Steven Slater Working Class Hero?
I have a question. I may be biased since I tend to get hired when a company is having people or process problems, but I think I’m seeing a lot of bad treatment of people in the workplace these days. Not obvious bad treatment, really. It’s more disrespect for the whole life and person. A we – they difference in power levels. Am I alone? I’m not advocating for SEIU. If we had our own voices we wouldn’t need organized labor, and unions don’t touch the middle managers who are also catching a ton of workplace stress that is unsustainable and inhumane, imho. Employee satisfaction surveys are getting worse, not better. I didn’t think they could.
So my question regarding the Slater news flash.
Are ‘regular employees’ disrespected by customers only, or are they also frequently disrespected by their company management as well? Okay, maybe it’s a gimme question. Seriously though, why can’t we talk about it openly and publicly? Maybe my REAL question is, ‘Are bad bosses and unhealthy work environments going unchecked because many aren’t able to risk doing something about it?’ (Let’s not get into the choice-to-leave question; let’s just agree many people feel ’stuck’ in bad jobs.)
I’m watching my fave channel Direct News Mix 101 where I can jostle 8 news channels . (Policy wonk, news junkie, and integrity and fairness activist – that’s me, but I digress.)
Am I the only one who notices that interviews with flight attendants and other airline employees are all very carefully avoiding a full answer to the ‘What Caused This’ question regarding today’s hot topic, Slater? For example, Rene Foss, flight attendant and author of Around the World and in a Bad Mood was aked on The Joy Behar Show, (and I quote….)
“Steven Slater was a very proud JetBlue employee. He was nominated for the inflight values committee by his peers. What makes a guy like him want to snap at any particular time? Is is strictly the passengers, or how would you rate it percentage-wise, is it 50% passengers, 50% work hours, or other kind of stresses from the job?”
I’ll set aside my desire to critique the interviewer’s poor questioning technique (A great question invites a great answer, not a political sidestep or a pick-and-choose which part of the question to which you want to respond.)
I do admire the attempt at getting to root cause or causes, the intention behind the question. As many journalists have. I also wanted the interviewer to pursue the peer nomination question further. This would circle back to uncover how a respected peer could flip out. (I have my theory, but I wanted to hear the flight attendant’s answer.)
What I noticed, though, was that Ms. Foss very easily skirted any reference to work conditions or work stressors. Others interviewed in other newscasts responded similarly, avoiding the office politic question, sometimes as easily, sometimes uncomfortably, including avoiding eye contact with the interviewer. Perhaps it was to protect their career or, in some cases, their job. Just sayin’
God forbids someone from actually complaining about their workplace, hours or their boss to a media person. It doesn’t matter how true it is, to voice an answer to a direct question is risky business for employees. In most private companies I know (and I’ve worked with literally hundreds of them over the last quarter century), to speak poorly of one’s company to media is, in fact, legitimate grounds for dismissal. I understand the reason from management’s perspective. I’ve also seen it misused and abused by more leadership teams than I care to acknowledge.
So we don’t know if the airlines contribute to employee stress, at least from this incident…. (okay, so I know better and you know better, but I digress again) We do know that service employees and regular, nice people are pulling for Steven Slater, so I suspect it’s more than the occasional crappy customer that pushes an employee over the edge. Steven Slater is, at least in the public’s eye today, no Mel Gibson.
So back to my question. Why are these flight attendants unwilling to talk about what stressors come from their job environment? And am I the only one who sees a lot of bad company behavior that unnecessarily adds to an already stressful customer-facing job?
I’d love to hear from you. And if you have a bad boss story to tell and want a safe place to put the word out, check out www.ebosswatch.com. Some great and fair advocy and evidence-based data aggregating going on over there. Check it out!
And if you want to talk about how to build and maintain healthy work relationships, with your boss, employees, and peers, contact me! My company can help. In the meantime, Be someone who makes someones work day a better one! I am.
