The recent events with United Airlines pretty much sum up what’s wrong with the world today. It became the perfect storm of miscommunication, bad judgment, and a lack of humanity. Everyone was right and wrong at the same time – well, the security guard, pretty much wrong all the way around but everyone else had a point.
First, let’s look at the mistakes on the part of United Airlines. As a business, they want to fill seats and maximize their returns. However, they also have an image to maintain so that people want to pick them. Their first mistake could be their overbooking model and policy of pulling people off the flight to replace them with someone else.
What it did was release “the hunger games” in those told to leave the flight. No one wants to lose their seat, especially given the fact that they were on time and in that seat ready to take off. To select those passengers that don’t fly as often as candidates for ejection also seems to be fraught with bad judgment on how to win customers for life. Not only will United Airlines lose the customers they had on that flight, but also the world has witnessed how it all played out.
However, companies are human and make mistakes, too. Perhaps they will now revisit their policies to see if they might develop something more amenable that treats people like people, not cattle.
And, for the staff that works on those flights who have become the butt of jokes and been treated cruelly since the incident, it’s not their fault. They don’t make the policies for the company so there is no reason for other people taking flights to take their anger for United Airlines policy out on them. They are simply trying to do their job. Instead, it would be a great idea to embrace them and offer kind words. It’s what we should do for our fellow human beings.
Just a couple days after the debacle, an incident took place on my United flight. I documented the experience and the reactions told the whole story.
Then, there is the passenger, a doctor who was simply trying to get back to his practice and family who most likely was exhausted and couldn’t believe he was picked out of a crowd. Maybe he had a bad day and was already feeling frustrated so just stood up for himself and said, no. In this day and age, consumers don’t want to be bullied by the very companies they decided to purchase a product or service from. The doctor clearly could have selected another airline and it’s a pretty safe bet that he will definitely do that going forward, especially since he just announce in a press conference that he would be suing the airline.
What was also sad was that, soon after the incident, the media began running stories on the doctor’s sordid past and all the mistakes and bad judgments he made in his life to date. It was somehow a way to validate what the security guard did like, “Hey, look, this guy was already a bad guy so he deserved this treatment.” In reality, there is no need for the media to vilify the passenger and what he did in the past is no one’s business. Again, we all make mistakes so it’s not really up to the media or United Airlines to dig for dirt to add to this situation.
It’s not up to us to judge anyone in this situation. What we can do is realize that people react for any number of reasons and that those reactions aren’t always the best decisions. We need to go a little easier on each other or we will forget what it means to be human.
We can also speak up and tell these companies that we don’t approve of their policies in a little less violent way that doesn’t involve punishing those that work for them and have no say in the matter. I’m all about bringing compassion back to everything we do. It starts with each of us making a difference in how we think before we act, employing the Golden Rule at every turn.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.