From Delta (DAL) and Southwest (LUV) banning its flight attendants from using TikTok on company-issued devices to Finnair (FNNNF) firing theirs for logging onto guest WiFi during quiet moments, technology has been known to get countless flight attendants into trouble.
While many flight attendants start social media channels in which they reveal behind-the-scenes moments from the job, they almost always have to keep their last names hidden in order to avoid becoming associated with their airline and running afoul of corporate rules by making unauthorized comments.
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Last week, the comments that two British Airways air crew workers exchanged in a group WhatsApp chat came to light after another member of the chat brought them to the attention of management. In it, the two workers made repeated mean-spirited comments about a flight attendant’s weight in a chat she was not a part of — the latter also became aware of them from another coworker.
‘She had no idea her colleagues had such disdain for her’
“The poor victim of the merciless fat jokes has been left utterly bereft,” a source who watched the situation unfold told British tabloid paper The Sun. “She had no idea her colleagues had such disdain for her.” The source further described the comments as “repugnant bullying” and said the flight attendant was left “scared to leave the house.”
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After British Airways management became aware of the comments, the airline suspended the two crew members pending an investigation into the group chat. Five other members of the group chat who took part in the conversation to a lesser extent are also under investigation while the two workers who made the worst of the comments risk being placed on permanent leave if found responsible.
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British Airways launches investigation, says it has ‘zero-tolerance approach to bullying’
“We have a zero-tolerance approach to bullying and always fully investigate any allegations brought to our attention,” a British Airways representative said in a statement.
While bullying is a fairly vague term that can be interpreted differently in each specific case, there have been several incidents that fell clearly into that realm in the flight attendant world over the years.
One study of nearly 600 flight attendants across Asia said that 77.9 percent felt bullied at some point in their career with verbal abuse, sexual harassment and violence (often from a direct supervisor or superior) and physical violence/threats being the most common.
In the spring of 2023, United Airlines (UAL) terminated six flight attendants who were accused of “ganging up” on a junior employee by filing multiple conduct violations after the latter reported some of them for not wearing masks during the height of the pandemic. Once again, the incident and discussions around purposefully filing these reports came to light after a WhatsApp group discussion was made public. In it, over 50 air crew members were discussing a junior colleague who was posting instances of mask violations on social media.
The union representing the fired flight attendants would later sue United for age discrimination but a court dismissed their case before it could move forward.
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