Hiring A Pilot

I was doing interviews and hiring for an airline pilot and we had thirty guys in a room waiting for their chance to be interviewed for their dream job. The room they were waiting in was a classroom in a very large training center operated by the airline. For some reason, we had all of the classroom doors propped open. They could hear everything happening in the hallways.

While they were waiting there was a bit of a disturbance from one of the classrooms across and down the hall. A woman started screaming “Nah! fuck y’all! fuck y’all motherfuckers! You can’t do this to me!” and then began wailing as they quickly ushered her out of the building.

Turns out she was a new-hire flight attendant and was sitting in the front row of a classroom where the CEO of the airline was giving his welcome speech that morning. She must have partied too much the night before because she kept falling asleep as he spoke. She put her head down once and they woke her up. When she put her head down the second time the CEO made a gesture to management and they decided to dismiss her.

That was the commotion we heard. Two managers had walked her down the hall to a small classroom and informed her that she was fired. Then apparently the gates of hell opened. She spat on the walls, on the table in the room, and she flung a chair. The “fuck y’all” ranting was just the tip of the iceberg as they hurried her out into the parking lot.

Well, myself and the other hiring pilot laughed a little bit at what we had just witnessed but then it dawned on me: Those 30 pilots down the hall, who were left alone in the room with the door propped open, just heard what sounded like a woman being dragged off to her execution. Their nerves were already driving them crazy. I couldn’t imagine what they were thinking.

So I decided to attempt a joke. I walked down the hall and entered the room with a serious look on my face. All of them were staring right at me, desperate for some explanation that would lower their anxiety. Stone-faced, I made a thumb over my shoulder gesture and said, “No ticket.” There was a three second uncomfortable pause and then one guy in the back of the room bust out in laughter.

I made sure he got hired.