Cathay serve wine to 3yr old.

[elanshin]

no one saying let FA off the hook. More effective is to recognise what happened, why it happened and what were the contributing factors

But losing one's job over this just means it's only ever the employees fault. Crew fatigue, crew /passenger ratio on flight in that case never comes into play.

I agree personally, but as a big brand business, this sort of thing is probably on the levels of instant dismissals.

As i said there are some mistakes that can be made and an internal review of the cause is enough, there are others that just flat out can't be made regardless of circumstances.

 

[Quickstatus]

thing is probably on the levels of instant dismissals.

Then it's only going to happen again in other ways.
Accountability is a much deeper activity than simply firing someone.

 

[elanshin]

Then it's only going to happen again in other ways.
Accountability is a much deeper activity than simply firing someone.

Of course, I'm not suggesting they wash their hands of this incident by just firing the people involved. But unfortunately in my books this crossed the line as well and theres even less recourse once the parents went public.

 

[Quickstatus]

But unfortunately in my books this crossed the line as well and theres even less recourse once the parents went public.

In my books accountability is personal, professional, organisational, regulatory. Can't just fire one and not fire everyone else because the workplace is affected by all of the above and often the policies procedures and demands of the higher levels are more impactful in the workplace that the actions of the individual.

Unfortunately the optics of firing a employee that made a mistake means the organisation in my eyes is less safe than ones which does the hard yards on correcting the organisational factors

Suggest reading 2 interesting books called
Drift into Failure and The Second Victim

 

[elanshin]

In my books accountability is personal, professional, organisational, regulatory. Can't just fire one and not fire everyone else because the workplace is affected by all of the above and often the policies procedures and demands of the higher levels are more impactful in the workplace that the actions of the individual.

I agree as a general, but in this specific case, (and I'm not limiting it to just one person) the reality is a unlawful action was performed. Whether a case is going to be filed for both Cathay and the FA is probably a thing forthcoming. As I understand, under HK law both the business/employer and employee(s) in question is liable for persecution.

Unfortunately the optics of firing a employee that made a mistake means the organisation in my eyes is less safe than ones which does the hard yards on correcting the organisational factors

The question here is, is it an organisational (lack of training) problem or a personal mistake which will now bring a potential lawsuit onto the company. 2 very different scenarios.

Also the flipside can also be true for organisations. If you don't take an adequate reaction to an issue, it can also cause future problems.

Again as i mentioned earlier, a lot of the times once it's a clear legal problem, its usually a lot harder not to fire the employees involved. If its mistake against a company policies that are breeched, thats a whole different scenario.


The mistake itself can be the same as for an adult and potentially just as likely and it would have just been a bad review at worst, but the legal ramifications here with a child are vastly different.