Airplanes / Aviation, Labor / Employment, On The Job

In Praise Of Companies Getting It Right

What can employers learn from the recent American and United Airlines controversies?

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airline airplane anger air rage flight attendant angry passenger stewardessIn the past two weeks, we’ve been reminded of all the things that are wrong about airline travel. And maybe realized just how strong authoritarian ideas are in this country, when people repeated the mantra of comply and you won’t get hurt (it’s like real-life Judge Dredd!).

Just as the furor regarding the assault on a passenger riding on United died down (along with discussions of whether a decade-old indiscretion involving lovers was relevant to getting your butt kicked in a comply-or-die kind of situation), a woman holding two infants gets assaulted by an American Airline employee, using the passenger’s own stroller. Then the flight attendant challenges another passenger to a fight when the passenger complains about what happened.

I’m a mother with a toddler who has traveled with him many times. We have one airline we use for all of our travel because traveling sucks, and traveling with kids sucks. I felt for this latest airline victim. But I also want to point out what the lawyer in me saw: two similar situations that were handled very differently by companies. And I’m watching to see if what I think will happen, will happen: American Airlines, the company, will emerge practically unscathed from this debacle. Even without making any real changes. (I think that the employee will be fired. Particularly now that the woman is likely looking to sue.)

No matter how good you are at your job, or how good a company is at doing what they do and managing their brand, things will go wrong. Even if a company has a diverse and well-trained group of employees and executives. Employees have bad days. Sometimes the universe conspires against you. And smartphones will inevitably be recording when such a moment occurs. American Airlines is just the latest example.

And while these types of incidents can cost companies millions (United lost half a billion in value), they are also incredibly harmful to the employees whom they highlight. One tweet can be disastrous for an employee. Internet fame never really goes away for an individual, and for employees itcan be particularly life-altering.  Many employers Google an applicant for a job; what happens when your name is associated with a Twitter hashtag?

Are there ways to avoid the more egregious of these situations? Definitely. But you can’t avoid every mistake. So for starters, be like American Airlines. Their PR team knows the internet is a dark and fickle place. American Airlines has a real situation on its hands. There are few people more inappropriate to hit with any object than a woman carrying a baby. However, American Airlines took a terrible situation and deflected a lot of it by acting quickly in a way that bought them time to get to the bottom of the situation. Yes, the American Airlines PR team had the benefit of United’s hindsight, but the company also did the right thing.

What lessons can be gleaned by this for the average worker bee or employer? Here are three:

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  1. When you make a mistake (and you will) that has high visibility (internally or externally), take immediate action to show you are taking the situation seriously. We are human and we have made mistakes in the past, and will make more in the future. We must be gracious in our mistakes. And if we make a really public one, we must own up to it and immediately take steps to get to the bottom of the situation. It may turn out that the employee was in the right for striking the mother with a stroller (an unlikely proposition), but regardless, American Airlines took the right initial step. Even though American Airlines is hardly much better, reputation-wise, than United, they come out of this situation better by quick action and accountability.
  2. Before you make a final decision, take time to figure out what went wrong. I have been a worker bee long enough to learn that there are many many ways that a perfect storm can develop that causes problems. However, for one that has public visibility and rises well beyond the level of a simple mistake (e.g., hitting a woman with her stroller), there is usually a failure in process. Employees make a million tiny errors every day; rarely are those errors any more than a learning opportunity. There are so many more things that went wrong at American Airlines, which no video can capture, that led to the stroller-swinging incident. Conduct an autopsy on the public failure for the learning opportunity. Candidly, I don’t know that any U.S. airline cares about any situation enough to do any real soul searching, and this includes American Airlines. But I do know that for the average employee who is invested in her career, and the average employer who cares about their employees and customers, taking time to figure out what lead to a bad situation can provide some of the most valuable insight possible for that professional or company.
  3. Once you figured out why things went wrong, make changes to fix the problem. American Airlines execs are likely to skip this step, and keep their heads down waiting for this to blow over (some new corporate villain will soon take the spotlight). Furthermore, they have a built-in scapegoat with this single employee. He shouldn’t have hit someone with a stroller. It’s not likely, in the captive market that American Airlines finds itself, for any real change to be implemented. Companies think change is expensive, and sometimes it is. But for those of us who care about our careers, change is what happens at the end of a learning experience or mistake. If the process failed, how do you fix the process? If you needed more information and/or training, get that information and training. A public failure handled appropriately is a true learning experience, and one can rise stronger and even better from those ashes.

If you are an employer, no matter how well you train and plan and hope, something public will go wrong. You may be like Pepsi, and be reminded painfully of just how much your creative team lacks diversity. Or you may be one of the dozens of other companies this has happened (or will happen) to this year. You may just be the victim of bad timing and thoughtlessness. Mistakes will happen. Things will go wrong.

What makes a company a good company, what makes an employer a good employer, what makes a professional a good professional, is what happens after things go wrong. Furthermore, as an aside: I think there are very few situations that warrant immediate termination for an employee or any immediate reaction that is a final one. A smartphone video will very rarely be one of those situations, unless it is documenting a crime. Pro tip: investigations are a defense to harassment claims.

In the age of the smartphone, the next corporate meltdown will hit the news soon, though I’m sure American Airlines and United are hoping some other industry takes the spotlight. If you don’t want your name, or company logo, as the next Twitter hashtag or trending topic, the best steps you can take right now are to invest in good training and treat your employees and customers well. However, stuff happens. Be prepared to act, be accountable, and learn from your mistakes.

Earlier: One New Regulation Would Change The World For Parents Flying With Children
United Passenger Lawyers Up, Will Likely ‘Re-Accommodate’ Airline In Court
What Pepsi’s Tone-Deaf Commercial Can Teach Employers And Employees

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beth-robinsonBeth Robinson lives in Denver and is a business law attorney and employment law guru. She practices at Fortis Law Partners. You can reach her at employmentlawgurubr@gmail.com and follow her on Twitter at @HLSinDenver.

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