I recently wrote a post about how to travel if you are a passenger but started thinking about the other side. What about the flight attendants who are caring for the passengers? This came out of a conversation I had with a co-worker yesterday and I dedicate this post to my coworkers and flight attendants around the world although it could apply to other workers as well.

I am frequently asked how I still smile and seem to love my job after 12 years as a flight attendant. I would think that these people are just being nice if I had not met some of the people they are talking about. Honestly, I can understand the side of the tainted ones even though I still believe it’s possible to change those thoughts.

There’s the compensation involved, both received, promised and taken away. There’s the rules that are constantly changing by what appears to be someone who hasn’t the slightest clue about being on-line (working in the plane). There are the bad hotels on poor overnights and being at our company’s whim at any time of the day or night. Definition: employee.

So, how do I still smile? I love my job and all of that above is the crap that you have to go through to get to said job. I come to work, check in and go. I come back in, check out and leave. I know it’s there and I pay attention to what I need to however, I do not let it run my life.

So, what about these passengers? We all know that the passengers are not always cherubs in flight and your co-workers are not always perfect. So what? The passengers will be gone and off on their way and the other employee, same thing. Do your job. Make sure that the passengers are safe and have what they need to be comfortable and if they are ornery, have a little fun with them. How great are you to be around when you are having a bad day? Sometimes all it takes is a little kindness. Perhaps the passenger is having a bad day. Perhaps they are just a jerk. I have even more fun with those.

Passengers have mentioned that they just want the flight attendant to smile and say hi. Plus, think about their journey before they even got to you. Picture the last time you went through security. Add on to that, dealing with customer service, lost baggage, misconnects, rude flight attendant on the last flight…I did have a passenger that was screaming at me because he was going to be late for his daughter’s wedding. We were 10 minutes to late making sure that a mechanical issue wasn’t dangerous. I told him if it were my daughter, I would have left at least by yesterday. Suddenly, he was a lot nicer and I did not actually word it that nicely. I did smile though.

Our jobs are not as glamorous or simple as some people may think but it’s really not that difficult. Say ‘hello’, read some safety briefings, serve some drinks and pick up the trash, then say ‘good bye’. If you pick up the trash during the flight (even if you have to be more aggressive) and there won’t be much if any after the flight. Fold the blankets for goodness sake. If you don’t care what the passengers think of you then do it for the next flight attendant. Fold in half, then half and half again. It takes like 10 seconds.

Remember: You are NOT hurting the company; you are giving your own co-worker more work. Are you really that lazy?

Please note that I am NOT saying that we are treated great and that there is no reason to ignore the way that we are treated. What I am saying is that you work for a company and they could care less if we are happy or not so we only make ourselves miserable when we let it get to us. I am not at work right now however; I have been there for many years and feel for the people that are being abused. While I do not think that it’s okay and I do feel bad for what other flight attendants are going through, I still believe that we make it worse when we allow the circumstance for which we have no control to run our lives, it only makes it worse. They do not pay me enough to not have a good time!