hooters agreed to pay $3.75 million to settle a sexual discrimination lawsuit filed by a group of men. That settlement provided that the service of food and beverages would continue to be performed only by Hooters Girls. Hooters also agreed to create “gender neutral” positions for other positions like bartender, host and kitchen staff."
Source: http://www.caller.com/news/2009/jan/13/local-man-sues-hooters-claims-gender-bias-seeks/
And even though the case was vacated--on a technicality, if you read the docket entry-- for over a year, JetBlue itself had to defend itself against a similar claim--age (ADEA--Age Discrimination Employment Act), race ("Title VII" of the Civil Rights Act of 1964) and gender bias, creating a hostile work environment and retaliation for filing a complaint: All of it a good federal EEOC complaint and but it was heard under a complaint of the NYHRL--New York Human Rights Law)
See: Diane Gorzynski v. JetBlue Airways Corporation.
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-2nd-circuit/1508597.html
Oh, but hold up a second. That technicality may not be so cut-and-dry. It's back in appeals for a jury to hear, unless it was already heard. The date on this is May 1, 2010.:
"We do not believe that the Supreme Court … intended that victims of sexual harassment, in order to preserve their rights, must go from manager to manager until they find someone who will address their complaints," Senior Judge Guido Calabresi wrote.
Now a jury will decide if Gorzynski’s complaints to Celeste were enough to create liability for JetBlue"
Source: http://www.insidecounsel.com/Issues/2010/May-2010/Pages/Complaint-to-One-Boss-Supports-Harassment-Claim.aspx
Wait, did you seek the opinion of Association of Flight Attendants at Northwest ?
See final paragraph in the following quote:
"The Association of Flight Attendants at Northwest filed grievances due to the lack of availability of the red dress for females over size 18 and over another policy that requires flight attendants who wear orthopedic shoes to wear only slacks and no skirts or dresses. Those that wear the orthopedic shoes must obtain a doctor's note stating that they require the special footwear.
The fact that policies such as these exist in any type of industry is surprising, even one such as the airline industry, which has been known for its hyper-sexualized image of flight attendants over the years. The time has long passed since it was acceptable for any employer in any industry to hold women to such petty standards as dress size and shoe choices.
It’s almost a step back to the sixties when flight attendants were forced to stay unmarried and retire at 32. Policies like that were eventually fought and defeated once flight attendants established their own union"
I have interviewed, hired, trained and managed dozens of people over my career--black, white whatever race, gay, straight and bi-...perhaps as many as 200 to 250, all said and done. What's in their resume legally counts, not what's on their body or in their bed. It's not just my opinion--it's the law, at least in The United States.
And then there's this one you offer: "(I)n my experience the vast majority of wait staff, customer personnel, etc in America are rude and obnoxious and I suspect that the steward was entirely to blame for the altercation in the first place."
We react to how the customer treats us, sometimes in a subtle fashion, but in this particular case, definitely not so.
And THAT's why you got my down vote.
We're entitled to our opinions, and that's mine.
Thank you very much!
Not very, @bklynjs. There is perhaps a bit less benefit; but, females who are not lesbians apparently also like looking at attractive young ladies. I say this because of the covers of the magazines, all aimed at average women, that I see en mass at the grocery store. Also this is backed up by what I have seen from time to time on TV oriented towards women. I don't claim to know why; but, it seems actually true that women like looking at attractive women, perhaps looking for tips or clues on what to do themselves. It is not true of males at all. Non-gay males do not like looking at attractive young men, neither in photos nor in person nor especially at close quarters. It triggers aggression and disgust. That's the way it is, apparently there must be a biological basis for this difference between the sexes.
I think jobs like waitress, barmaid, and stewardess should reflect this in their requirements.
The employment laws have no bearing on my sympathies or opinion, which is what this question is about. If I get a chance to vote on it I will vote for laws that will restore the '50's view of the stewardess job. If your opinion is different, you are welcome to give yours or to explain why you disagree with mine in a comment. It is not a reason to vote down an answer.
I'm voting this one down for its unabashedly sexist and ageist tone. "old fashioned stewardesses..should be, in a small way, entertainment...the job should be a temporary one for young ladies. " Are we installing stripper poles on planes, too?
Poor judgment call.
And xds: "How women and men should be taken into the workforce and what roles they play. " Don't look for a job in HR.
Well don't you think it's sexist to the female passengers to have a sexy young female as an entertainer unless they are lesbians.
Well I voted you down because you added unsubstantiated info. Not because i disagree with your views. I actually agree that people should not be in a stressful job to long.
Kinda feel sorry you think so. Feel free to add a source to the other dude at npr and i will change my vote.
@albanian i think you have been around long enough to know that if you add information to a answer you should add a source to back it up. Even if it is just some random "guy" .
I also think your comments about stewards and stewardess's is very sexist and prejudice. Men can do the same jobs that women can and vice versa.
This is 2010 not 1910.
This is clearly being voted down by people who simply have a different opinion. This answer is correct. The question is do I sympathize and I and answered. I don't. It is not proper to vote down questions simply because you disagree.
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M$
I believe he said something like "I'm outta here." Not something a flight attendant taxiing to the gate says when they've decided to put lives under the plane at risk and cost the company half his position's median salary (as of this month--Source: http://tinyurl.com/2up3hxd) to repair/replace his joyride slide. Absolutely no remorse. He had time to grab a couple of beers and was getting a piece shortly after the incident:
"... grabbing two beers and cursing on the airplane intercom before bouncing down the giant inflatable slide, and running home to make sweet love to his boyfriend. "
Source: http://tinyurl.com/236de5f
"It took JetBlue (JBLU) awhile, but the airline is finally speaking to its employees about the Steven Slater incident, where he took some beer, popped the evacuation slide, and slid on down. The BlueNote letter to crewmembers (PDF) that went out from Chief Operating Officer Rob Maruster was absolutely excellent, and shows that the airline’s priorities are in the right place.
The letter starts by simply explaining the facts that are known. Those facts are pretty sparse for the moment, as the investigation continues. There is some discussion elsewhere that flight attendant Steven Slater made up the whole story to garner sympathy. But JetBlue avoided speculation about that. Instead, Rob simply dove into the boring particulars, and after that, he made two real points that I think are very important.
1. “JetBlue will always seek to prosecute people who physically harm or threaten to harm a Crewmember or Customer. Period.”
2. “However, if Mr. Slater’s story proves to be accurate, and even if there was a precipitating event that motivated his behavior, that still doesn’t excuse his actions.”
If you work for JetBlue, these are the two points you want to hear, and they were said quite well. The fact that the first point was made first (and was put in bold type) clearly shows where the airline’s priorities are. Crewmembers come first. Bravo.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, every flight attendant has had a fantasy of doing something along these lines, but most of them never would even consider doing it. It’s incredibly unprofessional. It’s also dangerous. As Rob says:
The most distressing aspect of the media coverage has been the lightness with which they are treating the deployment of the emergency slide. Slides deploy extremely quickly, with enough force to kill a person. Slides can be as dangerous as a gun, and that’s the reason we have intensive initial and recurrent training. It is an insult to all aviation professionals to have this particular element of the story treated without the seriousness it deserves.
Very true. Sure, being a flight attendant is stressful, but that’s the whole point of the job. When things go wrong, a flight attendant needs to be able to react quickly and appropriately in the highest stress situation of all. I would be very concerned about Steven Slater’s ability to handle his passengers’ safety in a stressful situation when he can’t even handle his own."
Source: http://tinyurl.com/29xzw2r
"For Slater, he clearly hit a breaking point that had been building for some time. If you’re a flight attendant, you can’t just snap like that. And Steven had been working as a flight attendant for years. Every day, flight attendants deal with obnoxious passengers — some are drunk, some are rude, some are sexual harassers, and others just think that it’s a good idea to take their airline-related frustrations out on a flight attendant because there’s nobody else around in that metal tube at 35,000 feet.
We don’t know what Slater’s day was like before he hit the wall. The flight was on time, so at least that wasn’t an issue for him, but he could have already had several flights that day where something went wrong. We know that he at least took the flight out from New York to Pittsburgh, but what else happened?
Was he on reserve and was called in at the last minute? Had he been up since 4 in the morning working flights up and down the east coast? Did he have things going on at home as well? (We do know is mother is very ill.) Maybe he’s broke. We can speculate all day, but we’ll never get in his head."
Source: http://tinyurl.com/28bpz2o
Exactly. He could have been standing in the lavatory, doing his bidness, hit some turbulence and given himself a shower--I mean, a good spritz. He could have been inducting himself into the mile-high club alone and hit some turbulence, breaking his mojo, and the plane wasn't the only thing that was JetBlue.
"As soon as the surly steward arrived at his beachfront home in the Rockaways, he jumped into bed with his boyfriend, and was mid-coitus when the police arrived to arrest him for reckless endangerment and trespassing." Celebrating.
And I'm not an attorney but I'd bet dollars to Chock Full o'Nuts donuts (if you're a New Yorker, you know) that his court-appointed legal-aid lawyer, Howard Turman, is in way over his head if he plans to plead not guilty to felony charges of reckless endangerment and criminal mischief with this: "And why did Slater use the inflatable slide? "It was there," said Turman."
Source: http://tinyurl.com/28gs9o3
As stupid as his actions were, Stephen Slater isn't that dumb. One couldn't possibly pull that off without a good amount of both knowledge (would you know how to do it on a moment's notice--quickly?) and premeditation (while there was an event that sent him over the edge, there is that video of him talking about thinking about doing it for twenty years).
He is no dummy and any insanity plea won't fly, as it were. I get the sense if JetBlue is smart, Slater won't fly anymore, either. If he does get back into a JetBlue uniform, JetBlue is basically providing negative reinforcement. I have a young child--I know the drill. They'd be rewarding--or not punishing him--for throwing a tantrum on company time.
And, unbelievably, "While Steven Slater's fantastically dramatic walkout from his job was widely construed as a resignation, he did not formally quit. Furthermore, JetBlue has not formally fired him.
Steve Slater, who described himself as a "bag nazi" when it comes to leaving luggage in the overhead bins during taxiing..."
Source: http://tinyurl.com/2byp5lp
Any smart businessperson, and certainly any risk manager would see that JetBlue has got a risk on their hands. I suppose it's good that the incident happened on the ground and not five miles above it.
Even now, apparently there is no code of conduct over at JetBlue. The letter I referenced above does not say what would happen to Slater if his story was NOT accurate.
I do feel for him about the loss of his father and about his mther's illness, but it is in no way a justification to snap like that.
