one way to quit a job: curse out your customer and escape out the emergency slide

by Alison Green on August 10, 2010

A Jet Blue flight attendant just lived out everyone’s fantasy way of quitting a job.

From the New York Times:

A JetBlue flight attendant, apparently upset with an uncooperative passenger on a just-landed flight, on Monday unleashed a profanity-laden tirade on the public address system, pulled the emergency-exit chute, slid off the plane and fled Kennedy International Airport, a law enforcement official said…

One passenger got out of his seat to fetch his belongings from the overhead compartment before the crew had given permission. Mr. Slater instructed the man to remain seated. The passenger defied him. Mr. Slater approached and reached the passenger just as he pulled down his luggage, which struck Mr. Slater in the head.

Mr. Slater asked for an apology. The passenger instead cursed at him. Mr. Slater got on the plane’s public address system and cursed out all aboard. Then he activated the inflatable evacuation slide at service exit R1; launched himself off the plane, an Embraer 190; ran to the employee parking lot; and left the airport in a car he had parked there.

I can’t stop living this out in my mind. The evacuation slide is such a good touch.

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{ 13 comments }

{ 13 comments… read them below }

  1. nuqotw*

    It almost makes me want to get a job as a flight attendant on Jet Blue, just so I can quit like that!

  2. Karen*

    Obviously, this is a horribly inappropriate way to quit a job, but because this woman jeopardized everyone's safety by not listening to crew instructions, I think she needs to be charged as well.

    Great story though…definitely made my day.

  3. Anonymous*

    That has to be a very stressful job. While in retail, your customers are probably interacting with you for a short amount of time, on an airplane, you are with your customers for a few hours at times. I can't imagine what it's like being with a passenger that annoys you or just have a bunch of them grating your nerves. He probably just reached the end of his rope.

    While he didn't react the right way, let this serve as a lesson to how we all treat people who are in a customer service line of work. Simple pleasantries or following the rules without a gripe can make everyone's day a little better.

    I agree with Karen. That passenger wasn't following the rules and should also face punishment.

  5. Anonymous*

    They'll probably throw the book at him but so what – he'll make the talk show rounds for months, probably making more in a week than he did all year.

    The story doesn't seem to cover what action, if any, the airline took against the passenger that disobeyed a direct order from the crew. That behavior usually gets you a police escort off the plane.

  6. Leslie*

    You know your job is terrible when you're willing to commit a felony to quit it!

    Seriously, I hope this gets people thinking about the way that they treat service workers. Service is often a stressful and thankless job, and the workers that you interact with aren't the people who make the rules. They just have the task of enforcing those rules. If you don't agree, simply conclude your business quickly and don't go back.

  7. Anonymous*

    Furthermore, the passenger, in the NY Times article as quoted by AAM, hit the flight attendant with the luggage. So besides disobeying an order from a crew member, couldn't that be assault as well?

  10. Anonymous*

    Yes, the dry erase board woman should get some attention too. Extra points for creativity. I used to have a coworker who did things like read the newspaper, post to facebook, and "check the weather" all day long and would then complain about her "heavy work load" and would even set time delays on her emails to make it look like she was in the office on Saturdays. I used to fantasize about revealing her behavior to the office. The dry erase board woman has realized that dream! And yes I am posting on my lunch break. ;)

  12. Anonymous*

    I'm not shocked.
    Companies never back up employees, people are becoming more and more poorly paid for high stress jobs (flight attendants make so little you would not believe it), too many managers fall up, too many good people are kept down because they didn't kiss up the right way to the manager(s) who fell up, customers are beyond rude, employees are doing the job of three to four people, overtime is expected, benefits are dwindling, companies sitting on cash reserves are not hiring because they're scared and people who can do a job are not even getting interviews.

    This job market is enough to make someone hang themselves. Or quit a job and grab a beer on the way out.

    Wake up employers. Start treating your people better. Stop treating your employees as "Human Capital." It's just a pretty word for slavery.

  13. Jamie*

    Whether the dry erase board thing is a hoax or not it was awesome!

    Thanks for posting that – it gave me a much needed laugh during a rough day.

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