BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???

Subject: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Bobert
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 09:11 AM

Guess I might have missed the story...

Whad the guy do, anyway???

B~

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Noreen
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 09:23 AM

US air steward in shock plane exit after passenger row

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: EBarnacle
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 09:54 AM

Considering that Jet Blue is one of the budget airlines, known for low wages and staff abuse, I would say his "Take this job and shove it" approach is entirely appropriate. No one should have to deal with personal and professional abuse.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: fretless
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 10:08 AM

The guy is rapidly becoming a folk hero among the unhappily employed set (i.e. just about everyone), and "Take a Slider" is emerging as slang for a dramatic exit from an unwelcome job or, more broadly, any restrictive situation.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Becca72
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 10:12 AM

I've had a job or two that I wish I had the guts to exit in a dramatic fashion. I say "good on him"!

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Bobert
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 10:31 AM

Where's Johmmy Paycheck when we need him the most???

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 10:48 AM

The coverage I have seen glosses over the reasons for the charge of reckless endangerment against the attendant.

I'm pretty sure it's bad for an attendant to open the emergency evacuation door without the captain knowing anything about it.

My advice to him is 'grow up'. The attendant hadn't been subjected to anything that kids in a tough high school have been through.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 10:53 AM

KAren came home from work today and said, "Give me two beers and a chute."

Yeah.....the guy hit a nerve in this country. Especially in this economy, hanging on to any job is pretty important and a lot of formerly decent employers have changed their modus operandi and now take every chance to get more for their money. Complain? Go work elsewhere!

That's pretty general I know but it is often the case and that adds to all other sorts of problems on the job. More frustration equals poorere relations BETWEEN workers as well. Karen has been in her profession for almost 30 years and is known to be tops at her job. Yet even so, shit still runs downhill and she gets a share she doesn't deserve. Our morning "debriefs" take longer anymore but its still working and so is she.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Bobert
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 10:53 AM

Yeah, I guess I missed the 1st story and now it's moved into the hero stage... I don't get it myself... But we all know how the media is???

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 10:58 AM

I don't much blame if the guy for going bonkers on the ground...but I don't think this is an occupation for him. What if he were to go berserk at 30,000 feet? A hero he is not.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Bobert
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 10:58 AM

He didn't hit the chute with a couple of Iron City beers did he, Spawzer??? I mean, that would have been great...

They gonna charge him fir stealing the beer???

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: gnu
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 11:22 AM

Well, if he gets hit with damages in court, he might be screwed. The cost of delay, repacking the chute...

And, I think I read he was charged with endangering passenger safety.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 12:49 PM

Almost willing to contribute to his defense fund.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 01:33 PM

I get tired of people who grouse about being an airline passenger. Sure, there might be a real problem (stranded for hours) once in a while.

But most of it is just immaturity and selfishness.

Recently I read a book about the overland migration from the eastern states to California in the 1850's. I'll never forget the people who died along and way and were buried in the middle of nowhere with perhaps a wood board to mark the spot. One was for a boy of 12. There was nothing on the board but his name and 'Dear boy.' Heartbreaking!

And now people make the same trip in a few hours and bitch about the snacks.   

Here is something I tell people, but they never pay any attention. If you want a pleasanter airline trip, use hearing protection. You might have to try a couple different brands to get what you like, but it will help.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: gnu
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 01:51 PM

I used to use free drinks in the executive lounge prior to flying. Worked a treat. Slept most flights.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 02:39 PM

GUEST,leeneia -
At least they weren't charged extra for a second bag. The point about airlines is that they provide lousy service in exchange for hefty prices.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 04:42 PM

I hope that the plane carried decent beer! I would hate to think that someone flipped out so bad that they took a Bud or Coors Light!

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Aug 10 - 06:14 PM

Always travel five-star.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: mousethief
Date: 13 Aug 10 - 12:28 AM

My advice to him is 'grow up'. The attendant hadn't been subjected to anything that kids in a tough high school have been through.

Why should anybody have to put up at work with things kids in a tough high school have been through? What kind of comparison is that at all? It's apples and ping pong balls.

gnu: just as a point of information, not picking on you, they don't repack those, they throw them away. Once that genie is out of the bottle there's no stuffing it back in.

And now people make the same trip in a few hours and bitch about the snacks.

People bitch about a lot more than snacks. And it doesn't matter a rat's patoot how long it took in 1856 or whatever. What matters is people being treated poorly by companies they have paid for a service. And people's treatment by airlines has gone downhill in a handcart over the last 30 years. Did you see United Breaks Guitars? Would he have been given such a holy runaround 30 years ago if United broke his guitar? Like hell! People are treated like cattle to be milked by the airlines, and when people complain about it, folks like you tell them to shut up and deal. Why should they? Why should people stand to be treated the way airlines treat us? It's not just the snacks and implying so is dirty pool.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: beeliner
Date: 13 Aug 10 - 02:05 AM

I'm reminded of the 'punch line' of The King of Comedy:

"Rupert Pupkin...Wonderful!
Rupert Pupkin...Wonderful!
Rupert Pupkin...Wonderful!"

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 13 Aug 10 - 03:12 AM

poor bloke... he needed proper training on how to deal with obstinate passengers which he likely did not get from a budget airline. and that passenger should pay for causing endangerment to others in his/her (the print story reads different to the video) refusal to obey safety rules.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: mauvepink
Date: 13 Aug 10 - 07:57 AM

"The airline said it was investigating the incident.

"At no time was the security or safety of our customers or crew members at risk," it said in a statement"

So how would the charge of reckless endangerment stand up against the airline's own confession?

"He was arrested and charged with criminal mischief, trespassing and reckless endangerment. "

Trespass? Criminal mischief?

Okay... so he snapped but who knows just how he felt after all that had happened him. Just because bullying takes place in school playgrounds does not make it right either! Children end up killing themselves because of bullies :-(

mp

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 13 Aug 10 - 09:58 PM

Most of what is going around on the internet seems to be blaming the Stew as the instigator. Whatever the truth, he should not be allowed to fly again...perhaps he shouldn't even operate machinery.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: mousethief
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 02:30 AM

Whatever the truth, he should not be allowed to fly again...perhaps he shouldn't even operate machinery.

Let he who has never lost his temper cast the first stone.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: mousethief
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 02:31 AM

Actually he who has never lost his temper has no idea what this guy felt like, so his words about the situation are worthless air.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 03:31 PM

What did he do wrong? The planes on the ground and stationary, how was he "endangering" anyone.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Bill D
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 04:38 PM

The chute, if it had hit ground crew, might have seriously hurt someone.


I think I heard he had been at this job for many years with no problems....sometimes too many foolish passengers at just the wrong time can spell 'tilt'. In the few times *I* have been an airline passenger, I have seen a number of bits of behavior from passengers that would test me. Still...he shouldn't oughta do that.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Greg F.
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 06:12 PM

Yeah, and if a meteor or a satellite with a decaying orbit had fallen out of the sky it might have seriously hurt someone nearby, too.

Damn well time people started objecting when they're treated like shit; this nonsense has been going on way too long.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: gnu
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 06:44 PM

Indeed, Greg... there comes a time...

People seem to be soooo rude these days. This morning, again, a young lad nearly ran his shopping cart into my 83 year old, near blind Mum and he had bloody well seen her. Thank goodness she's near deaf because I said to him, "Slow down, you'll live longer." And, he knew by the look on may face I meant he was in danger.

People are just sooo rude. Where did they (not) learn this crap?

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Ed T
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 07:05 PM

"I'm pretty sure it's bad for an attendant to open the emergency evacuation door:
Especially, before it lands.

"People are just sooo rude. Where did they (not) learn this crap?"

Possibly from some of the posts on "tense topics" on Mudcat? Just a wild guess, Gnu. No rude responses from anyone, please. Or, Joe O may pull his emergency chute:).

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: mousethief
Date: 14 Aug 10 - 11:39 PM

Popping one of those things destroys it. It costs in the neighborhood of $25,000 to replace one.

Yeah, and if a meteor or a satellite with a decaying orbit had fallen out of the sky it might have seriously hurt someone nearby, too.

Stupid comment of the thread award. If a meteor fell out of the sky, it wouldn't be this guy's doing. If he does something that is potentially harmful, unnecessarily, then he should be held accountable for it. Period. And one of those things exploding (they don't fill slowly like an air mattress) would kill someone standing on the ground under the door. Being killed by an emergency slide could ruin your whole afternoon.

The two cases aren't even remotely parallel.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 15 Aug 10 - 02:56 AM

Flight Attendand????? Steward and stewardess if you please!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 15 Aug 10 - 02:58 AM

Bloody laptop

Flight Attendant????? Steward and stewardess if you please!!!!!

Steward = masculine
Stewardess = feminine

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Bobert
Date: 15 Aug 10 - 08:54 AM

Me thinks that the no-fly list should be expanded to include rude and/or drunk people... I mean, kids fly, too... Parents try to keep there kids away from anti-social borish people, don't they??? Anyone who has flown much has seen some very bad adult behavior... If passangers knew that they might loose their priveldge to purchase an airline ticket then maybe they'd behave more like the adults they are sipposed to be...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 15 Aug 10 - 09:27 AM

Try Norwegian Airlines, very civilised and a million miles from easyjet!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 15 Aug 10 - 10:38 AM

Boy, there sure are times us folks in retail would like to indulge (and that's what it would be, a final indulgence) in something of that sort. We have waaaay too many "retail experiences" for the shite pay we get. I think of it all as fiction fodder. (I feel like wearing a t-shirt that says, "Watch it, or you'll wind up in my novel.")

Within the past coupla months, when I was alone (as usual) and the shop was packed with customers demanding attention and I was dispensing (I'm registered with the state as an ophthalmic dispenser -- this ain't a walk in off the street sales job) several pairs of eyeglasses -- progressives, by the way -- to a customer, she "went off" on me. Haven't a clue as to what I may have said or done or how she perceived it. She just exploded and screamed (yes, screamed) at me to not patronize her. All I'd done was ask her to look out at a distance and tell me whether she saw clearly (lenses correctly positioned) or a bit fuzzy (looking through the beginning of the progressive part of the lens). I apologised for anything I may have said or if she perceived I was being short or anything with her (I only had 7 other impatient customers in the store at the time). She started yelling, "Shut up! Just shut up!", threw the glasses at me and stomped off.

I stood there, stunned, with everyone else staring at me. The customer who had been waiting (very patiently) at the counter loudly said, "That's why I don't work retail." No one else had a clue as to what may have flipped her switch (although a few suggested she may have been "off her meds") and went out of their way to be nice to me. All I could do was shrug it off with a smile and go on taking care of customers and making each of them happy.

I work for a company that keeps us understaffed and underpaid so they can sell eyeglasses comparatively inexpensively. They are quick to blame the employees rather than the economy if sales are down and we can't meet sales goals (set by last year's higher sales) and I haven't had a raise in close to two years. (Company-wide freeze on raises for most of that time.)

But it's a JOB which is major in this economy, and I'm getting a very good education in the field by having it and by learning from the manager I have. I work with some wonderful people, too.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Bobert
Date: 15 Aug 10 - 12:27 PM

Yeah, Linn... I was in sales for the second half of my workin' life and it will sho nuff sober ya' up to what "deinstitutionalization" means to the mental health field... There are some very rude/borish people out there...

Makes me wish that Moses hadn't left the 3rd tablet on the side of the mountain 'cause word on the street was that the 11th Commandment was "Thou shalt not be an asshole"... Yup, that one should have been the first Commandment... Could have saved alot of chizzelin' time on the others...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 Aug 10 - 01:40 PM

Why would anyone be stupid enough to stand under an emergency door which might need to be activated without warning?

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Ed T
Date: 15 Aug 10 - 04:12 PM

All Air Canada's male flight attendants are Bi.

Bilingual, that is.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Aug 10 - 04:24 PM

Why would anyone on a ground crew worry about a chute deploying? They work all around aircraft all day, bringing up carts, beginning fueling, chocking wheels, etc. How often does the door open and a chute pop out on a normal approach?

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 15 Aug 10 - 07:02 PM

Something that was just sent to me -- seems appropriate:

Law of the Garbage Truck

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport.
We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us.

My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us.

My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly.

So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!'

This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, 'The Law of the Garbage Truck.' He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets.

So ... Love the people who treat you right.

Pray for the ones who don't.

Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 Aug 10 - 07:31 PM

Why would anyone on a ground crew worry about a chute deploying?

Because it might happen, and if it happens there won't be any warning. You can't predict all emergencies - terrorists, nuts with gun, fire - or something like this happening. So you keep out of the way just in case.

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: mousethief
Date: 15 Aug 10 - 07:47 PM

That's nuts. You can't predict nuts with guns, so you dodge and cover everywhere you go, hiding behind trash bins and racing, crouched, across open ground?

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Kenny B (inactive)
Date: 16 Aug 10 - 04:30 PM

After working on the reception at a mental health hospital in the east end of Glasgow and was regularly threatend with assault and being shot I can appreciate the jetblue guys mindset, however my experience on JetBlue from Boston to Florida was entirely different.
the male flight attendant supervison intoduced the cabin crew at the start of he flight as follows " I shall introduce the cabin crew to you..at the rear of the aircraft is Mary at the front is myself and Sue .... and the bitch in the centre is my Trixie ex wife " true or not he put a smile on everybody's face before takeoff

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 Aug 10 - 04:24 PM

Hard to make a fair judgment here.

One the one hand, you have beleaguered passengers. Airline service used to be quite elegant. No extra charges for baggage, that was all included in the price of the ticket, as were meals on the plane. And the meals were often fairly posh. The first time I flew in a commercial airliner (DC-6B, from Seattle to Denver) in 1955, it was filet mignon, baked potato with all the fixin's (butter, sour cream, bacon bits), a green vegetable, dessert (chocolate cake) and coffee, cocktail if you so wished. Complementary snacks, drinks (alcoholic and other wise), and a couple of very polite stewardesses.

On one flight, from San Francisco back to Seattle, I was one of only six passengers on a United 727. The stewardess didn't have much to do, and she had all these little single-serving bottles of booze. She seemed to take a liking to me (saw my guitar go into the coat closet so she might have thought I was somebody) and kept plying me with Manhattans which I kept drinking. I flew back to Seattle at 39,000 feet. The plane, however, was flying at 35,000 feet! That was a happy flight.

The last time I flew, there was none of that. A small package of macadamia nuts (five of them, and they were stale) and when I got my wheelchair back, it had been damaged in the luggage compartment. Bent frame because they had crammed it in with all the other luggage. After a long discussion with a supervisor at the airport where I landed, the airline agreed to pay for repairs. Fortunately the chair was still usable on my trip, but it tended to go a bit sideways, like a crab.

Within recent years, I've had better, more polite service riding the Greyhound!

I have a friend, retired college professor who travels around the country a lot, and to England once a year, to deliver lectures on theater arts. He has some real horror stories about his adventures (battles) with various airlines.

Now, some of them are even charging you to use the john!!

So I don't blame a passenger for losing it on occasion. I just about lost it when an airline charged me to take my guitar into the passenger cabin with me instead of checking it through with the luggage (see "United Breaks Guitars" on YouTube). They generally put it in the coat closet, but this time I had to buy a seat for it! Child's fare, but nevertheless!

But—

On the various day jobs I've worked:   at the Boeing Airplane Company, I worked under five different supervisors at various times. Two of them were certified, ordained sadists, one of whom started picking on me specifically after I won a company "Pride in Excellence" award for a project I had worked on. Another gave me a lot of s**t for taking time off to attend my father's funeral (I had oodles of sick leave backed up, but I was not actually physically sick, you see!). Other things.

And then there was a radio station where I worked as an on-the-air announcer, a newscaster, wrote commercial copy and then produced commercials, and wound up working from 6:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. with no lunch breaks. When I got off work, I was too tired to eat, so on the way home, I grabbed a hamburger at a local drive-in before I fell into bed. I was loosing weight. Finally, I complained to the station manager, who kept saddling me with extra duties around the station. His response to my wanting a lunch hour? He ignored it and told me that I wasn't "pulling my weight" around the station!

I made a few phone calls, then two weeks later, I quit, returning to Seattle, where I stepped into a job at a classical music station—under AFTRA contract. I worked six hours a day, got to play music that I liked instead of the "elevator music" at the previous station, and got paid AFTRA wages! Hah!!

When I worked as a telephone operator (Ma Bell), you were supposed to be polite to all customers, no matter how abusive they got. You could get static for taking too long processing a call (taking more than 25 seconds with each customer), but you could also be charged with an "error" by being too abrupt with a customer. A survey I read at the time listed "telephone operator" as as the most stressful job, due to company demands and supervisory pressure. "Air flight controller" was also on the list. If one of them screws up, hundreds of people could die! They were number 2 on the list!

On one job (technical writer), when other people in the office went out to local restaurants for lunch, I elected to bring a sack lunch to save a bit of money. So since I was staying at my desk, I got saddled with answering the phones for everybody. And then, other people started leaving me little odd jobs to do while they were out to lunch. So I started leaving the office during the lunch hour and taking my sack lunch to a nearby park. The office manager seemed to think that because I wanted a lunch hour like him and all my other co-workers, I was somehow "shirking my duties!" Shades of the radio station!

(You're familiar with the term "chutzpah?" ["ch" pronounced in the back of the throat like the "ch" in the German "ach"]   Generally means "shameless, unmitigated gall," but is best defined in terms of situation. Family comes into a fancy restaurant. Waiter brings water and passes out menus. Head of the family hands the menus back, brings out a big picnic basket and starts passing out food to the others. The waiter, flummoxed, goes and tells the head waiter what's going on. The head waiter stalks over to the table, about to throw the whole bunch of them out, when the head of the family glowers at him and asks, "Waiter! Why is there no music!??" Or the teenager who murders his parents, then throws himself on the mercy of the court on the grounds that he is an orphan!)

There have definitely been times when I would have loved to given someone a terminal wedgie, then grabbed a beer and "took a slider!"

So--hard to be judgmental either way.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: What's with JetBlue Flight Attendant???
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Aug 10 - 08:12 PM

I worked in grocery stores from about 16 to age 25... Not everyone flies, but 'almost' everyone goes to grocery stores. Fortunately, they don't stay for hours...but UNfortunately, they come back regularly.

One of the most interesting stories was a little old woman who owned one of the two largest department stores in town. She had a green Cadillac and a small, wizened black chauffeur. I watched one days as they drove up, parked in the handicapped zone, and the little guy trooped in, went to the produce dept, picked out ONE avocado, went to the counter and mumbled something, then took the avocado out to the car where she rolled down the window a ways, 'examined' the avocado, shook her head 'no', and sent him BACK in to find a better avocado. It took 3 trips. The little man never smiled....
   I expect YOU have seen similar women, who had no chauffeurs, squeeze an entire table of avocados...or peaches...etc. People do strange things.