Diaries of a 74M Crew: Getting my panties into a twist...

It was such drag getting myself to work on Friday evening...
Inner struggle bordering on tears....

Our flight was super delayed outta Sin..
Damn drama lar the entire thing...

2145hrs- SPR must be parked at a remote bay of all gates... (read: no aero bridge... gotta take bus n climb stairs up one lar)

2155hrs- Crew all gathered in holding room after clambering up n down stairways w bags

2200hrs-Bus come liao n we all get on n brought to where aircraft parked. Climb up stairs w bags n all again into aircraft

2205hrs- Changed to safety shoes n switch off mobiles n stow bags safely n start ground duties le. IFS came onto PA n tell us to go back to terminal...

HUH?!?

Engineers wanna run engine tests... flight delay from 2255 to 0100 hrs then take off...

2208hrs- crew all retrieve bags, put on jackets/change back to sandals... climb down stairs exit a/c again... wait for bus

2213hrs- crew chanting "change aircraft , change aircraft". I was thinking.. "Step down, step down!!"

2216hrs- back in T2... arrival hall..

A Step down's never gonna happen.. unless duty period exceeds wat... 18 hours i think..
Change of aircraft, maybe... hopefully... though we later found out the London flight was delayed too.....

so now we have 1.5 hours to burn... before returning to aircraft at 2350hrs for ground duty..

So we had kaya toast n coffee n chats in T2 while waiting..
A check w the other girls revealed that many had worsening health since being assigned to this aircraft...
From zero days MC in yrs to a high of 6 in this yr..
Worsening back problems which require them to attend physio...

2345 hrs- All head back down again... repeat same thing to get back to aircraft...

0015 hrs- Pre-boarding n pax boarding commences...

0100 hrs- Still cannot depart... Aust requires dunno wat 2 certificates to deem aircraft fit to fly..
gotta wait for engineering to do for us.. EY goes out w rounds of drink...

0130hrs- still waiting... EY opened door 5 cos aft is too freaking hot liao

0200hrs- still waiting.. EY goes out with ice cream (meant for the supper service)

0220hrs- finally.... push back...
.....................................................................

Damn tired lar... by now we usually halfway to akl lor... crew rest time..

The drama din end there...

0230 hrs- aircraft still in ascent... take unusually long... IFS receives call n went down to door 3L.
First Officer comes down from cockpit to Door 3L

0240hrs- Overheard IFS on intercomm phone w cockpit... hmmmm sparks were seen upon take off????

Dodo thinks... "hmm... if not fit to fly... turn back... got chance to step down liao"

Capt goes on PA n reassures the pax.... nothing unusual... sparks due to statics or something...

Dang~
.........................................................
it's not my day lar...

was working 1 on 1 with this "famed" chief stewardess...
Let's call her Su for short...

During breakfast service... I got these catty remarks from her
"Do(my name)!! I think i must have done everything for you!! Is there anything else I must do for you!?!?! Can u tell me wat other things I need to do!!"

"Is it very hard to be a stewardess here??"

"I dun blame you for not being able to catch up with me... but it's either u r too slow for me or i'm too fast for you.."

"You r driving me up the wall."

"Im covering for you more than anything"

Even though the Dodo is smiling n panting on the outside... n still cordial w her n apologising for my so-called inability... inside... the tidal waves were building up...

I said "Su, I'm trying my very best to keep up with u. I'm sorry."

KNN!!

NO ONE, i repeat NO ONE has said the dodo is SLOW in business class work since the day I mastered the works.

There r instead people who say my work good... cos that's a fact. Dodo takes pride in her work n I know I'm thorough n go the extra mile even.

Yes there r days when I get jittery when stressed n drop glasses here n there... BUT my superiors can always tell i'm making the bloody effort to do my best.

Of cos she fast. She dun have to deal with individual pax's request for dunno watever shit...
She dun have to take care of the details... jus ask me for it...

WAt to do... Grin n bear it. The flight coming to an end le. I jus clear watever I have to n do my landing duties.

While plane was still taxiing upon touch down, she asked to speak to me.
She was still cordial though... cos i was still nice to her wat.. i know once i give her attitude.. i'm fried.

"I think something was going wrong jus now. we jus cant seem to work in sync. the thing is we r gonna work together again on another flight n we have to work this out u know??"

My reply?

I said "Su, seriously, I think u r too fast for me. I was trying my very best to catch up. I havent been told that im slow b4 N Im very sorry for that"

"But how can it be??? I'm so much older than u!! yr energy level should be better than mine wat!?"

Chow lelai...
NBei banabas...

Imagine how my heart sank when she said "We have to work this out cos we WILL be working together again on another flight soon"

Being 74M crew.. that's the reality..... oh gosSsH~ *groan*

I sat in the bus later thinking...n wanted so bad to be shouting all these tots out to her

Firstly, there r only 2 people working main deck in this chow aircraft... not the usual 3. 2 pple working is like dat one... u cover me i cover u... how can U expect it to move like it's 3 pple working there??!?!? U wan a hot choc i gotta prep a hot choc... how can i be in the bloody cabin doing clearing also!?!?!?

Secondly, yes i made mistakes taking order... but only becos I had to prepare the galley for meal service while u were resting.. n by the time u came down to switch on the lights.. the pax still sleeping... order taking takes time.. but u expect me to be fast... k i give it to u fast...
But im not perfect.. i m prone to mistakes when i do things hastily.

Thirdly, there is a reason YOU R A CHIEF N I"M NOT. IF u expect me to work like yrself... to be sooooooooooo fast at yr desired speed n so detailed... Y THE BLOODY FARK M I STILL A MEASLY STEWArdESS.???

I should b the same rank as you rite?? Cos I'm so good liao!??

I'm indignant not becos I'm one of those i-think-i-v-good-myself-crew... NO... But cos I know in my conscience that I did wat I could, n at my very best... for my passengers!

Im not even asking her to cut me some slack cos she too fast for me... NO, cos i KNOW I"M NOT SLACKING lar.

The pax were all happy despite the delay n crap.. n isn't that wat matters?

My head reeled n I got really angry...

Many leaders in this company r like that lor..
They get up there thru seniority ... many of them.. since the yesteryears...
N many of them r not far educated above the minimum requirement, N many jus dun understand the concept of leadership i feel...

Wat's teamwork??
I dun think teamwork is expecting the other pple to be working the same style same speed as u lor...

Isn't teamwork all bout each n every indiv doing the best they can, bringing the best of themselves into the team n contributing towards the end result???

It's all bout rhythm in a group n all that rite???

It's all i needed to console myself...
That this chief.. even though she is second in command on board a plane in this airline...
Outside... she is worth shits....
As many other 'chat-chat' leaders r in this airline....
They will never survive the outside world, n never be able to handle the subordinates in the real world lor.
cos they r so disillusioned as they have been working for the airline their entire life n it will be their one n only job for the whole of their lives.

So much for exposure n variety. They r just laughing stocks. Losers.

Yes, she damn good at handling pax onboard. N she damn fast at work.. I give her that. If that's the reason y she got the promotion, i respect her for that.
But sadly, that will prob b the only work she's capable of being good at lor.

N I reinstate tt im talking bout the 'chat chat' ranking crew okie?
........................................................................

So yes... dodo's got her panties in a twist this sin-akl flight...
been a looooonnnnnng time since..

But meeting pple like Su din not make me wanna quit immediately... it reminded me that the job of a flygirl as i have experienced so far... is learning to deal with such horrible pple...n more so... how to deal with their ineptness.

As I told the boyfriend in a tiff once.. "You dun have to protect me from other pple... If i need protection i wouldn't have survived these 3 yrs flying.."

At nite while snoozing.... the Su called me n asked me to join a drinking session...
That's my personal triumph...
*smug look*