Read this before applying to Qatar Airways

[sophiabecker]

Please inform yourselves before applying to be a Cabin Crew on this particular airline. The truth is not widespread and can’t be easily found on internet. These Open Days are more like a recruitment for slaves, you are never told about how things really work around here and people fall really easily on their trap because of the “high” paying salaries promises.



Once you join expect to have no private life, you literally sold your life to them… the company will interfere on every aspect of your professional and PRIVATE life, you will be forced to live within company accommodation where security guards register every move you make, on your days off you must remain home 12 hours before each flight, actually is 12 hours before your pick up time, so most of the times you arrive home from work and is already “locked down” for the next duty. 

Even worst, if it’s your day off and next day you have an early morning flight starting at 4am for example you must be locked home by 1pm on your day off since pickup time is usually 3 hours before the flight and you must be home 12h before pickup time. You can never leave home between 4am and 7am, cameras are used to enforce all these rules 24/7 in addition to check points where you must swipe your ID to enter and exit home even on your day off. 

Visiting hours are limited to 10PM, all your visitors are registered and photographed on arrival, their documents will be retained until they leave the building. From time to time your accommodation will receive spot checks, this is when someone from the company enters your accommodation WITHOUT knocking on your door and will inspect your place looking not only for illegal items but also to evaluate if it is clean and organised, they will open all your kitchen stuffs, drawers, fridge, etc… 



The airline operates its own set of rules when comes to flight duty limitations, contrary to a normal airline cabin crew is constantly abused by a no limited block duty limitation. Expect to fly 140h a month while on any normal airline your fly 75h to 100h the most. Also contrary to a normal airline cabin crew have longer daily duty limitations compared to pilots, so it’s not uncommon for the deck crew to get some rest on a layover after a long flight to Moscow for example while the cabin crew is forced to operate the returning sector based on these absurds duty limitations. 

Recently the company is undergoing adjustments to become EASA compliant, but was unable to adjust it self to flight duty limitations because not enough cabin crews are willing to endure this kind of life for much longer than 2 years, this is the minimum time before you are allowed to resign with no penalties, if you try to leave early they will charge you money for that.

Job security is close to zero, you might be terminated and no explanations given for using your mobile in uniform, for getting pregnant (this also will put you in jail once being pregnant and not married is a crime on this part of the world), for not wearing your hat on a crew bus (even when curtains are closed), for any passenger complaint, or anything the managers decide to pick on you. 

Getting married without company’s approval is also a reason for termination. The country labor law prohibits unions so you are on your own if any issue arises within the company (or your personal life once the airline controls all aspects of it). To make things worst the country adopts an “exit permit” system which requires company approval every time you need leave the country, so if any major issue arises you will be held in the country until investigation is concluded, so it’s not uncommon for crew to simply jump the ship during a layover or going home for a visit and never coming back.



Working environment is extremely stressful, for some reason the report culture is very present and reports among colleagues is highly encouraged by the company, and believe me when I say that every single report is processed and you will be called to the office in order to give explanations. The average of the cabin crew being hired by the company is 23 years old, so you can imagine how crazy it gets when you give reporting powers to all these people who never worked for an airline before. 



Being an expat woman on this country is also a concern, the locals are very respectful in general but 90% of the population is male labours coming from the subcontinent (so is the company management), expect to suffer constant sexual harassment when walking on the streets at any time of the day. The country in general is extremely safe, but bad things that happen here are always hidden by the local media, filming and posting things on internet is illegal so we never know how safe this place really is.

Relationships with colleagues are highly “discouraged” by the company and may lead to arbitrary terminations, this is the only part I can’t verify but the “fear factor” around this matter is very real.



Please do yourself a favor and talk to people working here before applying for this job. More info can be found at glassdoor.com where employees post reviews of the company, just look how many bad reviews for cabin crew job.


Wish you all luck

* Lot's of spaces added as per GrahamO request, he/she got issues with "no spaces and punctuations "

[Flyboy_SG]

Well said and True ! I have heard the same from my folks.

[Dan_Brown]

Oh I'm not surprised in the least. What do you expect from these people in that region??

What makes them an even bigger "shower", is the fact it is not a level playing field. If an expat male "approaches" a local women, there will be serious consequences.

On the peninsula and beyond, they have a history and very accomplished at running slaves, over many millennia.

[Uplinker]

Thank you for posting Sophia, that is indeed shocking. I would see if you can interest the UK newspapers or the serious television media about this, for example the BBC.

What is it about ‘men’* in some countries? Can’t these idiots read a calendar - it is the year 2018 guys, not 1818.

Glad I never applied to them, (for a pilot job), and also glad in retrospect that another airline in the ME I did apply to said no.



*I am assuming this is all perpetrated by men, but they don’t deserve to be called men at all.

[GrahamO]

Sorry but there is zero new in that long rant which would really be helped if the poster used puctutation as so many people won't bother to read a block of text like that as thats how crazy people post. So, having ploughed through it;

1. You are not a slave, you get paid.

2. You can leave - you are factually wrong about needing permission to leave - thats stopped a year or more ago.

3. You were told you would be living in company accommodation, before you signed up.

4. Proof of Identity as not unusual for access to private buildings - you get that in almost any office in the region if you are a visitor.

5. I am sure you were aware of the flight limitations an rostering before you joined. If you didnt then more fool you for not bothering to check it wasnt the same as an airline from your home country.

6. Repayment of employment fees is not a surprise to anyone who ahs worked in the Gulf - it costs a lot to bring you over and train you and if you cannot cut it and leave, then its not unreasonable to ask you to pay back their investment.

7. You knew the rules about marriage when you signed up to job so why whine about it when you decide its inconvenient ? If you didnt agree with it, then why did you sign ?

8. being pregnant and not married is NOT a crime - having sex out of wedlock is and there are plenty of pregnant single ladies in the GCC who conceived overseas. Again, the local laws are there and you have no right to whine about not being able to break them.

Sorry m'dear but there's nothing there than any informed person who has lived in the region would be surprised about - including the self-belief and complaints of those who didnt do their checks before signing up and those who do sign up and then complain when it isnt just like home and the reality of the region isnt to their taste.

The world is not the way it is in your home, and for many people, thats just fine - even if you do not like it.

[sophiabecker]

Stoped taking you seriously after comment #2, not knowing that exit permit only changed it’s name to Businesses Leave Notification and still works the exactly same way shows me you have no idea what you are talking about or just wanna cover up all it’s being said above. Not that I never said things like “stay away”, “do not apply”, etc... this post has the only purpose to inform people about how things work here and help them to make up their own minds. Thank you for confirming all I said by trying to find a justification for each one of them.
Wish you the best.

[Uplinker]

Do you work for this company, and if so are you flight deck or cabin crew, GrahamO?

[Uplinker]

GrahamO

Sorry but there is zero new in that long rant which would really be helped if the poster used puctutation as so many people won't bother to read a block of text like that as that{‘}s how crazy people post.
my bold brackets showing your missing punctuation.

Has it occurred to you that the OP might not be a native English speaker?

Did you miss the ‘s’ at the end of news or did you mean to write ‘zero new’? If so that is peculiar use of English. Your sentence construction is awful too.



Sorry m'dear........ my bold.

Patronising or what?

[lfbb]

Do you work for this company, and if so are you flight deck or cabin crew, GrahamO?

Apparently he does work for the company and I find extremely disturbing to see someone accepting the described labour practises above as being normal in 2018.

1. There are many kinds of slavery, paying someone does not grant you the wrights to do anything you want.

2. Wrong, they just changed the name to Business Leave Notifications. But works the same way. If the company does not let you leave the country you won't pass the immigration.

3. Yes, but I assume they won't say a word about guards and swiping ID's to go out on a day off.

4. It's not an office, it's were people live. But as you well mentioned it is treated as an office.

5. Most of these kids are 22 years old and never flown before even as passengers. Do you expect them to know about crew regulations?

6. I'll give you that one, you are right.

7. Nope, the CEO himself denied live on CNN that those practices are not true. Guess what, he lied to Richard Quest.

8. Please explain me how you get pregnant without having sex? So if you are pregnant and not married you broke the law and will have your kid in jail or overseas as you mentioned. Is that normal to you?

GrahamO I'm not sure what was the intent of your post, but once again your position accepting these practices as normal is really disturbing. Hopefully people like you will never make into a management position anywhere in our industry, but unfortunately most of the time they do and that's why things are the way they are now.

[Dan_Brown]

I think Graham likes being bullied and told what to do. I'm sure he likes Mrs Merkel.

[cavortingcheetah]

Flown a few times on Qatar in and out of Doha International. Mostly flew first class and have to say that stress and fear seemed to be the dominant characteristics of the mostly, Malayan and Oriental cabin crews with whom we flew. Didn't understand why this should be so until we first arrived at Doha for the connecting aircraft change. The ground staff, all of whom seemed to be Arabs, were quite the nastiest bunch of airport demigods I've ever come across. They were utterly autocratic and thoroughly unpleasant even to us lucky enough to fly first. Bad attitude wouldn't begin to sum it up. Akbar Al Baker too has a frightening reputation that may or might not be well deserved of course. It's an airline to think about avoiding as a passenger unless you wish to fly in a brand new machine staffed by frightened, stressed and persecuted people even if they did all about it when they started the job.

[JAXBA]

Sorry but there is zero new in that long rant

Does that make it less true?

which would really be helped if the poster used pu[n]ctutation

How was their spelling, such as with punctuation?

as so many people won't bother to read a block of text like that

I did. You did. Are you objecting to the OPs content, or just their style?

as that[']s how crazy people post.

Uh huh.

So, having ploughed through it;

Woe is you.

1. You are not a slave, you get paid.

Google *Modern Day Slavery* and see Contemporary slavery on Wikipedia, and another website by Antislavery.

Originally posted by Antislavery.org
Someone is in slavery if they are:

owned or controlled by an ’employer’, through mental or physical abuse or the threat of abuse
physically constrained or have restrictions placed on their freedom of movement.


2. You can leave - you are factually wrong about needing permission to leave - that[']s stopped a year or more ago.

Apparently you are factually wrong about this.

3. You were told you would be living in company accommodation, before you signed up.

Are they told how closely and creepily they'll be watched though? Are they told about random inspections and invasions of privacy?

4. Proof of Identity as not unusual for access to private buildings - you get that in almost any office in the region if you are a visitor.

Maybe, but the ID also tracks timings, which are monitored to the second. Kind of like an ankle bracelet huh? You know this of course…

5. I am sure you were aware of the flight limitations an[d] rostering before you joined. If you didn[']t then more fool you for not bothering to check it wasn[']t the same as an airline from your home country.

Hmmm. While you have a point, I am sure you're aware that these policies can be very difficult to understand, especially for a first-timer. Yes, anyone signing something needs to realise what they're signing, but that doesn't make it right to have unrealistic or even dangerous duty times. EASA limits, for example, are set with safety in mind. Do you know better than EASA? Seems reasonable to at least try and get close to an international standard…

6. Repayment of employment fees is not a surprise to anyone who ahs worked in the Gulf - it costs a lot to bring you over and train you and if you cannot cut it and leave, then its not unreasonable to ask you to pay back their investment.

What about the restricted access to funds already earned? Is that reasonable? Perhaps some kind of initial formal loan arrangement might be more above board…

7. You knew the rules about marriage when you signed up to job so why whine about it when you decide its inconvenient ? If you didnt agree with it, then why did you sign ?

See (1) Slavery.

The world is not the way it is in your home, and for many people, that[']s just fine - even if you do not like it.

No sir, slavery and mental abuse are not fine, even if they might be customary.

[sophiabecker]

7. Nope, the CEO himself denied live on CNN that those practices are not true. Guess what, he lied to Richard Quest.



Yep, that can be easily found on YouTube... just look for “Qatar Airways GCEO on CNN's Quest Means Business with Richard Quest”, at 3:10 on this particular video.

[lfbb]

Yep, that can be easily found on YouTube... just look for “Qatar Airways GCEO on CNN's Quest Means Business with Richard Quest”, at 3:10 on this particular video.

Or here:
https://streamable.com/w1vh9

[Cymmon]

Sorry m'dear but there's nothing there than any informed person who has lived in the region would be surprised about - including the self-belief and complaints of those who didnt do their checks before signing up and those who do sign up and then complain when it isnt just like home and the reality of the region isnt to their taste.

m'dear? How patronising....
Male chauvinism at its best! As stated before, it's 2018. There is no place for this sick , I am better attitude anywhere in the world.

[Fliegenmong]

Yes.....I flatly disagree with the ME3 and choose not to support them....simple..

[sophiabecker]

Is your company accommodation full of bugs? Don't worry Qatar Airways got you covered!

Pest control guys will knock on your door 7 in the morning after you just fell asleep from a long night flight and preparing for the next duty that will happen at the same evening. If you don't wake up and answer the door they will come back again, usually within an hour. If you continue to sleep or decided to turn off you doorbell so you can finally get some rest they will come back a third time, but now holding the keys to your accommodation and "force" their way in.

But hey, say goodbye to those bugs!

[Dan_Brown]

In defence of these people, they went from Camels and Donkeys to high tech machinery in 3 generations. Future generations will be back where they started. :}

[Heathrow Harry]

3 generations? Less than one

have you seen the aerial picture of Dubai on 1968 in the Museum?

there were only 13 cars registered in the country then.....

A couple of streets, sand lapping against the town and a large gap between the town and the Palace.... i'm sure Qatar was similar.....https://www.thenational.ae/image/policy:1.468091:1499656176/image/jpeg.jpg?$p=79ddad7&w=1136&$w=ec52ab9

[Contact Approach]

.graham0youvebeendonesoN

[sophiabecker]

Sorry guys but although I totally disagree how we are treated by the company I urge everyone not to drag the topic to the dumpster with racist comments agains locals, specially because locals are not the ones responsible for what goes on in the company, labor laws are not great but I assure you that the company rules are not created by Qataris.... the company is run by other nationality, and I truly believe that’s where the problem is.

[hitansh]

Please inform yourselves before applying to be a Cabin Crew on this particular airline. The truth is not widespread and can’t be easily found on internet. These Open Days are more like a recruitment for slaves, you are never told about how things really work around here and people fall really easily on their trap because of the “high” paying salaries promises.



Once you join expect to have no private life, you literally sold your life to them… the company will interfere on every aspect of your professional and PRIVATE life, you will be forced to live within company accommodation where security guards register every move you make, on your days off you must remain home 12 hours before each flight, actually is 12 hours before your pick up time, so most of the times you arrive home from work and is already “locked down” for the next duty. 

Even worst, if it’s your day off and next day you have an early morning flight starting at 4am for example you must be locked home by 1pm on your day off since pickup time is usually 3 hours before the flight and you must be home 12h before pickup time. You can never leave home between 4am and 7am, cameras are used to enforce all these rules 24/7 in addition to check points where you must swipe your ID to enter and exit home even on your day off. 

Visiting hours are limited to 10PM, all your visitors are registered and photographed on arrival, their documents will be retained until they leave the building. From time to time your accommodation will receive spot checks, this is when someone from the company enters your accommodation WITHOUT knocking on your door and will inspect your place looking not only for illegal items but also to evaluate if it is clean and organised, they will open all your kitchen stuffs, drawers, fridge, etc… 



The airline operates its own set of rules when comes to flight duty limitations, contrary to a normal airline cabin crew is constantly abused by a no limited block duty limitation. Expect to fly 140h a month while on any normal airline your fly 75h to 100h the most. Also contrary to a normal airline cabin crew have longer daily duty limitations compared to pilots, so it’s not uncommon for the deck crew to get some rest on a layover after a long flight to Moscow for example while the cabin crew is forced to operate the returning sector based on these absurds duty limitations. 

Recently the company is undergoing adjustments to become EASA compliant, but was unable to adjust it self to flight duty limitations because not enough cabin crews are willing to endure this kind of life for much longer than 2 years, this is the minimum time before you are allowed to resign with no penalties, if you try to leave early they will charge you money for that.

Job security is close to zero, you might be terminated and no explanations given for using your mobile in uniform, for getting pregnant (this also will put you in jail once being pregnant and not married is a crime on this part of the world), for not wearing your hat on a crew bus (even when curtains are closed), for any passenger complaint, or anything the managers decide to pick on you. 

Getting married without company’s approval is also a reason for termination. The country labor law prohibits unions so you are on your own if any issue arises within the company (or your personal life once the airline controls all aspects of it). To make things worst the country adopts an “exit permit” system which requires company approval every time you need leave the country, so if any major issue arises you will be held in the country until investigation is concluded, so it’s not uncommon for crew to simply jump the ship during a layover or going home for a visit and never coming back.



Working environment is extremely stressful, for some reason the report culture is very present and reports among colleagues is highly encouraged by the company, and believe me when I say that every single report is processed and you will be called to the office in order to give explanations. The average of the cabin crew being hired by the company is 23 years old, so you can imagine how crazy it gets when you give reporting powers to all these people who never worked for an airline before. 



Being an expat woman on this country is also a concern, the locals are very respectful in general but 90% of the population is male labours coming from the subcontinent (so is the company management), expect to suffer constant sexual harassment when walking on the streets at any time of the day. The country in general is extremely safe, but bad things that happen here are always hidden by the local media, filming and posting things on internet is illegal so we never know how safe this place really is.

Relationships with colleagues are highly “discouraged” by the company and may lead to arbitrary terminations, this is the only part I can’t verify but the “fear factor” around this matter is very real.



Please do yourself a favor and talk to people working here before applying for this job. More info can be found at glassdoor.com where employees post reviews of the company, just look how many bad reviews for cabin crew job.


Wish you all luck

* Lot's of spaces added as per GrahamO request, he/she got issues with "no spaces and punctuations "

Same hardships are faced by Expat Fresher Pilots ?

[sophiabecker]

Same hardships are faced by Expat Fresher Pilots ?

Not really, pilots go thru different ordeals but basically the only requirement is to be in Doha 12 hours before a flight, they may not arrive from a commute and report for a flight. The ones living in company accommodation are usually not bothered by the company when it comes to private life.

[hitansh]

Not really, pilots go thru different ordeals but basically the only requirement is to be in Doha 12 hours before a flight, they may not arrive from a commute and report for a flight. The ones living in company accommodation are usually not bothered by the company when it comes to private life.

12 hours..and there maybe many more exploitations due to weak labour laws I guess.