I came across this on my web search about stuff aviation related. I just lolled.

Dear Passengers | Venting Confessions & Secrets (http://www.experienceproject.com/confessions.php?cid=522154)

Uh-huh. Read it all before on various sites where disaffected people try to make out that somehow, they have a job that should be seen by the world as "special" and therefore need to make disparaging comments about the minority of the public who might make them earn their living.
If these people require adoration, perhaps they should try charity work or join the Army in a theatre of war? Those folk have something to complain about but generally don't.
The corollary, are those who enjoy their work and see it as a personal goal to deliver the service they are paid to provide. Fortunately, as evidenced by the majority of comments on these boards, there are more crew who aspire to that aim than the example in the post.

Whilst I agree with a lot of what you say clareprop, I think your taking it a little too seriously. The way I read it was that the writers tongue was firmly placed in cheek.

I don't think the writer was saying that crew deserve adoration at all, she was merely pointing out some of the things that can get utterly tiresome for crew when they are dealing with it day in day out.

I would like to meet a crew member who hasn't had that weird exchange of words where you are forced to explain why we can't take off with one of the engines not working, or the annoying jabs in your side when somebody wants something (instead of saying 'excuse me'), or when you've asked the same person to do something for their own safety only for them to continuously ignore you.

These are the types of things we all sit and moan about behind the galley curtain and a piece of writing like just makes for an amusing read to people who can relate.

In all professions there are aspects of their jobs which get annoying and they get moaned about. I'm sure doctors get frustrated with the continuous stream of people who turn up at their surgeries with a common cold, or van drivers who get furious with the people that cut them up in traffic. It's human nature to have a moan with people who can relate, it doesn't mean they don't strive to do their best in their chose career path, or that they feel they deserve a medal for putting up with it.

Monarchnew, of course you are right. What I also meant to write after the "Uh-huh" was that most of the content in the link is a direct repeat of the (perhaps) apocryphal stories written many times elsewhere, including on other threads here. :)

I'm only SLF, but there are a couple of things here that I think are the author being a jobsworth and it finally prompted me to register and delurk (I've been reading for about 15 months). Sorry for butting in!

Number one, stop breastfeeding your child in your seats without covering your boobs. No one wants to see that. Dont you have any dignity?

There have been more and more campaigns in recent years towards preventing nursing mothers from feeling restricted wrt breast feeding, in some places there are hefty fines for preventing public breast feeding. Every time someone makes a new mother feel she's doing something wrong by breastfeeding it sets back the work in convincing the public of the health benefits; I think that's more important here.

If you are an old lady, I will gladly help with your luggage. If you are a strong, capable man, I wont. It is incredible to see some of these strong men getting onto the plane and expecting me, one of the tiniest ladies allowed to be cabin crew, to put up their heavy bags

This conflates two issues. One is the problem of inappropriate cabin baggage, that pisses all of us off. I was on an Air NewZealand flight a few weeks ago and a very loud Londoner got on with a heavy bag that filled an entire bin on the 772 as well as two duty free bags. I was a good 10 rows away and even I heard her say that it was her only bag; nothing in the hold. That's absurd, the people that do that annoy me so much, they deserve no help getting their bags up.

When it comes to not helping apparently strong men, I really think that's a bad mindset to get into. The vast majority of people you deal with will be in good health, but they won't all be, and those that aren't often won't want to make a big deal of that fact out of either pride/embarrassment or fear of being judged not well enough to fly, or some mixture. There's no problem with saying something like "I'm sorry, that looks too big for me to manage, too", but please don't assume that a man in his 20's is automatically in better shape than a woman in her 70's, even if that's the case 99 times in a hundred.

The rant... I feel sorry for this person simply for the idiocy of spending SO many years in a job she despised, suppose she deserved it all.

'It is only some passengers which have put a bit of tarnish on the otherwise sterling experience.'Why do you assume that she despised the job?

Think some people are reading too much into it.

Its supposed to be funny. No different to a police officer or someone else working with the public reflecting on there experiences.