Let’s Talk About: Us

I never noticed it until it was pointed out, but when in the company of other flight attendants, away from the job, all we talk about is, well.. work. Which aircraft has the worst smell, what the crazy passenger said, the drama between flight attendants and pilots and recent company announcements. Is that really the only thing we have in common?

Sure its a major part of our lives and it is something we can easily converse about but don’t we talk about it enough at work?

Now being aware of whats going on, I purposely try to sway the conversation away from work related topics and I always seem to fail. I manage to get the topic changed to something else but it always seems remind someone of something related to work and we’re right back to where we started.

I’m beginning to wonder what I talked about before I became a flight attendant. I can’t even remember. I was a communication major in college, worked in a hospital (with a lot of drama) and even worked for a couple television shows but I can’t remember ever talking about those topics as much as I talk about flying. Hell, I started this blog to talk about flying. I didn’t have a blog talking about the Advertising 101 test I took the day before or the show I was going to tape tomorrow. Why is talking about this job so interesting, even to those who also do it?

I think its because what we see on a daily basis, even though some of us have done this job for years, still amazes us. The traveling public seems to get weirder on a daily basis and there is never a lack of funny passenger stories. The industry keeps changing creating buzz on new products, services or the lack thereof. And finally, this job is just interesting. We fly for a living, stay in hotels, visit different cities, meet over 100 new people per flight, and in the process have over half a month off and the travel benefits to see the world on your time off. Who wouldn’t want to talk about this job?