The use of creativity and a trolley accidentally smashing someone

Many times I´m asked “how is it that you can stand and work with a college that is a clear pain in the (you can figure where is that pain)?” And my answer is very simple: patience and trying not to get myself sick from those situations.

At this point we all know that as crew we are doomed to work with a multicultural facade of nationalities and that each one of them carries out a particular “thing” from their culture. No, I´m not talking about their ideologies, gastronomical background or social values; I´m talking about the cultural level of bitchiness. Northern Europeans, for example German or Swedish, simply ignore you when you talk to them if they are in a bad mood or “not being nice” to you. So they might simply not answer the intercom when you request another bottle of water from the galley while you are standing in the middle of the aisle with your cart while performing meal and beverage service. South Americans tend to be very responsive and not in a very polite way, usually they choose their words with a quota of violence: “be aware when you go down the stairs from the rest area”. Indians usually get accelerated and trying to make their level of bitchiness and proudness a bureaucracy, how? By making a report for nonsense things to human resources and usually then you get notified or have to make a statement to your Manager about that silly “thing” (just a waste of time).

Yes, I have lived many situations like that and the far worst was when my little finger got “accidentally” smashed by a 20´s something female I-try-to-be-occidental Korean. She simply secured the trolley “without noticing” that my hand was there and well, I almost finished my day of work with 9 fingers. Who would have thought that a Korean would have that behavior after (apparently) storing rage when I refused to swap rooms with her during the layover? See? In this vocation you get the chance to get to know how a human being manifests shocking reactions in situations that don´t require that amount of energy.

How may someone cope with all of that? Not-all-may, sometimes they do perfectly but for a short period of time and then start to get physically sick due to the stress of coping with those kind of people. High fevers, body rushes, terrible headaches (migraines), nausea and even sudden lost of weight are some of the direct symptoms of stress. I have to make you a confession: many times I thought that I was pregnant because I had all the symptoms, morning sickness, sudden whim follow by excruciating nonstop vomiting; sore boobs so on and so on. The problem was that counting my days back it was impossible for me to be pregnant unless I was about to become Virgin Mary Volume II. So, what was wrong with me? Stress. Yes, stress made my boobs sore.

Is not easy and I´m still learning how to deal with those situations and not to over involve myself with bad energy. There are crew who have this horrible “aura” in each flight and it´s not that they are going through a bad situation or moment in their life, no. They are simply bitchy and that is it. So, I started doing yoga but it didn´t work. Pilates, neither. Spinning, well, it kind of work but not entirely. What is currently working and being very effective cost free is imagining a situation in my head were they get physically hurt or publicly humiliated. I can go beyond borders and the most important thing is that is it cost free. My favorite one? 

Yes, this one goes in my head over and over again: the trolley has a faulty brake system and during an air pocket the cart accidentally goes down the aisle at full speed and knocks outs that particular crew that is trying to make my life miserable doing that flight. Since I started playing with my imagination and creativity I may state that stress has been reduced from “I can´t get out of bed” to “I´m doing my favorite sport with no effort whatsoever”: fake smiling

(I don´t own the above picture)