| 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 |
Post Flight Customer Feedback
The feedback from the Voice of the Customer questionnaires for the first flight to Tel Aviv was amazing. Everyone worked incredibly hard to make the flight a success and it paid off. The following screenshots show scores and comments from customers who travelled on flight 453 to Tel Aviv, and flight 454 to Heathrow.
In May 2020, when I was advised I was being made redundant, I was told part of the reason was that I was an underperforming Flight Manager. My performance was assessed partly on scores given in Voice of the Customer questionnaires and partly on anonymous upward feedback completed by the cabin crew on every flight. Three months after being the Flight Manager on that first service, having received the outcome of my appeal from the Head of Cabin Crew, I called in sick. I never returned to work before my employment was terminated.
Having been asked to look after an influential blogger and friend of the CEO, I introduced myself soon after take-off. The blog he wrote following the flight was outstanding. I’ve included a snippet but the full review can be read by following the link. The only person in the company I heard from after the flight was “very experienced manager” Hayley.
I’m assuming the greeting he refers to was my welcome onboard announcement, which I repeated in Hebrew, even though there was no requirement for me to do so. He may be referring to the pre-recorded Hebrew announcements but from what he says about the announcement after we landed, it seems like he’s talking about me.
His full review of the flight is here.
In preparation for the first flight, the Product and Service Delivery team set up a ‘private’ chat room on the company’s internal communication platform. This enabled everyone in the Tel Aviv core crew to share feedback and discuss any problems.
One customer complaint that came to light quite quickly was male passengers saying after-dinner prayers in the middle of the Economy cabin. They stood in front of an emergency exit but also directly in front of the passengers seated there. For certain prayers to begin, there must be at least ten men present. The word ‘minyan’ is used to describe the gathering of ten men.
Passengers would often go to the door soon after they finished eating which made it difficult for the cabin crew to pass through the aisle with trolleys to clear in from the meal service. On my flights, to resolve this issue, I made an announcement to explain that once the crew had finished the lunch service, people who wanted to pray could do so in the privacy of the galley at the back of Economy. For the short time they were taking place, I asked the cabin crew working in that cabin to vacate the galley.
On one flight, I spoke to an elderly gentleman who wanted to say after-dinner prayers but was struggling to find enough men to form a minyan. On that day, there weren’t many visibly orthodox men on the aircraft. I made an announcement in English which I repeated in Hebrew, asking for ‘minyan’. The response was overwhelming and all those involved were deeply moved by the gesture. Being apparent that I was Jewish, many of them spent time talking to me after prayers had finished.
A few days after returning home, I received this email from a senior manager, which was also copied to the company’s Chief People Officer and the Head of Cabin Crew. A customer who had heard the announcement but had not been part of the minyan (prayer group), left a wonderful comment regarding the announcement in his Voice of the Customer (VOC) post-flight questionnaire.
The TLV WorkPlace group was the private chat group for onboard managers who were part of the Tel Aviv core crew.
The weeks and months after my dad passed away should have been a time for reflection. I had really struggled with my mental health over the past nine years as a carer, and with my dad having passed away very peacefully at 96, I believed the time had finally come for me to make a fresh start.
I had swapped onto the flight to Atlanta over Christmas so I wouldn’t be away from home for longer than necessary. Before leaving, I knew that my dad was coming to the end of his life and considered calling in sick, but with everything my manager had done for me, I didn’t want to let him down. Sickness is always high over Christmas which makes it difficult to crew flights.
On that trip, I met five of the most hateful and despicable people I had ever encountered during my twenty-nine years with the company. Their lies ultimately cost me my job and almost led to me taking my life. I genuinely believe that Bart suffers from an abnormal or pathological tendency to exaggerate or tell lies. With his fiancée Anna also being a compulsive liar, a fantasist and a sociopath, they were two peas in a pod.
As if defending myself from false allegations made by these degenerates wasn’t bad enough, things were about to get even worse.
Like many Flight Managers I always read Voice of Customer comments after my flights. The company used these post flight questionnaires to rank our performance.
Customer feedback on a new route is often not great for the first few months. This tends to be because of various teething problems. Within a few weeks of the launch of the Tel Aviv route the Product and Service Delivery team told us the scores overall were the highest the airline had ever achieved on a new route.
As well as reading feedback comments from my own flights, I also read those from flights operated by colleagues. That enabled me to see what customers liked and what they didn’t.
Whilst people generally seemed happy with the flying staff a whole host of other issues were being raised.
These included the aircraft not being clean, toilets being a mess, the cabin being too hot or too cold. There were complaints about prayers being carried out in front of people who had paid for extra legroom seats, about children running around the cabin and going into First Class.
There were complaints about noise and people cutting across in front of passengers who were sitting at partitions.
Some complained the meal service was delivered too quickly whilst others said it went on for too long. There were numerous comments about entertainment screens which at times could not be switched off.
From one of my flights there was a complaint about the blankets being too thick yet on a flight a few days later someone said they were very thin.
Many of the issues were totally out of our control as cabin crew. There were loads of negative comments regarding food.
With me being Jewish and having grown up around Jewish people I know our community can sometimes be difficult to please. I’ve become more aware of that in recent years because my partner is not Jewish.
British Jews often share similar traits so as a community we’re all quite similar.
Kvetching is typically Jewish. The word which literally means “squeeze” in Yiddish commonly refers to the way Jewish people in particular, complain. On Chabad.org which is a website about Judaism they say “to kvetch is Jewish”.
I read an article online by Mitchell Wohlberg an American Orthodox Rabbi that really made me laugh. It was funny because what he says is so true of us as a race. I see this behaviour in myself and it drives my partner nuts.
In an article called “kvetching” Rabbi Wohlberg says “we just can’t help it, we’ve been like that since the start.” He says there’s a story about Moses parting the Red Sea. As the water parted and the Israelites passed through they complained the seabed was muddy. He goes on to say there’s always something to kvetch about.
Since the launch of Voice of Customer post-flight surveys I had read hundreds of customer feedback comments from flights to and from various destinations. Whilst there was no shortage of negative comments, they weren’t the same as those written by people on the Tel Aviv route.
At first I couldn’t put my finger on why they were different but then realised, it was Jewish people being typically Jewish. We’re all the same and it’s something many of us do. It was en masse kvetching. Despite all the complaints the cabin crew were still being marked “very good” or “excellent”.
There were forty eight people in the chatroom set up by the Product and Service Delivery team. The vast majority were onboard managers like myself. Most of us had known each other for many years. I noticed the Chief People Officer had joined but wasn’t aware the CEO had also joined.
Having spent an hour or so reading Voice of Customer feedback I posted a comment. Part of it was regarding complaints about food and I tagged someone in the group from catering.
He responded quickly. Having gone back into the group to acknowledge his response my partner read my post. He told me to delete one line because he said someone will probably take it the wrong way.
I’d written something that I saw as harmless banter that poked fun at my own community. I agreed it could be taken the wrong way and tried to amend it on my phone. It wouldn’t allow me to make any changes so I just deleted the post.
Whilst returning home from a social event some days later, whilst on my phone I found a private message from the CEO. I remember it clearly because with everything I had been dealing with in the previous months we very rarely went out.
The following screenshots are the messages exchanged between myself and the CEO. I’ve given him the name Jack to distinguish who’s talking.
Having received the first message I signed onto Workplace to see what I could possibly have said that caused offence. I didn’t post that often so it didn’t take long to scroll through my posts. I couldn’t find anything at all.
I had forgotten about the post from a few days earlier and having already been deleted by I.T at the request of the CEO, it was no longer visible. I thought maybe it was something from the article I had written on Judaism to share with my crew.
With the Jewish New Year being a few days earlier I wished Jack Shana Tova. It’s a New Year’s greeting in Hebrew. People usually respond with the same greeting. He didn’t.
New Year is an important period in the Jewish calendar. It’s a time for doing good deeds, reflecting on past mistakes and making amends with others.
Later that evening Jack responded to my message.
His message shows the importance of context and what happens when it’s stripped away.
I couldn’t believe what I’d just read. I said to my partner “someone has posted something on Workplace about bloody jews, that’s outrageous.”
Then came the rest of the message;
VoC refers to the Voice of Customer post flight surveys. The black mark obscures the name of the person from catering who I tagged.
The context of what I had said had been completely misunderstood. Everyone in this small group knew me, my sense of humour and that I was Jewish. They were also aware of how much effort I had put into making the route a success. The emoji’s further confirmed the nature of the comment and that I was just being cheeky.
This line was the reason why I tried to amend the post but ended up deleting it, or thought I had.
I didn’t hear another word from Jack.
Understandably with me having upset the CEO it was playing on my mind. A few days later still not having heard from him I decided to send him an email. I then changed my mind because I knew he was on the press launch flight in a couple of weeks. I was rostered to work on the flight but was working down as Cabin Crew.
The press launch flight for the Tel Aviv service was towards the end of October. The CEO along with other VIP’s were travelling on it. Knowing I’d see Jack meant I could apologise once again for what had happened. I believed once we met he would see what I’m like and understand my comment really was not intended to cause offence.
I understood why my comment had been taken the wrong way and felt really bad. The way he would have read it would have been nothing like the way I would have said it, especially with him not knowing I was Jewish.
In the days that followed I operated two further flights to and from Tel Aviv. Whilst on my layover during the second flight I participated in a conference call with the Product and Service Delivery department regarding the route.
All onboard managers who were part of the “core crew” had been invited to participate if they were at home.
The Purser and I decided to dial into the call. There was no requirement for us to do so. Just an hour earlier we had been sitting on the beach watching the sun go down. It was our rest day.
Being Cabin Crew | The Ugly Truth 