Qatar Airways Executive Condemns Drunk Employee in Staff Email, Airline Stands by Public Shaming
Jackie Reddy March 19, 2015
A senior Qatar Airways executive recently shamed an intoxicated flight attendant, emailing a photo of the employee to the carrier’s entire staff.
A senior Qatar Airways executive sparked controversy this week after emailing a photo of a drunken employee to the carrier’s entire workforce. The picture sent by Rossen Dimitrov, senior vice president of customer experience, showed a security camera screenshot of a flight attendant lying unconscious outside of staff accommodation’s in Doha.
The snapshot was accompanied by a message from Dimitrov, who expressed his disgust with the incident. The full email, dated March 15, read:
Qatar Airways confirmed the authenticity of the email and defended its contents in a statement, explaining that it was sent to impress upon staff the importance of “respecting the norms and values of the Qatari society in which we work.”
A representative for the airline stressed that while alcohol consumption is forbidden for Qatari citizens, it is permissible for foreigners to drink. Public drunkenness, however, was considered to be highly disrespectful. The unnamed representative told MailOnline Travel:
The vast majority of our cabin crew would themselves be disappointed at the idea that one of their colleagues should get into this situation, since they share our pride in the reputation of our time, and they would also, as we are, be very concerned about the safety implications for someone in this position.
According to the representative, the matter is now under investigation.
[Photos: Daily Mail]
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Bullying behavior. Dimitrov should be fired.
Did the flight attendant ever make a statement about this ? If so i can't seem to find it.
This isn't about shaming women. The reference to "how can we change rules" refers to efforts being made to give the western employees more liberties regarding their behavior (i.e. easing restrictions on drinking, acceptable behavior between unrelated women and men, etc. to better accommodate western norms to in turn attract more western employees) while in Qatar. These types of incidents if publicized will be used against the groups trying to ease restrictions; it seems like this executive was trying to jump out in front of the situation for the benefit of the employees as a whole. Not saying I agree with everything about how it was done, but context is important and I have some sympathy for the author's position.
Typical misogynistic Qatar to shame women without even bothering to find out what happened first.
I was in the process of purchasing 4 Business Class tickets and this did it for me. What is wrong with her getting drunk when she is not working? Who the hell is he to shame her? The Moral Police? Shame on the executive who sent this email out. I am not flying Qatar.