Originally Posted by
Karnak
Good advice. Try to work out something that solves the conflict, while politely advising the gate agent that we need to look out for each other.
Funny tool-ishness on my last trip...
FA in the back calls me and asks for the seat belt sign on (some "nibbles" of chop, but very, very light), so I promptly turn the sign on. While the sound of the seat belt sign chime is still fading, she launches into a roast. "We can't take the carts out back here! It's too rough to do our service! You need to pay attention!"
So I asked her if she'd contacted the Flight Leader (Lead FA) about the "rough ride" making it unsafe for their service. Her response was....word-for-word, "I can't, she's doing her service up front."
I suppose there's a rational explanation for it, but it struck me as "Tool Level Yellow".
After we land in BOS the FO and I head to the Long hotel pick-up point. Same FA overrides the Flight Leader's directions to our pick-up point, and leads them to the Short pick-up spot, in a galaxy far, far away.
Yup...she's wrong. Our driver tells me we have to wait because he's supposed to carry 5. 15-minutes later they chug up to our van, and the clearly exasperated Flight Leader walks up to me, points to the errant FA and says, "Don't listen to her! She cray."
Tool Level Orange
That tool level yellow wouldn't happen if pilots would stop briefing their FAs that they have control over the seatbelt sign when they want (choppy, need to clear the aisles, etc). There's a reason the seatbelt sign is in the flight deck. Not the forward galley, not the mid galley, not the aft galley. If you as a PIC of a jetliner can't figure out how bumpy/when the seatbelt sign should be on after your umpteeth years of flying, how do you expect a new or 2 yr flight attendant knows it's bad enough the sign should be on?
Lets face it, 90% of the time the FAs want the sign on, it's their way of clearing the aisles and getting people to sit down. If it's a security thing then sure by all means. But the seat belt sign is not a weapon tool to clear aisles, to force people to sit down. I'm just a FO, so I have no say or control over it, but once I'm CA, I know how I'll treat the seat belt sign and it won't be as a weapon for the FAs (unless security situation).