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twodogs · Guest

The following is an excerpt from the Jan-Feb 2007 issue of Flight
Safety Australia p40-41. It was written by Caroline Kelleher and
Sinead McGilloway, both students of the University of Ireland, who
conducted research which was published by the Flight Safety
Foundation, in November 2005.

It highlights the difficulties experienced by cabin crew in their
chosen vocation. Their strain levels are compared to police officers,
fire fighters and military personnel and found to be wanting. It also
finds that their stress levels are proportional to the level of public
esteem for their vocation, ie also wanting.

A bit emotive and lacking in solid data. Unsubstantiated assertions
based on loosely connected and questionable premisses. (implied link
between staff sickness rates and subject of study without any
substance).

I give this research, as respresented in the publication, 3/10. See
what you think.

To read the whole article visit CASA website 'Magazine' tab. Link
following,
=> http://www.casa.gov.au/fsa/2007/feb/40-41.pdf

"Cabin crew continue to battle the "trolley dolly", "sky girl" and
"air hostess" image. Now that most airlines have moved with the times
and dropped restrictions relating to gender, marriage, pregnancy and
age, a greater variety of people work as flight attendants. This has
challenged some of the stereotypes.

Flight attendants world wide are trained to administer first aid,
direct the evacuation of aircraft, handle explosive devices, and
manage, control and restrain passengers who are violent, disorderly
and abusive. But many passengers are oblivious to this and treat them
as glorified waiters and waitresses. This is one of the reasons for
the hight incidence of workplace stress among cabin crew, a recent
study found.

One [study] found that jobs such as those performed by cabin crew
required high standards of performance but offered little in reward in
terms of public esteem.

Twenty one per cent of the participants described the job as quite
stressful or "very" stressful, and the largest proportion said work
was a major source of stress in their lives. Almost two thirds said
they had taken from one to six sick days during the previous six
months; and 17 per cent had taken seven or more days off due to
illness. Eight per cent had taken 13 to more than 24 sick days during
the six months before the study.

The cabin crew results were compared with those from a "public service/
safety" comparison group of 252 police officers, firefighters and
military personnel. Although the flight attendants had significantly
better-than-average personal resources than the comparison group in
the form of social support, they obtained significantly above-average
scores on parameters including physical strain, role insufficiency (a
person's perception of whether they have the skills to do a job), role
boundary(a measure of role demands) and responsibility."

RMK · Guest