Let’s Stop Publicly Shaming Imperfect Flight Attendants
Sarah Steegar September 01, 2015
It happened twice just the other day. First came the photo of a flight attendant on the jumpseat with a phone in her hand, accompanied by a complaint. An hour later, a photo of another attendant sitting where a passenger thought he shouldn’t.
If your first reaction to reading these stories might be, “Good, serves ’em right!” then I’m appealing to you. Publicly posting photos of crew to complain about them is not okay. Hear me out.
Unprofessionalism and bad service are universal nerve-pluckers — I get that — and I am not going to sit here and pretend to you that there are not some bad flight attendants out there, but let’s look at a few reasons why “complaint by public shaming” isn’t the way to go.
1) It’s Not Allowed
While we all know that taking photos in airplanes can be an issue of vague and conflicting information, you can usually find it clearly stated in an airline’s in-flight magazine that photographing crew members is specifically prohibited. At my airline, we get fired for photographing a colleague in such a manner.
Airlines are unlikely to confront you on this point, but it’s a technicality that could come back to bite if an accused crew member felt sufficiently victimized.
2) It’s Just Rude
Would you like to have your photo taken without your permission during some off-guard moment of your day, to be posted publicly with an accusation against which you are prohibited from defending yourself? That’s a bit of an ambush. It also feels disproportionate. A bit like swatting a fly with a sledgehammer.
3) Is the Behavior Really Hurting You?
Sometimes, yes. But it’s a good question to consider before taking it to the public.
Remember the blow-up over the flight attendant taking a photo in the engine well? While I can’t speak for Spirit Airlines and their claim it was against policy, I’ve never even heard of a pilot or flight attendant who has been told such by their company. In fact, sometimes airlines host such a photo opp for new flight attendants during initial training!
Maybe the flight attendant is not beyond critique for her choice of timing, but did it call for contacting a news station? Absolutely not. A woman almost lost her job over nothing.
4) You Might Be Wrong
It’s a good idea to sprinkle some humility over indignation. I’m not one of those who will say you should never complain because you definitely don’t know all of the circumstances, but consider the following example:
Recently some front-row First Class passengers filmed the strange behavior of their flight attendant as she sat on her jumpseat, later sharing the video on YouTube. Indeed, she was acting strangely. From what I saw (in the video, which we had removed) something was clearly not okay.
This wasn’t a “Haha, let’s take photos and laugh at her” situation. This was a “This isn’t safe, something’s wrong, we should tell somebody now” situation — at least it should have been. There was a medical situation afoot, but no one bothered to ask themselves what was really happening because they were busy pointing fingers.
So what should you do if you encounter what you feel is a complaint-worthy situation? Complain away — just know that public shaming of people you disapprove of via surreptitious or coerced photos isn’t the way to go.
If I really can’t stop you from snapping, know that you can provide your specifics via DM or attachment to whatever conversation you have privately after getting the company’s attention. You don’t have to post them publicly. No one is implying you shouldn’t complain. I’m just asking that we think twice about how we do it.
[Photo: iStock]
I'm glad to see that most of the comments here echo my thoughts. Perhaps if flight crews cared (or at least pretended to care) about their passengers, and performed their jobs with the minimal of surliness and crankiness then the shamers wouldn't be out their posting faces on the net. I have to agree with the assessment of US carrier cabin crews -- internationally they are SUB-par. I've taken to avoiding the USB3 (UA AA DL) on any service that involves me using a passport. No thanks! This is especially true flying in coach. Even if the routing is less direct, I'll look to carriers like BA, AF, KL, KE, CX, SQ etc to get me where I'm going. Even if they hate their jobs, they've never made me feel like a burden. Sorry 'bout it, Sarah.
Public shaming is unnecessary in most situations. So is unprofessional behaviour. But realistically none of us can control social media - the only thing we can do is behave appropriately. This public shaming would not happen if the crew did not expose themselves. IMHO neither is justified but we all have to deal with it at some level. In your article there is no advice to crew to behave appropriately.
Cry me a river. If an FA chooses to be surly, and it is a choice, they deserve the shaming.
Not to worry, I will continue to point out bad flight service on U.S. airlines. I have posted before that Asian airlines such as KE is great. The seat belt light goes off and the crew literally run to get the drink carts. On so many U.S. carriers the FAs discuss the kids, the date last night, how many hours they are working this week. It reminds me of when we would drive our young children to sporting events and the kids in the back seat would talk like we were not in the car. Same with FAs, you would think they do not hear them talking. We do. So unprofessional. I do not photograph bad service. But I write to airline CEOs with names, days, times, and flight numbers.
Thanks for all your feedback. Just don't forget I said that complaining itself is just fine. Humiliation of an individual is not a necessary part of complaining. There is debate to be had about Passenger Shaming, but no one is publicly identifiable on that site. Also people on that site are free to defend themselves if there has been misunderstanding. FAs are not permitted to defend themselves, even if a passengers is totally mistaken about what the context is.