The Inquirer this morning added its feature story to the now-massive collection of stories about Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who effectively said "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." Slater faces a slew of criminal charges in New York after he cursed a passenger on the intercom over the way she treated him, grabbed a beer and activated the emergency slide as his way off the plane. after landing at JFK Airport The story reports on what an Internet sensation Slater has become because his actions resonate with people frustrated with their jobs and who dream of payback in the form of dramatic action. It's significant to me that the story was published in the Features section of the paper and not the Business section.
What the story doesn't explore is whether the public reaction and support Slater has received is because he works for an airline, albeit one with a relatively good reputation for customer service. Did he generate sympathy because there are millions of air travelers who harbor animosity toward airline management but have sympathy for airline employees? Do they know that flight attendants, even veterans, generally make less than $40,000 a year, and in many cases far less, for a job that can involve life-and-death decisions? Is the support because travelers have also witnessed, or been victims, of rude behavior from fellow passengers (the passenger who irked Slater slammed an overhead bin into his head, leaving him bleeding, according to published reports.).
In other words, does this story resonate with so many because it's about people frustrated about their stressful, low-paying jobs or about an airline worker frustrated with his stressful, low-paying job?
Slater gets support not only because some feel sympathetic to flight attendants--it's also because we don't like our fellow passengers. I used to fly 250,000 miles a year. I got so sick of people who try to bring on three bags, delaying takeoff and taking up all the overhead room. Or people like this passenger who try to get up and get their bags while the plane is still taxiing. I think there are a lot of people in our society today who don't believe the rules apply to them, and the rest of us are sick of it.— philhood- I put up with so much bs on the job through the years. My first boss threatened to kill me when I put through a caller who'd lied about who he was and what he wanted. My last boss wrongly accused me of evertyhing from stealing a check to tracking flower petals into the office. When he laid me off, he told unemployment he'd fired me for stealing. Enough is enough. Some people just reach a breaking point.— PhillyFriend
- I put up with so much bs on the job through the years. My first boss threatened to kill me when I put through a caller who'd lied about who he was and what he wanted. He threw his phone right at my head, cursing and threatening up a storm. My last boss wrongly accused me of evertyhing from stealing a check to tracking flower petals into the office. When he laid me off, he told unemployment he'd fired me for stealing. Enough is enough. Some people just reach a breaking point.— PhillyFriend
- Not enough people fly anymore, or at least fly regularly, in order for Slater's story to have become such a phenomenon for reasons isolated to air travel. Tom Belden asks the right question, and the right answer is "it's about people frustrated about their stressful, low-paying jobs."— Wurm
- Part of it is about low-paying jobs, but a lot of it is about terrible behavior by air passengers. A lot of us are fed up with people who don't know how to act in public, which in this case is to stay in your seat and shut the f*** up until the plane is safely stopped. It's not hard, people. I love reading about how passengers sometimes help the crew subdue unruly/drunk/boorish people. We just want to get to our destination safely, quietly, and with no dramas.— Paul B
- It's about feeling good about your work, feeling like you've earned your pay with honest effort, and sort of expecting that the people you've worked hard for might just appreciate it -- and finding that this is rarely the case. Bosses treat you like a plug-replaceable part they can abuse to failure, co-workers treat you like an enemy they must defeat to stay alive, and the customers treat you like a drudge that has just insulted their mother instead of someone that has just done something they can't do for themselves. And none of them want any rules to apply to them -- but they DO want them to apply to everyone else, including YOU. I've been blamed for the mistakes of salespeople who told clients the wrong things. I've been reprimanded for clients making impossible demands. I've been fired for leaving a dirty dish soaking in a sink while in the restroom -- the excuse given because the boss was a raging homophobe. I've had unemployment contested with lies, spies counting how many times I went to the restroom, and employers negating a month's work on a whim then firing me for "wasting time". I've been summarily fired because I wasn't "typing" when the boss walked by. I'm a programmer. I was *thinking* and making notes on paper. That didn't matter. I can understand this man snapping and deciding to go out with a blaze of glory. There are many times I wish I could have.— Demosthenes
- Answer to the "In other words..." question = all of the above.— pj katauskas
- Philadelphia International Airport
- Air Canada
- Air France
- Air Jamaica
- AirTran Airways
- American Airlines
- British Airways
- Continental Airlines
- Delta Air Lines
- Frontier Airlines
- Midwest Airlines
- Northwest Airlines
- Southwest Airlines
- Spirit Airlines
- United Airlines
- US Airways
- USA 3000 Airlines
- Baggage bungling at PHL
- Local weather updates
- Local traffic updates
- February
- January
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- News | Sports | Business | What's Happening | Restaurants & Food | Entertainment | Living | Marketplace | Jobs
