Then....And Now!

Today was my 35th anniversary at United Airlines. How did THAT happen??

Actually, the picture on the left isn’t totally accurate. I worked on the ground for 9 months but I don’t have a picture of my start date of Mar 18, 1985. I then became a Flight Attendant, going to training in Jan 1986. This is my graduation picture several weeks later. And the picture on the right I took a few weeks ago. No, I didn’t get dressed up in my uniform today to take it! But the collage was done today!

I know, I know - I haven’t changed a bit! Ha! But I can tell you that even though I still have that very first uniform (in my very first crew suitcase, at the top of my wardrobe), that there’s NO way I would fit into it!

So the fact that this anniversary is TODAY is quite something. Because this morning I found out that I will not be working for at least the next few weeks. United is still flying - just! Our London departures have been reduced and this weekend will go down again to only two a day. Our normal is 18. Those two flights will be staffed with crew who are based in the US, at least for the month of April.

I’ve seen an awful lot in my industry in 35 years, the most significant of course being the terrorists attacks of 9/11, followed by widespread bankruptcies in the industry (United included) resulting in deep pay cuts, furloughs, the war, oil crisis, more pay cuts, more furloughs, a merge with another airline and lots of ‘turbulence’ through the years. We’ve come out the other side and United has become a very strong and stable airline. And now a pandemic all but shuts us down.

I am optimistic but it’s going to be rough again for awhile and people are anxious at work. We are expecting that some will be furloughed even though many will volunteer for unpaid leaves. There are still lots of unknowns. However, I feel for those who work for airlines who are not in as strong a position as we might be. I am concerned even more for those in other sectors in our economy who do not have the protections that many of us do in our airline.

Now more than ever we need to be community and to care for each other.