logic that uses Southern white womanhood as.i!. marketing gimmick. ..... labor
was done, but its tracks were hidden with words. Seeing ..... fascinating. British
girl.
328
PRACTICE: CONTEMPORARY
Fe VY'\ Y1,~t-
fyom The Managed Heart
h-OlVYll2-vV(itKSC3E:
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~C\j5(.\(
(C]0.3.
Arlie Russell Hochschild
breakdown
of Ihis familiar
of exploitation managing
'-
drink
down,
!light leans
from
The night
voyage
attendant
'TII tell you what," man smiles
Kong
back and takes
meal cart un its third smile."
Hong
to New
in a night
up the aisle.
York,
attendant, "I-ley.
stops the cart. wipes
she says. "You
at her. "Good,"
smile
she replies.
got the night attendant's
my smile
right to my smile.
who is pushing
Honey,"
freeze
real feeling.
passenger
Which
of hearts
In some
versions
or World
not smiling others
today'I"
young.
always
of this smile Airways.
when
or "Baby,
the businessman, man,
perhaps, honey"
versions
where's
I smile.
the smile
that smile holds as of her interest is perhaill!..his
could
have seen
faces.
Ever since deregulation
nies have asked
the trouhle
have been asked
people
in the same amount to keep
dread
for the company
figure
attendants
it's because
fact. something
cocktail personal
have
frenzy,
heavy share of winning
have
countered
labor-they
with a slowdown.
had to serve
in
their emotional
labor.
Passengers by smiling
I'm a woman
and they figure
And.
no longer young
get the steady.
women
explained, Coke.
in two and a quarter machine
good-
complained.
"I
customer."
In
"We keep our eyes I know the guy in 7But we can't
do a
hours and take spe-
as it is. How can I give
have been mothering
frightened
passengers.
With the
Training
people began
pilots,
in their early
I thought.
to what
company
it takes
to be chosen: from.
I come
The program
Center
of Delta Air
to do emotional hangars
labor. The
that new recruits
at eight a.m. in a large assem-
company
officials.
20s-sat
nervously
and "friendly
The traineeswith notepads
workin'
and
the A-line
ladies'
room.
as secretaries
to replace
to board them.
talk.
stride
remarks,
a handcuffed
babies.
Finally
in the cockpit
convict;
measure
a pilot.
"The
there were nerin his mid-50s.
and looked
handle.
yourself.
drawl.
the
"if you
I the
you take it to your A-line
it, she should
come
You go powder
and politely
around.
pilot commands
he said in a thick Southern handle
masks
up in any way. many
paused
to the point:
daily-on
on how to in-
crew-cut,
to the microphone,
he came
and if she can't
came
of the oxygen
In the hall that morning
in the cabin that you can't
come
That's
or having
Quizzcs
over: on the location
you take time to collect
Then
in
to my left, like many oth-
than they had thought.
slumped
hushed
morning
in chargel,
you're
It is fe-
especially
a desk job in Memphis.
are working
wing to wing and nose to tail. Now,"
flight allendant
to me, be-
public.
10 be here."
with a slow authoritative
girls have any trouble
is this a white
suggested
go together,
silling
had been told that if they didn't
glances
Why
traveling
service"
sure beats
to be harder
were waiting
a few good
white
woman
on the 767: on whether
sidelong
the men?
!light attendants
The young
"This
what to do if you see a passenger
eager applicants
were
to be a prejudiced
All my girlfriends
proved
on the L-IOII.
Where
women
They think ('m real liberated
say,
to me. Now if
your nose
'Captain?
in the
1 hate to disturb
you but I think we have a problem.'"
HaYing
first established
the emotional
was due the m!ssenge~'Now, ing slowly.
what other
pilots
your best asset. Smile."
The
wouldn't
time?
Well,
were to repeat So ( want
young
!Iilll.
he went on to describe
"\ want you to think of the cabin
At home. a good
labor due
girls, 1 want to tell you something
with authority.
ease and have
woman
you go out of your it's the same
thing
after him: "Girls.
you to go out there from
Memphis
else,"
as the living room friends
in the L-I 0 II."
Then
I want you to smile.
wrote
in your
way to make
and use it. Smile.
feel at he said
Your smile
Really
in her notebook,
what
he said mov-
is
lay it on.
"Must
smile-
imfll." If a passenger
is "dcmanding"
told in a later session, trainer's
the way il is now?" !liglll attendants
caters
very own home.
in ads.
I'm not a big business
my eye and ask for another
for 200 passengers
not
in a way not quite articu-
and focus on the aisle. on the plates.
to catch
could
meals in the night time allot-
course
one of the few black
where
plane.
rate, to more
They
the blacks? It is white,
ers, felt lucky
After
up, !light at-
love at an ever faster
were job?
Delta
walked
observers the compa-
line that has been speeded
too. I'd like 10. but I'm like a dispensing
For decades.
sensitive
of time.
ever more boldly
and meal service service
industry,
an increasingly
on an assembly
physical
Where woman's
nate the life rafts. They
nurtu-
read it in the !light attendants'
into a competitive
to hand out commercial
We avoid eye contact
cial requests.
in the airline
never even look at me as they go by." one woman
waiting
For
labor-the
in their laps.
in the South.
in him as a
of female
females
a nonunion
for care. _B~liill!.Jhe
supply
all white
because
It is
that he claims.
nearly
Attendant
not far from the airplane training
male, she eXfllained,
the man is old, in
of her inlerest
with a need
else is going on. As one flight attendant
B is patiently
smile
airport,
Each day of the four-week
we can see the form
of emotional
good.
I went to the Flight
De-
in others,
the exploitation
to see how they prepared
cause
the matter,
over the past ten years.
bly hall with talks by an array of supervisors,
vous.
to shoulder
slow down
cheer promised
down.
for United;
week.
Georgia,
the
as this one.
says, "What's
that the whole
they could
lated. that is what they have been doing. "Flight
works
so much
sent the airlines
up. attendants
their actual
they could
hearted
and as relished
a woman's
in him as a child
coming:
Like workers
tendants
ted-but
may sell
it's my face."
In some versions
a promise-not
unnamed
!lighl attendants
the marketplace.
Unable
attendant
and always
rance is drying..!lp aroulliLQ.iIll.. Long before the current labor struggles
slow down
got more than he asked
because
the businessman
And
you have bought
toured.
system
it has depended:
was near the Atlanta
123 of them.
The business-
was this: "The company
my smile?"
me a
him in the eye.
But in all the times I've heard this story. one detail goes unchanged.
a man who claims
"Hey.
war the !lighl
In some
out, "give
Lines in Atlanta, center
a lOO-pound
O.K.'I"
that ad. you may think
But it's for me to decide
puts his
and hold that for 15 hours."
tails come and go when a slory is as worn with the telling TWA
he calls
first, then I'll smile.
"Now
to you in an ad. And reading
businessman
her brow and looks
she turns to push the cart up the aisle. The smiling for-he
a young
service
on which
One crisp autumn On a IS-hour
329
THE MANAGED HEART
ISSUES THROUGH THE LENSES
point
tion-evoking
"think
of view, the warm
or "drinking
of him as a child.
all this is just feelings
too much." Maybe
a sensible
flight attendants
the flight attendants
he's afraid
way to gcnerate have
of nying." commercial
for children,
were
From the affec-
for friends,
for
r
330
"
PRACTICE: CONTEMPORARY
ISSUES THROUGH THE LENSES
people they would invite into their own homes and give smiles to easily. naturally. The trainers are not unpleasant people with malicious intentions. On the contrary. the trainers I saw conducting the classcs from eight to live eaeh day were helpful. fricndly women who had been and probably would again be flight attendants themselves. I have many times thought. sinee meeting her. of the center's director. a distinguished woman in her early 50s. She had a tough exterior that kept trainees in awe and allowed her to be at ease with the nearly solidly male managemcnt above her. (Her job. she had been told, was tQ.Jjllilrlerback thucainil}gJ!'-YisjQn •. Now that's language to make a woman feel right at home.) But her gentleness and thoughtfulness shone through: a small table by her desk was crammed with photos of former trainees. some with new husbands and babies-her "family." She was there at 7:30 every morning, keeping an eye out. ripples of laughter surrounding her from time to time as she cracked jokes. shoring up morale. year after year after year. Like the flight attendants themselves, she and the other trainers seemed to me deeply decent people. At the same time. something struck me as terribly wrong with the whole commercial logic they had bcen drawn into-a logic that uses Southern white womanhood as.i!. marketing gimmick. that trades in female niceness. When young recruits. armed with mental images of passengers as children and fricnds, actually begin work, the experience is often a shock. Yes. a drunk may fear flying, poor fcllow, but what if he has his hand between your legs? What if he's cursing at you? What if he's putting out his cigarette on your arm? These things happen. And in recessionary times. when people are coping with more failures in their personal lives, thcse things happen more often. The technique of seeing a passenger through images that bring him closer and hclp you empathize gets in the way of quickly depersonalizing..l1i!D~h~Jt he does not act like a child or a friend in your home. The trainers helped workers learn how to extend their empathy to strangers. But thcy didn't want to discourage their young trainees by telling it like it is. or make thcm too uppity by spelling out what abuse they werc paid to withstand and what they were not. The trainers taught flight attendants how to 1;cl1(L out thcir feclings but not how to take thcm back., Flight attcndants who worked during thc 1960s spcak nostalgically of times whcn thcrc was onc workcr to 25 passengcrs, whcn plancs wcrc smallcr and slower. whcn layovcrs wcrc longcr and flights less crowdcd, and somc pcrsonal attcntion was actually possible. Oncc a cruise ship. the airplanc has bccome a Greyhound bus. During the recession of the carly 1970s. many airlines began "cost-efficient" flying. They began using planes that could hold more people and fly longer without fuel stops. That meant longer workdays and more workdays bunched together. Flight attendants had less time to adjust to time-zone changes on layovers and less time to enjoy a major attraction of their work: personal travel. One measurc of cost-efflciency has always bcen how long the plane is kept in the air. Now, like thc airplane, the flight attendant is kept in use as long and as intensively as possible. One American Airlines union official describcs the speedup: 'They rush us through the emergency briefing. They're even briefing us on the buses getting out thcre. When you get on the plane, you just staI1 counting all the food and everything and start loading the passengers. They'll shut the door and pull away and we'll find we're 20 meals short."
THE MANAGED HEART
331
It is as if a giant conveyor belt carrying human bcings has bcgun to move faster. Thcrc is no longer one flight attendant to 25 passengers: there is now aboul one to 50. With deregulation in thc early 1970s and a subsequent but short-lived drop in farcs, the "discount people" boarded: more mothers with small children who left behind nests of toys, gum wrappers and food scraps: more elderly, "white-knuckle" flyers; and more people who did not know where the rest rooms werc or who wandcred around wanting to go "downstairs." The flight attendant was called on to do far more, with far less time to do it. The current recession has madc matters worse. Some airlines have laid off baggage handlers, gate personnel, ticket clerks and managers. Lines arc longer. More bags are lost. Connecting flights are missed. Mishaps multiply. Most passengers can take a moderate number of mishaps with moderate good grace. But one passengcr in, say, every 100 is a grumbler who needs to fix blame on someone-usually the flight attendant. Taking blame from such grumblers makes up a large part of the attendant's workday. A passenger's frustration at a missed connection, mixed with the usual anxiety about air travel, can erupt as an angry complaint about the food. Eyes ablaze, a man may suddenly glare at a flight attendant and shOUl, "This meat is not cooked!" Flight attendants have a name for the blaze-eyed man. He is an "iratc," a term attendants Lise as a noun, as in, "Irene, I had three irates this morning." In flush times. a !light attendant can soothe her irates with a free drink or deck of cards, but on some airlines those frills are gone. Qnly extra friendly service is left to appease the ever 1(.lI1ger: stream of irates, frustrated by baggage handlers, ticket agents, late flights, missed fligh~.?n~ the fat women: rituals of deference and maternalism .... .7f- he. H ~ -tc -\1
