A United Airlines flight attendant was overheard bitterly complaining about her job and even about an orange juice request on a transatlantic flight. How should United deal with such bitter employees?
United Airlines Flight Attendant Hates Her Job…And Let’s Everyone Know It
A traveler shared the following anecdote from a Chicago – Amsterdam flight on reddit:
Took a flight from ORD to AMS, one of the flight attendants was absolutely wild! Constant snotty comments and outwardly talking about how much she hates being there. Loudly chatting with a colleague during drink service “I’ve got 18 months till retirement, I don’t know if I’ll even make it unless they give us more money,” or my favorite was a customer asked for orange juice and her response was “ugh, shoot me in the eye now.” Like really?! If it’s so damn bad don’t show up and subject a captive audience to your terrible attitude! So much for friendly skies lol
I realize that reddit is merely a creative writing forum for some, but unfortunately, I have run into these sorts of FAs before. On one level it is refreshing and the sardonic humor can sometimes be strangely calming. We know many flight attendants do feel that way, even if most keep it bottled up inside.
But of course, this is highly unacceptable…you don’t speak to passengers that way or talk to your colleagues in that way within earshot of passengers.
I know flight attendants at United are desperate for a new contract (deservedly so) and morale has dropped for many. That’s an unfortunate reality, but a reality nonetheless.
But this sort of bickering is never okay. Never. The passenger was urged to reprot it and I concur: that bitter flight attendant may be on her way out, but that does not mean she can speak that way even in her last 18 months, which is still time to do a lot of damage on the customer service front.
Yes folks, ultimately if cannot tolerate job, you can find another one. I realize that’s not going to happen for someone so close to retirement, but this sort of behavior undermines all that United is trying to accomplish with “Good Leads The Way.”
I hope that the new flight attendant contract at United will include renewed training and discipline mechanisms to avoid this sort of thing…
