Airline Troubles

[ChiefD]

Okay. This is does not happen on every flight, and I have no idea how far back this compilation goes, and there are lots more, unfortunately, but the image of the "ugly Americans", seems to have exploded.

I worked yesterday, and I was glad that I only had one case, but it is usually two to three days after a holiday, that we get the most cases.  I ran into a situation yesterday that reinforced this ugly view of some American people. Rudeness, snarkiness, selfishness, and demanding behaviors are way too frequent. Too many people are addicted to the drama. They perform for the cameras, and the uglier the behavior, the more likely they are to get that viral video. Their 15 seconds of fame.

This ugly behavior will continue, because it is accepted and rewarded. I wish this behavior was restricted to just the airlines. It is not. It is everywhere. You are very likely to run into it at one time or another.

Words of advice.

Do not engage.
Do not feed into it.
If possible, walk away.
If not possible to walk away, call the person in charge or the police.

I think trying to deescalate the situation is very likely to enhance the problem.

In my case last night. The police were already there. They too decided the best thing to do was to allow the situation to deescalate on its own. Because the person was not harming themselves or anyone else, and the worse thing they could be charged with was trespassing, and then only if a complaint was may by the business workers or owners. I was the worker, and while very annoyed, I did not want to make a complaint.

I could tell the person was itching for a fight. By all of us ignoring them. They left on their own accord. No drama. We were not worth the effort.

Holy cow! Fortunately none of the flights I've been on have had people like that. Seeing the video, I wanted to tase these people. Just nasty. Another thing I don't understand is why these airports all have bars. I don't think there should be anyone selling any alcohol at an airport. Many times, people just get so piss drunk that they start acting like total assholes. Now I know there are fearful fliers out there who probably need something to relax them before getting on a flight. I never ever drank any alcohol before or during a flight. I had a little bottle of Ativan, and I'd pop a couple of them before getting on the plane. So much better than drinking alcohol. 

Seeing that video compilation is one of many reasons I won't fly anywhere anymore. Not worth the stress. And I think any passenger who acts like these people did should be on a damn no fly list for every airline. There is no excuse for behaving like that. It's just disgusting.

Where I used to work, at my county mental health clinic, they always told us receptionists that we had to deescalate situations with clients. We got minimal training, and none of us had psychology degrees. Several of the clinicians and therapists did, but not us. Since we were on the front lines so to speak, we got to deal with all kinds of fun stuff (heavy sarcasm font here). People would come in falling down drunk, stoned, strung out, in withdrawal, and out of their minds. We didn't have adequate training to deal with this stuff. 

We were told if things got bad to call a supervisor/therapist/clinician/nurse practioner/doctor. Yep, nobody would answer their goddamn phones because they heard what was going on up front and didn't want to deal with it. They basically hung us out to dry. We were threatened with bodily harm by clients, called every name in the book, screamed at, spit at, had stuff thrown at us. We had the non emergency police on speed dial, but were told to do that as a last resort. I wound up doing it a couple of times because I had no help and no back up. It's one of the reasons I retired early. My mental health was hanging by a thread, and I just couldn't take it anymore. I have no idea how these poor airline employees cope with this. How awful.