Though it normally involves endless hours of preparation and tons of recovery time when you return to office, I really enjoy going on business trips.
My latest work project led me to San Francisco, allowing me to miss the metro issues and the unbearable heat that held the east coast hostage. Definitely two positives, but my trip had its negatives. The first being the fact that I had to fly United.
Now, prior to my trip, I had no issue with United. In fact, I’ve always liked their animated commercials with Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.
Besides being stuck in a tiny middle seat, I couldn’t really complain about my flights to California and back to DC. There was very little turbulence and I did actually get some sleep. It was the actions and comments of the United employees that really annoyed me and got me thinking.
The first occurrence took place just as we were gliding over the San Francisco bay. The flight attendant decided that this would be the perfect time to tell everyone that “in the case of emergency landing, please leave all carry-on luggage behind and exit the aircraft.”
I hope that you are now in as much disbelief as I and the other 100 people on the plane were. I gave the wings a nice once over (you know, making sure the flaps are in order, no smoke, etc.), and then I tried to understand why this flight attendant felt that it was absolutely necessary to tell us this, particularly at this moment.
I couldn’t come up with anything and after a few minutes, we were safely on the ground, so I let it go…until my flight back to DC.
The main door was closed, all electronic devices were powered down, and we pushed back from the gate. AFTER the safety video was over and we were heading towards the runway, the flight attendant thought she should share some evacuation statistics: “It took 30 minutes to board this aircraft, but in an in emergency, it can be evacuated in 9 seconds.”
My Reaction: Wait…What? Why are you telling me this?
First, I highly doubted that the 100+ people on board that flight could evacuate in 9 seconds, but that’s another conversation altogether. There I was again on the receiving end of a completely crazy (b/c of the timing) statement.
The only thing that made sense was the fact that the flight attendants felt the need to Ring the Alarm. I’m sure we’ve all come across people who have ringing the alarm down to a science. Even though things are going well, they just have to unnecessarily remind everyone about the potential dangers that we have worked so hard to pack away in the back of our minds.
Have you ever encountered people who like to Ring the Alarm at work?
Can they be cured?
