DALLAS, TX – In a brief moment of honesty at an airport bar, a Southwest Airlines pilot revealed that he’s been quiet quitting for the last two years.
The burnt-out veteran pilot was 3 beers deep when he made his controversial remarks to a fellow pilot. “I guess it’s called quiet quitting,” he said. “It’s nice to know they have a name for it, but I’ve always just viewed it as me no longer giving a crap.”
Jim Bitterson, a Dallas native, and Southwest Airlines pilot for over 25 years is just one example of the millions of employees that are quiet quitting. The recently coined term raises the ire of folks of various ilks who either suggest that it’s just slacking, while others suggest it setting proper boundaries between a workplace prone to take advantage of its workers.
For Bitterson’s part, it was the pandemic that was the final straw that led to his steep decline in giving a rip about his job, and to be even more clear, it was how his company responded to the pandemic. The crushing workload, low pay, long hours, and whiny passengers finally pushed him over the edge.
Now, Bitterson does the bare minimum. He no longer greets passengers as they exit the plane, he refuses to do the in-flight welcome to passengers – deferring to his first officer, and he sometimes doesn’t even remind passengers that on his plane, as captain he’s God.
Bitterson isn’t alone. Many flight attendants, ground crew, and other pilots have joined the phenomenon. For example, one flight attendant doesn’t even bother to break up in-flight fights on planes anymore. “They can hire bouncers, for all I care,” says the FA crew member who wished to remain anonymous. “I also don’t help passengers stowing their bags in the overhead bin, and I am definitely not helping the gate agent hit their on-time departure targets.”
The post you’ve been reading is…satire
Are you SURE this didn’t REALLY happen? 😉