One of the "Five"

In our inflight training the instructors always told us that the flight attendants are all so nice and then they would laugh and say "well except for about five flight attendants". This was kind of a running joke through out training, these "five" flight attendants who weren't so nice and miserable in the job. I met one of the "five" the other night. The flight started out as any other, introductions, what position we would be working on the aircraft.....the usual stuff. "Mary" (not her real name and one of the "five") asked if I wanted to trade positions with her so she could work with her friend in the back of the aircraft. I agreed. For me, it doesn't matter which position I work, I am there to do a job, be part of the team. From this point things turned from OK to disaster. I am not sure what "Mary's" issue was, but from almost running me over with the beverage cart, snapping orders at me, refusing to bring me meals that customers ordered to threatening to write me up, she was without a doubt a miserable human being. I will admit, she shook me to my core. I realized, sadly, that everyone out there is not always going to be so nice, there will be other "Marys" that I will encountered and I must be better prepared emotionally next time.

Here is a fact about this career, you must be extremely adaptable. In most jobs you work with the same people day in and day out, you know what to expect. Being a flight attendant, you are working with different people all the time and you never know who and what you are going to get. I hope I can recover from this altercation with "Mary". I am fortunate that the two other flight attendants were there for me. One had previously had her own run in with "Mary" on another flight. Time will heal but I will now have my guard up just a bit more....not what I was planning on when I signed up for this but neccessary for survival!