Flight Attendants Have Been Furloughed by the Thousands: Why Employers Should Scoop Them Up Fast
A floodgate of invaluable soft skills has burst open-and companies should take advantage.
March 2020 claimed a string of sudden casualties. An outbreak of tornadoes ravaged Nashville. An outbreak of Biden votes fell the presidential paths of Democratic primary nominees, one by one. And the most obvious outbreak of 2020 crippled a once thriving industry, seemingly overnight.
Covid-19 has left the travel industry scrambling to make passengers feel safe onboard. Airlines have altered service, blocked seats, enforced masks, and more recently, introduced antimicrobial bins at some TSA checkpoints in an effort to woo their customers back into confidence.
But regardless, work-from-home trends and travel restrictions have caused the industry to suffer an inevitable hit.
Some major airlines have utilized creative efforts to keep jobs afloat, such as voluntary opt-out programs, early retirement packages, leaves of absences, and job redistribution. Others, sadly, have not been as fortunate. This has left thousands of flight attendants either out of work or bracing for furloughs in October, when the current federal relief package ends.
But for companies in need of soft skill employees, this could be a major opportunity. In the digital age, non-technical skills like interpersonal communication, self-management, and problem solving are highly sought after as AI increasingly automates tasks.
Flight attendants have a unique profession that applies emotional intelligence as well as the skills needed to (sometimes literally) put out fires. Here are just a few of them:
They are Extremely Flexible
Most flight attendants work at least a few days a month on reserve. This means they need to be prepared to be called at any time, to go just about anywhere in the world.
Even in the middle of a working trip, one can be summoned for a reroute if the operation demands it.
For example, a flight attendant can have a planned day of two flights followed by a sunny 20 hour layover in San Diego. But it is not uncommon for the crew to be greeted with an altered schedule. What’s the new plan? It could be an extra two working flights and reduced layover of nine hours. In Boise, Idaho. Sometimes these reroutes happen several times in a day, like during bad weather, or even require working into scheduled off days. This can severely interfere with relationships or family plans.
While most people would find this type of uncertainty stressful, it is part of the jet-setter’s lifestyle to roll with the punches and constantly adapt. Adaptability ranks in the LinkedIn’s top five soft skills companies need for 2020. This illustrates a perfect example that would suit any industry where unexpected change is possible.
They’ve Mastered Personal Time Management
The aviation world revolves around time. Flight schedules are delicate, interwoven structures which are prone to interruption. In order to prevent causal delay, report times for crew are strict and non-negotiable.
A few minutes of tardiness can cause a domino effect leading to serious consequences, especially for commuting flight attendants who live in a city outside of their base airport. One extra snooze button swipe could mean a missed bus, and that could mean a missed commuting flight, which in turn could mean the working flight is delayed while the schedulers try to find a replacement.
The amount of control over a monthly schedule often depends on seniority. Most flight attendants are actively involved in managing their own schedules to work around their lives, which could involve kids, a relationship, or another job.
Anybody who has worked for an airline realizes that time is a god that bows to no one. They already understand their personal accountability in managing it. So, companies who have newly adapted to remote positions and need to trust their workers to be timely and self-efficient can have confidence in these individuals.
They Form Instant Connections with Anyone
Imagine if you had new co-workers every few days.
The flight attendant lifestyle is a constant rotation of meet and greet, as they transport hundreds of passengers on a daily basis. But few realize that the crew members themselves rotate on a regular basis as well. More often then not, they will end up working a trip with strangers for one flight, or several days.
Strangers are the norm in aviation. With people constantly moving in and out of their lives, flight attendants often try to get the most out of every interaction. Because of this, they have learned how to make an instantaneous personal connection with anyone. When you hear your flight crew laughing it up in the back galley like old childhood friends, its amazing to consider they may have just met that morning.
Whether recruiters are scouting to fill positions that deal with the public or just within the workplace, the ability to form connections quickly is valuable to the success of any environment.
With people constantly moving in and out of their lives, flight attendants often try to get the most out of every interaction. Because of this, they have learned how to make an instantaneous personal connection with anyone.
They Can Do Business with Anyone
Travelers are arguably the most diverse group of people you can find. After interacting with dozens of cultures and personalities, airline attendants know how to adjust their interactions accordingly to different markets. They know that a plane full of infrequent Midwestern vacationers will have different needs than a plane full of Japanese businessmen. They know how to respectfully adjust their verbiage, body language, tone, and basic pleasantries to best assist anyone who steps aboard their aircraft.
A significant number of flight attendants are also fluent in at least one other language. They are hired to specifically assist on particular international routes.
The workforce is increasingly global, and bridging the language/etiquette gap through knowledgeable workers is the most practical move for a company with an international outreach.
They Have a Distinct Personality
Statistically, it is difficult to land a flight attendant gig in the first place. According to a Business Insider article, only 1% of the 150,000 people that applied to be a Delta Flight Attendant made the cut in 2016.
Flight attendants are essentially unsupervised in the air. And because they oversee the care of high-paying passengers and enforcement of strict FAA regulations, it makes sense why airlines would invest heavily in a highly selective hiring process. There are several layers to the interview process, including personality assessments, in-person events, extensive background checks, and drug tests. And that is before they are even invited to attend training — which is no guaranteed pass.
It’s helpful for companies to understand that someone who has earned their wings has already been identified as having high emotional intelligence, grit, and trustworthiness.
They Embody Customer Service
One of the most interesting things about the flight attendant training process is that candidates spend weeks or months away from home, rigorously preparing for life-threatening scenarios. They climb into rafts, yell commands, open doors, practice CPR, and if they make it to graduation, they are prepared to evacuate an aircraft full of passengers in 90 seconds. Coffee and peanuts barely make up a fraction of the training process, because as the video demo states, “safety comes first”.
So, why are flight attendant’s still mainly known for coffee and peanuts when it is not their primary function? Passengers are not necessarily exposed to the safety part of their job. Instead, they see them serving cocktails or personally apologizing for uncontrollable factors-a typical customer service role. But the difference here is while you are waiting for your Diet Coke to fizz down, a flight attendant needs to be prepared to act in emergency at a moment’s notice.
Customer service is shown to greatly enhance value and boost a company’s bottom line. Nobody understands this quite like an airline attendant, especially because they administer stellar customer service even when their first and foremost concern is one of safety. They understand that it is important for the business, no matter what their title role is.
They Always Look Professional
This is not as shallow as it sounds. Historically, the airlines have had a reputation for placing rigid control over the appearance of their crews. The days of regular weigh-ins and girdled waists are thankfully over. But as a residual factor, there are still mandatory compliance guidelines for grooming, in order to maintain a professional presence at all times. It’s no easy feat to look put together after a 15 hours of crying babies and turbulence-but they do!
But even more impressively, flight attendants have learned to maintain composure in difficult situations where they are often being watched. Seemingly every confrontation these days is recorded on a smartphone, and airlines are infamous for having highly scrutinized videos circulate the media. Crew members need to maintain professionalism and awareness of how they represent both themselves and their airline.
It’s easy for companies to make headlines for the wrong reasons. Therefore it is wise to have cool headed team members who are aware they could be the subject of tomorrow’s news.
They are Pleasant and Empathetic People, Overall
It is rare to have somebody fly for the airlines for a living and not enjoy working with people to some extent. The high pressure environment may churn out the occasional jaded employee but overall, most flight attendants pursued their career so they could meet people from all over the world.
The successful flight attendants actively look for the good in people-because they have to. Optimism and curiosity are the only ways to thrive among a stressed and jet-lagged public.
Whether somebody has been flying for decades or just a few years, airline attendants have played a major part in giving a human face to a massive industry. They are deep-feeling workers who embrace many hats-therapist, bartender, entertainer, problem-solver, comforter, caretaker, or literal lifesaver. Automation could never replace the magic that these professionals create on a daily basis.
The allure of this for companies is clear. People want to work with nice people. Period.
So, recruiters-take notice. While the pandemic has left flocks of flight attendants with clipped wings, many of them may be open to new employment options. This just may be a golden opportunity.
These are the types of people who are invaluable to the workforce in any industry, because consumers will always crave human connection. They will want somebody who can navigate the social intricacies of business transactions and form lasting meaningful connections with customers. Because even when robots are 3-D printing our Filet-O-Fish meals and scheduling your hot yoga sessions, you are still going to want a friendly face to ask you, “How was your flight?”
