Senior Flight Attendant Criticizes ‘Lazy’ Co-Workers Hired After 2020 Who ‘Have No Sense Of Decorum’
There's always a few bad apples in the bunch. However, this doesn't mean they're all incapable of doing their jobs.
Kostiantyn Voitenko | Shutterstock When it comes to co-workers, a senior flight attendant is yearning for the good old days — or at least any time before 2020.
According to a senior member of the United Airlines flight crew, most of the new hires since the COVID-19 pandemic have left much to be desired compared to the flight attendants who took to the skies before them.
The senior flight attendant criticized their ‘lazy’ colleagues hired after 2020 who have ‘no sense of decorum.’
The United Airlines flight attendant, who has since deleted their original post on the subreddit r/unitedairlines, admitted that they found the new hires to be insufferable to work with. They argued that this outcome stemmed from hiring new employees after the Workers' Release Program prompted many experienced flight attendants to leave their positions, particularly after COVID-19 severely impacted travel in 2020.
“The unexpected travel bounce back that happened meant that airlines had to hire in mass, and quickly,” the flight attendant wrote. “Standards went out the window, 100%. The new hires we’ve been getting the last few years are, for the most part, unanimously hated amongst the entire workgroup.”
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While the flight attendant didn't want to generalize the post-2020 hires, they claimed that most of their experiences with them had been unpleasant.
“They are lazy, cannot manage to get through a flight without an AirPod in their ear, have no sense of decorum, and find any passenger request to be an inconvenience,” they revealed. “If you’re an FA [flight attendant] hired during the days of class and decorum, and you’re working with three other post-COVID hires, they’ll go on and on about how you ‘do way too much for the passengers’ and try to bully you.”
The flight attendant argued that many of the new hires do not have what it takes to work for an airline since a “scary amount” of them only worked for fast-food chains like Taco Bell and McDonald’s. Given their hourly wages, which the flight attendant said was nearly $70, they insisted that the new hires must improve their attitudes and perform their duties correctly. “They do nothing but undermine the rest of the professionals in the workgroup,” they added.
The gripes about younger workers are nothing new, however. And like most generational battles, the same complaints come up time and again. A survey by Intelligent confirms this. 75% of companies reported that some or all of the recent college graduates they hired in 2024 were unsatisfactory, and nine in 10 hiring managers complained that recent college graduates should undergo etiquette training prior to starting a job.
Still, the senior flight attendant’s claims sparked some strong reactions.
While there are a few bad apples in every bunch, most people defended newly hired flight attendants as simply doing their best.
Instead, they blamed new flight attendants’ behavior on confusion and adjustment to protocols reintroduced after COVID-19.
“This is definitely not true. I think there was a time when new hires who had only worked during covid weren’t used to actual beverage services and full flights and there was an adjustment period. However now it’s totally different and there’s good and bad people at every seniority,” one Redditor commented.
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Others argued that seniority does not determine how well someone performs at their job. “I’ve personally witnessed a very senior flight attendant threaten to write up a new hire of two weeks for being a bit slow during beverage service and yelling at passengers on the PA during boarding… being a bad flight attendant isn’t determined by seniority!!” another Redditor wrote.
“As a junior FA [flight attendant] myself, I’ve definitely seen some of this behavior, but seniors themselves have a ton of bad habits too…on more than one occasion I’ve worked with an all junior crew and been told by passengers our presence was refreshing,” another shared.
It's unfair to label an entire generation of workers as unqualified.
Even if you encounter a flight attendant who has their Airpods in during a flight or forgets to take your drink order, this doesn’t mean that all of them are incapable of doing their jobs.
Anyone who has ever worked in the airline travel industry knows that the job is not for the weak and requires the utmost patience, even on your worst days. Their jobs are even more difficult after transitioning from a worldwide pandemic and having to relearn necessary procedures to keep passengers safe.
It’s easy to judge someone who makes mistakes while performing their job, but it’s much harder to walk in their shoes and learn how to do something flawlessly the first time around.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.