JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater has become an overnight social media rock star for disgruntled employees worldwide. Shocker? Not really.
Slater did what pretty much most of us have fantasized about doing when departing from a job.
Who hasn’t wanted to tell someone at their job to f*** off, grab a beer and then proceed to exit via a slide?
So does Steven Slater deserve to lose his job? Maybe. That is obviously up to JetBlue. Did he break the law? Perhaps. But in no way does the guy deserve up to seven years behind bars like some media outlets are reporting he might face.
While I am not a flight attendant (although sometimes I dream about pushing a cart around my house, handing out small bags of peanuts to my wife and telling my baby “bu-bye” upon leaving a room), I can totally feel for this dude.
Air travel has become for lack of better words “shitty” in the last few years. From full body scanners at the airport to extra fees for checked and carry on bags to less amenities (although I never used their germ infested pillows), flying sometimes really sucks.
Now imagine working all day for a bunch of grumpy travelers. I travel often and see it all. From the douche bag that argues with the flight attendant that his bag will fit into the overhead bin (even though he just crushed two other passengers bags to fit it) to the jerk that has to be told five times to put his or her seat in the upright position for landing. It is enough to make a person go “Slater” on someone.
Yes I understand that we all have jobs and yes I understand we must all deal with personal issues outside the work place (Slater’s dad just died and mom is sick). But this passenger, who has not yes been identified, reportedly insisted on getting a bag from the overhead bin while the plane was taxiing, even though the passenger knew they were not to get out of their seat.
When confronted the passenger told Slater to “fuck off” and the bag fell, hitting Slater in the head. Why the hell isn’t this passenger being punished? Instead the media has turned Slater into some maniacal, recovering alcoholic and drug addict, that just so happens to be gay (like that matters?).
His actions were a tad bit over the top, but hey people react to stress in all different ways. Who are we to judge this guy and I can honestly say that I would fly the friendly skies with him as my flight attendant tomorrow. Perhaps even grab a beer with him upon exiting the plane too.
