What to consider when someone says "Take this job and shove it"--it's more than just one guy losing a job!

This gives a whole new meaning to the term "burning bridges."

On Monday, flight attendant, Steven Slater, went to work for JetBlue for the last time--mostly on account of how he left this job more than anything else.  According to the story reported in The Wall Street Journal, " Prosecutors say the JetBlue flight attendant flipped out over a fight with an agitated traveler... cursing over the intercom before grabbing some beer from the plane's galley and making a grand exit down the emergency slide at Kennedy Airport."

He actually got more than just unemployment status.

Yes, it's an attention-grabbing story on an old theme first made famous by country artist Johnny Paycheck's song "Take this job and shove it!"  How many people do you personally know who burn career bridges so dramatically! All in the span of about 5 minutes, Mr. Slater effectively lost his job, ended his career in the aviation industry, and has likely scored high enough on the deviancy scale to get a police record.  

If all of that weren't enough, he's achieved enough notoriety and fame to almost ensure his having a very challenging time getting a job anywhere that has any degree of management discretion associated with it!  Let's be serious here for a moment:  Would you hire Mr. Slater after this?  Hell, he's effectively burned bridges in life he hasn't even come to yet!  

But to me what makes this an especially interesting story--for managers, at least--is how other people around us have reacted to the story.  This incident is as much a commentary on the ways of commerce and the culture as it is about Mr. Slater's character and judgment.  Let's take each of these one at a time...

Mr. Slater as a hero.

Although he has received felony charges for his behavior, it is reported that he's also been  elevated to folk-hero standing by literally thousands of people who somehow identify with his decision to tell JetBlue to take a hike and put their job where the sun never shines.  Using a MySpace photo of Mr. Slater posing with a pleased look on his face, "fans" of his have set up more than one Facebook page, with about 40,000 supporters already.  

It is difficult--remember, I'm speaking from a "manager's" perspective here--how anyone in their right mind would idolize Mr. Slater's actions or good judgment; however, apparently we live in a culture where some people, at least, think that what he did was at some level, admirable.  I'm not always conscious of this reality, but this report dramatizes it pretty emphatically! It reminds me that I might best serve my own career interests--and those of the organization I work and manage for--if now and then I plan a few more proactive, let's-deal-with-some-critical-incident-issue sessions with my customer-facing employees!  

JetBlue as a deficient airline.

What executives and managers have to contend with more and more is the effect unfortunate events have on the reputation of the firm itself.  JetBlue was obviously unlucky in the HR sense to have hired Mr. Slater in the first place; now it has be endure the indignities of being called a shabby carrier by some in the media.  Here, see for yourself--from Bloomberg, of all places...

Clearly this media "authority" is either unaware of or is ignoring JetBlue, in reality, being ranked very high--and consistently so--on independent quality measures.  But that reality will be lost on many in the marketplace who hear such misguided opinions.  

In my judgment, these unmerited observations can be largely attributable to the 24-hour-a-day media news cycle demands and the need for outlets to fill air-time with content, even if it is useless-but-negative information in the process.  However misleading they may be, television and other media avenues exist for chance events to many times take an unfair toll on a firm--and heighten demands on management to protect that image; these include Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, and the list goes on.  

This all goes to show that it's far-from-easy to be a manager in unfortunate circumstances.  However, it is safe to say that Mr. Slater will likely not be among the ranks of management to complicate that process very soon--if at all.  

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