How is it possible that my flight was delayed for not having a crew?

[SheilaT]

75. But, and this is a huge but, they are not paid well.

They do not get good time off.

Back when I was an airline employee, we got two weeks a year off. We worked fifty weeks a year. We NEVER got an extra day off at at holiday time. Never. We worked fifty weeks a year. Maybe I mentioned that already. We never got a holiday off. Maybe I mentioned that already.

Our pay was decent, but not fantastic.
we did not have any extra time off, especially compared to people in regular jobs. Had the pay been excellent, the time off excellent, then dealing with the occasional asshole would have been a piece of cake. But you try working fifty weeks a year, including weekends, including holidays, not ever having an extra day off in lieu of. Now, think about flights are delayed, flights are cancelled, there are no alternatives to reroute passengers. You are expected to smile and make everything nice. You don't have excellent time off. You have two weeks vacation. Actually after one full year on the job you got one week vacation. After two full years. you got two weeks.
Flights are delayed, flights are cancelled. Everything is running hours late. You have to stay at work, because the flights are delayed. You get home three hours late.

The passengers are abusive. They walk up to you and the very first thing out of their mouth is how crappy this airline is. You smile, because that's what you've been told you must do. You take the abuse. You get the passenger to his destination. You wait on the next passenger, who is nice, who is understanding. And the next ten passengers, likewise. It is now midnight. Your shift should have ended at ten pm, but it's now midnight. You need to be back at the airport at 6 am. You take the bus home, you get there at around 1am, you set the alarm for 4:30am, because you'll need to shower, dry your hair, put on make up, then walk two blocks to the bus stop. You will get to work on time.

I worked that for ten years. There were times when night shift called up the morning shift people at 4 am to ask them to come in early so we could finally go home. And they did.

If you haven't worked 16 hours straight, with no relief in sight, you have no idea. We were decently paid, but we weren't that well paid. I did that job for ten years, and I can tell you that we were not paid for the abuse we had to put up with.

Yeah, maybe the airlines as an industry created the problems, but those people who created the problems NEVER had to deal with the travelling public.

I have phenomenal public contact skills. You'd be very hard pressed to find someone as good as I am. Unfortunately, I've never been rewarded for my skills.