In the air and on the road, tempers and epithets are flying almost as frequently as corporate travelers. It's a sign of the times.
High-powered executives hired for their smarts and paid to be globally resourceful are responding to a loss of dignity brought about by corporate cuts, heightened security measures and dwindling perks. On top of the daily grind of meetings and deadlines, it can add up to a bad attitude.
Research shows that 65 percent of passengers are finding rudeness a serious problem in travel these days. A study by Public Agenda, a nonpartisan opinion organization, also reveals that bad behavior is a major source of aggravation for transportation workers, 49 percent of whom have seen it threaten to escalate into a physical confrontation.
“Business travelers are more abrupt, more demanding — edgier and angrier,” said Dr. Alan Hilfer. “They have a lower threshold from being poked and prodded and subjected to intense scrutiny. They are reacting to the pressure.”
“Previously, there was a sense of entitlement,” said Hilfer, the director of psychology at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. “But cutbacks in amenities and even meals have brought resentment.”
In the past, Hilfer said, travelers thought they could get results if they made a big enough fuss. Today, that sort of behavior has the exact opposite effect on airlines, where hot-under-the-collar passengers may now be threatened with police action.
Airline responses
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To head off problems, Virgin Atlantic Airways requires its frontline employees to take a Service Excellence course. Staff are trained to address customer issues using the H.U.G. I.T. approach: H-ear what the customer is saying. U-nderstand the problem. G-o with the flow by acknowledging the problem. I-nfluence with a positive energy. And, T-hank the customer.
Better on the train?
Many people can find it stressful being confined with a lot of strangers on an aircraft. Trains, on the other hand, allow more freedom of movement and a better work environment, said Tim Roebuck, managing director of BritRail and vice president of sales for Norwegian Rail and Swedish Rail. “Train travel is way less stressful. Boarding is quick, with two doors in every coach and a place to drop your bag inside. You can eat what you want, when you want it,” he said.
"As far as security checks, trains are generally open access," Roebuck said on the phone from his office in Hoboken, New Jersey. The obvious exception, he added, is Eurostar, which links England and France via 31 miles of Channel Tunnel.
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“But anywhere, the more delays and the more congestion, the greater the propensity for people to lose their temper,” Roebuck said, remembering a recent Florida flight where extended mechanical problems caused one frustrated passenger to jump up and down and demand to be let off the plane.
A corporate shiner
An encounter with a surly fellow traveler led to a black eye for corporate coach Penny Leigh, vice president of New York-based Frederick Knapp Associates executive development. “I was on a late plane to Denver to conduct an executive image seminar,” recalled Leigh, who has worked with more than 30,000 executives in the United States and Canada. “The man next to me stuffed his luggage and coat in the overhead bin, then put a huge briefcase on top of my clothes bag. I asked politely if he could put it somewhere else, but he grumbled 'No' and went to sleep.”
When Leigh opened the bin before deplaning, the heavy briefcase slid out and hit her squarely in the eye, she said. “The man did not apologize.”
The next morning, when she arrived to open the seminar for clients she was meeting for the first time, she was sporting a shiner as black as her business suit. Leigh, co-designer of American Management Association's course “Projecting a Positive Executive Image,” was up for the challenge. Her opening words: “First impressions — Are they accurate, or is it more important to be color-coordinated?”
A top concierge at London's Athenaeum hotel is well known for showing similar grace under pressure. The concierge, Donald, who said he does not use a last name, has seen and heard it all in his 30-year career, yet he refrains from using the word rude to describe guests' behavior. “What I see is more stress. With cell phones and e-mail, people don't have a second to escape,” he said. “The other day, I heard an American lady tell her assistant 'We will not be available for 12-1/2 minutes today.' That really sums it up — everyone has a deadline.
"But, I truly do not let it get to me," he said.
When it comes to stress management, American travelers may have a more difficult time, says psychologist Hilfer. “They tend to view things not as a privilege but as something they've grown to expect. Consequently they don't manage delays or slipups very well and take out their frustration on people that get in their way.”