infinit wrote:As harsh as the experience may be for new cabin crew, remember that you're working for the best airline. At a time where domestic flights were what most people could barely afford, this newcomer that just broke out of Malayan Airlines had no domestic routes to fly (Changi-Tengah Airbase anyone?), didn't have money and faced colossial competition. But this airline fought hard and grew so strong its the second most profittable airline behind the American-based Southwest Airlines which has a low-cost advantage. And if you ask anyone which airline's the best, chances are this one comes to mind. Qatar, Emirates and perhaps Cathay Pacific are strong competitors but the image of a graceful SQ Girl, with her timeless charm and apt for customer service clad in her kebaya knocks off the competition easily.
They've got real high standards to maintain. You're talking about working with what is quite clearly the best airline for the past 30 years. You'll have to accept that your seniors are going to have extremely high standards of you (and they should have even higher standards for themselves).
Zapping- teaching juniors or simply breaking them down? Maybe its both. I'm doing my National Service. Not with the military though, I'm with Ministry of Home Affairs (okay, its easy to guess where I'm doing my NS with) but in the military and even in here this is common. When you come in as a recruit, sure you get scolded and punished when you make mistakes but it goes beyond that. Everyone comes in with different mindsets, the whole system of being strict is meant to melt you down and mould you into the "model" soldier or staff that performs his duties with his best effort, with consistency and is a good representative of his organisation.
So that's what it is. Don't take it to heart, just take it as en experience and get better each time. I make it sound too easy don't I? Well I can say I've gone through something similar if not tougher when I was newly enlisted into NS. Think of it that way- you're a Recruit. You will have to face all this before you can go up to the next rank. So rather than let it affect you, listen to what they say and work on it but dont let it affect you and bogg you down because there simply isn't anything else you can do.
Take it positively and before long you'll be out of this phase and who knows you may get some really nice experiences and surprises along the way.
Spoken from a non-crew.
It's just better said than done.
I would say, wait till you feel it. Till then, not many people will understand how the crew felt when they were being zapped.
Yup, moulding into "models" as you said. In my point, zapping another crew, will only mould them into another zapping crew. - If you get what I meant. You may use that in the NS system. But being a cabin crew is a totally different experience.
I came from a Singapore based airline. But when I joined another airline outside based. The culture is so different. There isn't any senior-junior [culture]. Everyone is happy during flight, the seniors will join in the fun to make the flight enjoyable. We don't get zapped etc. We work happily and everyone had a great flight at the end of the day. Even on my first few flights, when I still don't get things right, they did not even zap, throw faces at me. In fact, they taught me the right way on how it should be done.
Think about it, if you did get zapped, do you think everyone else have a happy ending flight? Imagine on your layover? All alone in the hotel room couldn't speak to anyone else except yourself with the walls. Maybe it isn't that bad if you have 1 or 2 nice crew who might take you out.
Here's the different being in NS and a crew:
NS: $400-600 [under government]
Crew: $2000-7000
We work so hard under pressure with the passenger, do you think we need other pressure from colleagues?
