Few days ago, our company sent an email to every crew memeber for telling us how company support the frontline crews to face the abusing by the passengers. Start from the beginning, I did not know what it was talking about then I googled it...
A crew of female flight attendants in Taiwan say that they were left physically and mentally traumatized after reluctantly complying with the unreasonable demands of an obese foreign passenger.The male passenger, described as being an American weighing around 200 kg (440 lbs). He made a more unusual request, asking for help in the bathroom, explaining that he recently had surgery on his hand.
Unable to fit inside the economy class bathroom, he was escorted to the business class one where he soon pressed the emergency assistance button, calling the flight attendant inside to pull his underwear down. The cabin crew for the flight was entirely female and the women were initially very reluctant, but the man insisted and pleaded, threatening to relieve himself on the floor, until he finally got his way.
Afterward, the flight attendant wrote in an Instagram post that she locked herself inside the bathroom, crying and vomiting, unable to wash away the stench of the man’s shit. In the post, she called on EVA Air to better protect its employees, hire more male flight attendants, and prevent similar physically-challenged passengers from boarding unattended in the future. (source: https://shanghai.ist/2019/01/22/obese-american-passenger-forces-taiwanese-flight-attendant-to-wipe-his-butt-on-plane/)
So here you go. This is one of the unfair working culture related to different gender, nationality and job nature especially in Asia like Japan, Taiwan and Korea. In Hong Kong, we have our own policy to protect ourselves and also the culture in Hong Kong is quite different. We are straightforward and we are allowed to speak out if we face problems. Also we can say NO if we see and face something and someone unruly and unfair even we are women. If you have been other Asian countries, you can see how different men and women are treated. It doesn't mean that people there are uneducated, just cultural difference. I still appreciate their own amazing culture.
In the company I work for, there is the policy like putting some unruly passengers on black list and stop letting them fly with us. In so many North American airlines are actually doing the same. Seems like other Asian airlines have to try to do so. Thats not only for saving trouble to the crews, and also reduce the harm to other passengers in the same flight. For example, like this foreign passenger who actually had few records about his inadequate actions to the crews, company really have to be aware of this kind of customers. They are like a bomb which can explore anytime in anywhere. As a crew, we also need to know what is our bottom line of what we shouldn't do by our own judgment. I think cockpit crews and company always support us no matter what happened if you speak out and fight for it even though sometimes its not easy.
As one of the passengers in the flight, maybe you can show more appreciation to the crew member if they really give you a good service and they do hard work. This probably can make my day too if you do it to me:)
