The Way We Work Now
I’m a Flight Attendant. The Airlines Don’t Care Enough About My Health or Yours.
The airline industry’s new safety protocols are merely a placebo to encourage people to fly again
A morning ritual is a difficult thing to keep up when the world as you know it is falling apart — especially when you work in the airline industry.
I woke up this morning in a hotel, which I typically do three mornings out of the week. I did yoga for 15 minutes, something I’m trying to do more regularly. I made my iced coffee. I took my medication and followed my skin care routine. I put on my uniform and my airline-issued face mask. Then, I went downstairs to take the hotel van to the airport with the rest of my crew.
Except for the face masks, this could have been any of my mornings from last year. But today, on the way to the airport, my first officer announced he’d received his WARN notice from the airline, an alert giving employees a heads up that mass layoffs are likely imminent. This meant that, come October, he will most likely lose his job.
The email was signed: “No matter how this furlough goes, never forget how it felt to be a pilot.” What an epitaph.
