Earbuds in sight of pax?

Don't flame me for this, but I think you guys are making a huge assumption here.

First, you're assuming that the average passenger even notices when you walk by them. The average passenger is too busy trying to get to their gate to see others in the airport as anything other than moving pylons to get around in their quest to get where they need to go. On top of that, if they have rugrats, they're busy trying to keep their rugrats under control.

Second, if they do notice, you're assuming that they
  • Don't have earbuds in all the time themselves
  • Think it's unprofessional to do so
By all means, if they tap you on the shoulder and ask you a question, answer it even if the answer is "I don't know."

But from one paying passenger's perspective, I'd say relax about the earbuds.
 
I will try to find a quiet area or unused gate to listen to music, have long phone calls or Facetime with the kids, since the Wi Fi is usually better in the terminal than the crewrooms.

But I have zero problem answering questions in the terminal and if someone approached me while I was wearing earbuds, I would help them. Or I will try to point them in the direction of better assistance. Part of the problem is that people expect you,the pilot, to know everything about every airport and some become rather rude about it when you don't. I have a pretty good memory for unimportant information and use it when I can, but I don't know all there is to know about all the airports I go to.
 
hC3660ADD
 
ZapBrannigan said:
The ones that prompted this post were not discrete. Bright orange. (Although even the white ones stand out on a black blazer).

Hey do what you want. I'm not your mom. I'm just one of those old guys who used to wear his hat. Guess the uniform should still mean something to me. It's been watered down so much by the retirement of the hat, the introduction of the leather coat, backpacks as crew bags, etc... the ear buds surprised me.

Then I realized I might be prejudiced against young pilots because I thought "what's the matter with these kids and their iPods?!"
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Dude, I'm with ya, but you're at the wrong airline. ;)
 
jtrain609 said:
You're right, of course.

But if you want to hire people that agree with this concept, the number to attract those people likely starts somewhere north of $30,000 a year.
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Is that the threshold where professionals can make it through the day without having to listen to lady gaga on their breaks?
 
gne in prog said:
Is that the threshold where professionals can make it through the day without having to listen to lady gaga on their breaks?
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Yes. My last year or so at PSA I couldn't believe the number of FOs that I flew with who couldn't go 20 minutes without rocking out to some tunes. I understand, flying 1 hour legs can get boring in a hurry, but honestly... maybe while talking to New York Approach isn't the time?

It's not so much an age thing though as I've seen plenty of older guys either blasting music the whole flight through a bluetooth speaker (you try checking in with center with Metallica blaring in the background!) or an ear piece.
 
BobDDuck said:
Yes. My last year or so at PSA I couldn't believe the number of FOs that I flew with who couldn't go 20 minutes without rocking out to some tunes. I understand, flying 1 hour legs can get boring in a hurry, but honestly... maybe while talking to New York Approach isn't the time?

It's not so much an age thing though as I've seen plenty of older guys either blasting music the whole flight through a bluetooth speaker (you try checking in with center with Metallica blaring in the background!) or an ear piece.
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One hour legs? Amateurs.

The Economist isn't going to read itself, now... ;)

(yes, I know - sterile is sterile, behave yourselves.)
 
tonyw said:
Don't flame me for this, but I think you guys are making a huge assumption here.

First, you're assuming that the average passenger even notices when you walk by them. The average passenger is too busy trying to get to their gate to see others in the airport as anything other than moving pylons to get around in their quest to get where they need to go. On top of that, if they have rugrats, they're busy trying to keep their rugrats under control.

Second, if they do notice, you're assuming that they
  • Don't have earbuds in all the time themselves
  • Think it's unprofessional to do so
By all means, if they tap you on the shoulder and ask you a question, answer it even if the answer is "I don't know."

But from one paying passenger's perspective, I'd say relax about the earbuds.
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Quite honestly Tony, it doesn't matter what you think. What matters is what I think, my pride in myself, and my appearance. If I look like garbage, or like a teeny bopper, that attitude will project in many ways.

I also want to look like I have my act together in front of the mainline pilots. We recently had a United jumpseater (a soon to retire old school 747 CA) on my leg, and at the end of the flight he complimented us on how professional my captain and I were, how well we worked together, and how he was really impressed with SkyWest. That was badass, and made my day... Nothing is more embarrassing to me than guys at the regionals who clearly don't give a crap, and show up looking to put in minimum effort and have a bad attitude.
 
GypsyPilot said:
Quite honestly Tony, it doesn't matter what you think. What matters is what I think, my pride in myself, and my appearance. If I look like garbage, or like a teeny bopper, that attitude will project in many ways.

I also want to look like I have my act together in front of the mainline pilots. We recently had a United jumpseater (a soon to retire old school 747 CA) on my leg, and at the end of the flight he complimented us on how professional my captain and I were, how well we worked together, and how he was really impressed with SkyWest. That was badass, and made my day... Nothing is more embarrassing to me than guys at the regionals who clearly don't give a crap, and show up looking to put in minimum effort and have a bad attitude.
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We don't get a lot of validation; it's nice to have a guy on the jump seat say "nice job." (That was how my last line check was, incidentally.)
 
Autothrust Blue said:
We don't get a lot of validation; it's nice to have a guy on the jump seat say "nice job." (That was how my last line check was, incidentally.)
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Sometimes you'll get it, most times you won't.

There are days that I went above and beyond, kicked major ass, found solutions where there were none and never heard a peep about it. But I felt good because I knew anyone else would have screwed it up or barked "Ehh, not my job, I'm going out in the terminal for Sbarros".

But then there were days that, well, like last month where I just did my job (like anyone else would) in a very odd situation and I get commendations from the VP of Operations, the regional director, the chief pilot, the captain and a couple passengers. Hell, it felt disingenuous because what the deuce was I supposed to do besides what I did?

I think professionalism is something that occurs when no one's looking and no one notices. Recognition is an awesome motivator, but knowing I did a great job is sufficient.
 
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Derg said:
Sometimes you'll get it, most times you won't.

There are days that I went above and beyond, kicked major ass, found solutions where there was none and never heard a peep about it. But I felt good because I knew anyone else would have screwed it up or barked "Ehh, not my job, I'm going out in the terminal for Sbarros".

But then there were days that, well, like last month where I just did my job (like anyone else would) in a very odd situation and I get commendations from the VP of Operations, the regional director, the chief pilot, the captain and a couple passengers. Hell, it felt disingenuous because what the deuce was I supposed to do besides what I did?

I think professionalism is something that occurs when no one's looking and no one notices. Recognition is an awesome motivator, but knowing I did a great job is sufficient.
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If you leave your iPad upstairs and our (outsourced) ACS people are too busy and too indifferent to sort it out for you, I'm going to sort it out for you. (You're having a bad enough day with us being 2.5+ hours late and THEN losing an expensive piece of personal electronics.)

I try to ask myself what I'd want done if the situation was reversed (within reason - the customer is NOT always right, otherwise, they'd be doing the flying and in the uniform), and do that. I can, however, understand the indifference that many people in this industry exhibit. Hell, we call the major partner The Customer™, not the people in back.
 
DE727UPS said:
The answer is take the stripes and tie off. I hate looking like a pilot in public unless I have to. I look like a pilot to get through security and when I talk to the gate agent to jumpseat. After that, tie and stripes come off. I feel much more relaxed after that.
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Then when people ask where I work, (with the accoutrements off) "Paul Blart, mall security. Pleased to meet you!
 
I don't know that I really have an opinion one way or the other on the ear buds in uniform but I don't get the general constant need for them by some. Everywhere you look people seem to have the need for them regardless of how little time they have for music or whatever. I can't be bothered and am capable of making it five minutes without listening to something other than what's around me. Maybe it is just generational and since I didn't grow up with ear buds and iphones it isn't that important to me to stay in my own little world at all times.
 
DE727UPS said:
The answer is take the stripes and tie off. I hate looking like a pilot in public unless I have to. I look like a pilot to get through security and when I talk to the gate agent to jumpseat. After that, tie and stripes come off. I feel much more relaxed after that.
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Throw on a bicycle helmet and you have a perfect disguise.
 
Autothrust Blue said:
I'm inclined to agree. Mine are black, although I don't dig them out too terribly often at the airport. There are about 20 other appearance items that someone SHOULD worry about before picking on the earbuds.

I'm not giving myself a pass on this: I myself should probably cut down on my PED use in the public view.
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I honestly don't wear my earbuds inside of security unless I'm commuting (on the airplane) or I'm in the snooze room. And I agree that they're low on a long list of uniform discrepancies I see every day. Like, yo, you might want to use bleach when you wash your white uniform shirt is a common one. Off-white is just noticeable enough to look like absolute poop.

Autothrust Blue said:
It's okay to use me by name ;) Incidentally, I'm coat-no-hat this week; I'll be hat-no-coat for the rest of the summertime. Our hats look anywhere from "weird" to "downright goofy"—Eagle's uniform hat was a lot easier to wear. The leather coat appeals to my practicality, to be honest.
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Your name wasn't necessary to make the point. ;) I like both coats, actually. I use the leather for colder days and the blazer for the just-cool-enough days. I'll probably use it for my next several trips until things really warm up.

Autothrust Blue said:
Specific to appearance standards, I think the real problem is that we have too many of them, with too many approved configs. I can make some approved configurations look downright weird...like, leather jacket and hat, truthfully. I could drag out Standard Practice whatever-it-is and tell you all the weird ones. We'd look a lot less weird if there existed fewer options and we were more, er, uniform.
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The only one I really don't care for is the commando sweater and hat. It's rare, but I've seen people do it. I suppose I appreciate the options available to us. I have all of the things except for the hat. And I might even have the hat if they made one that fit my ginormous head.
 
GypsyPilot said:
Quite honestly Tony, it doesn't matter what you think. What matters is what I think, my pride in myself, and my appearance. If I look like garbage, or like a teeny bopper, that attitude will project in many ways.
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Then don't say you're doing it so that the passengers will book your airline again.

You are skilled and well trained employees, but to the passengers, you're the reason that their tickets are "so expensive."

Besides, even if they think you walk on water, they'll dump you the second another airline wants $2 less for their ticket to Podunk.
 
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