I wonder how Airline CEO's would feel if they had to personally endure their coach class "product" these days?

No action was taken against him because he "calmed down"?

Since when has it been a crime for a boss to chew out his employees, unprofessionally or not? He's the friggin' boss!

I'm sure the Public Order Act is as Orwellian as it sounds, and I'm sure this is the future of capitalism as we morph into an age where the people who provide the money to create the companies to hire people are increasingly made subservient to the great god of equality and compassion.

While the boss should not have screamed obscenities in the presence of customers, he should have taken the employees into the back, screamed obscenities at them and then told them to get the *bleep* out of his airline because they're fired.

I find it funny that the workers don't know who their own CEO is. I wonder if this is common in most businesses?

@OmniZero: Walk into a local office/location/branch of any large national company (be it a Home Depot, Bank of America or Enterprise Car rental) and ask the people working there who the CEO is. I'd bet you any amount of money most of them wouldn't have a clue who it is.

I didn't learn the name of the CEO of my company until I saw it on an internal memo about 8 months after I started.

@MalcoveMagnesia: Did you read the story?

"The former RAF pilot makes regular visits to see if his staff are providing adequate levels of customer service and also regularly boards Jet2.com flights to observe how cabin crew treat passengers."

Sounds like he does.

@shibblegritz: I think the problem was that he was screaming obscenities in public.

I agree completely, most CEOs are completely out of touch with their customers and work force.

@dragonfire81: And even if they know the name, they're probably not going to know what the CEO looks like.

The CEO did cross the line with the cussing, but I know if my CEO came in and saw my line with a 60 min wait and I was sitting on my butt, he may blow a gasket (he's notoriously nice too).

@shibblegritz: Yeah, because screaming obscenities at your employees and then firing them certainly won't backfire. He'll likely have to pay their unemployment because he verbally abused them prior to their termination.

@OmniZero: I didn't see anything in the article to indicate that the employees didn't know he was the CEO.

@shibblegritz:

Over this side of the water, we'd just call it plain old fashioned "Harassment". You can't go around being that level of an ass in public just about anywhere, and nobody considers it orwellian.

@veg-o-matic: i think it's a safe assumption. If they knew who he was, they'd have probably realized he was actually their boss and not another traveling peon.

@zombies.like.lattés.too: Alsom this is in the UK where firing someone is anything but quick, straightforward, easy, or cheap.

@nakajo:

Corporate rules may be the reason for this. If your workplace is tight-fisted with breaks/lunch, the employees will take them the moment they can, screw the customers.

Having worked in a call centre that means you have lunch when the queue is at its peak and your 2 x 10 minute daily washroom breaks anytime whatsoever. Why? Because if you don't you generally don't get any recompense from the company for being nice. If you miss your breaks, that's your problem, you're not going to see 20 minutes extra pay. If you missed lunch, though, you could go home early, but that's because they didn't like paying overtime...

Being that this is a discount airline, the CEO probably runs it the same way and isn't happy to see the results of his cheap bastardry displayed so publicly.

@shibblegritz:

I don't think you are allowed to abuse people, whether they work for you or not. Ever heard of things like "Assault" and "Battery"? Just because you work for someone doesn't give them the right to do whatever they want.

@OmniZero:

Why would they know? He is in the penthouse office with his golden parachute while they are manning the front lines actually getting work done so he can get his 5 million bonus for driving the company into the ground.

@shibblegritz: Right, like cursing out your employees in an unprofessional manner will not gather you any favors when a suit is filed.

Second, in many many fields chewing out your employees like they are slavesis a good way to get killed via "accidents." Whoops, ladder slipped, safety line wasn't tied off, boss's respirator didn't have the cartridge in it, powr was turned back on when the boss has his hand in a machine, etc. You do not piss off people who are responsible for keeping you alive by acting like they should be callin' you "Massa!"

You sir, are an arrogent fuckup. Watch that ladder.

@OmniZero: I wouldn't know our CEO if he walked in the door. It's not like there's a shrine in every location to him.

@Saboth:

Except that he's the founder, so without him, none of those people would have jobs in the first place.

@Saboth: How did you manage to get some correlation with "Assault" and "Battery" out of this?!? Screaming alone is not criminal in this circumstance, but it does make the boss unprofessional. I think the guy is an idiot, but how sensitive are people in today's world?!? Good Lord! Suck it up and start your new job search while you kill time working for that DB. 40 really is the new 20 because it takes forever for people to mature and grow up in our society (or the UK's for that matter).

@NeverLetMeDown: Um, a CEO isn't necessarily a founder you know?

@shepd: Yes, you can say whatever you want in public. Cuss words are not illegal. What kind of crazy country makes speech illegal? And picks and chooses which words are proper? That is one scary country.

In the end, he is the boss. He can yell all he wants. I just hope he cans whoever called the cops on him. Not knowing your own company's CEO should be a fireable offenses no matter where you are.

@shibblegritz: I think Malcove is referring to other airlines, such as Delta or AA

@Corporate_guy: If he is in public causing a disturbance it doesn't matter who he is. You also can't treat your employees like shit and scream and cuss at them.

Not knowing who the CEO is in no way affects the front line workers' day-to-day duties.

@jake.valentine:

Getting in someone's face and yelling obscenities can really be construed as "assault" in many instances. If a guy you saw at the supermarket did it, you'd probably call the cops on him, eh? Just because he is your boss doesn't excuse him from the same treatment...and if he just so happened to poke you in the chest while screaming like a lunatic? There is your battery.

@shepd: Just because you don't "consider" it Orwellian doesn't mean it isn't Orwellian...

I think he was expecting them to be far more efficient and timely in applying new and annoying fees.

@smartmuffin:

I don't know, but to me Orwellian has to do with having basic rights infringed, the kind that existed before the bible was written. I don't even think you were allowed to run around berating people at the top of your lungs in ancient Egypt, never mind today. You know, human decency and all that.

In reading "Nuts" (the Southwest Airlines story), one of the early employees talked about how some random guy came up to her on her first day of work at a busy terminal, told her Southwest was really lucky to have her, gave her a little kiss on the cheek, and went on his way. She asked her coworker who it was, and was told "Oh, that's Herb, isn't he the sweetest thing"... and of course she later doscivered that "Herb" was Herb Kelleher, the CEO of the airline.

I would think his approach was much more likely to result in great customer service and that the CEO of Jet2 could learn a thing or two from Herb.

@OmniZero: CEO-type middle-aged white men all look the same. I will be one someday too and I accept that.

Reminds me of one of my favorite prank phone calls:

"Hello, you have reached the law offices of Smith, Smith and Jones. How can I help you."

"Yes, hello, I was hurt at work today."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, but we specialize in workplace injuries. Can you tell me a bit more about what happened."

"Well, my boss yelled at me, and he said some very vicious things and I was very hurt by that."

"Uh...We don't..."

"And then I tried to leave and fell down the stairs and my shoe came off."

@shibblegritz: Wow, I like how you come right out and say that money should buy you out of having to deal with things like "equality" and presumably other inconvenience Constitutional rights (if you are an American, and yes I know the story is British).

@Smashville_makes his own comments at home: When I am the CEO of my own company, I will make sure every location has a shrine to me, because it will be awesome. I'll even decree it must look like a creepy stalker shrine, because then it would be awesome and funny. To me at least.

*Does a happy dance.* My posting! The article got me going pretty good about the fellow chewing them out, but I had to collect my jaw when it was revealed that it was the airline's chief executive..

Um, whoops...

Time to go change your drawers kiddies, and collect your nerves.

Not to mention your pink slips....

@shibblegritz: I know that when I get made fun of/chewed out/whatever rather than being worked with to fix the problem, that totally motivates me to care even less.

@calchip: That is what so great about Herb, he worked from the top down in keeping everyone focused on one thing; to keep the passengers and employees of SWAir happy and productive.

The CEO of Jet2 had a valid reason to go rip a few new ones at the counter. If he kept his head and did so in a polite manner, the employees would not have called the bobbies on him.

Now they are sweating bullets wondering if their mailbox will be holding a Pink One with their name on it....

@Saboth: yelling at an employee for being incompetent and lazy is not assault and battery, it is yelling at an employee, who is getting paid to do a job, for not doing said job.

If they are doing everything that is expected of them, that is one thing; but when an employee is not doing their job, it is well within the power of a manager to yell at them. You are there because the company lets you be there, no other reason. If you don't like it, get a job with lower expectations. Otherwise put up or shut up.

That being said, reprimands from someone your senior in a company should be done in private.

@dragonfire81:

Yes, I know. In this case, however, he is.

If there's a 60 min. wait, a REAL CEO doesn't yell at employees. He gets behind the counter and helps out till the line dissipates. THEN he yells at them.

There was a local gym and burger (ironic I know, same family, separate business) franchise. It wasn't unusual to go in for a work out and find the CEO behind the front desk, serving burger, or wiping down a machine. If the drive through was crazy, she'd be working drive through, etc.

Her family was extremely successful and her employees VERY loyal.

/There's a correlation there.
//Her family also owns several car dealerships, never been in one of them so I can't attest to their service record.

@aedude01: Sorry, that second sentence should have read: "There was a local gym and burger (ironic I know, same family, separate business) franchise in my hometown."

@absentmindedjwc:

No, no...despite being a position above you at the company with which you are employeed...federal and state laws still trump whatever "workplace rules" are in place. And just because I do a bad job at work, doesn't give the manager the right to yell obscenities in my face in front of a large group of people. Actually he can...and then I can haul him into court.

If he is unhappy with my performance, he can bring me into his office for a private meeting where we will discuss things like 2 reasonable adults, in subtle tones.

You sound like a manager. I am there because the company "lets" me be there? How about, they are in business because of people like me...without me, this "high and mighty" manager would be manager at Burger King.

@Saboth: In the US, the restatement 2nd of torts definition of assault must extend beyond mere words and insults, having some action which is cause in fact of an imminent apprehension of harmful or offensive contact.

In terms of emotional distress, this case reminds me of White v. Monsanto, a well known US Torts case, although this doesn't have jurisdiction of any kind in jolly UK.

@shibblegritz: I totally agree. Everyone think that if they get chewed out they have a case. I call BULLSHIT. They were probably not doing their job and did not expect the boss to be there. And then they got caught. Period. They have the right to take it or leave it. And thats it.

@Saboth: He goes to a different terminal every week. They SHOULD know. Where I work we are 'mystery shopped' monthly, and you can bet that keeps us from being lackadaisical.

@RecordStoreToughGuy_OwesNigeriaAnApology: Will there be wine?

@aedude01: I don't know...if I've put my hard earned time and money into creating a company...and then see people destroying what I worked for through laziness...I might go apeshit, too.

@zombies.like.lattés.too:
THis is not verbal abuse, it is yelling at your employees that decided to steal your money instead of earning their money. There is no way you can get unemployement because your boss was pissed you were not doing their job.

What's funny to me about this is 2 things:

1) That the reason he was irate is because he could not believe his own employees were not doing a better job of customer service. Granted, cursing them out in public is probably a poor way of handling that, but don't we get enough stories on this very site about airlines treating people like garbage?

2) I am not 100% sure where people think they can bring all sorts of lawsuits for their boss yelling at them. While I cannot expound at great length about employment law in the UK, in the U.S., this would not consitute anything you could easily bring a claim under. Harrassment? What kind of harrassment exactly? Unless your company has a policy against this kind of behavior, a boss chewing you out in public is not something on which you can base a lawsuit... certainly not if this is something that occurred only once and you are not a member of a protected class.