Gerrard Kaonga
A former flight attendant has revealed why she decided to quit her job and has shed a light on the less glamorous side of the industry.
Speaking on TikTok, Ashlee Jane explained the four major problems with her former role that many might not realize.
The insightful video has so far been viewed more 188,000 times and goes into the difficulties of working in the airline industry.
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While explaining that there were certainly positives to the job, for herself, the cons outweighed the pros.
Many social media users praised Ashlee for her candid explanation, with some remarking they were surprised it wasn’t solely glamour travel trips and cockpit selfies.
Outlining her first major problem, Ashlee said it was the fact she had to work inflexible shift work.
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“You could be working at any hour of any day of any week, it changes everyday, it changes every week,” she said.
“I found that in itself to be really exhausting.”
The second point she raised was the fact that air travel is a 24 hour industry. She tied this into the job being less flexible as a result.
“Because of shift work and also having hundreds of employees it makes the job really hard for it to be flexible,” Ashlee said.
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“It is hard to get time off and it is hard to swap shifts. You have to put in notice for your annual leave months in advance and even then it might not get approved.”
The third issue was the unpredictability of the industry and how this meant planning your life around your job was pretty difficult.
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“It’s aviation, nothing is guaranteed. Your shift for that day is not even guaranteed. Whatever you have tomorrow it is not guaranteed,” she continued.
“I mean you might just be going in for a day shift, next minute you might be away for four days.
“You don’t know what’s going to happen. They can pretty much send you anywhere at any time.”
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And the fourth issue was the time spent away from home. The very nature of flying all over the world means you probably won’t make it home in time for dinner.
“Im a homebody. As much fun as it is going away on overnights, exploring new places and things like that. I started to dread it in the end,” Ashlee said.
“I didn’t want to leave my partner, I just wanted to be at home with him and when I was away in these hotels, all I was thinking about was I wanna be at home.”