+
Sign up for
The Upworthiest
Our top stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox.
upworthy

worker rights

Pop Culture

Airline CEO works a flight attendant shift and is 'astonished' at how 'challenging' it is

More CEOs should do this.

Canva

“Sometimes, you need to change perspectives in order to gain new insights!”

“Sometimes, you need to change perspectives in order to gain new insights!” is not exactly a sentence one might expect to hear from a corporate exec, but it is a philosophy that led Jens Ritter, CEO of German company Lufthansa Airlines, to taking on a shift as a flight attendant.

In a post shared on LinkedIn, Ritter detailed his experience of working as additional cabin crew for a flight heading to Riyadh and Bahrain, taking care of passengers in business class.

Though Ritter’s previous career as a pilot gave him some insight into the challenges of working a flight, taking on the responsibilities of an attendant left him “astonished.”

"I was amazed by how much there is to organize, especially if something doesn't go as planned,” Ritter recalled, noting how on his flight the offered menu items weren’t actually the meals loaded onto the plane.

Beyond purely administrative tasks, Ritter acknowledged the difficult task of addressing individual wishes and dealing with different energies (something airline attendants don’t get credit for nearly enough).

Lufthansa Airlines

Jens Ritter working as a flight attendant on Lufthansa Airlines

media.licdn.com

And on that note, Ritter found it particularly taxing to “be present and attentive and charming” during an overnight flight “when the biological clock just tells you to sleep.” He confessed that it was an “entirely different” experience than what pilots endure.

Ritter concluded his post by thanking the cabin crew and said that his time spent on the ground (well, on the ground, in the air) would make “deciding things in the office different” moving forward.

At a time when stories of out-of-touch, greedy CEOs inundate the headlines, it’s refreshing to see those in managerial positions actively try to connect, empathize and support their workers, rather than exploit all resources for a bottom line. Not enough business heads recognize how crucial this kind of connection is—not just for the sake of virtue, but for the profit they so desperately want to maintain. But as Ritter’s action shows, it’s not all corporate greed out there.

flight attendant

Ritter found it particularly taxing to “be present and attentive and charming” during an overnight flight.

media.licdn.com

We could probably all stand to benefit from taking a shift in the service industry. The stress of having to maintain everyone’s good time while simultaneously problem-solving, organizing and generally keeping things afloat is not for the faint of heart. And flight attendants in particular juggle it all on a daily basis—and some even manage to make it a show. It’s great that Ritter is advocating for flight attendants by stepping into their shoes.

All in all, a change in perspective can lead to wonderful things.

From Your Site Articles
workers
More

Why Cards Against Humanity paid for all its factory workers to take a weeklong vacation.

There's an elephant in the room of American manufacturing.

And its name is Chinese labor.

According to The Economist, China produces 80% of the worlds air conditioners, 70% of its mobile phones and 60% of its shoes. And countless other manufactured products have made the "Made in China" sticker that's completely ubiquitous in America.

Workers at a toy factory in Zhejiang, China. Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images.

Most companies don't address the use of cheap Chinese labor. Unless something goes wrong.

Despite the long list of American corporations employing Chinese workers, most don't talk about it. It usually takes a watchdog investigation shining a light on working conditions or the use of child labor for a company to even begin discussing it — let alone doing something about it.

For one example:

In 2014, China Labor Watch accused Samsung of employing underage workers. Samsung then launched an investigation into their factory and found evidence of child labor as well as an "illegal hiring process." In July 2014, they announced they would "permanently halt" their relationship with that supplier. Which ... according to another investigation in December 2014, they hadn't.

A glass workshop in Liuyang used by Samsung. Photo by STR/AFP/Getty Images.

It's refreshing when a company takes a second to talk frankly about their labor practices.

As was the case last week with with Cards Against Humanity, the "party game for horrible people" that became famous for its ice-breaking inappropriateness and Black Friday pranks (one of which recently convinced over 11,000 people to pay $5 for nothing).

Also known as "Apples to Apples but funny." Photo by Daniel Christopher/Upworthy.

In a recent blog post, Cards Against Humanity announced that it had paid for a weeklong vacation for the workers at its printer in China.

Noting that the use of Chinese labor is something "a lot of companies don't like to draw attention to," the company stated that the way their products are made is "a part of who we are."

Along with the blog post were several pictures of the factory staff taking vacation time with friends and family and messages from the staff saying what they used their vacation time for.

While a positive gesture, it certainly doesn't solve the problem.

And Cards Against Humanity knows that. "This doesn’t undo the ways that all of us profit from unfair working conditions around the world," the blog post read, "but it’s a step in the right direction."

A step that very few companies have been willing to take.

Apple has also made efforts to improve their infamous manufacturing process.

The tech giant has come under fire several times for labor practice issues but particularly in 2010, after over a dozen people committed suicide at the Foxconn Technology plant in Shenzhen, China. Apple has since successfully reduced the workweek there to comply with the Fair Labor Association's standard of 60 hours per week.

A Foxconn recruitment center in south China's Guangdong province. Photo by STR/AFP/Getty Images.

Apple's Supplier Responsibility Progress Report also highlights the fact that they have trained 2.3 million workers on their rights in 2014 and over 6.2 million since 2007.

"In our supply chain, we train everybody on their rights," said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a recent interview on "The Late Show." "That's their rights as we see them, and we have a really high bar."

While most companies stay silent, happy to rake in the overwhelming profits that come with cheap and oftentimes questionable labor practices, some know their responsibility as companies who employ humans to stand up for human rights.

How a company's products are made is undoubtedly a part of that company's identity. Cards Against Humanity at least wants it to be a good part.

More

Before Margaret Cho was a comedian, she was a sex worker. And she's not ashamed.

'I was a sex worker when I was young. It was hard but well paid. There's no shame in it.'

There's been a lot of talk about sex work recently — what it is, who's doing it, and how society and the government should treat people who make money from sex work.

It's a sensitive debate, and advocates on both sides of the issue have strongly held beliefs. But one group that too often gets left out of the conversation? Actual sex workers.

Sometimes that's because sex workers choose to keep their identities hidden because of safety and legal concerns. But often, the stigma against sex work also silences their voices.

Comedian Margaret Cho had a few things to say on Twitter about that shame and stigma.

You probably know Cho because of her amazing standup comedy (this one is a must-watch). Or maybe you'd seen her in the ABC sitcom "All-American Girl" back in 1994 when Asian-American representation on TV was pretty dismal. She's also a fierce activist for LGBTQ rights and racial equality.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Margaret Cho! Photo by Sebastien Nogier/AFP/Getty Images.

But before all of that, she was also a sex worker.

"I support sex workers because I was one and I know that it's a job that's needlessly shunned by society when frankly we should be worshipped," she tweeted in late October.

She then published a series of tweets about her sex work, sparking a dramatic conversation on Twitter.

Cho also tweeted that she believes that sex workers shouldn't be shamed; instead, they should be protected by the law and allowed to unionize.

This isn't the first time Cho has opened up publicly about her history with sex work.

Earlier this year, she talked with Anna Sale from the Death, Sex & Money podcast about how working on phone-sex job allowed her to be financially independent as a young person.

"I did phone sex for quite a time, but this was so long ago, it was phone sex that was recorded. And there was a class system because the whiter you sounded, the more apt you were to do the recordings then talk to people on the phone. So if you didn't sound white, I guess as I do, you were relegated to another room where actually had to talk to people who called you. But because I sounded white I was able to get the good job."

The question of sex work's legal status is a huge one, and it has only become more pressing during the past year.

In April, journalist Melissa Gira Grant investigated a startup that helps police officers track sex workers. This summer, Amnesty International decided to advocate for decriminalizing sex work, a move that celebrities like Lena Dunham and Meryl Streep criticized. Then in September, Rentboy, a site for LGBTQ sex workers, was raided and forced to close by the Department of Homeland Security.

All of this has thrown some new light on what it really means to sell sex. And it's an important conversation to have because even though sex work is a reality in the U.S. and across the world, it's not a topic that gets much airtime at all.

Why? I'd venture to guess that the shame surrounding the idea of sex work prevents us from talking about the real issues that sex workers face. This is what Cho believes, too.

And that's why Cho wrote that series of tweets — to lift up her voice as another advocate.

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images.

She acknowledges that sex workers don't deserve to be shamed and that they need to be better protected by the law.

No matter what you think about sex work, Cho's decision was a brave and necessary one.

When it comes to issues like sex work, it's important to hear from the people who will be directly affected by the laws in place — in this case, sex workers themselves. So thank you, Margaret Cho, for sharing your experiences and sparking such an important conversation.

Trending Stories