so much to say... again... sorry!!!
It has been quite the week.
For those of you not completely aware - on Tuesday, August 2, just after 4pm, an Air France flight from Paris skidded off the end of a runway at Pearson and crashed in a ravine. All 297 passengers and 12 crew escaped safely just as it burst into flames. It's nothing short of a miracle, but there were no fatalities and only 43 minor injuries; which occurred as people got off and ran away, not during the landing.
I worked that morning, 0500-1300. Just after 12 it suddenly got really dark and we had a nasty thunderstorm come in - worse then I've seen in a long time. And due to the threat of lightening, nothing was able to take off all afternoon because the ground crew aren't allowed outside to marshall (direct) the aircraft or on/offload the bags.
After I got home, one of the other summer ambassadors messaged me and asked if I knew what terminal Air France flies out of, and when I asked why she told me to turn on the news. I found out the next day that all the agents who were at the airport at that time stayed until 10:30pm to help out (which, if your shifts start at 6am...)
Wednesday morning. When I got to work at 5:30am, our station manager was in the team room, briefing everyone as we came in. He basically told us how things went Tuesday evening, and prepared us for the worst. None of our flights had gone out due to the thunderstorms alone, so there were approx. 1500 people who were all re-accommodated on already busy flights over the next week. Tues. evening, there were over 2000 people in our arrivals hall, and the police had to be called in to help clear everyone out. They had some guests yelling at them until after midnight. But he said the team pulled together very well, and there was nothing he would change about how the situation was handled.
Although our morning rush was really busy, it didn't go as badly as we had anticipated. We were given extra counter space, and there were a lot of extra agents in helping on their days off. Days like that are when you really see the true Team WestJet spirit. It was hard on everyone; some of the agents were a little emotional when they got there (it could have been so much worse, and some people don't realize how bad an aircraft crash could be... I know a few people who even took another route to work so that they wouldn't have to see it). But we did really well and I'm proud to be a part of a team like that.
After it slowed down - and for the last two hours of my shift - our belts were down (ie, not working). It was still somewhat busy, and we had to drag all the bags down to another belt so we could send them down. Again, it was a team effort, so that was good. I tried to help out, but some of the agents (note: all of them guys) wouldn't let me b/c they said they would feel bad if I hurt myself. Never mind that when I started with WestJet, I took down all the over-sized bags.
They were just being protective... and it was sorta cute, but it was a little frustrating b/c I felt kind of useless. I refused to go back out to the front of the lines because I had enough of that for the day (it was stressful) and probably would have snapped at all the guests. So that didn't leave me much to do at the end, but I did provide some moral support and a little bit of help to some of the agents who had worked all night the day before.
Thursday I was off. They asked people to come in if they were able, but if I had gone in then I would be working 10 days in a row, and they usually don't allow people to work for more than 6 consecutive days. From what I heard, it was pretty much like Wednesday... nothing disastrous, just crazy-busy. Friday was the same.
Saturday and today (Sunday) however, were a different story. Oh man. It was insane!!! I've never seen our line-ups like that before in T3. And on Sat. there were a whole lot of nasty, yelling people. I don't know what it was, but... well Amanda and I hardly spent any time sorting lines or helping on the kiosks - we just did all the oversize stuff so the agents could stay and the counters, and we were constantly pulling the lines (when it gets close to a time when a flight leaves, we pull everyone who's still in line for that flight to the front).
So in terms of the yelling people... I mean, you learn not to take it personally b/c mostly they're just venting their frustration. But I hate it when guests try and tell me that what we do every day "isn't going to work" and think they know better, even if they don't have any suggestions on how we can improve the situation. And you get tired of being everyone's outlet for their stress. I gave my name out a few times to people who wanted to complain. But whatever, that doesn't bother me.
Today there wasn't much yelling, it was just a real mess b/c with so many people lined up outside of the queues, it was impossible to keep it well organized. Pulling the flights became a bit of a nightmare too. I also found this one woman who was crying... I guess just the stress of traveling, combined with the confusion of being sent to (what appears to the guests to be) three different lines, and then a man yelled at her or something... she was just bawling. Since we were pulling her flight anyway, I took her right up to a counter and got her bag taken care of. And ya... I think that covers most of it.
What else... well, my life has suddenly become about three times more complicated then I'd like it to be. I don't wish to go into details because it's rather personal. But I just hate hurting people, and I'm so confused about what I want and what I should do. On the other hand, I have had a few really good conversations lately. :) But that probably doesn't make things any easier. *sigh*
For those of you not completely aware - on Tuesday, August 2, just after 4pm, an Air France flight from Paris skidded off the end of a runway at Pearson and crashed in a ravine. All 297 passengers and 12 crew escaped safely just as it burst into flames. It's nothing short of a miracle, but there were no fatalities and only 43 minor injuries; which occurred as people got off and ran away, not during the landing.
I worked that morning, 0500-1300. Just after 12 it suddenly got really dark and we had a nasty thunderstorm come in - worse then I've seen in a long time. And due to the threat of lightening, nothing was able to take off all afternoon because the ground crew aren't allowed outside to marshall (direct) the aircraft or on/offload the bags.
After I got home, one of the other summer ambassadors messaged me and asked if I knew what terminal Air France flies out of, and when I asked why she told me to turn on the news. I found out the next day that all the agents who were at the airport at that time stayed until 10:30pm to help out (which, if your shifts start at 6am...)
Wednesday morning. When I got to work at 5:30am, our station manager was in the team room, briefing everyone as we came in. He basically told us how things went Tuesday evening, and prepared us for the worst. None of our flights had gone out due to the thunderstorms alone, so there were approx. 1500 people who were all re-accommodated on already busy flights over the next week. Tues. evening, there were over 2000 people in our arrivals hall, and the police had to be called in to help clear everyone out. They had some guests yelling at them until after midnight. But he said the team pulled together very well, and there was nothing he would change about how the situation was handled.
Although our morning rush was really busy, it didn't go as badly as we had anticipated. We were given extra counter space, and there were a lot of extra agents in helping on their days off. Days like that are when you really see the true Team WestJet spirit. It was hard on everyone; some of the agents were a little emotional when they got there (it could have been so much worse, and some people don't realize how bad an aircraft crash could be... I know a few people who even took another route to work so that they wouldn't have to see it). But we did really well and I'm proud to be a part of a team like that.
After it slowed down - and for the last two hours of my shift - our belts were down (ie, not working). It was still somewhat busy, and we had to drag all the bags down to another belt so we could send them down. Again, it was a team effort, so that was good. I tried to help out, but some of the agents (note: all of them guys) wouldn't let me b/c they said they would feel bad if I hurt myself. Never mind that when I started with WestJet, I took down all the over-sized bags.
They were just being protective... and it was sorta cute, but it was a little frustrating b/c I felt kind of useless. I refused to go back out to the front of the lines because I had enough of that for the day (it was stressful) and probably would have snapped at all the guests. So that didn't leave me much to do at the end, but I did provide some moral support and a little bit of help to some of the agents who had worked all night the day before.
Thursday I was off. They asked people to come in if they were able, but if I had gone in then I would be working 10 days in a row, and they usually don't allow people to work for more than 6 consecutive days. From what I heard, it was pretty much like Wednesday... nothing disastrous, just crazy-busy. Friday was the same.
Saturday and today (Sunday) however, were a different story. Oh man. It was insane!!! I've never seen our line-ups like that before in T3. And on Sat. there were a whole lot of nasty, yelling people. I don't know what it was, but... well Amanda and I hardly spent any time sorting lines or helping on the kiosks - we just did all the oversize stuff so the agents could stay and the counters, and we were constantly pulling the lines (when it gets close to a time when a flight leaves, we pull everyone who's still in line for that flight to the front).
So in terms of the yelling people... I mean, you learn not to take it personally b/c mostly they're just venting their frustration. But I hate it when guests try and tell me that what we do every day "isn't going to work" and think they know better, even if they don't have any suggestions on how we can improve the situation. And you get tired of being everyone's outlet for their stress. I gave my name out a few times to people who wanted to complain. But whatever, that doesn't bother me.
Today there wasn't much yelling, it was just a real mess b/c with so many people lined up outside of the queues, it was impossible to keep it well organized. Pulling the flights became a bit of a nightmare too. I also found this one woman who was crying... I guess just the stress of traveling, combined with the confusion of being sent to (what appears to the guests to be) three different lines, and then a man yelled at her or something... she was just bawling. Since we were pulling her flight anyway, I took her right up to a counter and got her bag taken care of. And ya... I think that covers most of it.
What else... well, my life has suddenly become about three times more complicated then I'd like it to be. I don't wish to go into details because it's rather personal. But I just hate hurting people, and I'm so confused about what I want and what I should do. On the other hand, I have had a few really good conversations lately. :) But that probably doesn't make things any easier. *sigh*