By Laura Palmer Noone, CEO, University of the Potomac
I spend a lot of time on the road, or more accurately in the air. I fly often and time at the airport and on planes gives one a wonderful opportunity to do some serious people-watching. About a week ago, I was ready to get on a plane from Boston to Phoenix, when a series of thunderstorms started interrupting air traffic on the eastern seaboard. A flight at the adjoining gate was cancelled and customers of the airline were understandably upset. It was late on a Friday, and it was unseasonably hot and humid for a June day in Beantown. But what was fascinating was to see how different people reacted and treated the airline staff who were trying to accommodate the travelers on other flights.
No one likes to be inconvenienced and having a flight canceled is rarely a joyous occasion. However, some people were downright NASTY to the gate personnel. I am betting if they had stopped to think about it, they would have realized the airline staff had no control over the weather or the Federal Aviation Administration. Yet the employees were forced to endure the barbs and tongue lashings doled out by the travelers.
I am willing to bet that if those same travelers saw a video of themselves and how they behaved in a few weeks they would be a bit ashamed. Or, maybe not. But maybe they would be ashamed if their mother or their children saw it.
But it would benefit all of us to choose to behave with a bit more civility. If you wouldn’t say it through a bull horn sitting on your front porch next to your mother and grandmother, then it probably shouldn’t be said.
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