Would you do a grand exit from your job?

Several years ago I was on a flight and as we were coming in to land, seat belts fixed in turbulent conditions, a child of about 6 or 7 was climbing over the back of my seat. I asked the parent to control said child to which I got no response. I called the stewardess and complained, the problem was ignored. I called again and the senior steward came to see me and suggested I was being a troublesome passenger. So, I shut up and as we landed, to coin a pun , said child went flying. There was a head injury to child. If the stewards had done their job properly that child would not have been injured.

Contrast Mr Slater, trying to follow proceedures, who has my admiration. You are supposed to stay seated until the airplane taxis to rest. Mr Slater was right to challenge the conduct of the passenger.

I have never stormed out of a job. I have felt like doing this a couple of times in my life but self control is important.

I think he's attracted a lot of attention because many people can identify with how he felt. Some people treat those in the service sector in particularly inhumane ways (and it's mostly the sort of idiot who can't wait the few seconds for the seatbelt light to switch off), and obvisouly it can get too much at times.

Don't know: never been unlucky enough to have a job I hated that much.

When forced out of one I loved with a phony 'redundancy' I just emailed all the people who'd asked me to do something for them in the past week or so telling them I was sorry I would not be able to complete the work as I had been declared redundant, and left the premises - so fast I left my lunch to rot in my pigeonhole!

What is heroic about completely going over the top, shouting through a loudspeaker and storming off down an escape slide. ? He risks a prison sentence and possibly long term unemployment now. He needs to take a course in " anger management". Surely he was trained to deal with difficult passengers?
Surely Facebook can find a genuine hero to worship? What does it say about the site users I wonder.

Would I leave a job I hate....Not if I wanted to keep eating and have a roof over my head.
Have I ever stormed off.....haven't we all but not at work when your living depends on it. I grew out of storming when I discovered you look a wally afterwards.
Why has he attracted internet support..............probably because society is sick and loves silly causes & situations and interfering in whats none of their business.
Is this really the best BBC can do as relevant topics for discussion?
About a facile as some of the TV on offer.

Working for a Housing Authority in Wakefield where if you were unfortunate to be to ill to work you were subjected to disciplinary measures by a team of buzz word career greedy, rude women, anyway after 3 years I was ill
after a two hour grilling for a day they asked me "judgement had been made and a meeting would be called for all staff next morning and I was to make a full apology to
"the team for my days illness." in hot thirsty conditions I stood up in the kangaroo court and told them ..
I THINK YOU HAVE GOT ME MIXED UP WITH SOMEONE ELSE.
Someone else they said ?
YES SOMEONE WHO ACTUALLY GIVES A STUFF !
Walked in to the Chief executives office and helped myself to a drink of his nice cool water, gave him a wink took of the "logo workware" threw it on his table and walked out in my boxers and never went back...

HOPA girl's exit was very amusing. Shame it was a fake.

Personally I was tempted to release a list of everyone on my floor who found it too much trouble to flush the toilet after they left the cubicle :)

I get made redundant at the end of September.

Or 'Naked Wednesday' as it shall come to be known...

Sometimes enough is enough. He must have seriously had enough stress to begin with and the argument was the straw that broke the cammels back.

I have left the building for a walk a few times in a couple of jobs which I find is the best approach for dealing with the stress. I have seen others blow up in the office and have very loud and aggrovated arguments in a couple of jobs.

As long as management accept that people will get stressed and that it is better to take a walk than have a confrontation then business can continue as normal.

whan i was a young motor mechanic i used to go out on breakdowns all hours and weather conditions i asked for a modest pay rise and said about all the hours (and a lot i wasnt paid for)and was told that didnt matter so i told them to lickem and stickem it felt so good everyone should do it once in their working life

2. At 10:21am on 11 Aug 2010, RedandYellowandGreennotBlue wrote:
I think he's attracted a lot of attention because many people can identify with how he felt. Some people treat those in the service sector in particularly inhumane ways (and it's mostly the sort of idiot who can't wait the few seconds for the seatbelt light to switch off), and obvisouly it can get too much at times.

----

Blame the saying -'the customer is always right' - and the sense of entitlement that many people have these days.

They feel its a license to be as rude & obnoxious to those in service sector as the mood takes them.

After all, as the 'customer, they can't possibly be in the wrong...

"How would you leave a job you hate?"

I'd get a big cigar, smoke it and see how long it took to get forcibly removed from the buidling.

4. At 10:22am on 11 Aug 2010, smilingparrotfan wrote:
What is heroic about completely going over the top, shouting through a loudspeaker and storming off down an escape slide. ? He risks a prison sentence and possibly long term unemployment now. He needs to take a course in " anger management". Surely he was trained to deal with difficult passengers?

-------- ahh c'mon parrot. He didn't hurt anybody. Sure it wasn't the best way to deal with it in the cold rational light of day, but a lot of people are identifying with him as after years in the same job, day in and day out, facing arrogant people who feel that they are above the rules/procedures and ignore the advice these types of service personnel offer you can see the idea of venting, grabbing a beer and jumping out of a plane would be quite appealing.

"Why has he attracted support on the internet?"

Because it's the internet. Put a sausage roll on a front page and people click to support it. There is no real rhyme nor reason sometimes.

Good on this guy. I hope he's offered some practical support, not punished too severely and can look back on his 15minutes in a few years with a wry smile. Look on the bright side - at least he didn't go out 'Falling Down' ala Michael Douglas.......

To say I hate my job is a slight overstatement but there are more than a few very unpleasant individuals in my working environment that frankly I could do without having in my presence everyday. This pack of jackals on the top tier of my organisation would put contestants on The Apprentice to shame with their grovelling, lying, bullying and exploitation. I have a beloved fantasy that one day I hope to come true. Over the building tannoy system I am playing ‘Dead Kennedys – Take this job and Shove It’ whilst standing on the 6th floor balcony throwing eggs or worse at anyone passing before then being escorted from the building deliriously happy than I never have to darken my soul by entering this hive of scum and villainy ever again! Woo hoo!

With the way some passengers behave I am surprised this sort of thing does not happen more often.
Some while ago I was on a London bus and some youngsters started behaving appallingly. After the bus conductor tried to reason with them they abused him and fellow passengers.
Suddenly the bus conductor lost his cool and walked off the bus saying he had had enough.
As plain decent manners seem to become more and more of a rarity I have every sympathy for people who have to put up with rudeness in their jobs.

Would you do a grand exit from your job?

Not sure about a grand exit, but I remember working at a candle factory in Bampton in Devon as a student many years ago and they had this aggressive line manager (who was also swigging whiskey from his locker at intervals - I mean, c'mon, at least try to hide the smell with a mint or something). Well we had just about had enough of the abussive attitude we temps were getting and during a lunch break we hatched a plan.

When the bell went for us to return to our shift, we decided to scrap the plan made our way casually across the car park to cries from the various line managers and team leaders, asking us where were were going and to get our lazy a**es abck to work. All were met with a standard two fingered salute, various choice phrases and off we drove into the sunset.

Okay, not as grand an exit as that airline steward, but it felt great!

I would like to reiterate what a few others have said so far that people who work in the service industry, especially here in the UK are treated appallingly sometimes and as such its no wonder that on occassion a few blow their lids. I agree that you often get bad service, but I have actually remonstrated with fellow customers when I have heard the abussive way they have spoken to a service person.

Can I also offer my sympathy, support and congratulations to Steven Slater, the airline steward.

Can`t say I ever had a job that I hated. Hating a boss, now that`s a different story altogether.
The best job I ever had? Armed Forces....

Grand exits are the best way!

13. At 10:44am on 11 Aug 2010, UrbanHarridan wrote:
To say I hate my job is a slight overstatement but there are more than a few very unpleasant individuals in my working environment that frankly I could do without having in my presence everyday. This pack of jackals on the top tier of my organisation would put contestants on The Apprentice to shame with their grovelling, lying, bullying and exploitation. I have a beloved fantasy that one day I hope to come true. Over the building tannoy system I am playing ‘Dead Kennedys – Take this job and Shove It’ whilst standing on the 6th floor balcony throwing eggs or worse at anyone passing before then being escorted from the building deliriously happy than I never have to darken my soul by entering this hive of scum and villainy ever again! Woo hoo!
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This really made me laugh, hope your lotto numbers come up!

Given how airport and flight attendant staffs are often treated by customers I’m in full support of this Mr Slater. I’ve personally witnessed plenty of examples of airport staff being treated badly by customers for reasons that are either beyond their control or simply as an emotional punch bag.

I used to work as a barman a couple of years ago and was both a victim of and witnessed abusive and ill mannered behaviour towards our staff members. One of our barmaids even got punched because she served one bloke before another.

Some people seem to think that because they're a paying customer it gives them the right to treat staff members badly.

Sometimes the customer is NOT always right!

The passenger should have followed instruction and sat on her butt until the 'plane came to a standstill. Why's she being let off in this incident? In this age of strict airline security, who's to say what her intentions were?

Steve Slater should sue for injury from the bag, and if left jobless because of her selfishness. He was doing his job - she clearly refused to fulfil her obligations as an airline passenger.

Would I have done the same as him? Sure would! What a fabulously flamboyant exit for him to make though ... haha

There has been an occasion where I would have liked to ...

... just a shame all applications forms asked for 'Reference From Last Employment' sometimes it's a good idea to leave on as good a terms as possible.

C'mon everyone, this is what is known as "A laff". You are allowed to drop the mask for a minute.

How would I leave a job I hate? Well, presuming I wanted everyone to be reminded of how much they needed me and to be sorry they had been horrible to me, and that gorgeous temp who wouldn't go out with me is now the MD's PA (Actually, that really happened), then I would do the following:

1) Bodge the backup plan so it looks like it's working but it's not.
2) Put a strong magnet at the bottom-back of the backup safe
3) Switch off all the automated windows patch downloads on the servers
4) Set the server passwords & firewall passwords to "password"
5) Put the customer file on a memory stick
6) Put time-sensitive scripts on the server to uninstall programs randomly
7) Cancel the canteen order for chocky biscuits
8) Get a girlfriend to phone the bosses' wives and hang up when she answers
9) Pour coffee in all the spare toner cartridges
10) Swap the email address book list around; so the warehouse people receive the emails from finance, and the boardroom gets the emails from the factory floor (Actually, that might be a good idea!)

There must be more.

8. At 10:27am on 11 Aug 2010, Nok wrote:
I get made redundant at the end of September.

Or 'Naked Wednesday' as it shall come to be known...

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Brilliant! My most favroutie comment ever and really made me laugh out loud. Bring on naked Wednesday!!! :D

You should never made a grand exit from your job, as it will come back to haunt you in future years. A lot of job markets are very small, and news of such behaviour soon gets round. Better to just leave if you hate your job so much.
I remember at one company an employee who was leaving having a rant about the company in his leaving speach, and whilst some of his points may have had some validity, he just came across as a sad and lonely individual.

Chill out #4.

Work can be one of the most stressful things in people's lives. Where I work people are constantly being evaluated, with 6 monthly appraisals measuring them against our company 'core values'. It would be laughable if it didn't impact your pay and promotion prospects. I'd guess that most people get fed up with the petty status-slapping they receive daily at work, and most people can see how patently untrue the hollow slogans and 'mission statements' mouthed by management really are. They put up with it to pay the mortgage, feed the kids, and earn a few luxuries. So seeing someone actually do the sort of thing that sensible people only fantasize about is cheering. This how we all might act if not constrained by real life.

Personally, I've never walked out in a huff. But I'm happy that someone did.

What a top lad! Good on him. British air travellers are arrogant and rude. Invariably they release themselves from their seats before the aircraft has finished taxying. I have seen so many people trip and stumble when the aircraft comes to a halt, that my sympathies lie with the cabin crew every time. No wonder they sometimes blow their stacks.

On a couple of occasions, I wish I had had the bottle to do that to people who have bullied me at work, but that was years ago.

I can understand why people do it and even why some might even take a gun into work to get revenge, but thats not MY thing.

We are only human, after all.

I once poured a bowl of sugar over a super-visors head, and had the sack !!! He use to shout and curse at all the staff, all day long with no reason ???? some were just children girls and boys of 14yrs old, in a warehouse a big bully, who had a big mouth . I would do it again today ,some people still remember me for what I did. He stopped doing it for a while.

I'm often tempted to leave my job, it's only the bills and earache from my girlfriend that stops me. Only one I've walked out of my boss didn't notice until the next day! He rang me to try and get me back, but the money and hours were shocking so I declined.
I think if it wasn't for bills, millions would be walking out, that's why Thatcher encouraged home ownership!

Yes, this man clearly over-reacted, but hats off to him for having a hissy fit which made the news!

Never in the history of aviation has a passenger reached the terminal before the aircraft has, so I completely fail to grasp why anyone would want to stand up before it's been deemed safe to do so by the captain of the plane. This is symptomatic of a greater problem in air travel nowadays, where frequent flyers tend to think of themselves as "above" the rules, and the crew are often spoken to very rudely when trying to enforce them. Crew don't make the rules, it's just their job to TRY to get passengers to comply with them, and it seems that this was all this particular steward was trying to do. Now he's probably going to lose his job and the woman who caused the ruckus in the first place probably walks off scot-free. C'est la vie?

And the comment above about being able to go for a walk or time-out to cool off when stressed is interesting in this case. The crew of an aircraft are sealed in a metal tube, often for a considerable length of time, so that option is not available to them. Passengers would do well to remember that, but some seem to take great pleasure in exploiting it.

A few years ago I was working for one of the large accountancy firms and I was 'let go' because the department I was working in wasn't hitting its profitability targets.

I was taken to one side (not even into a private office) and was told that my last working day would be at the end of the month. I smiled upon hearing the news because I'd developed and unhealthy hatred for the company over the preceeding two years.

The manager, after telling me I wasn't needed any more, then asked me to make sure that I finished the projects I was working on before my leaving date. She had the audacity to suggest that I might need to work (unpaid) overtime to accomplish this.

I shook my head and said loud enough for everyone in the section to hear, "No. That's not going to happen." I think I was the first person in the department who had ever said no to this manager so publicly. She was furious and began blustering at me, so I raised my hand in the patronising manner that teachers use with children and I told her to shush.

She blustered a reference to my 'terms and conditions' saying that it meant that I was required to finish my workload; I pointed out that my contract was for 40 hours a week, yet I'd worked a minimum of 55 hours a week for the previous two years (doing a lot of work that should really have been done by her as manager). I explained that I was going to go back over to my desk (hotdesking, don't you love it?) and was going to e-mail my personal files to my private address, put in my expenses claims and then I would be leaving and never coming back.

After about 15 minutes completing my expenses amounting to something like £900 I went to the manager and demanded that she authorised the payments. She dismissed me with a wave of her hand and a grunt that she was busy and would get to it later. I told her, again loud enough for everyone to hear, that she'd get to it now or we'd have to settle things in small claims court.

Once she'd signed off I had a similar conversation with the partner (her boss) to get his sign off after rudely barging into his office - exploiting his 'open door' policy for the first and only time. With his John Hancock on the paperwork I popped the claim in the relevant mail box turned off the laptop (after uploading blank files of my 'work' onto the server) left it on the desk and took my sandwiches out of the laptop bag.

Heading for the door I turned back and said to everyone "I'm going down the pub, anyone coming?" Four of the staff decided that 11am wasn't too early to take lunch and joined me as we headed to the pub.

It was extremely liberating. I immediately felt free of the pressure of a 55 hour week and no longer had to travel 5 or 6 hours away on the whim of a manager. I didn't have any private and confidential files with me to worry about. I didn't have to lug a laptop and case weighing around 15kg everywhere I went. I wouldn't have managers and colleagues calling me on my (private) mobile phone at all hours asking idiotic technical questions about things they should already have known.

Unfortunately I wouldn't have the £35 a day living allowance (without needing receipts). And I left my raincoat on the back of my chair.

Amazingly I had a fantastic reference from them when I applied for my next job.

Let's make the ungrateful clients suffer; by job.

1) Taxi drivers - walk out of the cab in the middle of no-wheres-ville
2) Shop assistants - forget that pesky decimal
3) Teachers - (I could probably spend all day on this one) - make a recording of their "real" language - drop a copy in their school reports!
4) Police - send round the AR unit next time someone wants their cat found
5) Builders - hold the plans 90 degrees wrong
6) Bin men - put all those empty bottles from #15 in the vicar's recycling box
7) Bus drivers - keep your right indicator on at all times
8) Air traffic controllers - send the French to New York


How to get the push when you're fed up:
1) PAs - send the bosses "private" document file to his wife
2) Bankers - lend everything they ask to people with no ability to repay (Oh, you already did?)
3) Bosses and boardroom members - spend a week on the factory floor - believe me, they'll beg you to leave

If they're gonna charge the Steward with Reckless Endangerment, they should have charged the passenger with the same.

Opening a overhead locker after flight and still in transit can cause heavy baggage to fall out on unsuspecting passengers.

12. At 10:39am on 11 Aug 2010, Tom Dolan wrote:

"4. At 10:22am on 11 Aug 2010, smilingparrotfan wrote:
"Why has he attracted support on the internet?"

Because it's the internet. Put a sausage roll on a front page and people click to support it. There is no real rhyme nor reason sometimes."

Hate to break it to you Tom but I've already received an invitation to join a facebook page along those lines - something about this sausage roll getting more fans than Cheryl Cole...

31. At 11:35am on 11 Aug 2010, BewilderedMark wrote:
A few years ago I was working for one of the large accountancy firms and I was 'let go' because the department I was working in wasn't hitting its profitability targets.

I was taken to one side (not even into a private office) and was told that my last working day would be at the end of the month. I smiled upon hearing the news because I'd developed and unhealthy hatred for the company over the preceeding two years.

The manager, after telling me I wasn't needed any more, then asked me to make sure that I finished the projects I was working on before my leaving date. She had the audacity to suggest that I might need to work (unpaid) overtime to accomplish this.

I shook my head and said loud enough for everyone in the section to hear, "No. That's not going to happen." I think I was the first person in the department who had ever said no to this manager so publicly. She was furious and began blustering at me, so I raised my hand in the patronising manner that teachers use with children and I told her to shush.

She blustered a reference to my 'terms and conditions' saying that it meant that I was required to finish my workload; I pointed out that my contract was for 40 hours a week, yet I'd worked a minimum of 55 hours a week for the previous two years (doing a lot of work that should really have been done by her as manager). I explained that I was going to go back over to my desk (hotdesking, don't you love it?) and was going to e-mail my personal files to my private address, put in my expenses claims and then I would be leaving and never coming back.

After about 15 minutes completing my expenses amounting to something like £900 I went to the manager and demanded that she authorised the payments. She dismissed me with a wave of her hand and a grunt that she was busy and would get to it later. I told her, again loud enough for everyone to hear, that she'd get to it now or we'd have to settle things in small claims court.

Once she'd signed off I had a similar conversation with the partner (her boss) to get his sign off after rudely barging into his office - exploiting his 'open door' policy for the first and only time. With his John Hancock on the paperwork I popped the claim in the relevant mail box turned off the laptop (after uploading blank files of my 'work' onto the server) left it on the desk and took my sandwiches out of the laptop bag.

Heading for the door I turned back and said to everyone "I'm going down the pub, anyone coming?" Four of the staff decided that 11am wasn't too early to take lunch and joined me as we headed to the pub.

It was extremely liberating. I immediately felt free of the pressure of a 55 hour week and no longer had to travel 5 or 6 hours away on the whim of a manager. I didn't have any private and confidential files with me to worry about. I didn't have to lug a laptop and case weighing around 15kg everywhere I went. I wouldn't have managers and colleagues calling me on my (private) mobile phone at all hours asking idiotic technical questions about things they should already have known.

Unfortunately I wouldn't have the £35 a day living allowance (without needing receipts). And I left my raincoat on the back of my chair.

Amazingly I had a fantastic reference from them when I applied for my next job.
================================================

Ha Ha - Absoultly brilliant. We need to start standing up to managers who bully and exploit. If more people followed your lead, the country would be a less angry , agressive place to live.

Would you do a grand exit from your job?

YES. I have done.

The steward was injured by the falling bag, so he should sue the passenger, For a LOT of money!

Sadly I've never left a job in a flamboyant manner, but I did work for one company where I was the only person supporting a number of well-known websites 24x7x365 for two years all day and all night. They had about 30 developers, some of whom were not very good hence all the problems, but only one systems/support person - me. This was starting to get to me & family & health and after multiple complaints that we needed more people (I quite literally couldn't even drive into work without stopping the car and having to remotely fix things) I handed my notice in. This was the spur for them to actually hire more people, which they did (though I had to recruit them in addition to the day job). They also agreed verbally to help me out while we waited for the new hires. Problem is everyone actively refused to help when I really needed it, and my one month notice was still pending. So the morning my notice period ran out, I came in before everyone else, dumped the phone and laptop on the desk, and walked out.

They probably all think I just walked out without knowing the full facts, and I still feel bad about it now. I do know that the same thing happened to the guy before me though (which should've been warning enough), and probably quite a few since.

Of course it's tempting to burn your bridges and leave in a blaze of glory but it's seldom wise. You never know when it'll come back to bite you.

A good few years ago I used to work in a call centre which I absolutely hated. After taking one too many irate calls from customers about things beyond my control I had a major rant on my internet blog about how bad the company that we were taking calls on behalf of were. A few weeks later I got called into a disciplinary meeting because the PR dept of the company in question had found my blog and had a total fit.... needless to say I got sacked! Was well worth it though and I'm thankfully now in a job that I like (and I have learnt my lesson not to post derogative things about my company online! lol)

I would NEVER work with the public again - my colleagues are bad enough!

I once tried to get fired from a job so I wouldn't be tempted to go back (college job at a cinema - I was worried I'd go back and be there forty years later).

For every decent person who smiles and wishes you a good day there are fifty who ignore you and five who are rude.
Everyone should be forced to work a day in a shop or restuarant at school.

At 11:33am on 11 Aug 2010, Grumbo wrote:
I completely fail to grasp why anyone would want to stand up before it's been deemed safe to do so by the captain of the plane

Because the captain is the driver of the vehicle.
You are responsible for your own safety not the vehicle driver.
Its cheeky and patronising of service staff to attempt to override your judgement about yopur safety.
Everyone should be given an adequate opportunity to remove themselves from the gene pool!

One disgruntled co-worker told me if he won the lottery he would buy the company and make all his friends redundant, and make all the people he didn't like stay.

Spoke to a woman who said she gave up a job as a doctors receptionist because dealing with the whining public (mainly penshioners) had turned her into an unhelpful, arrogant and bombastic harridan.

Spoke to a young graduate who had studied for a degree in hotel management and had left his first job, and the industry, after three months because he couldn't deal with the attitude of the hotels 'guests'.

Read an article about German supermarkets, apparently they are closed (that is the place is empty, doors locked and car park empty) by 2.00 pm on a Saturday afternoon. How many people (I have) have gone to a supermarket 5 minutes from closing time to do a weekly 'big shop'.

It is to be thankful this guy was in a job where he couldn't carry a gun. If he had there could have been another of the tradgedies one hears constantly from the USA.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

To be honest a lot of air passengers (businessmen usually) could do with a good slap. They talk through the safety demo, activate their mobiles as soon as the plane lands and clog up the aisles trying to get off the plane before their turn.

If you recognise this behaviour in yourself, I've got news for you - you're really not that important.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Hate my job?
It's not interesting or engaging enough to feel that strongly about unfortunately!
Tempted to make a grand exit?
Only if I'd just won the Lotto jackpot! Even then I reckon I just wouldn't turn up - and see how long it took them to a)notice and b)stop paying me!!

34. At 11:58am on 11 Aug 2010, debholt wrote:

12. At 10:39am on 11 Aug 2010, Tom Dolan wrote:

"4. At 10:22am on 11 Aug 2010, smilingparrotfan wrote:
"Why has he attracted support on the internet?"

Because it's the internet. Put a sausage roll on a front page and people click to support it. There is no real rhyme nor reason sometimes."

Hate to break it to you Tom but I've already received an invitation to join a facebook page along those lines - something about this sausage roll getting more fans than Cheryl Cole...

---------------------------------------------

SERIOUSLY??? (Runs to check Google about it)

Hahaha. I didn't know that, LOVE IT!!!!

at least he didn't make his grand exit from the plane at 35,000 feet!

I once walked out of part time book keeping job with a business that was stuck in a time warp and a business owner who was completely repulsive.

It was extremely satisfying.

My job could be better but it could be worse. Mind you I'd love to leve in a blaze of glory, but I'd only do it if I had a fallback option.

A few years ago, I was on a BA flight from Hamburg to Heathrow. On arrival at Heathrow, the cabin crew reminded passengers that their mobile phones should remain switched off until reaching the terminal building. However, as we taxied to the gate, several passengers decided to ignore the instruction. At which point the plane ground to a halt and the captain made an announcement - "until all passengers switch off their phones as instructed, this plane is not moving another inch" (or words to that effect). Many of the passengers clapped in agreement with the captain's stance.

Why can't the public follow simple instructions? - which in the end are for their safety and benefit.

Don't take a customer service job if you can't handle working with the public. I travel a lot and spend a lot of time on airplanes. I've seen both passengers and flight attendents behave irrationally.

Airlines only make money when the planes are in the air. Mr. Slater's actions were indeed irresponsible as he took that airplane out of commission until the emergency slide could be properly stowed. I'm sure that a host of inspections required after the door/slide are activated, incurring more expense to the airline. Other passengers were undoubtedly waiting on that plane to take them to their destination. How would you feel if you were one of those waiting passengers?

Hero?.......NOT!!!!!

Given my many varied and extensive experiences of Captains Of Industry and their cohorts, I certainly would like to go with some form of a bang (Freudian Slip) But certainly would end-up being a resident of HM for a very long time, unless of course I was in ground zero at the time! Then I hope I would be martyr to the cause................

He'd have probably done it at 35,000ft if the plane was full of politicians.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

First of all common sense says NEED JOB FIRST

No, I don't believe in burning my bridges. You never know when you might need someone again at some point in the future.

I knew someone at a previouse employer who left. On the monday of his last week at work, he called in sick with a stomach bug and surprise surprise took the week off.
Poor man, he must have been suffering since the friday before, as thats the day he cleaned out all his personal items from his desk...

I don't blame Mr. Slater one bit for getting angry and frustrated, although I wish he had shown the self-restraint to handle it differently. People in client service tend to sometimes get abused. And dealing with self-absorbed people who feel that the rules somehow do not apply to them (the abusive passenger, I mean), is very challenging at times.

I have my notice written and signed on my desk just waiting to be handed in, no grand heroics though as I think I will want to come back some day.

I very nearly quit and stormed out about a month ago after they forced a very competant friend of mine to quit while my inept team leader gets to stay in charge, but I managed to restrain myself and do the sensible thing of getting another job lined up first.

As to the support group for the air steward, I can see why people would support him, his reaction was a bit over the top, but I think I would have found it hard not to lose it with that person as well

I still cherish the now distant memory of the Elephant House Productions "Brit Awards". Not that Mick Fleetwood and Samantha Fox would perhaps ever need or want to be television presenters again, nor Ron Wood need to be a celebrity guest, but his stroke of genius in announcing the winners rather than the nominees, and rendering irrelevant the next 15 minutes or so of live rubbish TV was pure magic. Brilliant. There's nothing more dangerous than someone with nothing to lose...more, please, BBC.

Are these kinds of terrible managers really that prevalent?

I have to say, in all my working life I've only dealt with one or two managers that I would actively say I didn't get along with due to their lack of professionalism. I've had conflicts with other managers, obviously, but most have been as flexible as I could reasonably expect (as I have been in return) so major blowout rows have been almost non-existant.

I have colleagues who will religiously stick to the terms and conditions of their contract whenever they are asked to do something above and beyond the call of their job description, but who will similarly bleat and moan about how unreasonable their manager is when they are not shown similar flexibility in their favour.

So no, never needed a grand blowout exit from a job. The bottle of sambuca, leaving card and best wishes for my new role from people I remain friends with were quite enough.

8. At 10:27am on 11 Aug 2010, Nok wrote:
I get made redundant at the end of September.

Or 'Naked Wednesday' as it shall come to be known
=========================================================================Brilliant! Real LOL moment, where do you work, I think we should have a HYS Flash Mob Naked Wednesday :)

I was once inconvenienced, along with everyone else, by an offensive and drunk passenger on a flight from Frankfurt to Manchester. He was travelling business class and ceremonially removed his velvet jacket for the stewardess (who he plagued for the whole of the flight) to hang up in the alcove.

After landing, as we walked through the long winding one-way pedestrian system at Manchester I noticed he had forgotten his new expensive jacket. I waited until we had passed immigration and were at the carousels before pointing this out to him. I enjoyed watching him vainly try to fight, drunkenly, the oncoming tide of travellers...only a small matter I know, but I hope it makes the odd long suffering attendant feel a bit better.

"Why has he attracted support on the internet?"

Because he's done exactly what many of us dream to do, but never dare to do it. And he did it without insulting or injuring anyone else - at least anyone who didn't deserve it.

Personally, I think the airline should go after the offending passenger, given that he was the one who initiated the conflict by selfishly ignoring basic safety rules.

The airline ought to ban that passenger from all its future flights.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Why is the steward in trouble and the passenger not? if the plane was still moving they were clearly endangering themselves and other passengers. They should be blacklisted and barred from air travel for some time. That might make others think twice about getting up and clattering their hand baggage about. Also why do people insist on turning their mobiles back on before the plane has stopped? It could interfere with the instruments, and what could they possibly need to have them switched on for that waiting the small extra bit of time would prevent? I think in both instances it is just people who are inadequate trying to make themselves appear more important than the rest of us! I say good on this chap, he should have chucked the passennger down the emergency slide though!

53. At 12:42pm on 11 Aug 2010, Robert Gomez wrote:
Don't take a customer service job if you can't handle working with the public. I travel a lot and spend a lot of time on airplanes. I've seen both passengers and flight attendents behave irrationally.

Airlines only make money when the planes are in the air. Mr. Slater's actions were indeed irresponsible as he took that airplane out of commission until the emergency slide could be properly stowed. I'm sure that a host of inspections required after the door/slide are activated, incurring more expense to the airline. Other passengers were undoubtedly waiting on that plane to take them to their destination. How would you feel if you were one of those waiting passengers?

Hero?.......NOT!!!!!

I would have felt very angry with the passenger. They had a clear instruction that they ignored, and the ensuing delay was their fault. Just because you are a paying customer does not make this sort of appalling behaviour ok, and the sooner businesses get the courage to tell them to go away they dont want their money the better.

My wife works at Argos. The other week somebody came in and abused her in front of the whole shop for not having something in stock. This is despite the fact that a)no shop can guarantee that something is in stock and b) they could have checked online anyway.

Personally I've never stormed out of a job but had a couple of close calls.

In one job I was promised I could leave an hour early each day to study for some exams but when the time came they wouldn't let me leave. I had a massive row in front of everyone with my boss, threw out a string of swearwords at her and stormed out. I then went back after lunch found her boss and threatened to take legal action against the company. Thinks miraculously ironed themselves out after that.

Another time I was doing some fairly boring data entry and one day we went for an early lunch at 11am. 1 beer turned into several and at 3am someone remarked that we should probably have gone back to work. I never did.

Generally though I work on the principle of not burning your bridges. It's amazing how often I come across old work colleagues and you never know when you might need a favour from them.

I've never been unfortunate enough to be in a job I hate so the question has never arisen. I would like to think that I am sufficently in command of emotions to ensure I would never do anything so silly as this person. To me it demonstrates that his mental condition was such that he could easily be in a position that would compromise his professional duties in the event of an emergency. Leaving that job is probably the best thing for him and the airline.

I always smile when I hear young people say “I want to work with people”. They clearly have yet to learn that working with the public is one of the most soul destroying activities known to man.

It is no accident that idealistic political movements always start among those who have jobs that insulate them from the customers. Factory workers, coal miners, shipyard workers etc are more inclined towards leftwing political idealism than shop assistants, call centre workers or waiters.

It’s hard to be idealistic about collectivist ideologies when you face the public every day and are repeatedly reminded of their stupidity and malevolence. The entire history of the 20th century would have been different if Karl Marx had spent some time working in a call centre.

Money, if this steward was paid several thousand dollars a month he would have just smiled at the passenger, knowing they had payed extra for their ticket.

Ask any waiter what they do to the food of rude customers and you proberbly would be extreemly polite to waiters/waitresses for the rest of your life.

This is my true story, told to me by a young girl in the mid 1970's. She was working at a 4 star hotel in a northern city, her main clients were footballers, businessmen and punk rock stars. Footballers thought they were all god's gift, business men were creepy and punk rockers looked like tramps but were very polite, considerate and respectful!

Anyway, one evening she got a call from a 'businessman' who complained that the water in the bathroom sink was not draining quickly. She offered to send up maintenance and the man said he had just got out of the bath, had no clothes on and could she come up and look at it. The girl told him to leave the door open and wait for her on the bed.....








Then she sent up the plumber.

Class.

Would you do a grand exit from your job?
Yep, I sure did.
To keep the story reasonably short, things were changing e.g. procedures - all of which were turning my stomach and making my brain spin. I saw this as particularly caused by one single individual, who also disliked me and duly deposited me in front of Human Resources for employee counselling.
How did that work for me?
I had a temper tantrum and ended up throwing my office keys at the Human Resource Worker, who was in reality a poor substitute for the person I really wanted to whack.
Anyways, what I'm saying is that we all have our breaking point; some of us like to think we're cool, collected and composed. But just let us hit that point, that breaking point, and we too will break.
I think Stephen Slater has attracted support on the internet because he hit that point; he broke...and in the mirror of Stephen's case we can all see ourselves.

Everyone should do it once in their working life. I did it when I was 25, and I've wanted to since.

I am amazed how many people disregard in-flight instructions. You see so many people get up before the sign is off, and so many making furtive phone calls.

If someone storms out on the spare of the moment, resigning, I think I read that the managers have a duty to try and reason with the employee. Any Corroboration?

My guess is that Mr Slater did not want to exit his job. He was just, as we say in America, "pissed off." What does one do with an unruly, out-of-control passenger, who will not listen to you, when it is supposed to be your job to actually protect them and do them well? Well, one gets upset, and in today's corporate mindset, one cannot do that. It makes the company look bad, and that is apparently the worst thing one can do on the job - make the boss and/or the company look bad. Thus, worthy of getting fired. Now, not only getting fired for Mr Slater, but facing criminal charges, too. What new job lay ahead for Mr Slater, if any? Wouldn't it perhaps be better for all concerned to just go ahead and shoot Mr Salter now, to put him out of the misery which will follow him for the rest of his life, all because of a passenger who wouldn't listen to his directives, i.e., doing his job protecting and directing passengers? Airlines are unfortunately full of such passengers. They won't listen to anyone, not even their fellow passengers. It is coming to where all airline flights will have to be banned - from legitimate passengers suspected as terrorists, to body searches, to extra surcharges for carrying on luggage (which is probably the case for an irate passenger here), to the cost and waste of jet airline fuel; it is all getting a bit out of control. The airline industry isn't the only industry at fault here. It is the way humans are reacting to each other nowadays - a definite sign of human devolution. In today's "Me, I'm first" and "Who the h*ll are you?" society, this is just one case of many that happen in the U.S. DAILY. This is the second "beer incident" in two weeks. (Remember the fed up delivery man in Connecticut?) Out of control? You bet! But, that's life in corporate America, and everyone on the planet still wants to come here . . .

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

One imagines 'JetBlue' will be revising their employee intake and training procedures?

It won't be long before there are 'exclusive' and lucrative interviews too?

I am lucky enough to now be working in a combination service/admin role which I really enjoy however having just got out of retail after 18 years I can fully understand his reaction. Fortunately the vast majority of customers were nice but it's always the bad ones that stick in your mind & anyone here who works in retail will fail to repress a shudder on hearing the words "I know my rights", no most of you do not know your rights, for example you are only entitled to a refund if the goods you bought are faulty, damaged or unsuitable for purpose, NOT because you changed your mind/bought the wrong size/already have one etc etc, That was your mistake not the shop, we are not your mum, you own the item why the heck should we buy it back from you? Yet some people seem happy to stand at a till argueing this point at a sales assistant (or manager) who is just following company procedure & the letter of the law. People say standards of service have declined in this country but really it's the standards of CUSTOMERS that have declined. What happened to "please" & "thank you" maybe even a bit of eye contact? Hows about turning your phone off when having an interaction with a fellow human being? How about controlling your own kids when you're out rather than expecting the store to be a creche & do it for you (the amount of irresponsible mothers out there that have no idea where their kids are or what they're doing in a shop bogggles the mind!)How about not throwing the stock on the floor just because it's in the sale? I could go on & on.
Work in a shop for a few weeks and you will be gobsmacked at the behavior you see. And, yes, I am well aware there are some truly appaling service standards out there, I've experienced truly terrible service myself on more than one occasion, however that doesn't give a customer the right to treat everyone that serves them like something they scraped off their shoe.
Well done Steven Slater, I salute you, wish I'd had the guts to do that to some of the snotty idiots I served.

I was on a flight taking off from San Francisco once when a stupid woman was standing up and messing around in the overhead bin as the plane was going down the runway. The Cabin crew came over the tannoy telling her to sit down but she wouldn't and it not being long after 9/11 people were natrually a little jumpy so in short the plane aborted the take off. All because some clown down the back had left something in her handbag. As she was beeing taken off she was shouting that the Cabin Staff were incompetent and stupid.

So in my opinion this guy is an absolute legend and was probobaly worn down by the stupidity of the flying public worldwide.

I only hope the authorities have a little common sense when his case comes up in court.

He surely is now more than qualified to become a judge on X-Factor?

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

I never did it but the temptation happened many times. Dealing with unreasonable people is not for everybody. However Steven had more passengers to attend to and should have resigned after completing his duties on that fight.

This guy sounds like your typical BBC moderator, insane.

67. At 1:43pm on 11 Aug 2010, Eddy from Waring wrote:
I was once inconvenienced, along with everyone else, by an offensive and drunk passenger on a flight from Frankfurt to Manchester. He was travelling business class and ceremonially removed his velvet jacket for the stewardess (who he plagued for the whole of the flight) to hang up in the alcove.

After landing, as we walked through the long winding one-way pedestrian system at Manchester I noticed he had forgotten his new expensive jacket. I waited until we had passed immigration and were at the carousels before pointing this out to him. I enjoyed watching him vainly try to fight, drunkenly, the oncoming tide of travellers...only a small matter I know, but I hope it makes the odd long suffering attendant feel a bit better.


--

You may have enjoyed the sight, but far from making the flight attendant feel better your actions probably meant that more airport/airline staff had to suffer abuse from this guy. Far better to have just ignored the jacket and let the drunkard carry on.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Having been dragged out of my bed, made to miss a pre arranged visit to my daughter and made to travel 25 miles to a job to cover for sickness only to find that another employee who lived within a 5 minute walk of the site was available and having been told in no uncertain terms that "that is what I have you for", I picked up a piece of scrap paper, wrote a quick note saying that I had resigned and began to walk out. My area manager was dumb struck and asked "well who's going to cover this job then", which I replied, "well your suitably qualified", priceless.

"Why has he attracted support on the internet?"

Partly because we're all sick and tired of fellow passengers who demand more attention than they deserve, and who ruin it for the rest of us.

Partly because there's a resentment against corporations, many of whom are perceived to be exploitative of both employees and customers.

Partly because many people would like to get back at an employer or a fellow passenger, but don't have the guts to do it.

Yes, Mr. Slater ought to be charged with vandalism to an aircraft. But what about the passenger who instigated all of this by his disruptive and unsafe conduct? Why isn't he being censured by the airline? If the airline overlooks the passenger's behaviour whilst going after the steward, then it'll be perceived as another case of a corporation selling an employee down the river, while sacrificing justice for profits.

Quite a few people are unhappy in the workplace because stuff is said about them that's not accurate, causes them disadvantage and they believe there's not much that can be done because it's their word against others.

Here's what to do: simply write down the true facts in the form of a Statutory Declaration. (This costs about £5-£10 to have witnessed by a solicitor). Give the document to your boss or HR. They will have no choice but to accept your version. The alternative is that those trying to assert falsehoods would have to perjure themselves and risk going to prison by making a false declaration. It really can be that easy and the results can be truly gratifying. Much more so than storming out etc.

hmmm, lots of comments from receptionists, air crew, bar staff. no NHS workers with their two cents though. Oh, that's right 12+ hour shitfs. Also, they generally put up with a hundred times more and worse 'customer' behaviour but they stick with their professions and do their job to, quite frankly, VERY little praise.

You have all mentioned your rude customers but how many of you will admit to being rude, beligerent and/or dangerous NHS patients or visitors?

If a nurse or doctor has finally 'had enough', makes a scene and walks out i can bet there won't be such support. I can almost guarantee the vilification of this person, regardless of the amount of harrassment received from 'punters' and their families.

but hey, those poor cabin crew have such a hard life; what with the flying off all over the world and having to serve drinks on a plane. I mean, it must take years to become qualified to do the safety briefing - i'm as shocked as you that the respect just isn't there

I think this was a little OTT, i mean opening the door and oulling the exit slide out and grabbing a beer, but fair play to him, he was only doing it for the safety of the passenger and others.
I have had some really poor bosses, i mean the type who relied on others for everything. On one occasion i had a really rubbish job selling home loans - you know the sort advertised during the day targeting secure lending, i mean we would lend thousands to people on benefits !! well anyway my boss didnt like me and i didnt like her, one day she had a proper go at me for no aparent reason, i decided there and then to call all my customers and inform them we were ripping them right off and our company were targeting low income families to trap them in a loan/debt loop. I ended my shift and told her to stick her jub in a certain place , resulting in her targets not being met, her figures falling and she lost her job as i heard a while later, kharma is wonderful

Reminds me of coming home from Bermuda with the wife who hadnt been feeling well.

Once we had landed at Heathrow she loosened her seatbelt to make a bolt for the toilet, this was noticed by a employee of the worlds formerly favourite airline who rushed to her seat and demanded she re-fastened her belt in a very rude manner before she even had a chance to explain what was up. Every time she tried to speak, he cut her short. In a manner that only the worlds rudest waitresses can.

He then proceeded to stand over her and glare as we taxied in to the stand. Just as the light came on to tell you that you could remove your seat belt she threw up all over him! Instant justice for a jobsworth! Havent laughed as much in years!!

No!

An important lesson to learn on one's journey through life is to 'not burn your bridges'!

Only if I won the lottery!!!!

I have seen a marked difference in the attitude of cabin crew since the "war on terror" began and the subsequent threat to air travel increased. It used to be that the passenger was always right but now, especially long hall flights, they can be downright nasty to you and warn you that you are "causing a disturbance" if you complain about anything. The consequences of "causing a disturbance" can be severe.

So I am in no way condoning what this flight attendant done, however I do have sympathy and can understand that the alltercation with the passenger was probably the "straw that broke the cammel's back". What part of "please keep your seat belts fastened until the plane has come to a full stop and the capitain has extinguished the seat belt sign" did she not understand? She is typical of travellers that have an oversized cabin bag so that she does not need to wait on baggage in the hold. They
generally try to get to the front of the aircraft first and push past you when the plane has stopped and you are retrieving your own bag. In other words ignorant and if she has pushed passed me laddered tights.

They are also the same type of passenger that read their newspaper when the pre-flight safety brief is given. They think because they make four flights to head office a year and go on a package holiday that they are "seasoned flyers". Rubbish, I have flown hundreds of times and still watch the brief. If I was the pilot I would slam on the brakes and see what they have to say when they get injured.

I have once walked out on a job. Actually, thinking about it, I walked out on the same job twice!

At a (not so) popular roadside food chain I had an assistant manager who thought I was great and was pushing me for better things within the company but the manager wasn't so keen and was probably trying to make me quit anyway.

On the first occasion she put me on for 13 days straight with 1 day off despite my contract stating 2 days off per week. After a shift finishing at 11pm and starting at 7am the next day, I just about had time to wash my uniform but didn't have time to iron my one and only issued shirt so I went in with it creased. I was told in no uncertain terms to go home and iron it. Which I did. Didn't go back to work though.

2 days later I get a phone call asking when I'm coming back. I said I wasn't but she promised me things so, like a fool, I returned, we had a chat and things were calm. For a while.

A couple of months later I'd booked a day off with the assistant manager but the manager decided she needed me in that day and I couldn't have it off. I'd already made plans (including a 250 mile return train journey) so I went anyway and turned up for my next shift like nothing had happened. She didn't see it that way and took me out the back "for a chat"

We went to her office and chatted and I realised that the reason she didn't just fire me was simply because she didn't like confrontation. I gave her a few home truths about how things were run, how the staff were miserable and she just sat there getting redder and redder and sadder and sadder but with not a single thing to say for herself. I then left with my head held high knowing that at last, I'd done the right thing.

From what I heard, she'd done a similar thing with several "promising" members of staff, probably being threatened by them. Of course, if all the good staff leave, all you're left with is dross (including a chef who just cooked meals her own way and wouldn't follow any recipes) and I understand sales fell and she was soon relocated to a less busy restaurant. Can't say I'm sorry about that.