55% had been inappropriately touched.
40% had been shared or shown pornographic images by a manager, colleague or third party, such as a passenger.
Alcohol and Flight Dynamics
Drink is not the only factor, but it plays a significant role. There are a huge amount of people simply behaving as if they’re in a club.
Thomas has a colleague who was tracked down on Instagram by a guy who had seen her name badge.
Employees, female and male, report relentless harassment on their way to and from work, simply because they’re wearing the uniform.
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That attention isn’t always sexual, she adds; it can be just staring or asking stupid questions.
Thomas notes that, putting actual sex aside, “passengers’ attitudes towards the cabin crew change a lot depending on your sex.”
That peculiar atmosphere – an inescapable, claustrophobic metal tube, in which half the people are behaving as though it’s 3am in a nightclub, a fifth are sober and doing a job, and the rest are either ignoring it or engaged in some other vexatious behaviour – can mean bad behaviour extends to colleagues, too.
She didn’t put in a complaint; cabin crew across the sector, from the most budget airlines to BA, report that when they’re sexually harassed or assaulted by colleagues, managers do nothing.
Things can get so tense between crew members that they’re assaulting each other while still in the air.
There was a period of stability around smoking, when everyone knew they couldn’t and didn’t push it – though Sergei had one passenger claim to have a certificate from his doctor saying he needed to smoke.
