'Queen of the sky' is suspended!

An airline flight attendant, Ellen Simonetti, has been suspended from her job for blogging! The following is a comment I left on her blog, The diary of a (grounded) flight attendant, this morning:

I came here having read about your 'problem' on the BBC news, lol, your hit counter should be impressive for a few days! :o)

On a serious note: I have experienced a little of what is happening to you though thankfully my employer was more understanding. I am appalled at your situation, you do not need me to reiterate that your blog is your private business and given that you don't name your employer etc. I don't see where their problem is. Being an employee should not limit one's freedom of speech and your employer’s reaction only serves to make me for one wonder what it is that they are concerned about you divulging. It smacks of corporate paranoia.

You and I differ here in one aspect, had my employer asked me to take my blog down I, on principle would not have done, whatever the consequences.

Good luck in whatever you wish to be the outcome of your situation and my apologies for my rant here but I am incensed by this!

The BBC reported this story this morning and it is not often I am so angered by anything so early in the day. Perhaps on the scale of world events this incident is not earth shattering but it's implication are for me, extremely concerning.

Ms Simonetti did not identify her employer or her colleagues and created fictitional names for her characters but even had she not done so, do we not have a right to free speech and to pursue, within the law, interests in our free time of our choosing without the corporate machine bearing down on us.

As an employee I do not consider my self to be in any way the property of my employer, yes when I am in my place of work I have a code of conduct to adhere to and even outside of the workplace I accept that to a point I should not bring that employer's name into disrepute but (and this in my opinion is a big but), should that employer behave in what I believe as an unacceptable manner should I not also have the right to discuss it in a public forum in a reasonable manner.

Reactionary behaviour such as that displayed here by Ms Simonetti's employer only serves in my view to give me cause to question exactly what it is about her employers corporate behaviour that the company are worried we will discover!

Those of you who read this blog regularly will know that in a small way I have previously feared my own employers reaction to my blog, luckily the company who employ me are more reasonable and understanding but had they not been I would have been prepared to lose my job for the sake of what I see as a fundamentally important principle.

Ms Simonetti has not bought her employers name into disrepute and nor has her blog, the company themselves have done that by behaving in such an outrageous manner and have along the way, just lost at least one prospective customer through their own ignorance and display of corporate bullying.

I urge you to show your support for this lady and I wish her every success.

Diary of a (grounded) flight attendant can be found here.