Challenges That Flight Attendants Face - Research Paper Example

The Reality About The Flight Attendants Many times one hears of flight attendants, the immediate picture that clouds one’s mind is all the presumed glamor that popular shows or movies portray. Sometimes it is the burning desires and ecstasy of one’s youthful imaginations, or even world full of every necessity of good life. It is a noble though not very well-paying profession like any other jobs that demand full time attention when on duty. It also gives one an opportunity to travel all over the world and perhaps stay airborne even more than NASA scientists. However, things the playing field has changed over the years and what remains of the job is a struggle to eke out a living by flight attendants. The conditions of the job have also changed. In many cases, flight attendants have faced life threatening episodes in their line of duty. In order to understand the reality about flight attendants, there is need to do an extensive research on this profession. The thesis statement of this research will be based on the following on the following statement: The job of steward and stewardess has different disadvantages, which can be dangerous, this is why the employees have to be willing to make sacrifices and engagements. Health Challenges That Flight Attendants Face One of the challenges of flight attendants is exposure illness as due to lack of protective measures by the airline companies. Department of health Services of California carried out a survey which, found out that flight attendants are exposed illnesses resulting from to residual disinsection (Patrice et al. 3). It is apparent that occupational illnesses that flight attendants are exposed to in the deliberation of their duties cause them harm their health greatly. Disinsection is a practice that involves cleaning an aircraft of insects by spraying the cabins with insecticides. During the moments when an aircraft is on the ground, there is always a high possibility that some insects or even rodents may enter a plane. It is always a recommended safety precaution that maintenance team takes security measures to get rid of such intrusions. Health research has found out that this practice expose flight attendants to illness under what they term as residual disinsection. This research found out that amongst other things that the survey unearthed is that residual disinsection results in headaches irritability, palpitations amongst others (Patrice et al. 12). Additionally, flight attendants also face threat of suffering from cancer. Cancer Incidence in flight attendants from California Flight Attendants (Peggy et al 7) was reported to be quite high. Flight attendants do their job with this risk nearly all the times. The likelihood of developing cancer is a risk whose possibility is high in both male and female attendants. Nevertheless, many females than males suffer from cancer, an implication that females are the hardest hit in their job oriented challenges (Peggy et al 6). Evidence from United Airlines and US Airways United States has the highest number of flight attendants that have been diagnosed with cancer. Taking into consideration other personal details, many young flight attendants than old ones are being diagnosed with radiation related illnesses. In females, some studies report their findings that invasive cancer after diagnosis was in the form of breast cancer, stomach cancer, and melanoma of the skin amongst others (Peggy et al 8). However, it has also been found out through comparative analysis that cancer incidences among flight attendants do not vary significantly with prevalence in the general population (Peggy et al 14). Besides, everyday job exposes flight attendants to solar and cosmic radiations. These radiations affect the health of these workers. According to Department of Air Safety, Health, & Security of Washington D.C, there is a direct correlation between exposure and altitude (Association of Flight Attendants 1). Flight attendants also face constant exposure to solar and cosmic radiation which in turn affect their health negatively. This department of research also points out that the effects are cumulative, meaning that someone who is constantly on exposure to these radiations may suffer greater consequences than one who is less exposed. Another problem that flight attendants face is also that intensity of these radiations increase with increase in altitude and latitudes. They therefore get exposed to these radiations more frequently than the any other person. This means that planes that fly at higher altitudes have a lot of exposer than those flying at lower altitudes. Exposure is particularly dangerous for a pregnant mother. Research has found that such radiations can interfere with the development of the foetus (Association of Flight Attendants 4). Sometimes flight attendants have to face dangerous task of facing hijackers when a plane is hijacked. Many of them sometimes end up losing their lives in such incidences. A good example is a case of the September 11th in the US history. Working Conditions Suneth and others contend that flight attendants have a difficult working condition in which sometimes they experience injuries (Suneth et al. 2). They claim that in the many cases healthy reports intentionally underestimate injuries. While focussing on Sri Lanka flight attendants as a sample to represent the entire population, one can notice that sometimes a lot of injuries are not heeded since management perceives them as minor. Sometimes the job gets overwhelming and a flight attendant just finds himself/herself in an awkward scenario in front of the passengers (Healther 40). Other challenges as found out by NASA also show that fatigue may result into flight attendants accidents. Flight attendants are normally entitled to seven to eight hours of sleep per day as recommended. Sometimes this may not be the case since airlines may call back flight attendants just shortly after booking into hotels. This results in job overload that expose them to risk of any kind while on flight (Mary et al 17). In terms of working conditions, flight attendants have also been exposed to poor job conditions. In this case, Joan Williams uses a court case to elaborate on the problems experience by flight attendants when it comes to family. In this case, a flight attendant faced a dilemma of accepting to extend her flight schedule and leave her two children unattended, or save her family and risk her job. She opted to decline the request to take another flight and went home to care for her children. This scenario does not agree with the findings of Desrisiers and Emlem. One can observe that apart from health issues that flight attendants face jointly as a common challenge to their jobs, the nature of their profession presents them with what one can observe as individual challenges (Williams 25). One cannot generalize the socio-oriented challenges that are part of their job. In another incidence in which one can observe poor working conditions for flight attendants, a flight attendant gets into conflict with a passenger and quits his job. This is a clear indication that flight attendants are not taken care of in the most appropriate way. In an incidence that portrays the seriousness of the situation, Steven Slater quits his job after a row with a passenger. While what was striking about his exit may be the manner in which he got off the plane, his case was an indication of the nature of their job. He may have chosen to forward the case to his superiors but saw that there was no need. This implies that no one really cares so much about the welfare of flight attendants (David 11). Another problem associated with flight attendants job is that it became particularly hard for males in the cold era period. Given that there existed mistrust between capitalism and socialism, male flight attendants found it hard to co-exist in a world that their comrades defined not by language or race but what political ideology one subscribes to country. Phil Tiemeyer observes that male flight attendants progressively found it difficult to maintain social bonds and relationships given the mistrust (Tiemeyer 8). Under what he calls queerness and corporate capitalism (Tiemeyer 6), he also observes that these men had a difficult time maintaining their position in the work place. Tiemeyer also notes that male flight attendants suffered under the perceived probability of masking their identity to serve the interests of their governments. He notes that during this time female flight attendants were a notch higher for their perceived gentleness and composure. One of the issues Tietmeyer also note is that there was a growing culture of sexual orientation. This culture was not consistent with values held in many societies. It appears that it was a difficult scenario for male flight attendants. They had to deal with issues of homosexuality on top of their job. Flight attendants also perceive that the nature of their work has to come with some challenges. Some of them therefore consider that those health problems are likelihoods of the nature of their work (Morin et al. 27). Such kind of despair especially as pertains to one accepting that his/her job ha a likelihood of complicating his/her health is a big problem. One ought to live expecting health problems on the minimum. Job description and details should not be such that it is directly associated with negativities. Conclusion From the various examples of research findings and articles, one can notice that the work of flight attendants, like any other work, comes with its own unique challenges. The picture we would like to see in many cases is that of pomp and glory but the real picture is the hardships that come with it (Coffee 8). Many women leave their countries to go make money in flight attendant job. They make this sacrifice of leaving behind their families little aware of the challenges that await them. It is an experience if honesty must be maintained, only that every job is always an experience. What is important for us to understand here is that behind the curtain of pomp and show, flight attendants sometimes experience very tough situations. Although research has found that the prevalence of some medical conditions in flight attendants may not differ from that of the larger population, they are exposed to dangers more than the rest are. Nevertheless, flight attendants have endeavored to rise above all these challenges and afford a smiling face each time they wake up to their jobs as they give instructions to passengers. Works Cited Brendan. Coffee “Flight Attendants: The Glamour is Gone”. Executive Travel Magazine. Jun. 2010. Web. Department of Air Safety, Health, & Security. Association of Flight Attendants Cosmic and Solar Radiation: Facts for Flight Attendants. - Washington DC 2010. Desrisiers, Alyce and Emlem Arthur. Airline, Flights Attendants, and Dependent Care. Portland State University, 1997. Gardner, David. “World discovers a new hero: The air steward who lost his cool, grabbed a beer, slid down plane's emergency chute and launched himself into stardom on Facebook.” Daily Mail, 11 Aug. 2010. Web. Joan, Williams. Work and Family Conflict: The Arbitrator’s Role. University of California. Mary Connors, Heike Rentmeister-Bryant, and Charles DeRoshia Flight Attendant Fatigue. Office of Aerospace Medicine. Washington, DC 20591. 2007. Morin Estelle, Nelson Ramalho, José Neves, and André Savoie. New research trends in effectiveness, health, and work: A Criteos scientific and professional account. Montreal: Criteos/HEC-Montreal. Patrice Sutton, Ximena Vergara, John Beckman, Rupali Das. Occupational Illness Among Flight Attendants Due to Aircraft Disinsection. State of California Health and Human Services Agency Department of Health Services. October 23, 2003. Peggy Reynolds, James Cone, Michael Layefsky, Debbie Goldberg, Susan Hurley. Cancer Incidence in California Flight Attendants. Phil Tiemeyer. Manhood Up in the Air: A Study of Male Flight Attendants, Queerness, and Corporate Capitalism during the Cold War Era. Dept. of American Studies University of Texas at Austin Prospectus Meeting. Nov. 8, 2004. Poole, Healther. Cruising Attitude. New York: HarperCollins, 2012. Print. Suneth B Agampodi, Samath D Dharmaratne and Thilini C Agampodi .Incidence and predictors of on board injuries among Sri Lankan flight attendants. BMC Public Health. 2009. Read More