Working the Skies: The Fast-Paced, Disorienting World of the Flight Attendant

by Drew Whitelegg

Get ready for takeoff. The life of the flight attendant, a.k.a., stewardess, was supposedly once one of glamour, exotic travel and sexual freedom, as recently depicted in such films as Catch Me If You Can and View From the Top. The nostalgia for the beautiful, carefree and ever helpful stewardess perhaps reveals a yearning for simpler times, but nonetheless does not square with the difficult, demanding and sometimes dangerous job of today's flight attendants. Based on interviews with over sixty flight attendants, both female and male labor leaders, and and drawing upon his observations while flying across the country and overseas, Drew Whitelegg reveals a much more complicated profession, one that in many ways is the quintessential job of the modern age where life moves at record speeds and all that is solid seems up in the air.
Containing lively portraits of flight attendants, both current and retired, this book is the first to show the intimate, illuminating, funny, and sometimes dangerous behind-the-scenes stories of daily life for the flight attendant. Going behind the curtain, Whitelegg ventures into first-class, coach, the cabin, and life on call for these men and women who spend week in and week out in foreign cities, sleeping in hotel rooms miles from home. Working the Skies also elucidates the contemporary work and labor issues that confront the modern the demands of full-time work and parenthood; the downsizing of corporate America and the resulting labor lockouts; decreasing wages and hours worked; job insecurity; and the emotional toll of a high stress job. Given the events of 9/11, flight attendants now have an especially poignant set of stressful concerns to manage, both for their own safety as well as for those they serve, the passengers. Flight attendants, originally registered nurses charged with attending to passengers' medical needs, now find themselves wearing the hats of therapist, security guard and undercover agent. This last set of tasks pushing some, as Whitelegg shows, out of the business altogether.

291 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2007

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting, if a tad scholarly, look into the post-9/11 world of flight attendants. It’s a very U.S.-centric perspective as well. Whitelegg is sympathetic to his subjects without demonizing airline management in broad strokes.

[Cassandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Five Question Book Review:

Describe this book in one word: indepth

Makes you want to (i.e. sleep, eat, run, screw)?: organize a union

Should be read with: Around the World in a Bad Mood

Famous person you'd recommend this book to?: Gwenyth Paltrow

Would you read this book again?: no, enjoyable but too academic for a repeat

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting history of the evolution of the cabin crew role....from the glamour of the fifties through to the current day juggling of the role with parenting. Although it mentions UK based airlines and crews and their differences with the 'American Way', most of this book (unsurprisingly) concerntrates on the likes of American and United. Good read if you have an airline background.