Friday, October 10, 2003

Where have all the Please and Thank-yous gone?

I have been a flying cocktail waitress for almost 4 years now, and the one thing that I have noticed is that people are becomming increasingly impolite every day! 

So rarely do I hear a please and or thank-you, that I almost taken aback if someone says it to me.  With the onset of cell phones, pagers, PDAs, MP3 players, lap tops, Blackberries, CD players,and every other gadget under the sun, our society has become so completely self-absorbed that noone aknowleges the humanity beyond the tip of their nose.  Face to face conversation is fast becomming replaced with, voice mail, e-mail, and instant messaging.  Americans have become so conditioned to look at a computer screen, that everything and everyone else around us has faded into the background.

Contrairy to popular belief, my PRIMARY job is to save your ass, not kiss it.  If the plane goes down in a crash, it's the flight attendants job to pull you out of the buring airplane, not your laptop or cell phone.  I don't know about the rest of you, but I would be extremely polite and courtious to the one person who could shock my heart, if it were to stop beating, instead of yelling at her because she's out of Diet Coke!

So do me a favour, the next time your on an airplane, instead of just barking out your usual, coffee... BLACK, orange juice... no ice, water... with just ONE ice cube, don't forget to add a please and thank you.  Because heaven forbid, you should ever have to see what I was really trained to do!  And I would hate to have to leave your ass behind, because I couldn't risk my safety to pull your lazy ass out of my plane!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Like you said in one of your other entries once paxs hit the airport they transform into something else. The funny thing is when paxs board the A/C I greet them with a smile and always say good morning or welcome aboard. Why? Not b/c it is my job but b/c I want to. I love making people feel welcomed. But you have those paxs that will not talk to you unless you need something and when they do they don't even look at you. I was working a flight from ORD to RSW and this bog older guy came on the plane. He was sitting in our "upgraded" coach so I helped him with his bag after he trusted it into my chest. Then later on during the flight he snapped his fingers to get my attention and oh boy did it get my attention but I was still professional. I brought him his 7up and then he said that he asked for a beer (you and I both know he didn't) but I got it for him anyway. Once we hit intial decent it seem like mother nature and the MD80 were getting into a fight and we were going to loose! I heard a high pitch scream as I peeled myself off the floor and entered the cabin and ran to the little girl sitting in 3C but she wasn't screaming it was the rude man in front of her. I couldn't beileve that that sound was coming out of his mouth. He grabbed my arm and screamed some more as the a/c jumped up and down. I tried my best not to laugh and it worked. The a/c leveled off and he let go. I went into the LAV and started laughing so hard that tears began to flow down my face. He thanked me when he deplaned and that put a smile on my face.

Anonymous said...

I'm not saying that I dont greet all of my pax with a warm smile and a REAL hello, EVEN at 5am , when I wish that I was still home, warm in my bed.  I was making a simple observation that our society has become increasingly ego-centric and self centered.  Though your story was funny when that asshole started screaming like a little girl!!

LOL

FLY SAFE