| Table of Contents Being Cabin Crew | The Ugly Truth Part 3 Page 1 – The Head of Cabin Crew Page 2 – Employing a Sociopath Page 3 – The Day Life Changed Page 4 – Shalom Tel Aviv Page 5 – Post Flight Customer Feedback Page 6 – Cue Second Disciplinary Page 7 – Outcome of the Grievance Page 8 – Yee Haw The Last Page! Being Cabin Crew | The Ugly Truth Part 5 |
Employing a Sociopath
In this chapter, I want to cover something else that took place. The first screenshot comes from Bart’s grievance, and the second is from Anna’s witness statement. After you’ve read them, I’ll discuss them in more detail.
Here’s what happened regarding this gay-themed cartoon. After boarding the minibus at the hotel to go to the airport in Atlanta, before we had even pulled away, the First Officer, whom I have known since being Junior Cabin Crew, showed me a video on his phone. He was sitting in the seat in front of me. Having found it funny, I asked him to send it to me, which he did.
Upon receiving it, I watched it again on my phone. I was sitting in the aisle seat in the second row on the left side of the bus. There was nobody next to me. Lottie was in the window seat behind me, and Tommy and Ven were sitting together behind her. Anna and Bart were next to them across a narrow aisle.
While watching the video and laughing to myself, Tommy asked what I was laughing at. I turned around and stretched my arm past Lottie, and replayed the cartoon for him and Ven to see. Both of them are gay. Lottie confirms in her witness statement that she was unaware of a video being shown.
While playing the video, due to its content, I angled my phone away from Bart’s side of the bus because, with him not being gay, I didn’t want him to see it.
Bart claims that while the cartoon played, I commented on it. There really wasn’t much to say about it, and the accompanying music made it even funnier. Furthermore, with the screen of my iPhone facing away from me, I couldn’t see the video as it played. The cartoon, including the introduction and credits at the end, ran for fifty-one seconds.
You can see how Bart has manipulated the truth when he says, “Laurence was showing the video to one side of the bus.” He said that because with him sitting across the aisle and me holding my phone at an angle, he could not see the screen. What I actually said was, “I’ll show it to your side in a minute,” because Anna was saying, “We want to see it as well.”
After Tommy and Ven watched the video, they both asked me to ‘airdrop’ it to them. Never having used airdrop, Tommy explained what I had to do. In his witness statement, Tommy says, “A video was sent to me and some other crew by Lawrence.” The only other person it was sent to was Ven.
Tommy then replayed the video on his personal, full-sized iPad. By this time I had turned around and was facing forward. Hearing the music, I knew the cartoon was being played again and could hear people behind me laughing.
Anna states she saw the video and found it offensive. She was in the aisle seat across from Tommy. You may recall, her and Tommy were friends prior to operating this flight.
Anna also mentions my “strict management style.” Our outbound flight was half-empty, and the crew had a two-hour break in the bunks. It was quiet and uneventful. With it being Christmas Eve, when we landed in Atlanta, everyone was in high spirits and looking forward to the evening ahead. Other than during the Pre-Flight briefing at Cabin Crew Check-In, I had hardly spoken to Anna.
The flight crew (pilots) do not deliver “a brief,” either on the bus or anywhere else. The Captain simply wished everyone a Merry Christmas. Note how Anna and Bart both claim I gave the video a name. It had only been sent to me a few minutes earlier, and as far as I’m aware, it didn’t have a name.
Here are some screenshots from the cartoon. The last scene is a bit naughty, so I’ve not included it.
Here’s more from Anna’s witness statement. You may recall from an earlier chapter that I said she and Ven repeatedly use the phrase “it made me feel (very) uncomfortable.”
I provided evidence to the company that confirmed I chatted with my partner on WhatsApp for most of the journey. My final message said we’re at the airport now, sleep well, see you in the morning. During our conversation, I also sent him the cartoon. Each message is timed, so could have been used to confirm that I didn’t turn my phone off “and throw it hard into my bag.” Besides, my carry-on bag was with my suitcase in the back of the bus. With it being quite small, there was no room for baggage inside.
This next screenshot, in relation to the cartoon being shown, comes from the minutes taken during Bart’s meeting with Crew Manager Lana:
Point 36: In terms of my reaction being a ‘face like thunder’ I was in disbelief with what happened and I looked at the window. Laurence could perceive from my body language I found it uncomfortable. Lana could speak to Anna and Ven who were uncomfortably laughing with Laurence when he showed them the video.
This excerpt comes from the appeal I submitted to the Head of Cabin Crew:
In Bart’s complaint he states “Anna and Ven were uncomfortably laughing when Laurence showed them the video”, yet in her statement, Anna says “I believe it was of a pornographic nature.”
So, Anna watched a video yet was seemingly unaware of its content. Furtheromore, although Bart was sitting in the window seat next to Anna who was in the aisle seat, he managed to see Ven’s reaction even though he was sitting in the window seat next to Tommy across the aisle. A confident and extrovert gay man who has no problem standing for a group photograph with his arm draped over a male colleague’s shoulder while while the crew member (Peter) wrapped his arm around Ven’s waist, would not “laugh nervously” when watching a gay animation. And if he was so uncomfortable, why did he then ask for a copy?
In Tommy’s witness statement (referred to above as T), he gets confused, which is not surprising considering witness statements were requested almost four months after the flight. I mention this because it shows how manipulative Bart and Anna are. The following comes from Tommy’s witness statement;
After sending Tommy and Ven the cartoon featured above, the First Officer then showed me a second video. It was of a Christmas-clad reindeer talking about how he hates Christmas. The C word was used extensively and although funny, it was very offensive. Although the First Officer was showing me the video, he was also showing it to anyone who wanted to watch it. Therefore it could be seen and heard by anyone who was looking forwards. As it played, I could hear others behind me laughing.
Neither Anna nor Bart mentions this video. Mia makes a vague reference to it but says she didn’t see it, and Tommy refers to it directly.
Not one single word that Anna says in her witness statement, which will be published in due course, is supported by Lottie, Katrina or Claire, who worked alongside Bart and me in First Class. Very little of what she says is is supported by Tommy. Throughout my defence, I proved that she was lying, but nobody was interested.
As someone who was just beginning to regain confidence after being off with anxiety and depression for almost two years, it’s impossible to imagine how her hateful and disgusting lies made me feel. During my darkest moments, suicide was never far from my mind. Anna has all the traits of a sociopath. In her Facebook posts she comes across as a warm, friendly, likeable person. The following screenshot comes from her page.
“Crewing” is the department that calls Cabin Crew from a standby duty for a flight when an additional crew member is needed. The “ex” she’s talking about is Bart.
This is someone who contributed to my losing my job after thirty years with the company. The damage she caused has been anything but temporary. In fact, her despicable lies had a profound and devastating effect on my life, changing it in a way that I could never have imagined.
These are typical characteristics of a sociopath:
- Being Manipulative: They’re often skilled at manipulating others for personal gain or pleasure.
- Lack of Empathy: They have difficulty understanding or caring about the feelings of others.
- Deceitfulness: Frequent lying and deceit are common behaviours.
- Impulsivity: They may act on a whim without considering the consequences.
- Aggressiveness: They can be prone to irritability and physical aggression.
- Irresponsibility: They often fail to honour financial obligations and can find it challenging to hold down a job.
- Remorselessness: They rarely feel guilt or remorse for their actions, even when they harm others.
Here’s another extract from Anna’s witness statement:
The reason she mentions my alleged touching not being “sexually motivated” is because, from the cartoon that I showed to Tommy and Ven, she would have known that I’m gay.
In this next extract, the blue text is from Bart’s grievance. The second paragraph comes from Anna’s witness statement. The remainder is from Ven’s statement. According to eight other witness statements, nobody noticed any unusual behaviour between me and Bart at any time, and nobody was aware of any complaints from customers regarding my announcements.
The company’s “anti-harassment and bullying policy” states, “All colleagues and others should be treated with dignity and respect, and you should always consider whether your words or conduct could be offensive. Even unintentional harassment or bullying is unacceptable.”
The “Our Standards” Policy also states:
It’s clear these policies are selectively enforced, because they certainly didn’t apply to me. Reading the hate and lies in witness statements written by Bart, Anna, Ven, Mia and Peter had a catastrophic effect on my mental health.
This next screenshot also comes from Anna’s witness statement. The matter of entering inflight working positions into my company iPad has already been explained in an earlier chater.
The fact that Ven, Bart and Anna all mention this, plus what all three said regarding my onboard announcements and many other things took place, confirms that collusion took place. None of them had access to my iPad to know what I had or hadn’t done. Yet in his witness statement, Ven states that he could see his own working position on his iPad. That would not have been possible had I not entered all working positions into mine. The crews’ iPads sync with the master iPad which is the Flight Manager’s. .
In the outcome of my appeal, the Head of Cabin Crew stated she could find no evidence of collusion.
Ven informed Bart and Anna that I didn’t enter working positions because he didn’t understand how the system worked. Cabin Crew Manager Lana told Bart this complaint was unjustified, so was being removed. It wasn’t only “unjustified” it was a vindictive and malicious lie. Six weeks later, when Anna, his fiancée, returned her witness statement, she repeated the same allegation.
“Everyone should be treated with dignity and respect, and you should always consider whether your words or conduct could be considered to be offensive to others”. From the airline’s “Our Standards” policy. The same policy that I was repeatedly accused of being in breach of, particularly through my use of the words “quite why” in Bart’s performance feedback.
Tommy, who was working up as Purser in Economy, didn’t complete any performance feedback for either sector despite it being mandatory. He was required to complete feedback on Anna, Mia, Peter, and a fourth crew member who didn’t return her witness statement. He was also required to do upward feedback on me. Katrina, who worked as First Class Purser completed feedback on Bart, Claire and Lottie, and also did upward feedback on me.
As a consistently high-performing crew member during my thirty years with the airline, I received a final written warning for bullying, harassment, overbearing supervision and inappropriate touching. There wasn’t a shred of evidence to support any such behaviour.
Being Cabin Crew | The Ugly Truth 