M
Max Samuels
Guest
Ok so this has probably been discussed before but at risk of being labelled a Qantas-basher I wanted to share my recent experience and see what others think.
I have always been a little iffy about Qantas' policy of putting their crew, in uniform, in business class when they are paxing between cities. Now, I am aware that this is all to do with the agreements they have with their unions etc and on some level I understand this. I just wanted to point out that in many other service industries, i.e. hotels, staff are not even allowed to use the main entrance of the hotel! Or leave the hotel while wearing their uniform. In fact, many hotels won't even allow their staff to eat or drink in the hotel restaurants even when they are off duty. The reason for this being that the guests may not want to be hanging around the staff (and vice versa). I know this to be true as I worked in a 5-star hotel in Sydney for many many years when I was at uni and this was the policy of them all. We did however have reciprocal rights with neighbouring hotels, meaning that we could drink at hotel X, and hotel X staff could drink in our hotel. All at a discount so everyone was happy.
But I digress. The other day I was flying SYD-MEL in J. It was an A330 with 6 rows of J = 36 seats. There were only 6 passengers (including myself) and 10 crew, travelling in uniform. When the dinner service came around the operating crew spent so long gossiping to the non-operating crew that by the time the cart came around to me (seated in row 6) the fight was half over. I was only offered a drink top-up once. The rest of the time the CSM was seated on the arm rest of the empty chair in front of me, gossiping to the non-operating crew member seated across the aisle. They were talking about work, and complaining about this and that... lots of shop talk. And I could hear every word.
Now my question is this: is it really appropriate for crew to focus their attention on the non-op crew rather than the passengers? Is it appropriate to carry on work-related conversations within earshot of paying passengers?
Quite frankly I find the whole thing uncomfortable and unprofessional. Hotels seem to have got it right - why can't Qantas? If crew are to travel in uniform with passengers, they should try and be as invisible as possible. Even better, make them change into civies. Even McDonald's staff have to cover up their uniform if they are not working!
I have always been a little iffy about Qantas' policy of putting their crew, in uniform, in business class when they are paxing between cities. Now, I am aware that this is all to do with the agreements they have with their unions etc and on some level I understand this. I just wanted to point out that in many other service industries, i.e. hotels, staff are not even allowed to use the main entrance of the hotel! Or leave the hotel while wearing their uniform. In fact, many hotels won't even allow their staff to eat or drink in the hotel restaurants even when they are off duty. The reason for this being that the guests may not want to be hanging around the staff (and vice versa). I know this to be true as I worked in a 5-star hotel in Sydney for many many years when I was at uni and this was the policy of them all. We did however have reciprocal rights with neighbouring hotels, meaning that we could drink at hotel X, and hotel X staff could drink in our hotel. All at a discount so everyone was happy.
But I digress. The other day I was flying SYD-MEL in J. It was an A330 with 6 rows of J = 36 seats. There were only 6 passengers (including myself) and 10 crew, travelling in uniform. When the dinner service came around the operating crew spent so long gossiping to the non-operating crew that by the time the cart came around to me (seated in row 6) the fight was half over. I was only offered a drink top-up once. The rest of the time the CSM was seated on the arm rest of the empty chair in front of me, gossiping to the non-operating crew member seated across the aisle. They were talking about work, and complaining about this and that... lots of shop talk. And I could hear every word.
Now my question is this: is it really appropriate for crew to focus their attention on the non-op crew rather than the passengers? Is it appropriate to carry on work-related conversations within earshot of paying passengers?
Quite frankly I find the whole thing uncomfortable and unprofessional. Hotels seem to have got it right - why can't Qantas? If crew are to travel in uniform with passengers, they should try and be as invisible as possible. Even better, make them change into civies. Even McDonald's staff have to cover up their uniform if they are not working!