Psychology and More

A New York Times article covers the stress-induced problems airline employees (and passengers) are experiencing…
Rough Summer Is On the Way for Air Travel – New York Times:

“Everybody’s stressed. Everybody’s feeling it,” said Bryan Hutchinson, a former baggage handler at United Airlines who now works in a joint airline-union program to counsel workers suffering from stress or other emotional problems.

Above gate B-22 at Denver International Airport, with smells from the Quiznos sandwich stand below filling his office, Mr. Hutchinson receives a steady stream of burned-out looking United employees.

Easy days are rare. An arriving plane is delayed. United shifts an outbound flight to a smaller plane. Thirty passengers are bumped. Some become irate.

And at the end of the shift, a gate agent “shows up in my office and says, ‘I’m whacked out,’ ” Mr. Hutchinson said. He refers some workers to mental health professionals, and offers others strategies for coping: Take a couple of deep breaths; go vent to a co-worker.

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