PLEASE NOTE: This is a minimally-edited transcript that originates from a program that uses AI.
Anita Rao
This is Embodied, from PRX and WUNC. I’m Anita Rao. When you board a plane, flight attendants greet you with practiced smiles and seamless service. But there’s a lot of mental and emotional labor we don’t see.
Missy
When we're in front of passengers, of course we want to exude calm, especially when things are not going according to plan, such as there is a medical situation or there's turbulence that is knocking things off counters. You just wanna act like: we’re handling it and it’s not your concern.
Anita Rao
A Hawaii-Based Flight attendant tells us about the many passenger scenarios she navigates — all with a smile. Plus, a travel journalist on some of financial difficulties some flight attendants face.
Natalie Compton
The reality of it is when you are starting in this job. Your life is really out of your hands and the pay isn't that good. It's a really rough job for the first, uh, definitely couple years.
Anita Rao
That conversation just ahead on Embodied.
We were about 2,500 feet in the air when a loud bang shook the cabin of the Boeing 7 37. I was flying in this past March. I was traveling to LA to visit one of my best friends, and while I don't usually have flight anxiety, when the plane started shaking quickly and violently, the many recent headlines about aviation incidents flashed in my mind.
The plane stabilized, but then slowly began to dissent. I took off my headphones and for a moment everything was silent. Then the man next to me started praying. The Gen Zers across the aisle started filming, and five minutes later, the pilot came on and shared the news. One of our engines had failed and we were returning to the airport.
The one group of people in the cabin who didn't seem to be panicking. The flight attendants as we glided slowly toward the ground. I kept glancing at them in their jump seats. Talking quietly, appearing very chill. The plane landed and everyone erupted into cheers. As we deplaned, people were crying. Hugging. One woman in front of me was on the phone saying, well, honey, grandma almost just died. I was still watching the flight attendants as they soothed and corralled. Their demeanor was as if this were normal. Another day on the job. As I found out later, engine failure in flight is really rare, which piqued my curiosity about those calm, collected flight attendants even more.
What is it like to manage a microcosm of a world day in and day out projecting a sense of calm no matter what's unfolding around you? This is embodied. I'm Anita Rao.
Hollywood has long glamorized the life of flight attendants. They're beautiful, well-dressed people, jetting off to exotic destinations and serving champagne, but there is a lot of labor that they do that we don't see. Emergency medical care. Firefighting, even therapy, and they do all of that with a smile.
Having to be cheery, calm, and helpful at work, despite the circumstances, is true for many service oriented jobs. But when you're in a metal tube hurdling through the air, the stakes are a lot higher. So what is it really like to do that job today and what can it teach us about invisible labor and humanity?
We are talking about that with Missy. She's been a flight attendant for almost five years and is based in Hawaii. Because Missy is not officially speaking on behalf of her airline, we're just gonna refer to her by her first name and not share the specific company she works for.
Tell me the story of how and why you decided to become a flight attendant.
Missy:
I actually didn't know I wanted to be a flight attendant. A relative was already flying and I was outta college. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do and, and she said, well, why don't you just try? And I said, oh, well, you know, there's nothing to lose. And I didn't get in the first time. And as I was walking to my car after the interview. I was thinking, okay, so next time I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. And then I was like, I, I think because I'm thinking of next time I wanna do this,
Anita Rao
I hear that it can be really competitive. Is that what you're referring to? Of like having to apply a couple different times?
Missy
Yeah, from what I've heard throughout the industry, it's one of the most sometimes strange processes that people have gone through. Oftentimes there are interviews that start with you kind of just mulling around and it seeming like nothing's happening. Then all of a sudden you realize there's less people in the room. Why? And they're like, okay, like phase two of the interview is gonna begin. You're like, well, what even happened?
Anita Rao
So they're like observing you through a glass or something.
Missy
There will be people placed on the floor and they are basically seeing if you're. The right kind of personality for the job, or if you're gonna go on your phone or distract yourself. Um, my process wasn't exactly like that, but you went in knowing that you were being judged from the second you stepped into the, the parking lot.
Anita Rao
Do you have to like workshops, scenarios during the interviews of like how you would act in an emergency landing or anything like that?
Missy
Yes, they give you scenarios and they just basically, because you don't know what the proper thing to do is at that time, but they wanna know what your gut reaction is going to be. They wanna see that you are initiative taking, that you just want to solve the problem and they wanna see that you can do it kind of on command. Because the reality is, in a real life situation, there's gonna be all this training that we do, but we're not gonna know what to do. So they wanna know that you kind of naturally have that instinct to not freeze.
Anita Rao
So you said that kind of before this whole thing, it wasn't like you'd always dreamed of being a flight attendant, but I'm curious about kind of the expectations you had about what the job would be like before you first started.
Missy
Before I started, everybody knows the, the things that we see that, you know, you might serve, you might have to enforce some rules and things like that, but I truly went in blind. I just knew that. The people that I did know that were already flying, I did never heard them saying something disparaging.
Anita Rao
Hmm. So after you got through that application process and actually got the job, what was training like?
Missy
Training was one of the most nerve wracking experiences of my life. I guess to put it bluntly, it really makes you face your mortality. We have to do such intense things in such a short amount of time, and you're not only learning about the realities of certain situations, but they're also like, now you're in charge. You who were, you know, you were working retail a week ago. Save everybody.
Anita Rao
Give me some examples of like what you had to do in training. I'm so curious.
Missy
So all. Flight attendants, at least in, in the United States, we're, we're CPR certified. We have to practice knowing how to do CPR on old people, on babies, on regular people. And we hear stories from seasoned flight attendants about when they had to do it. Mm-hmm. The things that are not the same as a sterile situation with a, you know, little crash looking dummy. We learn about things like if we. Have to evacuate on land. If we have to evacuate on water, if somebody's unconscious while we're evacuating, if we are in the middle of evacuating and the exit is no longer usable, we learn about what to do if we know that we're not safe to fly as well. Like everything is very safety oriented in these trainings. Um, and I think that's what makes it such a stressful situation for some people. Because if you thought you were anxious before you went into training you, you have not tested the UX of your anxiety
Anita Rao
Well, yeah. Thinking about that too, of like learning how to tell if you are not going to be safe, like what are some of the things that you're supposed to be looking out for about your own body?
Missy
Fatigue is the biggest one. Our circadian rhythm is destroyed. We have no sense of a time zone. Depending on the kind of flying that you're doing, you're. Waking up one morning, you know, in your bed, and by the end of your, your trip, you're halfway across the world and it's tomorrow evening. It's very difficult to adjust to, and it's very important that you adjust because beyond my individual role and our individual roles as cabin crew, the airline wants timely service. We want to avoid delays. You know, we have all these different moving parts. The, the baggage, the actual aircraft, the pilots, us. There's so many things involved with getting a flight off the ground that if we, as the people working on the plane can mitigate things like showing up late or showing up, but maybe not having our stuff together or being so tired that we're not helpful. Those are things that we have to be honest with ourselves about. And I think it's very different from other jobs that are out there where there's not as much of a desire or a need to be exactly on time or early, or make sure that I. You don't binge watch that show the night before. Right? Right. Um, or you know, or I'll do it tomorrow, put gas in my car tomorrow. It, you have to set yourself up properly. You, you're just trying to avoid really avoidable situations that could have really huge consequences.
Anita Rao
So I'm thinking about the training that you described and how, you know, there is a lot of. Safety related stuff. There is, you know, thinking about the safety of you, the passengers, the plane. I'm curious about any training that you all get or how it's talked about in training, like the emotions and attitude that you are supposed to project to passengers while doing all of those other things.
Missy
I think that when we're in front of passengers, of course we want to exude calm and we want to exude that it's a pleasurable trip or experience that they're about about to have, and especially when things are kind of more, obviously not going according to plans such as there is a medical situation or there's. A lot of turbulence that is knocking things off of counters. You just wanna act like this is something that we are prepared for, we're handling it and it's not your concern.
Anita Rao
Mm. Yeah. Everything's fine.
Missy
Yeah. And I mean, really everything is as fine as it can be in a tube hurdling through the sky. So, you know, just chill. Watch your Mr. Bean season six or whatever we got going on. Uh. And Yeah. And your coffee's gonna be delayed.
Anita Rao
So tell me about your first day on the job and, and how the reality of doing it matched your expectations. Going in
Missy
My first day was totally cosplaying a flight attendant, just zero. Zero experience. People are looking to you as a person of authority and you're like, I don't know man. This is the first time I've been in this situation outside of a classroom. Please just sit down and don't ask me anything. But it, it just kind of felt a little bit like imposter syndrome. I would say even sometimes still it does feel like that, but my first day, absolutely. I'm like, I'm wearing the uniform. I look the part, but I, I am so afraid somebody's gonna be like, oh, have you been a flight attendant for seven hours? 'cause that's what it seems like.
Anita Rao
Just ahead, we will talk with Missy about how she's learned to deal with combative passengers and how Flight attending has helped her work on her people pleasing tendencies. You're listening to Embodied from North Carolina Public Radio, a broadcast service of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. You can also hear Embodied as a podcast. Follow and subscribe on your platform of choice. We'll be right back.
This is embodied. I'm Anita Rao. Flight attendants as you see them on a plane or in the movies, are cheery, calm, and helpful, and they're expected to present this demeanor regardless of what's going on behind the scenes. This expectation is shared by other service oriented jobs, but flight attendants are such a perfect case study that in the 1980s, a sociologist coined the term emotional labor after studying their work.
We've been talking to Missy, a flight attendant based in Hawaii about the training required for her job. She told us about learning CPR and getting used to sleep disruption, but now we're gonna really dig into the emotional labor piece and here about how paying such close attention to passengers has shifted Missy's understanding of human behavior.
Missy is not an official representative of her airline, so we're using her first name only and not saying the particular company she works for. Missy said that her work of ensuring a smooth flight starts before folks even enter the plane.
Missy
When we're at the gate, you're kind of looking around, seeing if anything sticks out, and then once you get on the plane and people start to come on, you're looking for. Pretty average things like, does anybody have an oversized bag that's just not gonna fit? Is there anything like a. We need to tell a passenger like, okay, like you can't use that assistive device while you're on the plane. Or this is how you stow it. People that have kids, you're trying to make sure that their car seats are plain certified. Mm. And then we're also looking for things like, is anyone carrying suspicious item? Uh, does anybody look like they're kind of maybe not in the right mindset or they're having a bad day? Maybe we can keep an eye on them. Is anybody intoxicated? We're looking for these kinds of things because. Ideally we catch these things while the door is open and we're attached to something that leads to the airport. Yeah, once we close the door, it's kind of a little bit more of a hassle to to deal with these things because if we're in the middle of the flight and that person that seemed like they were intoxicated was actually diabetic, it's only us. We'd like to avoid that.
Anita Rao
So passengers are getting settled, the flight is getting underway, the door is closed, and then flight attendants are telling you a lot of safety reminders. Like, make sure your seat back is up. Make sure your tray table is stowed. What are the safety things that you get the most pushback on? In your dayday work that have very valid reasoning behind 'em.
Missy
Oh my gosh.
Anita Rao
And you're ready for this.
Missy
Just put your, put your window shades up. What is the big deal?
Anita Rao
Why do we need our window shades up though? Like, what's the reason behind that?
Missy
You need your, and thank you so much for asking. That's what I would prefer people do, rather than fight me on it. I'm like, I'm happy to tell you why. It's because. We are preparing for if the plane does not successfully get off the ground. If we have a very hard stop in the middle of a taxi or there's something non-normal about us getting to where we need to go, you're not gonna have time because you're freaking out at that point to think maybe I should. Put my seat back upright for the person behind me and raise my window shade so we can see what's happening outdoors. Mm. It's all just prep for the situation. We hope never happens. And the pushback, that's the thing that confuses me the most because I'm like, well, what does it matter if. You're gonna put it back down in like 45 seconds and it's, it's really important when we ask, and I think the thing that I say to, to my flight attendant friends and that we'll say to each other is. I wouldn't be speaking to you if I didn't have to.
Anita Rao
Mm. Yeah. Right. I'm not just saying this to entertain myself, like there's a reason. Yeah.
Missy
I don't, I don't wanna just ruin your morning by asking you to, to do this. I don't know how to explain this to you, but I'm trying to save your life.
Anita Rao
Yeah. So there's, there is a lot of real rationale and reasoning. So, I mean, I know that you Yeah. Identify as a people pleaser, so I'm really curious about like, what it was like for you the first time someone got really frustrated at you for trying to just do your job. Like, do you have a memory of, of that first time?
Missy
It was, it was not fun. I did not like it.
Anita Rao
What happened?
Missy
It was very frustrating. I was on a. Really long flight and there was this older couple and it just seemed that by the time they got to me, they had already been pushed past their limit outside of the aircraft. And at that point I'm doing damage control. I'm trying to see what can remedy the issue for them because you know, customer service is still a part of our job and. It just felt kind of like a hopeless situation 'cause I didn't make the seed. I can't move it, it's bolted to the plane. I can only do so much and you can hate me for the whole flight and make things very difficult for me. And there's really, like, I, I can only kill you with kindness so much. It ended up being fine. They recognized. After they calmed down and got settled a bit that I was trying to help and they, they actually turned out to be really lovely people. But that was a situation where, you know, I probably had less than six months under my belt and I just, I felt so bad.
Anita Rao
Yeah. Like you felt bad about yourself or you
Missy
I felt bad that there was nothing I could do to change the situation for them. That in a way that felt like immediately. Rectifying because what they were upset about, I had no hand in it, but I was responsible for it. Yeah. In that time. And that was a very interesting experience for me to have as somebody who's just never had to care that much about. Somebody's experience because it's not like in a retail job, which is what I did before, you know you're not happy. Okay, well you wanna return exchange, you know, it's a very black and white solution. I'm gonna be with these people for like nine hours. So you know, they need something to have. As comfortable and as pleasant a journey as they can.
Anita Rao
I wanna pull on that thread a little bit with you because I'm curious to hear more about like how the emotional labor of flight attending compares to other kind of service industry jobs. It seems like you have experience in other parts of the service industry. What are some of the, the big distinctions, do you think?
Missy
I think that in service oriented positions you want. To make it pleasant for people because you're selling them a product. You're working for tips and, and not to say that it's not genuine as well, but there's other motivating factors to give somebody as good of an experience as you can in this job. Of course, I want people to have a positive experience. I want them to not have worries or anxieties, but also. It kind of is safety related as well. I don't want you to already have a heightened sense of anxiety because then if you get in a situation or if the aircraft is in a situation, I don't need that to be added on top of everything and kind of push you over the edge because then that's a secondary thing I have to deal with also. And, and we do get trained on just being aware of this. I don't know why you're flying.
Anita Rao
Mm.
Missy
I don't know what your state is. You could look perfectly fine. And you're flying to the funeral of your best friend. Yeah. Being aware of everyone's general emotional state. Is kind of important in a way where like if you're mad that we don't have your size in stock, you know, okay. Like, too bad. So sad. Yeah. You can get online, right?
Anita Rao
I mean, this is, so I'm really thinking here about this, like the, this mini microcosm of a world that you're managing where like any new stressor or heightened moment, you know, in, in one corner can quickly become something that affects everyone else. And like you're in a contained space. Like you're literally, you know. Thousands, tens of thousands of feet in the air versus like, if you're at a coffee shop, you know that person can, you can ask them to go outside or like, there's, there's so many more release points. And this is seriously like a pressure cooker. Mm-hmm. Where if like one thing goes wrong, things could escalate really fast.
Missy
Right. And I think also on the ground you have so many more opportunities for assistance.
Anita Rao
Yeah.
Missy
Right. I think in this post nine 11 flying. That has also changed the way that cabins are. Yeah. I obviously, I, I wasn't flying during that time, but, uh, recently another flight attendant told me, there's never gonna be another one again. And I said, why? And he goes, because the passengers will never let that happen again. Mm. And that's something that I was like, chilling. One. Yeah. Two, you know, I think that that's a very valid point that he made that. When people are aware, they will change their reaction and their behavior. And I think on the ground, you don't have to think like that so much because you know, if somebody's destroying a, a coffee shop or something on the corner, even the average person would know, I'm gonna call emergency services and then we can all simply run away from this situation in the air. You know, it's, it's us. So we're, we could be serving sandwiches and then, you know, trying to contain somebody who's maybe having like a psychiatric break or, you know, something like that.
Anita Rao
How has your own emotional response to combativeness from passengers changed over time? Like what kind of skills have you built around that in your years as a flight attendant?
Missy
I think it's important to note that I haven't been flying for very long at all. I'm still developing who I am as a, a cabin crew member, but I have noticed in the last, I would say year that I'm definitely not taking things personally as much as I I did when I first started, and. It's almost like a challenge now where I'm like, I am gonna make you have the best flavor of your life, even though you just called me lazy for not putting up your suitcase. Oh, wow. I'm, you're gonna be my best friend by the end of the flight, which I just wanna note, we are not getting paid and that is why we won't help you.
Anita Rao
You're not getting paid when boarding is happening.
Missy
We're not getting paid during boarding, and if we get injured because we're lifting a bag or assisting somebody, we're not covered by workman's comp.
Anita Rao
Wow, I did not know that.
Missy
Yes, so. I totally don't mind assisting somebody, but please don't put your dumbbells that you just bought in your vacation dog, because that's a little bit too much for our shoulders.
Anita Rao
I feel like you're speaking from experience with the dumbbell anecdote. Are you?
Missy
You know, not that, but I'm, you know, sometimes you grab a bag and you're like, you look at them and you're like, this is 25 pounds? Okay.
Anita Rao
So you're not being paid for that time. You're only paid for the time that the plane is actually in flight.
Missy
Different airlines have different specifications, but essentially if the door is closed and we're not pushed back from the gate, we're probably not getting paid. Wow. Okay. And I think that's also why things like being attentive and trying to assist people, we're not trying to be bossy. We're trying to get ourselves one gone on time because people might have connections and you wanna, you know, you bought the flight for a reason, you're arriving at a certain time, but also. You know, it's nice to get paid for your labor.
Anita Rao
Yeah, no kidding. So you're managing a lot at once. Obviously aviation safety, the emotions of your passengers kind of clocking all of these very specific things that you wanna keep track of. I'm curious about how all of this and the nature of this job affects your own mental health. What are some of the kind of challenges or, or things that you've noticed since starting the job?
Missy
There's a lot of anxiety when you start this job that I remember asking people and talking to classmates from my training class about, you know, are you having dreams about missing a flight? Are you having dreams about running down the tarmac and watching your plane take off without you? And the anxiety dreams are you still get them sometimes just because you don't wanna miss like your alarm. It's a lot of time-based anxiety, but then also there's things like after, you know, your first flight where somebody needed medical assistance, wondering if you did the right thing. Mm-hmm. If the person's okay, if you could have done anything better. I think that's where the imposter syndrome comes up. Like you just feel like it's not good enough. Also, reaching out for help to, for example, a flight attendant friend. And starting to talk to them more about like the frustrations and the issues that you have at work. It's not uncommon for relationships also to fail, uh, when you're a new flight attendant because it feels like, why are you going to these people instead of me? And the simple answer is like, you're not, you don't understand.
Anita Rao
Yeah. So there. I spent a lot more reporting and documentation of flight problems in the past few years. There was all the stuff during the pandemic of kind of increased outrage from passengers toward flight attendants than all of the stuff in the past, kind of 12 months about equipment malfunctions and crashes and outages. How has this all kind of impacted how you feel about your job?
Missy
I think that it's a complicated answer. Some things. We are aware of, it's just an increase of reporting. Mm-hmm. And it's stuff that the frequency hasn't really gone up at all. It's just we're a little bit more connected now. So people, as soon as something happens are especially now trained to, let me take my phone out, let me record. This is a once in a lifetime thing that's happening and we are aware that like stuff like that happens all the time. So that stuff doesn't bother me, but. There have been things lately that are concerning, like, um, our air traffic control people are overworked and they have a very important job and they can't afford to be cut, and we've been short on them for a while, so that's obviously concerning. And then things like. When a lot of stuff is happening in one specific area, that becomes concerning because that's not a fluke at that point, right? There's something abnormal happening and there's nothing I can do about that. If I'm told to go, I have to go.
Anita Rao
How has doing this work, I guess, what have you learned from doing this work about people that rings true in your life outside of the plane?
Missy
I think that it has helped me kind of start hanging up my badge as a people pleaser.
Anita Rao
Mm-hmm.
Missy
Because the reality is if somebody's chosen to have a bad day or that they don't like you and you've really haven't done anything to them and you've been trying to help them or, you know, put a little extra sauce on things for for them, and it's just not working. We are ships passing. So I think it's, it's been. Learning how to let things roll off your shoulders, and understanding that that doesn't mean that you're a bad person. It just means that you're also a person that deserves to have a good time.
Anita Rao
Totally. What has doing this job done to your relationship with friends and family outside of work? Like do you have, in terms of your schedule, like are you able to kind of maintain those relationships and connections?
Missy
I'm, I'm very lucky in that even before this job I've, I had a wonderful group of friends and our friendships have been very strong and I've had friends that have been long distance in other countries across, you know, the. The United States and we still have very strong friendships. The thing that has changed is I see their faces a lot less.
Anita Rao
Mm.
Missy
And that's something that kind of crept up on me, where I'm like, I've talked to you every week for the last three months, but I haven't seen you for half a year.
Anita Rao
Yeah.
Missy
And you know, since this is a job that people, if you like it, you tend to stay a very long time. You learn a lot of, um. Like, um, one of my parents had a stroke and I was in Phoenix and I had no idea until I landed. I just, you know, you turn your phone on and you have like 17 missed calls and, and texts, and you're like, okay, so something's not right. And at that point you just have to deal with it and hope that you know someone back where you live. Has got a handle on things. It's uh, that, that kind of stuff is difficult and you have to temper it with knowing that there's nothing you can do, worrying about it, it's just gonna make you lose sleep. You can't be exhausted or you can't go back home because you have to work it back. Or you have to be able to tell yourself, I'm clearly not fit. I need to call somebody and get home as soon as possible. It makes you realize how important. People are in your life and what you're willing to do for them. Like I, I know very cut and dry now who I would fly halfway across the world at a moment's notice for, and I know who I wouldn't. And I think that's how it's, it's changed. You just, things just become sharper and clearer to you.
Anita Rao
So as you think about your future, you mentioned that kind of people stay in this career for a while. Is that something you see for yourself?
Missy
For the time being. Yes. I, I love this job and I, I always tell people my worst day at this job is still better than my best day at some of my other jobs. Mm-hmm. So at this time, I can't imagine anything like this. Like I said, uh, at the beginning of us talking, I didn't wanna do this at first, and. That kind of helps me know that I really do wanna do this now, because it's like, well, I, it was not like this was my dream for years. I had to get the experience of trying to do this before I fell in love with it. And I, I think I would like to do this for as long as it still feels like this because I think that this job is so important that once it starts feeling. Like a job and like I have to, instead of I get to, that's a time where I need to be transparent with myself and ask myself, am I the best person to be in this jump seat?
Anita Rao
Just ahead. We are gonna talk with a travel journalist about her reporting on flight attendants and mental health and financial security, and how learning more about their job has changed, how she approaches flying. We'll be right back.
This is embodied our show about sex, relationships, and health. We're talking today about the inside world of flight attending and all the work that goes into the job that we passengers often don't see. We just spoke to Missy, a flight attendant who told us about the mental and emotional labor of constantly tracking passenger's behavior to ensure everyone's wellbeing, but more importantly, their safety. This is just one example of the complicated dynamics flight attendants navigate while also putting on a smile.
There are more than 100,000 flight attendants employed in the us so we wanted to zoom out a little bit from Missy's story and get some additional context about this profession. To do that, we're talking with Natalie Compton. Natalie is a travel reporter at the Washington Post who has recently reported stories about the critical role of flight attendants in aviation emergencies, and the financial precarity many of those same flight attendants are facing in their work.
Natalie, welcome to Embodied.
Natalie Compton
Thank you for having me.
Anita Rao
So we've been debunking this kind of glamorized Hollywood image of a flight attendant throughout this conversation, this idea that a lot of us have that it's a job with all of these travel perks. It's, you know, super glamorous. You get to jet settle all over the world As a travel writer, when did you first have a sense that there was more to the story about what flight attendants' lives are like?
Natalie Compton
I grew up with an aunt who was a flight attendant and still is. She flies for JetBlue. So early on, I think I saw the more empathetic approach to the world of flight attendants. Mm-hmm. Saw that this was a very normal person's job. My aunt is amazing, but you know, she's not what they depict in. TV and Hollywood, you know, these partying stereotypes, these people who are jet setting all over the world. So I saw it as, as something she did to support her family and also get some of those great travel perks as a result. But once I started working with the Washington Post and covering travel, the more conversations I had with flight attendants, the more peeling back those layers and seeing the reality of it went further. So it's really been a, a journey getting to know all the different elements of this complex job.
Anita Rao
There are so many elements. We just spoke with our flight attendant named Missy about kind of all the things going on in her workday that go unnoticed by passengers. And there was one thing she shared with me that really stuck out, which is that she doesn't get paid during boarding. It's part of why she's not gonna help a passenger necessarily lift a heavy bag 'cause she's not covered during that time. I wanna know more about kind of how and when flight attendants are paid. The kind of financial realities of doing this job that you've looked into.
Natalie Compton
I think that is a huge shocker for a lot of travelers. Yeah. And you know, they are getting upset in the gate being like, why is my flight delayed? The flight attendants are also pretty upset. They're not getting paid yet, so everybody should calm down, take a beat, and know we're all in this together. But. For some airlines, it's, you know, the plane releases the break, you start getting paid a certain amount. For some, there's no pay during boarding. For some it's a fraction or, uh, you know, half of your hourly rate might be for boarding. And I think right now, in this time of. People being more aware of the, the world of flight attendants. Were starting to see airlines pressured into paying for boarding. So that's been a nice change to see just recently, United and their flight attendant union. Came to an agreement in contract negotiations that included more boarding pay. So we're seeing that change. But for a lot of flight attendants, they are not getting paid during that time, which is arguably one of the most important parts of the job they're checking for. Is the door secure? Are passengers in a good head space? Does anybody look like they need extra help? And like you said, if they help you with luggage. That is putting them at risk for injury. So they're really not supposed to, but it's something that they're human. They wanna help people. They often still do.
Anita Rao
There is a lot of incentive in the airline industry to. Work for a long time. You get more perks, you get better benefits. Mm-hmm. The longer that you have been working. The flip side of that is that it can be really hard to make it work when you're first starting the job. Tell me about some of the kind of financial aspects of beginning to become a flight attendant. Some of the stories you heard about people kind of getting into the work.
Natalie Compton
So last year I came across a press release from the Alaska Airlines Flight Attendant Union. That was a result of a study, a survey they had done of their members. And a statistic stuck out to me. It was like 8% of the participants who answered the survey had experienced homelessness or living out of their cars.
Anita Rao
Oh, wow.
Natalie Compton
Or needing food stamps or other government assistance. And that really shocked me because like we've said, this seems like a very good job. I know flight attendants who. Are thriving and and feel very financially secure. But once I started digging into the story, I talked to lots of flight attendants who spoke about in the beginning, for many of the airlines, you are not paid during your training. That's a setback. Then once you do start working, you have. Complicated hours, you're not sure what your schedule's going to be from week to week, so you can't really pick up a normal second job. I talk to flight attendants who are working Uber or Lyft gig work like Rover or or other Jo Walking services to try to make any extra money while they start at this much lower rate than your senior flight attendant who gets to choose their hours and and their routes and have that comfortable seniority. But the reality of it is. When you are starting in this job, your life is really out of your hands and the pay isn't that good. So, uh, it's something that people don't realize. Again, I, I keep bringing up the, when people get frustrated at airports. Yeah. Because flight attendants are not only first responders, they're also the first and only representation of the airline that people see. And often people unload on them, which is a lot. So they are often very. Tightly strapped in the beginning if they don't have a partner or they have children that they're supporting. It's a really rough job for the first definitely couple years.
Anita Rao
Is this a new problem or have flight attendants long been underpaid when starting out in their positions?
Natalie Compton
We're seeing, you know, when I talk to some people who work at ultra budget carriers like Frontier, those jobs are definitely getting worse when it comes to pay. You know, they're, they aren't going for the same. I'm going to be a career Delta flight attendant having this incredible benefit package that comes with this job. For some of these lower budget airlines, it is not glamorous. It is much more like gig work pay to them, and yet it comes with this extreme lifestyle change. So that is new. These kinds of airlines are new, although. When I was reporting on the story, talking to people who have been in the field for a long time, they say we've been fighting for better pay since the beginning. We've been fighting to have this job seen as a respectable profession too, because of those sexist roots of the airlines selling their young available stewardesses as a perk of flying with them. They wanna say, we are security professionals. We're here as first responders. This is a real viable career option. But no, no, the, the talk of of very low pay is much newer.
Anita Rao
So you mentioned earlier your personal family experience and how that shaped your understanding of some of the maybe less visible work that flight attendants are doing, the emotional work, the kind of empathy that they are required to bring to the job. What are some of the stories that stood out to you in your reporting about the emotional labor of flight attending?
Natalie Compton
Right after the pandemic and as people started flying again during the pandemic, we saw this extreme uptick in unruly passengers, and I'm sure you've seen the headlines. People have seen the videos on social media of people freaking out on flights attacking flight attendants. That is definitely playing into people's mental health. Uh, flight attendants have access to air marshal trained self-defense classes. They get self-defense and de-escalation training when they are learning about the job too. I think people aren't realizing this. Part of, of the job is dealing with people who might be under the influence or might be having, um, a mental episode. That's a very scary position to be in when you're on a plane, but something that was interesting. That a flight attendant just told me at the Delta Flight Attendant Training Center was there is now a like, I guess, cultural awareness of this problem, and she's felt heartened by other passengers. Just having more situational awareness and looking out for flight attendants and stepping up if somebody is getting out of line. So. That was kind of a silver lining to a dark issue. But, um, the other things that people really don't see about this job are the extra time that goes into it before they get to the airport. A lot of flight attendants commute to work, which means they have to fly standby from a place where they can afford to live or where their families are based. To get to Boston, to be able to fly the route that they are assigned. They are spending hours and hours and hours on planes and in airports waiting to get to the job. Getting there, their flight's delayed. They, they put a lot of time into this job that, that people really don't see. So it's exhausting. Then they fly, then they have to get home like everybody else. And I really empathize with the emotional and physical exhaustion that comes with this career.
Anita Rao
One of the things that really struck me in talking to Missy was about, you know, during the training process, you're trained for as many scenarios as you can be, but there's also, you know, only so much you can be prepared for. And as soon as those doors close and you're in this kind of metal tube, like you're really responsible for whatever happens. Like there's no mm-hmm. Escape valve when you're like tens of thousands of feet in the air. Right. So talk to me about your experience embedding with. Um, Delta flight attendants training and kind of what struck you about, I guess, like the, the ways that they are taught to manage this environment.
Natalie Compton
Like you said, you can train for as many things as have happened, but there are so many things that haven't happened in, I mean, when we saw the Delta plane just recently land upside down, yeah. That wasn't something that anybody had trained for, but all of the training that was in place, they could. Apply to this new situation. One of the, uh, VPs of hiring at Delta told me we look for people who can pivot, people who are very flexible and have this can-do attitude because there is so much of this job that is thinking on your feet and adjusting to a new emergency or just run of the mill. Problem with service, so they get an incredible amount of training. I, I went to the flight attendant training center in Atlanta where new flight attendants go through seven weeks of training. If they don't pass at the end, they don't join the fleet. And this is everything from super complicated. Plane doors, you would not believe how technical and specific opening some of these doors are, and they have to learn how to do it on every aircraft. In case you know, the automatic functions aren't working. They have to learn different basic medical training. They're learning about that self-defense and de-escalation, how to administer a Narcan to a person who might be overdosing in the lavatory. It gets very. Specific and they learn so much in a pretty short amount of time, jumping out of a plane to, to man a water landing and set up a life raft. So I was in awe of the huge level of detail that goes into this crash course. Uh, horrible word choice there because hopefully you are not dealing with that. But, um, and, but it really is amazing what they have to do. And then at the end. It tested very harshly. If you don't pass, you know, some of these hands on drills in three attempts, you have to start over from the application pool, which wow, they say is harder to get into than applying to Harvard. So it's very cutthroat. It's very competitive because. Like we talked about, it's hard in the beginning, but it ends up being this job that people really love doing.
Anita Rao
So there is like so much of this labor that I think we don't see, but also the detoxification mm-hmm. Of everything has given us a little bit more insight into some of the things that flight attendants are dealing with. And like we talked about kind of the passenger unruliness that we're seeing videos of. I'm curious about how the airline industry is responding. To these kind of documented needs for flight attendants to have more emotional resources, to have more financial resources. Is there a response that you're seeing?
Natalie Compton
I do think that having. A more human side. Being promoted in the life of a flight attendant has been huge in these things like contract negotiations. More people are having more sympathy for flight attendants because they know more about what they're going through. They have a voice in a way that they didn't in the past, that direct line with their audience. And, uh, more people are aware that they are needing some changes. So I do hope that, you know, flight attendant. Unions can, can amplify those voices in some of these negotiations. Then at the end of the day, we're still seeing CEOs making extreme amounts of money and, and so how much it's actually playing into that, I'm not sure, but I. As far as mental health, I think it seeing, especially the Reddit threads or the Facebook groups where flight attendants are sharing what they're going through does seem to be providing people some real help. So that is heartening
Anita Rao
In that answer you just alluded to, you know, hi, CEO Pay and this kind of. I guess the fact that like what is happening with flight attendants in the airline industry mirrors income inequality in other global industries. There are clear parallels to, you know, the people who are really on the ground doing the emotional work, the, the labor without a a ton of pay and the CEOs who, who salaries are kind of continuing to grow. Why do you think flight attending is a particularly important case study to talk about within the travel world of this? Inequality.
Natalie Compton
I think for better or for worse, this is a job that people like. Mm-hmm. Like I think that people. Have this idea of what this job should be. They're outraged when they find out the realities of it. I think that it's just a popular job and a, a job that is like an appealing job, like a Hollywood job, whereas I don't think people get ads outraged when they hear that the wheelchair attendant at an airport is making even worse pay and has even stricter work requirements. It's. Unfortunately harder to drum up public support or outrage for those jobs. And they have just as tragic of stories. So I think that this is a good poster child for getting a public response and getting people riled up and, and enthusiastic about making a change because it's just a, a job that people are, are drawn to and gets more attention.
Anita Rao
You fly a lot for work. How has your reporting. About flight attendants, your conversations with them, learning about their work changed how you fly and how you act as a passenger.
Natalie Compton
My number one huge cry to the public is when you are boarding a plane, take your headphones off. Look the flight attendants in the eye. Yeah. And say hello. I could scream this from the mountains. I'm gonna get a. Forehead tattoo of this. Look at people and say hello. A lot of people have told me in these interviews how they don't get seen as people. They get seen as like part of the plane or people just whisk right by them. Uh, we have this main character energy when we're traveling and we are not thinking about how other people are feeling around us. We're just like, I need to get through my travel day self survival preservation mode, and we're not. Considering this flight attendant has had to get here way earlier than me, woke up way earlier than me, is dealing with all of these things and I'm the grumpy one. So my yes, my plea is please just look. Flight attendancy. I say hello. Say thank you. You don't have to like strike up a deep conversation with them. They have work to do. Just say hi. Just say hi and thank you. And it goes a long way.
Anita Rao
Natalie Compton is a travel reporter for the Washington Post. Thank you so much for the conversation.
Natalie Compton
Thank you.
Anita Rao
You can find out more about our guests, Natalie and Missy at our website, embodiedwunc.org. You can find all episodes of Embodied the Radio Show there and subscribe to our weekly podcast. You can also get bonus and behind the scenes content by following us on Instagram. Our handle is @embodiedWUNC. Today's episode was produced by Kaia Findlay and edited by Amanda Magnus. With editorial support from Wilson Sayre. Nina Scott is our intern, and Jenni Lawson, our technical director, Quilla, wrote our theme music. This program is recorded at the American Tobacco Historic District, North Carolina Public Radio is a broadcast service of the University of North Carolina, a Chapel Hill.