Lonnie R. West

Yesterday Steve Slater, a career flight attendant, had enough.

After an incident with an unruly passenger where he ended up getting slammed in the head with luggage, Steve gave up. He got on the intercom and publicly berated the passenger, pulled the emergency escape handle causing the inflatable slide to deploy, grabbed a beer from the service cart, and exited the plane!

(Brilliant move, because that passenger who was in such a hurry now had to wait far longer than he would have because of his own actions!)

We are at a unique period in our history, and one that our grandchildren will be studying in school for decades or more.

Inconceivably, in only a few short decades we've shipped the majority of our jobs out to the lowest bidders overseas. As unemployment masses, companies cut corners to stay profitable because unemployed consumers are not spending as much money as they once did.

Also, today the perceived measure of a strong business is ~not~ customer service or a good product, it's how their stock looks on the market.

Jobs are precarious today.

Employees are expected to do twice the work, bear twice the responsibilities, and are held accountable for any and all problems that arise during the performance of their duties. Yet at the same time, they are prevented from actually taking any actions that might offend someone in any way because it's the employee that will be held accountable for someone else's transgression.

Public school teachers aren't even allowed to wake kids up in class today because all it takes is one kid to say "he touched me," or "he was singling me out because I'm different" to put them out of a job.

I offer Steve my highest and most sincere congratulations! Why? He recognized the trap most of us are in (and companies don't want people to notice), and chose NOT to participate:

• He knew that if he did nothing and let the unruly passenger do whatever they wanted to, he would have been reprimanded or fired for not doing his job. So he took the by-the-book actions he should have.
• As soon as the passenger escalateda conflict, Steve knew he would be reprimanded or fired because the passenger would exit the plane and immediately lodge a complaint.

Either way, the same result comes about: the nasty passenger gets their way, the employee takes the blame, and of course the company comes out smelling like a rose.

At some point, people can only be pushed so far. He had made a point most people are afraid to do (as they shuffle along like cattle into the slaughterhouse): we do ~not~ have to put up with this.

Steve stepped away from the system, and refused to accept guilt that was not his to accept. He did a John Galt.

If more people took a stand like Steve did, what a message that would be to corporations everywhere..

Read more about Steve's incident in the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/nyregion/10attendant.html

Curious about why things are the way they are today? Google the term Plutonomy. America had not been a Democracy for a while, and it explains a lot.

Citibank memo to investors about how to take advantage of the fact that the US is a Plutonomy:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6674234/Citigroup-Oct-16-2005-Plutonomy-Report-Part-1

Agree or disagree? Email me!