The old ones are the best? Rob Britton
OPINION
Rob Britton dares to talk about inflight service delivery, service quality and that all too sensitive subject of ‘age’. Does experience really count?
Over nearly 50 years I’ve flown on more than 120 airlines on all six continents, in an expansive seat in First and a middle seat in Economy. I’ve led the catering team at a large airline and I’ve pushed a trolley up and down plenty of aisles. Age has given me creaky knees, but also a good perspective on inflight service delivery and today’s thesis is that age and service quality are, contrary to conventional belief, uncorrelated. In many human endeavours – swimming, texting and beauty pageants for example – youth and prowess fit together. But that’s not always the case. I’ve experienced great older and younger flight attendants, terrible older and younger cabin crew, and everything in between. Once upon a time, we were all young. But the realities of airline seniority, advances in workers’ rights in industrial nations, abating sexism, slowing growth at many companies, and changing cultural norms have led to significant increases in the median age of many cabin crew.
While this was happening, mostly in North America and Europe, airlines elsewhere – notably the Gulf and Southeast Asia – were growing rapidly, in countries where laws and cultures enabled them to shed cabin crew based solely on age or without what Westerners value as ‘fairness and due process’. More to the point, these airlines are now vigorously competing worldwide, not just in home regions. Experience matters. In January 2009 when Captain Sullenberger deftly landed his US Airways jet in the Hudson River after losing both engines on takeoff, the three flight attendants with 26, 28, and 38 years of service evacuated the jet without a single serious injury. By contrast, a
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friend related an episode on a well- known Asian airline, a total quality leader: after departure a serious safety problem required a return and emergency landing. Rather than calm professionalism, the cabin crew, all young and I’m sure beautiful, were in tears and completely disorganised. Everyone landed safely, hoorah. Sure, those two stories are anecdotal, and extreme, but they are real. This defence of senior cabin crew comes with a qualifier, a very large asterisk: established airlines must figure out a way to motivate those – regardless of age – who lack motivation and who consider their position an entitlement.
True, powerful trade unions often make it difficult or impossible to terminate employment of indifferent performers. But no-one, not the company, its customers, nor their colleagues working the cabin, benefit
Defence of senior cabin crew comes with a qualifier - airlines must figure out a way to motivate those who lack motivation and who consider their position an entitlement
from the lacklustre employee. Management typically argues that its hands are tied, but I believe this is an excuse. In recent years, psychologists and others have learned a great deal about work behaviour and how to improve job performance. You won’t fix things if you hire the usual aviation or general-management consultants, no matter how much improvement they promise, and you certainly won’t by signing up some hotshot HR firm spewing the latest jargon. Sustainable solutions will require 1) fresh consulting talent; 2) deep, voluntary participation from experienced staff who want to make a difference; and 3) plenty of time, probably five years of effort, and an ongoing commitment after that. But for those airlines in the US, Canada, and Europe facing competitors who play by different (albeit legal) rules, there is no alternative than to find a way forward.
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