Help Person Go See Dying Mother or Go On Break? Which is the right choice here?

[Pedersen]

United Airlines agent goes on break rather than help man's girlfiend go see her dying mother.

Based on what is written, I have to think the letter writer actually has a valid complaint. And feel very sorry for the letter writer's girlfriend.

[One-Fang]

Honestly, if you're willing to spend 10 minutes arguing the point, just serve that one customer.

Mind you, I wonder how often the "family emergency" line is trotted out, and if the employee is chastised whenever they don't take their breaks on time ...

Also, what airline puts the single ticket agent on break when there's a queue? Isn't there normally more than one? Or if not, a replacement when it's your break time? I'm thinking there must have been another agent there they could have gone to.

And as for not getting let into the closed plane at the gate - 1, you don't have a ticket for that flight and 2, no freaking way. Once that door is closed, it's closed.

[Broomjockey]

Yeah, if they didn't spend 10 minutes arguing the point, there might almost be something to it. But that 10 minutes makes me go "Uh, then your breaks can't be that strict, can they?"

[Sliceanddice]

why the hell didnt the agent get her manager then?
i felt sick reading that.

[jjllbb]

You know what? I'm siding with the employee on this one.

1) The situation was unfortunate but there are LEGAL requirements for employees to actually take those breaks. If they didn't have anyone to cover the break that's not her fault.

2) She probably couldn't legally help them through to the flight even while on her break because if something went wrong she or the airline might have been held responsible.

3) Yes there was an actual emergency this time. However, people are LIARS. People hate missing their flights. I bet veteran airline employees hear every excuse from A to Z for making this "one exception". They have no way to tell which ones are true or not. The only answer is to stick to the rules 100% of the time.

[Pedersen]

1) The situation was unfortunate but there are LEGAL requirements for employees to actually take those breaks. If they didn't have anyone to cover the break that's not her fault.

Fair enough. Since I'm not aware of any law that mandates that anybody actually take a break, and you are, I'll ask you to cite the relevant statute that shows that airline ticket agents are legally required to take a break at specific intervals.

The closest that I am familiar with for being required to take a break would be for people operating heavy machinery that they must have specific hours of rest between certain amounts of operation. I may be wrong, but I am unaware of any heavy machinery being operated by airline ticket agents.

Even then, the agent stood there and argued for ten minutes. In that ten minutes, the agent could have checked those people in and let them try to make their flight. Instead, the agent chose to argue. If the break is legally required, then I would expect that to have been mentioned in the story with a line like "What kind of law requires an agent to take a break?"

Now, since I know some of the folks out there are going to read this and point out that I'm being an asshole who is demanding that customer service people don't get breaks, go back and re-read what I wrote. I did not say cannot take breaks. I did not say should not take breaks. I said that there is no law requiring them to take a break. On the flip side, I have heard of laws requiring employers to offer breaks, but employees are free to take them or not at their discretion normally.

2) She probably couldn't legally help them through to the flight even while on her break because if something went wrong she or the airline might have been held responsible.

As opposed to now, where the airline could be held responsible )and, if this story gets sufficient press, will be held responsible by the buying public) for failure to help someone in genuine need. On the one hand, you've got someone who might wind up with a lawsuit. On the other hand, you've got someone who can make a post on the internet and be heard by millions of people who will now consciously choose not to fly United due to the uncaring nature of this one agent.

I know which one would have been better for the company.

3) Yes there was an actual emergency this time. However, people are LIARS. People hate missing their flights. I bet veteran airline employees hear every excuse from A to Z for making this "one exception". They have no way to tell which ones are true or not. The only answer is to stick to the rules 100% of the time.

Yes, people lie. I know it, you know it, hell I think the bird building its nest down the street knows it. That does not change the fact that the agent chose to argue for ten minutes about helping someone in actual need, rather than doing what the agent had stated needed to be done (taking a break).

This is a customer service disaster. And no sufficient apology can be made by United. And the agent in question? I hope that that agent finds out what the letter writer's girlfriend lost, and has to deal with the guilt for a long time.

[Anthony K. S.]

make a post on the internet and be heard by millions of people who will now consciously choose not to fly United due to the uncaring nature of this one agent

Millions?

I think you exaggerate.

Most people, I think . . . or, at least, I hope . . . are reasonable enough to know that every business has its bad workers, and they are not going to condemn an entire company for the actions of just one of its employees.

This is especially true when :

1. The bad experience happened to somebody else, not to them, personally.
2. They don't know any of the people who actually were involved.
3. They're only hearing one side of the story, anyway.


There will probably be a lot of people who will read this story and be appalled by it . . . but they won't stop flying United over it. Their thoughts on this will likely be as follows :

"I have done good business with United in the past. For what happened to this couple, I am truly sorry, but I see no reason to stop doing business with United when they've always given me good service.

Besides, I'm only hearing one side of the story here. If I had the opportunity to hear the agent's side of this story, it might sound completely different, and for all I know, it might change my opinion of this entirely.

In fact, for all I know, this story might not even be true.

The letter writer could be leaving out some information that he doesn't want people to know about . . . He could be changing some details to favor his position . . . It might not have happened the way he claims it did. In fact, it might not even have happened at all. This entire story could be completely MADE UP.

The only fair thing I can do is to act on what I personally know. And what I know is that United has given me good service. So I will continue doing business with them, until I have reason to do otherwise."


As for the people who have never flown United . . . I have no doubt that some of them will choose to look elsewhere after reading this story.

But I'm inclined to think that many more will place greater weight on factors that affect them personally, like the relative costs and convenience of flying one airline over a different one. They aren't going to pay higher prices or settle for a less convenient travel arrangement because of one bad story (however bad it was) that they read about . . . Again, especially when they're only hearing one side of it.


One final thought . . .

I don't know why the agent spent ten minutes arguing with the customer (if she actually did do that) rather than just go on her break.

But one possibility does occur to me : She might not have realized, at first, that she was going to wind up arguing with the customer for a full ten minutes.

She might, perhaps, have thought that she could just explain herself and leave, and it would only take a minute or so, or perhaps less. And then wound up getting pulled into an argument that lasted longer than she intended.

My guess is . . . When the agent insisted that she had to go on her break, the customer probably said some very harsh things to her, probably including a few personal insults as well.

(You may argue that he was justified in doing that, under the circumstances. That's a matter of opinion.)

Naturally, he would have left that part of what happened out of his letter.

Now, when somebody attacks you personally in this manner, it can be very tempting to try to defend yourself, rather than just walk away.


(In fact, if she had just walked away, then I'd be willing to bet that the letter writer would have perceived that as the ticket agent admitting she was wrong.

"If she really felt she was in the right, she would have at least tried to defend her position. Obviously, she turned and walked away because she knew that she had no legitimate arguments to make.")


So she started arguing the point . . . And the more they argued, the more escalated the situation became, and the more determined she became to defend her position. After a point, she might not even have been aware of how many minutes had gone by.

In this type of situation, it is all too easy to get so drawn into the argument that you lose track of everything else.


Please understand, it is not that I am not sympathetic to what happened to this couple and their family.

I am also not saying that the agent was necessarily right. There are, I think, probably a lot of ways that this situation could have been better handled all around.

But I do think that this situation is not nearly as black-and-white as so many people are portraying it to be.

[jjllbb]

The requirements vary by state but they're all here:

http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/state/rest.htm

http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/state/meal.htm

The link you provided does not specify how long she'd been working at that point. It is likely that her shift was coming to an end and there was no other time for her to take that break. She even said she "had no choice".

As to whether or not she even had the option of waiving her break on that specific day, there probably would have had to be some type of agreement with the airline beforehand, signed and dated, otherwise the airline would still have been open for legal ramafications.


She shouldn't have argued with them. Its human nature to try to explain yourself if you believe you're doing what you have to do. But it did waste time whether or not it was the full 10 minutes that letter claims. She shouldn't have been dicking around where customers were if she was going on her break.



As for hoping that employee is haunted for their guilt I think that's harsh. You don't know all the specifics. Most of us don't and never will. Employers sometimes threaten employees with termination if they don't take their breaks on time or at all.

While mistakes were made I don't believe that employee is as much of a monster as everyone seems to make her out to be.

And while a horrible situation, I can't help but remember that the letter in that link was written by someone who was recalling a situation of extreme emotional distress and that the sarcasm and animosity he witnessed in the airline employee may in fact have been incorrect. I've often had customers criticize my "attitude" when in fact i've been completely sincere just because they were upset about something.

[Ree]

We weren't there...we don't have the whole story.

I do know, people don't die on schedule, and emergencies do come up.
Exceptions can be made.

If the employee can stand and argue with the passenger for 10 minutes, rather than just taking a break, then the break schedule couldn't have been that important, and it then becomes a matter of principle, rather than an actual issue.

It wouldn't have taken 10 minutes to wait on that person, yet there was 10 minutes wasted and spent arguing, so to go on about breaks and legalities and labour regulations is a bit moot, in my opinion.

I have to wonder, if there was a lineup of people, (as the writer mentioned people in line gladly stepping aside and letting them go ahead due to the emergency situation), why would they just send someone on break and not have anyone else to accommodate their customers?

It's very sad that we have become so jaded as to say, "People lie and fake emergenices and dying relatives all the time, so it's OK to treat them poorly and offer shabby service."
I think it's easy enough to tell when a person really is in an upset emotional state as compared to someone who is faking to get preferential service.
Anyone can act agitated, but body language gives a lot away, too.

It's an unfortunate situation.

Now it's on the internet, and you can be sure, stories like this do attract attention, so I dont think it's an exaggeration at all to say

make a post on the internet and be heard by millions of people who will now consciously choose not to fly United due to the uncaring nature of this one agent

Not everyone will decide to stop flying with the company based on the letter, but it may lose them a lot in public relations.
There is always the possibility that now, if given a choice between two airlines, a person might opt for the other one over this airline, simply because they may have seen a news story about this situation.

Sometimes a person can cut off their nose to spite their face.