Work stress among female cabin crew

Abstract

This paper presents a study carried out on the stress among female cabin crew working in an international airline. The female cabin crew members are of Indian and International origin working with the international airline, a multinational organization in the United Kingdom (UK). The total sample size considered for the study comprises of 100 women. The respondents' age lies in the range of 25 to 50 years belonging to a variety of races. Purposive sampling technique was used in this regard. 'Stress, Strain and coping styles among Airhostesses' scale was used to analyze the factors influencing the stress among female cabin crew. It was found that stress effects are playing an equal role on all the cabin crew independent of the regularity of the feeling. It is also inferred that all of the people feel equally strained independent of the regularity of the feeling. This work gives a fair idea about occupational stress and is useful for working professional to gauge their stress levels. Introduction The status of women in India has been changing continuously depending on the amount of exposure they get as they grow and as a campaign of equal human rights was initiated by many activists and reformers at the beginning of the modern era, change in the status of women was witnessed. It was observed that the women in India have held high offices. It was then the positions of the President, Prime Minister and many other leadership roles were taken over by Indian women. However, inequality still prevails among a large number of Indians societies. The traditional homemaker's job was replaced by many careers that was earlier dominated by men, out of which, the job of a Flight attendant was taken over by women as one of the career options. Flight attendants, air hostesses, cabin crew, flight stewardesses or inflight crew are all the names given to the person or a group of people responsible for the safety and security of an aircraft, passengers and each other. Flight attendants on board a flight collectively form a cabin crew. The main role of a flight attendant is to ensure passenger safety and other roles include client service duties such as serving meals and drinks. Moreover, emergencies services such as rejected takeoffs , emergency landings, smoke in the cabin, fires, depressurization, dangerous goods and spills in the cabin, emergency evacuations, hijackings, water landings, and sea, jungle, arctic, and desert survival skills were also part of their job profile. But as it said, everything comes with a package deal and so with this kind of job profiles, several work-related issues such as job stress, mental health problems and risk factors also came along. Isolation and solitude are experienced by the crew due to inability to maintain regular social relationships at home as well as on the job due to job demands, such as constantly changing crew composition with each flight, resulting in working with new colleagues, could be a huge benefit, but might limit opportunities to develop a steady group of workplace friends for mutual support. It's also believed that the isolation associated with the job may have contributed to the suicides among some colleagues. Work-life balance is another factor which has a very adverse effect on physical health and general well-being. As the flight attendant has all the onus of building relationships with passengers by creating a friendly atmosphere and also by treating passengers with respect and kindness. Passengers may or may not reciprocate to the flight attendant. Hence the flight attendant may use the unaccepted ways to these actions.