I wasn’t aware of the extent to which sleep deprivation is so common among flight attendants. Perhaps naively, I assumed a little more downtime between flights was baked into the schedule. A lifestyle versus a job, indeed.
“It’s more of a lifestyle than a job. If you can handle it, then it’s for you.” How many jobs out there can also make this claim? Too many, I suppose -- they claim your every waking hour and demand nothing less than your soul. This is an insightful piece. Thank you.
The most malevolent factor confronting airline workers is that they are under the much despised, anti-democratic, anti-worker 1926 Railroad Act. Designed to suppress strikes, that piece of reactionary malfeasance forges a link between those two industries. I wish that every time either walked off the job, the went on strike in sympathy.
I mentioned this to a head flight attendant years ago as she was venting at Walgreens. She about dropped her teeth when I denied being an airline employee. ‘Who ARE you,’ she gasped?! I suggested she think of me as a very amateurish labour historian.
Airline employees have to work with some of the most difficult sectors of the population. They think they should be handled like royals. Yet they’ve no clue of the dangers on the job.
And how many people even know that while you have to be at the airport and hustling your buns because it’s your job — you’re not actually paid for this because the plane isn’t loaded and in the air?! And what do the carrier unions say?
I wasn’t aware of the extent to which sleep deprivation is so common among flight attendants. Perhaps naively, I assumed a little more downtime between flights was baked into the schedule. A lifestyle versus a job, indeed.
“It’s more of a lifestyle than a job. If you can handle it, then it’s for you.” How many jobs out there can also make this claim? Too many, I suppose -- they claim your every waking hour and demand nothing less than your soul. This is an insightful piece. Thank you.
The most malevolent factor confronting airline workers is that they are under the much despised, anti-democratic, anti-worker 1926 Railroad Act. Designed to suppress strikes, that piece of reactionary malfeasance forges a link between those two industries. I wish that every time either walked off the job, the went on strike in sympathy.
I mentioned this to a head flight attendant years ago as she was venting at Walgreens. She about dropped her teeth when I denied being an airline employee. ‘Who ARE you,’ she gasped?! I suggested she think of me as a very amateurish labour historian.
Airline employees have to work with some of the most difficult sectors of the population. They think they should be handled like royals. Yet they’ve no clue of the dangers on the job.
And how many people even know that while you have to be at the airport and hustling your buns because it’s your job — you’re not actually paid for this because the plane isn’t loaded and in the air?! And what do the carrier unions say?
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So interesting. It’s good to be aware of what flight attendants go through.
I think it's more common to mistake loneliness for freedom...