Southwest Airlines recently found itself in hot water and had to apologize for the actions of one of its employees. That person, a gate agent, had joked with coworkers about the unusual name of one of the passengers on the flight, and later posted a picture of that passenger’s boarding pass to her personal social media account. The passenger, a five-year-old child traveling with her mother, had the name Abcde, apparently pronounced “Abcity.”
Is it normal that an airline employee – or a firefighter – would notice an odd name and even comment on it at work?
Absolutely. Firefighters see a lot of things in the course of their work: things that are gruesome, tragic, funny or just bizarre. Talking and joking about those things with their colleagues after the fact can be a healthy way for firefighters to decompress from often stressful circumstances.