Woman Unable To See Dying Mother Because Ticket Agent Needs to Go On Break 16
A man who rushed his girlfriend to the airport to catch a flight to see her dying mother, watched her miss the flight because a United Airline's ticketing agent refused to help because "it was time for her to go on her break." His girlfriend finally reached the gate in time to watch her flight depart, and the gate agent defended his colleague's lack of sympathy, saying "management really makes us work some unreasonable schedules." To be fair, breaks are serious business.
How much can you believe (Score:3, Insightful)
Letter from observer to Mike (Score:1, Insightful)
If you or anyone you know have supported any mainstream politicians over the last 20-30 years, or patronised any major global corporation with your business in a similar time frame, then you have no one to blame for this incident but yourself and the aforementioned "anyone".
"My mother is dying" is the kind of lie a self-important management/bean-counter type would say to get their way, so it is no surprise that the overworked employee on the desk didn't believe you. People who deal with customers are usually the lowest paid (maybe after cleaners and the like) in that corporation too, but have the most interaction with customers who unsurprisingly are trying to get the most out of the corporation. The minions at the desk have zero decision making ability, usually answer to some chimp of a supervisor who also has no decision making ability, and who will no doubt get an ear-full at best if they do actually give in to a customer's request. And you wonder why they don't care? I would wager that your attitude was probably pretty awful too. Either you know it, or you are a social leper who can't actually ask someone for something nicely.
I have worked too many jobs to know exactly what management are like when it comes to breaks and leaving the place of work on time. I have been dragged through disciplinary action for being late for work (like 5-20 mins or so, but a few times in the space of a week or two), but it did not matter that most days I arrived 30+ mins early, due the non-predictability of traffic. I have had rows with management about being able to leave the office on time too - as far as they were concerned you had to be at work on time ("zero tolerance on tardiness!"), but if you got stuck doing a job at the end of the day then you had to stay until it was done. This obviously led to most employees dodging any work after about 3pm or so, in case you got stuck with a big problem that would keep you late. Employers expecting an amount of overtime doesn't help matters, especially when they will not pay an overtime rate, and maybe they will offer "time in lieu" if you are lucky. TIL is a joke anyway, as you rarely get that time back.
There were very similar debates when it came to breaks too - one place I worked the breaks were rota'd so that no one had a break at the same time as anyone else (essentially negating most of the reason people want a break - to socialise a bit), and if you missed the start of the break then you still had to be back at your desk for the end of it. "Employee cover" was the BS management used to justify this, but in reality it was to eke the most out of the workforce because their pay rises and promotions were clearly dependent on cutting employee costs as much as possible.
Mike, your experience is the collateral damage of the quest for the mighty dollar and endemic CYA. The "fuck you" attitude at the bottom of United Airlines will, without doubt, have come from the top. I can imagine exactly the response you will get - a false apology, with maybe a free flight? You'll have to deal with United again though.
Re:why wait till she was dying (Score:3, Insightful)
Fortunately, I tell my loved ones that I love them pretty much every day. I keep a relationship open with my family and I've chosen to live near them so that I can see them.
I talk to my mom quite a bit, too. If I got a call that I was needed home now, I'd still do everything I humanly could to get there ASAP. My dad died about a week after I'd seen him and spent a long lazy day talking and laughing and hanging out, but I was still on the highway within 5 minutes of getting The Call.