VS-LHRCSA I agree with you on the maturity vs age argument.
I started flying at 22 and was perfectly capable of looking after myself, the passengers and the various emergencies I had in my first year. On the other hand, when I trained for BA, there were some people much, much older than me in the course. While myself and a small group where studying and practising evacuation procedures and fighting fires with the hotel room bathroom door, some others (all the older ones in fact) were more than happy to just drink away all night in the pub opposite the hotel.
To add insult to injury, the evening before our last SEP day they all got really drunk and the senior member of the group even managed to throw up during the CRM course the following morning.
Very professional indeed!! However we all passed the course with the exception of one person, as somehow the senior people's wisdom eventually kicked in (or the enthusiasm started to fade...it depends on points of view!)
As for jeans, they are not allowed on the course so I do not know who said it is ok to wear them as it is not. Although for the day that you're rostered swimming test/slides/fire you are allowed to wear some sort of tracksuit trousers. The trainers' words are in fact "comfortable clothing" as for health&safety rules you have to wear non-restrictive clothing. How that is interpreted on a daily basis, I do not know.
What really annoys the whole community at LGW is that those cabin crew that are still sticking to their jobs for whatever reason have been working so hard during the last 12 months that have hit the 900 flying hours limit and now are compelled to do "ground duties" (long story, it doesn't mean they're working on the ground, it's more like a kind of weird stand-by). So we lack cabin crew and those who are able to fly cannot because they've been worked so hard for the last year!!!!!!
T&C and money are a huge factor why people leave so soon, and so used to be the rosters. Someone allegedly reported that new entrants' rosters are "hand picked" to give them the impression that it's all lovely at LGW and postpone their leaving day for a while!!!!!! Whether this is true or not, nobody knows, but it is true that new entrants' do not have the workload that would be expected in this time of crisis!!!
Another factor that is repeating itself, which I previously experienced while flying for a UK charter airline, is that the job of cabin crew is still perceived as glamorous and the life style like the tv series "mile-high" (which should be banned!!!) with lots of fun, booze, sex, money, jetsetting around the world....so lots of people who had been working in clean environments like high street retail shops etc think they can make their lives exciting working as little as possible, while the reality is completely the opposite!!!
Fun? wake up calls at 3am are rarely fun. Booze? Maybe in your days off, as most short haul nightstops have a minimum rest of 11hrs and depending on where you fly rules can be very restrictive on alcohol consuption.
Sex? Even if there were the chance, most crew are simply too shattered to even think about that.
Money?hahahaha!! Not at LGW!!!
Jetsetting around the world? Around the world's most famous chains of hotels maybe. By the time you have rested and had something to eat it's time to fly back!! 7 day lonh-haul trips are an exception at LGW and some of the longer ones still have shuttles in between.
These are major factors in my opinion. The crew who have been working for long and are not leaving despite all of that (including myself) are usually doing the job for other various reasons that definitely exclude the need of paying the rent and bills, but those young new people who start their working lives with BA or move from retail and similar jobs soon realize that they can easily earn twice as much working half as much and do not think about it twice before they fly the nest.
Aaahhh I had to get that out of my chest, I feel better now
FBW