TITLE:
Working in the Air: Time Management and Work Intensification Challenges for Workers in Commercial Aviation
AUTHORS:
Anne Gillet, Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay
KEYWORDS:
Flight Attendants, Working Time, Work-Life Balance, Work Organisation, Women’s Work
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.9 No.1,
January
25,
2021
ABSTRACT: In the air transport sector, the work of flight attendants is
characterised by the diversity of their temporalities and working hours. The
constraints of working time have impacts on the organization of other
activities and social times of the staff. This text shows the diversity of
working hours and the way they are articulated to other temporalities, in a working context where the cabin crew is
constantly changing, working on different temporary teams. The paper analyses
the regulations, the definition of working time and the specific method of
calculating this chronological time dedicated to the work activity. It shows
the intensification of work
experienced by the flight attendants, the fragmentation and heterogeneity of working times. The
constraints of atypical working hours are analysed through timetables
and the tensions experienced between professional, family and personal times.
Professional activities are characterised by a diversity
of working and non-working times that are strongly interconnected. Some national particularities highlighted can
offer interesting solutions to several difficulties experienced
elsewhere and illustrate ways of adjusting or getting around the working time issues specific to the work of the flight
attendants. This paper is based on
theoretical and empirical research carried out with air hostesses,
stewards and pursers employed in several regular, low-cost and charter airlines
in Canada and in several European countries.