Steven Slater
 

I am surprised nobody here has brought up the story flooding all the news channels and talk shows.

Steven Slater who is the flight attendant who quit in a very high profile way.

If you haven't heard of it, simply google flight attendant flips out or look at most any news page headline.

Thoughts? I will share mine when I read some of yours.

If he'd really been doing that job for 20+ years, I'm surprised he didnt go off on people earlier.

There's a lot of people who have serious entitlement issues. The story that I've been hearing is that the passenger stood up before they announced it was safe to do so. The flight attendant asked the passenger to sit down, passenger refused and either opened the overhead and pulled out their bag and it either fell on the attendant's head or the passenger intentionally hit him...along with using some colorful language to insult the flight attendant.

You can only take so much abuse from the public before you snap.

I wonder how long that guy had been fantasizing about jumping out of the plane with a beer using the emergency exit slide... If you're going to quit your flight attendant job, that's an impressive way to quit.

well, I would have probably punched the guy who just hit me in the head with his bag... so....

OK granted the slide cost about $25 grand to replace but it had to be funny!

He has become an internet sensation. He has so much support, its not even funny. Too many folks have had enough of being pushed around at work, or treated badly by customers and think he is their hero.

Rock on Steve! :hug:

Okay, my opinion
 

Ok, so heres my take. I worked for an airline. employee's at airlines are treated like TRASH!!!! I spoke to 4 friends of mine who work for US Airways and United. they ALL say he is a HERO. He shouldn't be prosecuted or serve jail time. flight attendants are treated so poorly, it's no wonder he snapped.

Back in the day, people dressed up to fly. they treated the (then) stewardess's with respect. talk to any F.A. now and they will tell you how poorly they are treated. I worked in reservations and it's amazing how "entitled" people feel they should be and how "we" as airline employee's are beneath them.

I applaud him. As of now he isn't even fired, he was arrested, arraigned and released on $2,500 bail. there is a website raising money for his defense and he has over 116,000 fans on facebook, yesterday morning he had 400.

If people who serve us were treated better, this sort of thing would never happen.

He took care of his father with ALS while he was dying and is now in charge of his mother who is terminal with cancer. I sure hope they don't send the guy to jail, who would take care of her. On The Today Show this morning the show's expert legal analyst said he doubted he will do any jail time. Jet Blue will likely strike a deal. I also read that for years before this his employee file was filled with accomidations and praise.

Amen.... I fly around 4 times a yr and can honestly say that I have witnessed rude behavior from passengers many times. I hate it when the plane is taxi'ing in and people start getting up to retrieve their ''oversize'' bags from the overhead bins. They usually bump their bags into the passenger sitting directly below or fumble around in the aisle, therefore, coming into contact w/other passengers.

Last time I flew, the attendant politely asked a man to turn his laptop off 3 times and the last time, he slammed it shut and swore at her. Uncalled for.... 2 sides to every issue, I guess.
Obviously, he snapped.

How embarrassing that we'd consider this type of action heroic.

Go ahead and roll your eyes, but my heroes are the ones who control their reactions and remain professional. I'm not saying just sit there smiling and take abuse, by the way.

My Mom used to say to us, "Just because some other kid acts like a dope doesn't mean you have to also."

When I got to the point where I felt as though I might bite a customer, I took a day off. I know people don't always have that option, but really? We immortalize people who snap?

It is unacceptable behavior and while I understand the frustration, as with any job, he put many people at risk with his behavior. No one needs a flight attendant going off during a flight. :rolleyes: We look to them to keep order and calm. Would we feel the same way if I snapped and hit Jim or trashed my house because I had a meltdown? I don't think so. :wink:

I started to post about our flight and the attendant we had but decided it was a long story and you may not really want to hear it. If you do I'll post it here. Let's just say she had entitlement issues, treated Jim and I like we were beneath her (he was in a wheelchair), totaled his wheelchair and a slew of other things. Corporate agreed with us 100% and refunded not only our trip, but also our entire vacation cruise and had to pay the VA $16,000 for the totaled chair. :)

How did she total the chair??

She didn't, the airline loading employees did while loading it to the plane. We were told we had to carry the pieces with us and place them in overhead. :rolleyes:

I totally agree with both of you. It seems like the accepted thing to do these days......have a melt down and then post about it on one of the Internet social avenues. :rolleyes:

Yeah, he could have brought out a machine gun and killed everyone on board. He showed as little regard for his passenger's welfare, just the same..:eek:

He sure is enjoying his 15 minutes of fame.:rolleyes: I think he should get a little jail time.:mad:

I wonder what would have happened if a passenger had done what he did? :eek:

He just showed much immaturity, IMHO. We don't need people like that on airplanes......passengers or crew.

They'd be in front of a firing squad about now. ;)

Yep........you're right about that. I think his ex-wife was on GMA this morning. I didn't get to see it but think I heard somewhere that she made a statement. I wonder if he had anger issues during their marriage?

I think the ex wife is trying to get "her" 15 minutes of fame by outting him. He lives with a "partner" and I think the ex just wanted her name in the headlines. :confused:

The news tonight reported that a huge majority of passengers interviewed said that he had been rude to everyone and he was the instigator in the situation that involved the "unruly" passenger.

They also reported that he wants his job back!! :eek:

Honestly.....I wouldn't want anyone to know I had ever been involved with him.

Seems like they both thrive on drama.

Then he must be related to me somehow. My family is a bunch of attention seekers.

He deserves to lose his job for the incident. not because he lost his temper, I can relate to that, I think he needs punishment because he pulled the silde, and left, even tho the doors were about to be opened. He also took alcohol which speaks loudly. Hind sight being what it is and being an arm chair quarter back I am sure I can make brilliant assessments from the safety of my own home. He needs to pay for the slide deployment, and he should be embarrassed by his actions. :o

Even our own "NewsBot' wanted to have a say about this guy today!

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread130154.html

For the record, I have only compassion for those who are genuinely pushed to the limit by the pressures of life (job or other). I am sad that those people are unable to reach out for help before something potentially tragic happens. And I realize that not everyone is able to recognize the approach to that point.

I simply take issue with those who bask in their notoriety, and those of us who set them up as heroes. What on earth are we thinking.

I agree with you 100%, B2Y. Lots of folks don't realize they're at the breaking point till they get there and then it's too late.

He admitted that he'd been unhappy in his job for a long time. Most of his "followers" are flight attendants who say they're unhappy, too. Unless I'm mistaken I believe they chose that career for themselves. If they're that unhappy they need to work on a plan to find another means of income.

IMHO, he's thoroughly enjoying his "15 minutes of fame". He acts like a drama queen.

my local news did a story on how airlines are now hiring ex-police and ex- fire fighters, and ex-emts because they are good under pressure, and can take the abuse that the public doles out. Its a hard job to be a cop and take all of the abuse day in and day out to protect the public. I think its a great fit!

Days gone by flying used to be a glamorous thing to do. it was an event, not just a trip. A stewardess was looked up to, and admired. The very first stewardess' were RNs. Those little puddle jumpers kept folks air sick. How perfect is it that we are transitioning to cops/firefighters/EMTs to deal with the rowdy public of the skies today.

A sad fact of life is, if you work with "the public" (which is all of us), you're going to be taking some carp. I could tell you stuff.

I think the general public needs a lesson in manners, too. People today seem to have a sense of "entitlement". They act like if they paid for something then they should be allowed to treat others any way they deem appropriate. Not true.

Nobody likes to be treated badly. What ever happened to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you"? It seems to be replaced with "do unto others and then run"! :rolleyes: