Case of the Monday’s
If you’ve checked any news source in the last two days, chances are you’ve heard about this guy, Steven Slater.
Back in his employed days
He quickly became a folk hero of sorts on Monday, when a passenger on the plane he was attending stomped on his very last little nerve. Apparently, Steven had just intervened between two women having a hissy fit when one of them attempted to pull out her luggage from the overhead bins before the plane came to a complete stop. Anyone who’s ever ridden an airplane knows this is a no-no, but the woman in question did not care. Her luggage hit Steven in the head and when he asked for an apology, she became irate and started calling him every name in the book.
That was, as they say, the straw that broke the flight attendant’s back.
Steven grabbed the microphone, dropped a few f-bombs and called the lady out for being a jerk then grabbed a beer and used the emergency slide to depart the plane. Wow. Talk about quitting in style.
Who hasn’t thought of making a dramatic exit like that from a job that’s driving them crazy? Kudos to this guy for having the balls to do it. I can only imagine what it must have been like to have been a passenger watching all of this but I bet it was well worth the price of a plane ticket. Oh, and besides witnessing such a dramatic show, they all get $100 vouchers from JetBlue for the “inconvenience”.
Yup, that's about right
Since his outburst, Facebook fan pages have popped up all over the place and this guy’s story has been plastered on the news, both web and in print (and yes, I realize I’m only contributing to this now). He was bonded out of jail and will have to go to court to face charges of criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and trespassing. Apparently it costs about $25,000 to replace one of those emergency slide do-hickeys and it seems that they’re rather dangerous when deployed, so some people were upset that he put those on the ground at risk. Chances are he didn’t really think about that during his impromptu getaway, though.
As funny as this is and as much as I really do understand it (I’ve worked in customer service and/or with the public for many years now), it’s not something I think I could ever do myself. I’ve always given lots of notice prior to leaving a position (even the ones that didn’t deserve it) and I will most likely continue to do so until the very last job I have.
You know, once upon a time I considered a career as a flight attendant. I figured it must be cool to travel every day and get sweet discounts on airfare. However, taking a few international trips quickly changed my views on all that. Passengers are panicky, rude, annoying and just plain mean and I don’t think I could handle that while thousands of feet up in the air. Plus, if the plane was crashing I think I would rather do just about anything than try to smile and keep people calm. I think people that work in the airline industry are tougher than most and flight attendants are at the top of that list. While what Steven did might not have been the best way to handle the situation, it sure was memorable and I wouldn’t be surprised if JetBlue sees a slight stock increase because of all this publicity.
Oh and before I forget, here’s the Joseph Gordon-Levitt Picture-of-the-Day:
Oh the memories
This is a still from 10 Things I Hate about You, which came out while I was in high school and quickly became one of my absolute favorite movies. Yes, I own it and yes, I still watch it. If you want to make something of it I will direct you to the nearest emergency slide and you can let yourself out.
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