Northwest Airlines – “Death of a proud airline in the name of stockholders' dividends....”

Pros

This industry affords employees the opportunity to travel and learn about new environments. I have worked here 23 years, and I've seen the world. I know Paris like the back of my hand, and my entire goal as a young person was to see Paris. I have been able to know Paris intimately thanks to Northwest Airlines. Not many careers can give a person a child's dream. It's been a pleasure finding different cultures, foods, and ways of life; I would not give up my memories for anything, and for anyone who is adventurous in nature, this is the place to be.

Cons

The hours can be completely insane, and unfortunately the climate is extremely volatile. The only positions that I would recommend in the environment would be to try to get a mid level management position. I'm a flight attendant, and it has turned into one of the worst jobs in the world. It's been taken from an elite status to nothing more than a lackey who is yelled at incessantly by strangers for any myriad of reasons. Management can buffer themselves from such atrocities and do whatever work their ivy league towers have bred them to do in today's workforce.

Advice to Senior Management

Start looking at business as not just business. This mantra that allows senior management to treat human beings as expendable parts of doing business is morally wrong and we've turned a blind eye to it for the last 20 years in the name of making money for the stockholder. Hold yourselves accountable to the world and the the ethics you were most certainly taught as a young person. When you look in a mirror, and if you reach down to the breadths of you soul, do you like what you see? Be honest--new concept.