Steve Slater, the now infamous former Jet Blue flight attendant who recently snapped on-board, showered passengers with his unceremonious tirade of expletives while he quit in a most public way, drank a couple of beers and then slid down the emergency slide (there was no emergency) is the kind of employee that coporate legal departments should make an example of. Steve Slater should be dragged into court and sued for his childish tantrum. Anyone who applauds this idiot is someone who is incredibly unhappy with their own job and they're living vicariously through a six year-old in adult clothing.
Sure, it may sound like something you want to applaud until you are one of passengers on that flight and are berated with a tirade of swearing and infantile behavior. If you were a passenger that day, you'd be writing nasty letters to Jet Blue expecting some sort of compensation for having to endure this childishness. You'd be questionning how a wingnut like this guy could get a job that required him to be responsible for your safety. You would question the screening process at Jet Blue and demand answers.
Here's the big problem: in this situation, Steve Slater had a problem with one passenger but by his antics, he punished all of Jet Blue's customers (on-board passengers) for the actions (alleged) of one passenger. He snapped and took his frustrations out on a full planeload of passengers who had nothing to do with it.
Like Slater, organizations are aften too quick to create Blanket Policies and unleashed it on everyone because of the actions of a few. Blanket policies are never perfect for every situation and they tend to alienate more than serve. Companies that issue new policies for everyone in response to a problem with one or two seems drastic - and idiotic.
I agree that employees need to be prepared to handle difficult situations but let's ensure that the preparation does not become a blanket policy - which is usually the choice of managers who don't trust their own people to solve problems nor do they empower them to do so. People will lean on and use the policy as an excuse to not take their own initiative and solve a problem (Sorry, it's company policy). And when your people start claiming "comapny policy" as an excuse for not serving customers, you will have a serious Culture problem.
Slater's stupid and selfish antics punished all passengers that day and directly hit Jet Blue's finances because of his childish arrogance. Jet Blue should sue his ass for damage to their reputation and then issue a free flight to the passengers on board that day as an apology.
Until there is a consequence to launching into tirades in front of customers, this will happen again because apparently, it gets you your 15 minutes of fame. And that is a sad indictment of our society.
2 comments:
YES YES YES it is refreshing to see someone detailing the business impacts of Slater's selfish and childish act. Thank you Kevin
Thanks Michael. I was astounded as people lined up to congratulate this guy - many saying how they wished they could do it themselves. Huh, more disengaged workers.
Had you or I been on-board that flight and then were forced to wait while the emergency slide was deflated so we could pull up to the terminal (making us wait and then wait some more), we'd have expected answers and compensation from Jet Blue.
Perhaps there should be staff meetings to talk about stuff like this so that managers can check the pulse of their people and before their own people pull something similar themselves.
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