Most of us have had a bad airport experience at least once in our lifetimes. Traveling can often be anxiety-inducing, especially when unforeseen and unwanted circumstances occur. It is never pleasant to learn our bag has been lost or our flight delayed. However, sometimes customers take their frustrations out on members of staff who have nothing to do with the actual problem nor could have done anything to prevent it.
Instances such as the one depicted in this TikTok video prove how some people could benefit from at least a few months of a position in customer service. Working these kinds of jobs tends to give people a greater appreciation for how hard and stressful they can be. Some individuals are far more used to being served than serving so they do not regard the customer service provider as a fellow human being deserving of the same respect as any other.
Working as a waitress when I was freshly out of high school taught me to be more patient and understanding towards all those providing me with a service. As a general rule, the ones on the frontlines dealing directly with the public are rarely the ones making consequential decisions on behalf of their company. Things can happen that are outside of people’s control and getting mad at them for it will solve nothing.
This airport worker, like many airport workers on July 19, 2024, had to deal with the fallout of the global IT outage that affected airports around the world. A woman named Irene, @notaryirene on TikTok, recorded the interaction between an irate customer and an airport worker after the latter told all those present that their flight was unfortunately canceled and refunds could not be processed at that time.
Don’t shoot the messenger
After waiting for three hours, the customers’ frustration in learning they had essentially waited for nothing is understandable. Cries of outrage resounded the moment the airport worker not only told them that their flight had been canceled, but that the company was unable to rebook or refund any of them at that time.
“We can’t refund anything….. *waits for multiple reactions* ….. at this time.. he’s about that drama,” commented one netizen who took note of the worker’s pause during his announcement.
The employee explained they were unable to do anything because the systems were “still down.” However, one customer was having none of it and decided to strut over to the worker to subject him to an angry tirade. She likely did not expect to be shut down so swiftly though.
Instead of trying to understand why there was no way for the employees to give them an earlier warning about the cancelations, this lady was more interested in finding an outlet for the exasperation she certainly felt. Had she made an effort to understand, she would likely have been told that it wasn’t until then that staff knew flights were definitely canceled. It might also have been that the airline insisted on attempting to solve the IT issue until the last possible minute in an effort to mitigate its financial losses. Either way, none of this is this man’s fault, he was only tasked with being the bearer of bad news.
A fellow airport worker, echoing others in the comments, wrote: “As an airport worker this has been the worst day of my life and NO WE DIDNT KNOW WE FOUND OUT AS IT WAS HAPPENING.”
It can be extremely exhausting to be the target of clients’ and customers’ righteous anger when you’re not at fault and are simply doing your job. People like the woman in this video tend to expect the customer service worker to just stand there and take the misdirected aggression and harsh words. But they should not have to. Therefore, good on this employee for standing up for himself, drawing a line, and turning his back on an ill-tempered customer who has no interest in showing him any respect as a person enduring an unexpectedly difficult day on the job.
