When you see this sign light up when you are on an airplane, what does it mean you are supposed to do? During our pre-flight briefing, we are always told that it is an FAA regulation that when the seat belt sign is on, it means that for our own safety and the safety of the other passengers and crew, we are supposed to return to our seats immediately, fasten our seat belts, and remain seated with our seat belts fastened until the seat belt sign is off.
But is this really a rule, or just a suggestion? Does it matter?
During my recent flight from San Francisco to Frankfurt (United Airlines Flight 900, June 25, 2009), the turbulence was so bad at one point even my knuckles were white. The captain of the aircraft got on the intercom and told us that while the flight was very uncomfortable, we were completely safe. He stated that “these aircraft are built to take a lot and keep flying.” Never in my life have I heard a captain do that.
Well the passengers from hell were seated one row in front of me. It was a mother, her two twins about 2 ½ years old, and her mother. The two kids were completely out of control the entire flight, but that is another issue. During most of the flight, the mother and her children never observed the fasten seat belt sign, even when we were in some pretty rough spots. Frankly, I was concerned for the safety of the children.
At one point, a flight attendant named Frank finally approached the mother and told her to “sit down and fasten your seat belt – now!” She replied “JERK!” Frank also told every other passenger he saw standing to sit down and fasten their seat belts. In my opinion, he was firm but professional. He did the right thing and I later told him I appreciated it.
The problem was NONE of the other flight attendants were consistent with passengers when the seat belt sign was on. Even right after Frank addressed the passenger from hell, I observed at least 4 different flight attendants walk right by passengers that were standing or in the overhead bin and not say a thing. When they did that, they just trained everyone that observed that the fasten seat belt sign did not mean what we were told it meant.
As I told the purser after the flight, when the majority of the crew does not enforce the FAA rule as stated in the pre-flight briefing, it no longer is a rule buy merely a suggestion. And once it becomes a suggestion, they essentially no longer control passenger behavior on the flight. When crew behavior is random, passenger behavior becomes random, and in my opinion that is a very unsafe situation. I told the purser that as much as I appreciated the service and hard work of her crew, I felt that contrary to the stated rhetoric they had compromised our safety.
Consider this: if they are not following their own stated rules when in full view of passengers, what is the airline doing behind the scenes, when no one is looking? Do you think their safety rhetoric matches the reality of the behavior of the employees? I don’t.
If you go into a restaurant and the bathroom is dirty, you can bet your dinner that the kitchen is filthy. If a business is lax with standards when customers are present to inspect those standards, you can know for certain things are as bad or worse where customers are not allowed to inspect.
In your business, do you have some rules that have through YOUR behavior become merely suggestions? If so, you are doing both your employees and your customers a tremendous disservice.
Rules should be kept to a bare minimum, but the ones we have we must consistently enforce or they lose their significance. In all businesses that results in confused employees and customers, and in some businesses it could lead to disaster.
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